User blog comment:123Action/A Year/@comment-4814726-20131107051411/@comment-5674726-20131109124822

''That would have been interesting to see. However, Arthur would have died without Merlin's help shortly after Uther's death, in "His Father's Son" at the latest. Without Merlin using magic during the Champions' fight, Annis' champ would have killed Arthur due to Morgana's magic.''

Was that to be a fight to the death, though? It's been a while since I watched the episode. If not, Arthur would have lived but lost half of the kingdom to Annis and would have had to work to rebuild. Perhaps this would have been the making of him.

One thing I find odd is that Caerleon didn't make a move before; it doesn't seem to have been kept a secret that Uther wasn't in any state to rule, so unless challenging Arthur when he was still Prince Regent and not Caerleon's equal would be seen as bad form, he could have sought to test Arthur earlier.