Talk:The Fires of Idirsholas/@comment-5674726-20131126001344

What possessed Merlin to release Kilgharrah?

He had seen a vision of him attacking Camelot in the Crystal of Neathid and Kilgharrah refused to make any kind of commitment to not attack. Unless Merlin is a complete and utter idiot, there's no excuse for him not knowing how that was going to play out. He had no way of knowing that he was going to turn out to have the power to control dragons - the storyline would have been redeemed somewhat if Merlin had to finish off Kilgharrah to save Camelot - so he released a very dangerous creature with a powerful motive to attack Camelot with no back-up plan in the event of an attack.

Even if Merlin swearing on his mother's life constituted some kind of binding magical oath that would mean Hunith's death if he didn't follow through on his promise to free Kilgharrah, (a) he never specified when he was going to free him and could potentially have left him waiting until he was prepared to commit to not attacking Camelot, and (b) a minimum of 76 people died as a direct result of his decision to free Kilgharrah.

He wasn't acting to preserve a source of information and handy magical boosts, as he had no way of knowing that he was going to be able to call on Kilgharrah's help once he was released.

It was an idiotic, irresponsible move on his part.