Board Thread:What If?/@comment-5674726-20130929195047/@comment-5102537-20131008094408

Ongard Odin wrote: Well, in regards to your reply Fimber, how would the Great Dragon escape? Until Merlin vowed never to set him free, he was contempt to wait for Merlin to bring about the time of Arthur. As for Nimueh, I imagine she would have done very little, she knew the truth about Arthur and Merlin now she would likely continue exactly as you've said with her life-for-a-life policy and leave Camelot be.

Merlin only promisd Kilgharrah to never release him because of Hunith almost dying. So if Hunith had never made it to Camelot and had Merlin not known that she was the price, he wouldn't had had a reason to not release Kilgharrah. Things probably would have turned out differently unless there had been another reason why Merlin would not have released the dragon.

By the way, I wonder if Kilgharrah had planned this all, together with Nimueh, given how angry he was when Merlin had killed her.

As for Nimueh, she had planned it indeed. Now that she knew who Merlin was she would have tried to use him even more so. When she said that Arthur was never meant to die at her hands it became clear that it had been her plan to get Merlin where he was, making a deal with her in order to save his mother and Gaius' life. Why she did it is open for debate but her words were quite clear on this, especially when she said that Merlin should join her and that together they could rule the world.

She wanted Merlin to follow the Old Ways' rules and to realise that he too was a creature of the Old Religion. Having the most powerful sorcerer joining her team, what better thing could have happened to her and her fellow sorcerers who wanted Uther dead and Camelot to submit to the Old Religion?

Nimueh wasn't exactly a kind person, to say the least, so she surely wouldn't have stopped attacking Uther and Camelot but would have tried to drag Merlin and probably also Morgana onto her side.

EDIT: I forgot to add to my first paragraph that the dragon wanted to be free either way. Naturally, because why would he prefer to be imprisoned?