i know everyone always complains about how bbc merlin didn’t even reach the final goal of legalizing magic and how arthur never fulfilled his destiny but. i kind of disagree? i don’t think destiny ever meant for arthur himself to bring magic back. i think it was always his death that was going to. let me try and explain:
i’m pretty sure we all agree that once arthur died, gwen legalized magic, right? i think its important to acknowledge why gwen would do this, though. gwen’s prejudice against magic definitely didn’t come close to arthur’s, but i think it would be wrong to assume that she didn’t have it at all (her reaction to morgana using magic, that deleted scene of her cautioning arthur) (although idk how in character that deleted scene was but). anyway, what i’m trying to say, is that: i believe the knowledge of merlin having magic is what softened gwen into legalizing it.
i dont know what her stance on magic would’ve been if she didn’t figure it out about merlin. she lost her best friend, her brother, and her husband to it, of course she would have trouble thinking it was good, when all of her experiences with it had been bad. so her finding out that her other best friend - one of the best people she knows - has magic, and has been using it all these years to not only protect her but also the person she loves most in the world, i think that definitely softened her to it a great deal, and thus led her to legalizing it.
now, the fact that she did figure out that merlin was magic, was all because arthur was dying. im pretty sure her and gaius wouldn’t have had that conversation if arthur were there&alive. so idk if - even if she did figure it out - she could’ve had confirmation that merlin had magic.
also - being killed by mordred had always been part of arthurs destiny. so? to make his destiny uniting albion and bringing magic back WHILE ALSO making it to be dying by mordreds hand seems? counterproductive? unless they are linked together. i dont think merlin was ever supposed to save arthur from mordred, i think he was supposed to save arthur in time so that he could be killed by mordred.
i think this is also why, in 5.13, kilgharrah denies telling him that he failed. because he didn’t. everything happened exactly as it was meant to, and arthur’s death was actively going to work as a catalyst into bringing magic back.
i just think that kilgharrah omitted a lot. he made merlin think that arthur himself would bring magic back. he didn’t tell merlin that arthur had to die anyway, just at a specific moment. which is exactly why i agree with all those people who say that kilgharrah wanted arthur dead/orchestrated the whole thing by sabotaging merlin so that arthur ~would~ die. he wanted arthur to die. that was arthurs destiny, and we all know how kilgharrah feels about destiny. he just made sure not to tell merlin the extent of it.
so anyway. i disagree with the whole “they didn’t reach their end goal” bc i do genuinely think it was arthur’s death that was the end goal. this, i think, also kind of explains this post where we talk abt how it was almost like destiny wanted arthur to hate magic: if he hated it, then he could die by mordreds hand, and voila, the end result that had always been foretold.
n e way, idk if that made sense but thats just always been my opinion abt it.