I feel like the ending needs a little more detail about how Merlin killed or go rid of Mordred, or the battle scene. There could also be a sequel to this. It's a great story. Has an amazing plot and the Camelotians usually don't get to see Merlin's adventures, they hear about them but don't see them. I like that possiblity. Anyway that's my thoughts.

Is he allowed to sentence Merlin if he is no longer is his Kingdom?

I'll be honest I'm quite against the whole Morgana bashing. The poor girl had to live her entire life in fear, without a mentor like Merlin had. Being told day in day out magic is evil and being shown Uthers coldness and hate towards magic users. Hell he even choked Morgana for speaking out of term in season 1 with Mordred. Honestly I dont think it's fair to keep bashing Morgana and not taking everything into account. Like what do you want her to do? She just got poisoned by the man she thought she trusted above all to the point she told him about HER MAGIC. Yet Merlin uncharacteristically doesnt help her. Going against everything you said with the whole oh Merlin looks to help everyone.

All in all I'm starting to feel a little less for this story as it seems a bit to bias to just justify Merlin without taking a holistic view. Plus Merlin could've just let Uther die when Arthur found out the truth and solved everything but nope. If anything Merlins actions caused all of this. If he was kind when he should've been and ruthless when he should've been things wouldve turned out better.

No you're right. Arthur United the remaining celts under on banner and led them to victory. But the only reason uniting was even needed was because the strong Roman presence in the British Isles were gone due to said empire collapsing. Which led to the Britons needing to defend themselves against invaders despite. Which they found to be very difficult as they just spent centuries without warfare and no military experience which made things harder

I prefer a union between Morgana and Merlin. Light and Dark in union

To be fair Arthur is king and all the nobles in the show showed no power and were often weak and just agreed with these king. I do believe Camelots monarchy was based off a mix of the Anglo Saxon governance where there was a council of ealdorman but in this case they're just for show and the monarchy is more towards the side of an absolute monarchy.

Well, from what I found on Wikipedia, Gawain (I'm assuming that's Gwaine) was the son of Morgause….

I've always pictured Aithusa as female...

Please be a Mordred and Morgana-redemption fic...

This was an interesting story.

Yay! I'm glad it's back to the original format. I prefer it.

Good luck with that, Arthur. -tsktsktsk- Good luck with that.

Anyways, Arthur's reaction makes a lot of sense and is kind of cute actually. He went with the Gaius solution before anything else. He knows that Merlin is no Morgana.

Yes, Yes, YES! I agree so much with you. Merlin lost his pure heart and became just as hardened as Arthur was becoming. I was just thinking of how IC this feels. This feels like enough reason for Merlin to do this.

At some point, Merlin started protecting Arthur more out of duty and less out of care. It's not that I believe that he stopped caring about Arthur, but rather, it stopped being his main motive. A younger Merlin had compassion for others, could see past Arthur, and didn't believe fate unchangeable. Like when he meddled in the Morgana-Uther situation, his own actions brought about misery and misfortune. I wish that he learned that. His choices with Mordred led Mordred to betrayal. Here, i this story, Merlin is compassionate to lovers, in canon, when it came to Mordred, he wasn't.

I prefer the other version

"Did I mention, I'm also the last Dragonlord?" *cue BAMF!Merlin and Kilgarrah*