Thread:Fimber/@comment-3481504-20151102233729/@comment-5674726-20151104100509

I wouldn't say that Arthur did not care about Merlin, only that there were others in his life he would have been closer to, namely Guinevere, Morgana and Uther. It's not that he did not see Merlin as a friend at all. I think that Arthur would protect Merlin if he could but, if he was forced to choose between protecting him and protecting Guinevere, he'd save Guinevere first. Same goes for Morgana before he knew of her betrayal and Uther while he lived.

I also don't think that a close friendship between Arthur and Merlin was the point of the show. It was called "Merlin", not "The Adventures of Arthur & Merlin, Best Friends". The storyline focused on Merlin and the "destiny" he believed in, following his story as the man behind the King, protecting Arthur because of his belief in the future foretold for him at first but coming to genuinely like and respect the man he initially dismissed as an idiot, to see in him the potential for greatness, and to be loyal to him, so much so that the boy who used to be frustrated at being overlooked and relegated to the role of a servant became a man who was happy to be Arthur's servant until the day he died. It was more about Merlin's view of Arthur than Arthur's view of him.

In a way, the idea of Merlin and Arthur as "two sides of a coin" may be foreshadowing. The two sides of a coin may be connected but they cannot stand side by side.