Board Thread:Series 5 Discussion/@comment-209.196.232.2-20121230195253/@comment-72.94.233.214-20130311165034

I thought the finale was beautifully executed. I am one of those people who both hates sad endings, but also sees them as a sign of the complexity that is very indicative of life's true nature. Life is filled with ups and downs. In the end we all die. That is every man's fate. That is not a happy ending but it is real, powerful and moving.

Without getting so deep I want to say that we must remember that although Arthur was a hero in the series he was not the protagonist. The show was about Merlin's lessons and his destiny. His destiny was not to help Arthur create a better Camelot even though he thought it was. It was his destiny to protect Arthur which inadvertently led Arthur to make the decisions that would lead him to his very own fate( in theory if Merlin had not told Arthur to reject the TripG's request to embrace magic, he probably would not have died at Camlann because Mordred would have been dead). No matter what Merlin did Arthur was to die by the hands of Mordred.

In the end it was Merlin's lesson that no matter how immortal he was even he could not escape the joys and confines of pre-destined outcomes. We see this paralleled in Morgana's arc as well. With all her power and resources she could not stop Emrys. She ran right into his blade (so to speak) on her path to destroy it.

The inability to escape destiny/fate is the moral of the show.

After all this is the VERY FIRST thing spoken at the open of the series by Kilgarrah. He speaks of a man, his destiny and not knowing it until he experiences it. Once again Merlin thought his destiny was one thing but experienced that it was another. Kilgarrah does not mention happy endings, Albion, nor  love and friendship at the beginning. Right there we should have realized something deeper was in store.

But if we somehow missed that early on, we also received bread crumbs, along the way, reminding us of the core theme in almost every season starting with season one the Dragon telling us that Morgana must die because she was bad news for the future of Camelot(or maybe he warned of Mordred first) right down to the Desir warning us of the power of fate early in season 5. They said Arthur would meet his doom because of his choices. And...Arthur met his doom because of his choices.

With that being said, I totally understand why many fans were upset. The expectation of the fantasy genre, especially high fantasy, is that at the end the hero wins and brings home the fruits of his labor. It didn't seem to be the case with this one, now did it?

Genre bending is risky. Killing off main characters is bad for business. However, I am glad the writers took a chance to make this a wonderfully written, deeply intellectual show disguised by a light hearted and humorous fantasy backdrop.