Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Four/@comment-5102537-20131207132547/@comment-5674726-20140122012429

Fimber wrote: I agree. Yes, totally, I too often forgot that Elyan was Gwen's brother. If I'm not mistaken, their relationship was only revived in season five when Elyan sacrificed himself for Gwen and when they visited Tom's grave.

Elyan was a wholly unnecessary character.

His role in The Castle of Fyrien is to be kidnapped so Gwen can be kidnapped and then sent back to bring Arthur to rescue Elyan, when it would be so much easier to cut out the middle man and just kidnap Guinevere and leave a note to inform Arthur of this. Any of the inner circle of knights could have been the one killed off in The Dark Tower, Sir Leon if they needed one with a prior relationship to Guinevere.

Having a brother who is a knight had no impact on Guinevere's position - nor should it have; her status would be based on her father's, not her brother's - and Elyan never spoke up for her when she was banished or anything like that.