morningbus
Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
I'll post it again because I don't know why people are having trouble understanding Merlyn's motivations:
The only thing that could have gone wrong was that Oliver would call his bluff about Thea and hand him over to the league. However, Oliver is told that the league doesn't care about mind-control potions and would kill Thea anyway. Knowing Oliver's psychology (which is extremely exploitable), he would blame himself for anything that happened to Thea. We know this because the dude still accepts blame for Shado's death.
Yeah, I'm surprised by how people don't seem to be following at least this part of Merlyn's logic.
The facts:
Merlyn has a bounty on his head from the League.
The bounty would be erased if Ra's is defeated in combat.
Merlyn doesn't want to risk fighting Ra's himself as the odds are probably poor.
Merlyn decides to get Oliver to do his dirty business, as he is probably the next most competent fighter with at least a chance of winning.
The plan:
Merlyn uses Thea to kill a League member, a crime that would result in a similar bounty being place on Thea's head.
Merlyn uses the evidence of Thea shooting Sara to force Oliver to admit to the crime and challenge Ra's as the only way of settling the League's debts.
The prospective result(s):
1) Oliver miraculously defeats Ra's, erasing all debts. Problem solved.
2) Ra's kills Oliver. Merlyn's debt is still in force, but at least Oliver is out of the way in terms of competing with him for Thea and in terms of being a hero potentially willing to help the League find him when he runs. Problem at least partially solved and Merlyn is still better off for it.
The problem is that Oliver was defeated but not killed, a contingency Merlyn did not plan for as it has literally never happened. Merlyn's plan is only terrible in hindsight, knowing Oliver makes it out of it.
The only thing that could have gone wrong was that Oliver would call his bluff about Thea and hand him over to the league. However, Oliver is told that the league doesn't care about mind-control potions and would kill Thea anyway. Knowing Oliver's psychology (which is extremely exploitable), he would blame himself for anything that happened to Thea. We know this because the dude still accepts blame for Shado's death.