Series 1: What Would Have Happened if...

  Welcome to a new series of posts where I will be exploring what would have happened if certain events in Merlin were different, or never happened in the first place! There will be 6 posts in total for now, each one looking at 3 or 4 events from each series (series 2 has two posts because I found more events to explore).
  In later posts, you may find that I have seemingly missed some very important events, such as "what would have happened if... Aithusar never saved Morgana?" (series 4 ep 13). The reason for this is probably because I had already covered it, because the event links way back to an earlier point, such as, in this case, "w.w.h.h if... Merlin hadn't met his father?".

   In this post, I will be looking at 3 events from series 1.

What would have happened if...

... Hunith didn't send Merlin to Camelot?

Merlin Arrives in Camelot

   Merlin was sent to Camelot by his mother, Hunith, because she discovered Merlin's friend William knew that Merlin had magic. If she decided to send Merlin somewhere else, or to keep him at home in Ealdor, much would have been different.

   Arthur would have remained an arrogant condescending "clotpole" for the rest of his life - which wouldn't have been very long, because as Merlin wouldn't be in Camelot, Arthur would be killed by Mary Collins (disguised as Lady Helen) in the first episode.

   Camelot would be left without an heir, and Uther would triple his efforts to irradiate all magic as a witch killed his only son.

   The Great Dragon would never be released, and would have died in his prison, as the last of his kind.

   Gaius might have fallen from that shelf and died, or if not, he would have been dismissed, retired, when Edwin Muirden arrived. Who knows where he would have gone. Ealdor? Maybe, seeing as Hunith was an old friend of his. Maybe he would have met Merlin there.
   Gwen would probably stay a servant for the rest of her life... which probably wouldn't be very long either. The earliest occasion she could have died was episode 3, when Nimueh spread a magical plague in Camelot using an avanc.

   Uther, if he survived Edwin, maybe would have named Morgana as his heir, or would have found himself married to troll Catrina for Queen! He would have been killed by somebody anyhow.

   Then as soon as Uther was dead, Camelot would most probably have been at war with other rulers trying to claim the Kingdom.
   Merlin himself wouldn't have fared much better:
if he stayed in Ealdor, he would have been fine at first, but then Kanen and his bandits would have come and started terrorizing the village, stealing their crops. Camelot wouldn't have helped. There would be starvation.
   Merlin wouldn't study magic, never learn any spells: he wouldn't furfill his destiny.
   Camelot would be in ruins. Albion would never be born.

Of course, a million more things would be different, but I can't list all of them here! It would take up over 100 pages!

...Merlin left the elanthia beetle inside Uther?

Edwin Muirden enchanted an elanthia beetle to climb inside Uther's brain and devour him. If it wasn't for Merlin removing it, Uther would have died.
   Merlin didn't have to save Uther. In fact, he had a very strong reason NOT to save him, primarily the fact that Uther persecuted his kind!
   What if Merlin had refused to save him?
   Then Uther would have died, and those would magic would rejoice... Until they realised nothing had changed.
   Arthur would never accept magic.
He wasn't ready to be king back then. He wasn't even Crown Prince. What kind of ruler would he have been?
   Arthur had already lost one parent "to magic". If Uther died due to the same cause at that point, Arthur's mind would be set forever that magic was evil and should be irradiated from the face of the earth.
   Merlin 98.7% certainly wouldn't have been able to tell him he was a sorcerer. Not ever.

   Luckily, Merlin must have realised this, and chose to save Uther's life, for Arthur's sake, and that of the kingdom.

...That Stall-holder didn't betray the Druid?

   Oh, if Only! If only that stallholder kept quite! He might have saved Arthur's life.
Mordred and (possibly) his father (or just an adult druid) would have collected their supplies and passed through Camelot peacefully, unnoticed.
   Mordred wouldn't have met Morgana.
   When Morgana suspected she had magic, and Merlin sent her to the druids, maybe she would have seen him their, but only in passing, that's all - if she survived the serkets.
   Arthur would still be sent after her to raid the camp, Mordred would have still run off into the forest if he escaped.
    Alvarr wouldn't have been able to use Mordred to get Morgana to steal the crystal of Neahtid.
   When Morgause turned up, it could have gone either way, but if she refused to help her bring down the city, Morgana would use her magic for good, I think. Maybe she would hold to Aglain's belief that she should pity Uther, not hate him.
   Morgana might have never become an enemy of Camelot.
   Mordred's friend (and most likely childhood sweetheart) Kara wouldn't have been corrupted and sentenced to death.
   Mordred would have never been in the battle of Camlann because the battle of Camlann wouldn't exist. He wouldn't have killed Arthur.
   This is of course only one possible outcome of what could have happened, but...
   Arthur could have been saved! If only...
 

What do you think would have turned out differently? Say what you think in the comments!