User blog comment:It's Good to be the Queen/The Thrill is Gone/@comment-5939645-20130107041210/@comment-5102537-20130107112130

I would agree with your idea if it wasn't for the fact that obviously in the present time magic doesn't exist anymore, or at least is hardly practiced and doesn't have any influence anymore. Even if Gwen had lifted the ban, something else must have happened somewhere along the way that outruled or replaced magic. It was either Gwen/Camelot that continued the fight against magic or it was someone/something else. Either way, it made the attempts of Merlin, Camlann, the thousands and thousands of dead people being invane and superflouse because in the end, magic disappears, one way or another.

What you wrote here: "If the ban was lifted, the sorcerers would have made peace with Camelot."

I don't believe that would be the case according to what we saw on the show. Most magic-users and sorceres attacked/threatened Camelot for reasons that didn't have to do with revenge on Uther. There wasn't peace before the Great Purge even though magic was freely used everywhere, or should I say, because magic was used eveywhere. If all those ruthless and evil sorcerers and High Priestessess had no reason to live in peace with everyone else, why should they now that the last High Priestess is dead and Gwen sitting on the throne? Allowing magic wouldn't be enough. Not to mention that the Old Religion started this all and made this entire story happen, otherwise Merlin's future hadn't been written since the dawn of time and Arthur wouldn't have had a destiny when his birth caused the ban of magic in the first place.

And take a look at the supposedly peaceful druids who continued to attack Camelot even though Arthur had already started to give them freedom. Instead of helping him changing his mind about magic at all, the rebels wanted him dead. Never on this show were sorcerers/magic-users all innocent, on the contrary. Magic/the Old Religion started it all and the few peaceful sorceres failed all the time.

All the dead people being replaced leads to the question I asked before. What makes those who survived or who will be born more important than those who died in the war? If your idea was the intention of the writers, then it seems that a war is always justified to bring peace afterwards. It was the same with the Great Purge, it brought peace for 24 years after the Great Purge stopped (aside from magic, of course). So if Camlann was necessary to bring peace even though it happend only because magic caused destruction and because of the ban of magic, which took place because of corrupting magic, it has actually nothing to do with peace and it could have been avoided if magic hadn't caused mayhem and destruction. It's all so paradox and crazy.

As for Arthur rising again. It was discussed on another blog already. Well, the crusades alone would have been reason enough for Arthur to be needed (even though I have no idea why he should be needed since I don't see anything great in him). The crusades, the wars of religion, all the cruelty and opression when the church showed its ugly face at that point of time, when soldiers of different religions slaughtered each other, when people were opressed, starved to death, killed, enslaved... If this wasn't reason enough, then what was?

And what about the second World War? Hitler was a fanatic about magic and esoterism, he based his decisions on prophecies and seers and indeed searched for the Ark of Convenant and the Holy Grail. He was a defender of magic and supernatural things. This all wasn't enough for Arthur to rise again either.

Neither this nor any other war of religion and/or recources over the centuries caused Arthur to rise again. I do wonder what exactly a golden age is supposed to look like.

You're right, we have no idea what happened after Arthur died. However, as for Gwen and her possible view on magic, yes, Emrys/Merlin helped them to win the battle against the Saxons but she had no idea what happened when Merlin was alone with Arthur before he died. She might as well have thought that Merlin caused his death in order to have magic being allowed. He might have helped Camelot against the Saxons in order to gain Gwen's trust, and with Arthur out of the way he finally reached his goal - from Gwen's possible point of view. We don't know how far her trust would go with Merlin who lied for a decade, especially since Gwen totally trusted Morgana before she betrayed them all.

So actually, nothing was right with this finale and it didn't answer just any question.