Board Thread:What If?/@comment-5674726-20131121000155/@comment-5674726-20131124001937

Another game changer.

One thing that would have had a big impact is that I'd say that, had the writers decided to pursue Merlin and Guinevere as a pairing, it's likely that they'd have also paired off Arthur and Morgana, especially if they wanted to make it clear that Merlin and Guinevere weren't going to be breaking up. The other option would have been a Merlin-Guinevere-Arthur love triangle but I think that would have been less likely. Had they paired Arthur and Morgana off, they'd have had to make some major story changes, as they could no longer be related. Maybe they'd have had it that Morgause was Arthur's half-sister - or Arthur and Morgana's mutual half-sister - and that she was the one trying to claim the throne.

Even if we assume that there'd have been no behind the scenes changes, it'd have had a huge impact on the storyline. For starters, the endgame would have to change. If Arthur wasn't married to Guinevere, there would be no way that she could become Queen at the end of the series, Arthur couldn't leave the throne either to her alone or to her and Merlin jointly and have a hope that the idea of a servant/pair of servants would be accepted as the new monarch(s).

I'd say that we'd have seen a lot less interaction between Arthur and Guinevere. Without the necessity to ship them, I think that it's likely that most, if not all scenes of Guinevere advising Arthur would become Merlin advising Arthur. Guinevere could potentially have ended up with a reduced role, depending on the amount of screentime devoted to the Merlin-Gwen pairing.