Hot Take: But Merlin Did Fail.

Hot take: but Merlin did fail.

At the end of the last episode Kilgarrah tells Merlin that he hasn't failed and magic will come back to Camelot (on a side note that seems not true at all, as it all seems so rushed and we never see any reason that would happen. It is acknowledged that Gwen knows it was Merlin as the wizard, but he doesn't save Arthur which wouldn't give magic any points and it's unlikely Camelot would just welcome magic like that.)

But Merlin could have at multiple times chosen better options and saved other lives - speaking specially about Morgana and his lack of helping her with her magic.

I know for the story, she had to be the main villain and not like Merlin, but it all seems untrue to his character and wasn't very wise.

But by having Merlin "fail" ( or not as apparently he didn't), to me it makes the story more real and grounded. It isn't as if all these bad things happened for a fairy tale ending, but bad things happened and he still failed.