5. The reincarnation: King Arthur is reborn in present day
This ending’s got it all: it has the potential for sacrifice and the element of death, while also leaving viewers with a feeling of hope. A feeling that one day, everything will be okay even if it’s not in this lifetime.
And you may think it’s a bit of a crackpot theory, but it’s more in tune with the original legends than you think! There are two ways this could play out, and let us tell you how:
The immortality theory: The first way we could see the popular theme of reincarnation in Arthurian Legend playing a role in the show is if they incorporated the idea of Merlin being immortal into the plot.
Historically speaking (it’s interesting, we promise), the Merlin character first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae. Here, Merlin is said to have been born of a mortal woman but fathered by an incubus, and he inherited both his immortality and his magic from his incubus father. In the series, Balinor was of course a Dragonlord, but dragons live a hell of a long time, too.
Imagine the following scenario: The battle of Camlann rages on, reaching its crescendo. And Merlin turns around just in time to see Arthur fall to the ground, mortally wounded by Mordred’s hand. After an intense battle of magic, Merlin defeats Mordred and he and Arthur share a tearful goodbye before Arthur dies as the prophecy showed us at the beginning of series 5, leaving Merlin alone and drenched in the feeling of failure as he knows his and Arthur’s destiny will go unfulfilled.
But just when all seems lost, Kilgarrah swoops in and informs Merlin that there’s still hope after all: Merlin must wait until the time comes for Arthur to return to the land of the living, for Arthur is still destined to be the greatest King Albion has ever known. Centuries will pass, Merlin will grow old, cursed to live forever and walk alone waiting for Arthur. But finally, his King will return, reincarnated and ready to unite all of Albion with Merlin by his side as always.
The rebirth fanfic theory: The second way we think reincarnation could work is a bit more far-fetched, but would make for a fun plot twist nonetheless.
Let’s set the scene for our second scenario: Everyone dies. And we mean EVERYONE. Think Lost, but with more sword fighting. The screen fades to black – then opens in the present day. The streets are bustling with early morning commuters making their ways to work, and Merlin’s among them, weaving in and out of the crowd as quickly as he can – he’s going to be late again if he doesn’t hurry! But he miscalculates a clearing in the crowd and barrels straight into a man who’s briefcase goes flying, papers strewn all over the pavement.
He hears the voice of the stranger calling him an idiot, and scathingly asking why he wasn’t watching where he was going. Merlin’s head snaps up, he’s ready with an irritated response of his own, except the man’s blue eyes and shock of blonde hair stop him. The man looks strangely familiar and Merlin’s quick witted retort gets caught in his throat. Arthur.
Okay. We may or may not have stolen that last idea from a fanfic, but indulge us for a moment. We love the idea of BBC’s Merlin ending in present day reincarnation, because it leaves the story open-ended with so much possibility. It doesn’t matter whether you’d like to imagine Merlin and Arthur living out the present day in normalcy, or you’d like to imagine they’ve been reincarnated to fight the forces of evil destined to plunge the 21st century into darkness unless they succeed in defeating the reincarnated Mordred once and for all; the best thing about this theory is that the possibilities are endless.
Now it’s your turn!
We’re pretty sure we managed to cover all the basic theories in this post, but you guys are bound to have your own brilliant ideas about how the series will end! Vote in the poll below to tell us which theory you believe is most likely to come true, and tell us what you think in the comments below.
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Share your own thoughts and theories in the comments! And stay tuned for more #MonthofMerlin from Hypable, as we’ve got a lot more fun stuff planned before the end.
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