#I've been leaning towards an alternate timeline where boadicea

[jadelotusflower]

I loved your tags in that Merlin history (?) post and OH MY GOD YOU'RE RIGHT. I mean, makes sense since you've got dragons and magic, but I was still trying to place it in our own timeline. Which... I'm still doing. Curious... why you think it was without the Roman occupation? Lack of Christianity? Just lack of any reference in the show?

Ahhhhhhh, thank you for this ask and giving me the excuse to gush on this topic! Full disclosure, I’m not an expert in this time period so this headcanon is based on very general knowledge of British history and basic research.

Other than the presence of magic and dragons etc, the main reason I think the show is set in an alternate history/universe either (a) before Roman occupation or (b) where Roman invasion/occupation was never successful, is the very basic fact that they call the country Albion and not Britain, although of course this is not in and of itself conclusive seeing as the Roman name Brittania was probably based on the Common Brittonic Pritanī - but does imo indicate a shift from our own history particularly if we’re looking at a 5th/6th Century time period (although I suppose it could still work as a BC/BCE or early AD/CE setting).

The lack of Christianity is another reason - I suppose this was a showrunner choice to avoid the storytelling difficulties inherent in a Christian/Pagan conflict that they obviously weren’t interested in, although it always struck me as lazy strange that there was no “New Religion” (whatever it was) to counter the suppression of the Old Religion (which I’ve personally handwaved/headcanoned as Uther and other kings embracing secularisation for self-aggrandisement, and not a wee bit of misogyny given the matriarchal nature of the old religion). Which again, this works in a pre-Roman Britain, but not in a post-Roman Britain - even though Christianity may not have been the dominant religion in terms of practice, the complete lack of it doesn’t seem to square with our history/timeline.  

Also, it’s just the vibe I get from the show, it doesn’t seem like a society that has had a history of foreign occupation? The show is soooo insular, iirc there’s no indication that the people of Camelot are aware of the rest of the world other than the kingdoms of Albion? There’s no reference to the Roman Empire, to Gaul, not even to Caledonia/Scotland. I suppose we can assume there is some kind of foreign trade (vaguely referenced in The Castle of Fyrien), and of course there’s the Saxons as an invading force, but other than that Camelot and its surrounding kingdoms seem very occupied with one another, and not at all occupied with the world outside their borders that one would assume from a society that has been very recently garrisoned by a foreign power for several centuries. 

Having said that, I have always wondered about Camelot prior to Uther’s conquest - it’s not a crown he was born to, but one he seized. Who from? Where are the vestiges of the prior king/kingdom/culture that existed only a generation before Arthur’s time? The argument could be made that Uther took advantage of the power vacuum following Roman withdrawal and successfully purged it’s influence...which actually could work. Hmmm. 

Would love to know your thoughts!