Board Thread:Series 5 Discussion/@comment-82.156.4.128-20121224212052/@comment-112.198.72.61-20171228100253

The ending was so underwhelming! And horrible! I felt like they tried too hard to follow the known legend of Arthur's death for the last episode. Throughout the seasons they've already proved that they didn't need to follow the legends too closely to make a great series. I think it was enough to include the most important elements.

I liked Merlin when I first watched it because it contains the characters and tales of the timeless myths we all know, but it also added twists into them and expanded on its stories. Like they gave us this youngster Merlin, but on occasion we still got to see him be this bearded old man he's always been known as, and it's hella funny. It gave me this sense of excitement because though I already knew the characters and had ideas of certain plot points, I felt like there's still a lot I didn't know about.

Wouldn't it be a surprise if Arthur lived instead of dying as prophesied? Even if we all knew that he would die in the hands of Mordred, because that's how the story goes, it's still different because we also knew that Merlin was there. He's the one factor in this entire story that always made the difference. His name is the title of this show, for god sakes. I'm not a fan of cheesy happy endings, but I believed a more hopeful ending was the right path for this series. Maybe they tried to instill some hope by saying that Arthur will rise again etc. And yes, they stayed true to the legend by ending it that way, but they didn't stay true to the story they were trying to create.

It sent a single message to me: Merlin failed. Others may disagree, but I've always seen it like that. They didn't complete their destiny. They may have caused peace, but they weren't the ones that united the lands of Albion. It wasn't even shown that it became like that. We can only assume what happened. Even if Merlin somehow believed what Kilgarrah said that they already fulfilled their destiny, he'd still think he failed because he wasn't able to save Arthur. I mean have you seen his face during that ending? I've cried buckets of tears for my boy.

My dream ending was that Arthur lived and chose to stop banning magic. Sort of like a new beginning for Camelot. He'd still be king,  Merlin would still be at his side and they'd be doing everything they were meant to be doing.

If they knew season five was the last, they should have done it better. I'd have preferred it if Merlin's secret was revealed earlier in the season. I wanted Arthur to be conflicted. I wanted to see him come to terms with it. I also felt like everything of importance was crammed up in the last few episodes.

tldr; I'd still love Merlin, but I would forever hate the writers for the ending. I'm such a bitter bitch byeeeeee