i always see the gwen was cold and cruel in season five statement all the time and it is usually compared to arthur's actions as well (how he is oh so kind and forgiving) , so let's unpack why this simply wrong.
gwen was not cold or cruel.
people usually point towards the eira situation.
gwen executed her for her betrayal.
first of all, treason was punishable by death. eira was the reason morgana and her army were ready and waiting way before camelot's army was ready.
eira helped morgana (and co) to basically slay not only arthur but the other knights of camelot. morgana's army had the upper hand because of eira.
arthur was dying, away from camelot, he was already dead for all gwen knew and many others had died due to her betrayal.
there is no way you can tell me that if it was gwen in arthur's place, arthur would not execute eira.
the law stated treason was punishable by death. this was emphasised many many times throughout the show. gwen's father was victim of this law!
at this point a lot of people point out the kara situation and how arthur tried to forgive and give kara another chance.
it was so clear in the show that after merlin spoke to arthur, he could see kara was so young, that perhaps was a mistake. he knew the havoc and devastating of the actions of his father (and possibly himself) and so probably understood her feelings.
it was evident that kara was young, she was hurt and probably didn't think before she acted.
whereas eira's entire storyline was about her being a traitor.
she was employed by morgana to betrayal arthur + camelot.
she took the time to place herself in a convenient place in order to gain access to someone within arthur's circle.
she took the time and the effort to seduce gwaine solely for information to then feed that to morgana.
she knew what she was doing, she knew it was wrong and she knew she was purposefully betraying them all.
eira manipulated countless people.
if arthur were not dying or lost, nor if other knights were dead then yes, you can perhaps speculate that gwen might have given eira a chance. that maybe morgana had somehow manipulated her but that was not the case in canon.
the action that gwen took, executing eira, was the right decision for a queen.
at the end of the day, eira was a traitor and helped morgana kill arthur, i genuinely don't understand or see how people would think gwen would spare eira or, how arthur would either.
she is not cold or cruel for this or anything else she did in season five and ya'll gotta stop treating gwen as if she should forgive every single person she comes across no matter what they did
