Board Thread:What If?/@comment-5674726-20140906160658/@comment-5772693-20140922175016

Good question. I haven't really thought about it before so there might be a lot of plot holes in my theories here, so sorry for that in advance.

First I do not think Uther would have made Morgana his heir right away. Maybe if Arthur was gone for like 5 years or something, he would go ahead and make her his heir, but not immediately after his son bailed. Morgana probably would have gotten impatient by then, and I can't imagine that Morgause would be happy about having a loose end like Arthur around, so they probably would have been revealed as evil or whatever, within like a year after Arthur left.

Either Morgana would have killed Uther, and Arthur comes back expecting to be king or if it was known that Morgana killed Uther, than he would have come back to fight Morgana for the throne. Morgana is defeated and is in basically the same position as she was in season 4.

Or Morgause tracks down Arthur first, and is killed by Merlin (who would have gone with Arthur if Arthur left with Gwen) Morgana gets mad, kills Uther, and tries to kill Arthur and friends, is defeated and is basically in the same position as she was in season four.

There is also the Merlin convinces Arthur to stay and break up with Gwen for Camelot theory or Gwen breaks up with Arthur for the good of Camelot on her own. Either way that would end with Gwen marrying Lancelot or Gwen coming back after Uther is dead and marries Arthur. Everything else is pretty much the same.

The last two theories I have on how this would go, is what I would consider the least likely, and possibly the most interesting.

Uther gets really mad and names Morgana his heir right away, they get along well for years, and Morgana kind of chills out, and over the years has gotten Uther to lighten up a bit on Magic users. By the time Uther dies they have a good relationship and Morgana becomes Queen, and rules pretty much the same way Uther did, but possibly making magic legal. Oh, and Mordred is there. He's like her head knight or something. Morgause is on her council.

Arthur was depressed for a bit, but saw that Camelot was pretty much the same without him, marries Gwen they have many children, and live long happy lives in a small village. Merlin lives next door, and waits patiently for Arthur to one day realize that he needs to go back and defeat the evil Morgana (who in this version isn't all that evil). Merlin is also the village doctor. He writes every now and then to Gauis, who is the physician and advisor for Queen Morgana.

Or everything I just said in the last two paragraphs stays the same except Morgana kills Uther in a very low key way, so nobody but her and Morgause know it was anything but natural causes. Arthur stays away because Uther made Morgana his heir, and he's all honorable, plus she isn't really doing anything that bad. Morgana get's kind of sad about offing her father, rules quietly for a few years, get's really bored, and asks Arthur to come back, gives up the throne and travels around learning magic and causing mischief.

Morgause doesn't care what Morgana does as long as she is happy, since Uther is dead, and she always thought Arthur was alright (plus she married Cenred so she has her own kingdom and a bunch of sons now, Cenred probably dies in an 'accident' at some point), she does still cause bits of trouble now and then, but not a lot.

Somehow it ends pretty much the same way as the legend. Merlin advises Arthur, Gwen is married to Arthur, Mordred opposes Arthur for the same reasons as on the show (Kara) Morgana sides with Mordred, but ends up taking Arthur to Avalon in the end.