User blog comment:Silver adtr/Camelot Future/@comment-5939645-20130701215441

We don't know that Merlin didn't return to Camelot. It's possible that he did. What kind of reception that he would received is unknown. I believe Gwen would have welcomed him, but the nobles and commoners of Camelot might not have. The kingdom's fear of magic was strong. The war that King Arthur launched in the end was against the Old Religion. His knights supported  that. It's hard to imagine that they would have been favorable to magic.

Whether Gwen could have successful ruled with another question. Arthur could designate her, but the nobility would have had to accept her. She was a Queen risen from the peasantry without child for an heir; not much of power base. I would think that other nobles coveted the Crown. If you remember Uther said that he had originally conquered Camelot, so there precedent for the people to accept a rebellious noble or foreign conqueror as king.

It's true what some of you said; Camelot's army had been decimated a few times in the past several years of the story line. It must have been hard to raise able-bodied men to replace them. The replacements wouldn't have been as experienced as those lost in battle. Most likely, King Odin or King Alined would have made a bid for the Crown. The peace between the five kingdoms rested on Arthur's shoulders. Without him, war likely broke out.

How the dragon could say that Merlin had fulfilled his destiny escapes me. By their own action, the Disir had doomed magic. In the end, Merlin had forgot his own destiny in an all out effort to keep Arthur's friendship. . Arthur didn't bring magic back. Till the very end, he was a great enemy. Even in death, he accepted Merlin as being sorcerer, but we don't know if his mind changed about sorcery in general.

The producers and writers screwed up the story. They had prophecies in the story that were never realized. They rushed through Arthur's death because the series was going to end. They made Merlin look helpless in the 5th series.