#so no merlin is to blame for morganas downfall

[sircolinmorgan]

I see sentiments like ‘Morgana always had ruthlessness in her heart’ flying around here all the time, and I’m just not buying it! I didn’t buy it age 10 and I’m still not buying it now! Morgana had no ruthlessness in her at all to start - she was remarkably empathetic for a sheltered princess - and when the moment of truth came for her in S1 she showed Uther mercy instead. *Merlin* in his dealings with Nimueh was significantly more ruthless than Morgana was to start! The show needed to fully commit either to a) the idea that despite appearances she was always capable of indifference to suffering or b) that she was an innocent that Merlin, Uther and even Arthur bore ultimate responsibility for radicalising. The writers didn’t do a) because they didn’t have five series character arcs mapped out from the start and they obviously signposted b) but ultimately didn’t follow that thread through to natural conclusion because it casts doubt on Merlin’s hero status to start questioning why he enabled Uther’s and Arthur’s discriminatory policies to continue for so long, and makes his defeat of her pretty fuckin ugly rather than just tragic. So Morgana had to turn into an unambiguous comic book cackling villain because the more nuanced direction would’ve made for some pretty uncomfortable political discourse for a teatime BBC show lol. Like, Uther got more sympathetic treatment from the show in downfall and death than she did. And it’s pretty revisionist not to remember that fandom at the time was so irritated by the speed of Morgana’s heel turn, precisely because she did have to get a personality transplant and a wardrobe overhaul to make it work because there were no indications of any real ruthlessness in her in S1. Idk I’m just never gonna buy it.

i think you're referencing this post that i reblogged, and actually yeah you're totally right and i clearly wasn't paying enough attention to the sentence "while morgana starts out as very potentially different from uther even though there is already ruthlessness in her heart, and then develops to grow more and more like him" because i don't agree she was already ruthless either. she cared about everyone, even uther.

morgana turning evil was fast, however she was headed that way by the end of series 2 it didn't just come out of nowhere. morgause contributed to her radicalisation, she was there making morgana feel better and listened to and uther was becoming someone she completely despised. merlin and gaius were also very much to blame though. it's a shame there were never any flashbacks to the year morgana was away but you just have to assume morgause spent that time turning morgana against everyone.

you're not wrong but there's only so much development and digging deep into morgana's mindset they could do, it was essentially a kids teatime drama lol, especially when you don't want to turn merlin into the villain.

[tiodolma]

Disir: You are known Arthur, you have always been known. And now you come here. The most sacred of the sacred. To the very heart of the old religion with weapons drawn, trampling hallowed relics, treating our sacred space like you do your kingdom. With arrogance, with conceit, with insolence.

I like to think that this was actually the Triple Goddesses' way of lending Merlin a hand in his mission. Before Arthur even met the Disir, Merlin, who is the personification of magic, had been warning him endlessly of dismissing sorcery as mere superstition. Merlin had been trying so hard to make Arthur see reason and guide him show the least amount of respect to the sorcerers and magic folk. But no! Arthur and his Knights have repeatedly ignored Merlin and scoffed at him, treating Merlin's words as superstition and nonsense, much like how he and his father treat sorcery as a whole.

It's like the triple goddess had been watching Arthur thru Merlin's eyes and life. The triple goddess knows Merlin's pain, and it supports him. She basically gave Merlin a shortcut, a nudge towards their shared goals.

And ofc Arthur fckd it up coz he was Arthur Pendragon.

It's so unfair to pin the blame on Merlin for Arthur's fate in Episode 5 to be honest. Arthur already sealed his fate when he was still hellbent on honoring Uther's policies instead of reviewing his life and changing for the better. He was still the frkn institution, the face, the poster boy of anti-magic faction. He is his own downfall. His choices led him to his fate.

Merlin had been gently guiding him to open his heart to magic on his own terms. It is Arthur who has kept himself blind. Merlin wanted Arthur to come to accepting magic naturally. But because it's Arthur, he has had little success.

But how about Mordred? Listen, Magic doesn't trust Mordred. The fates all talk about how he will kill their supposed savior. Mordred jumping in for Arthur did not help Magic's cause. His rescue from the throes of death is supposed to be the incentive, to prove Arthur's noble heart and force him to accept magic. However Magic has been beaten down and denied to a pulp already. Magic has learned the hard way that that the "easy" and quicker method to acceptance will never do any good and will often backfire. It would be a half-ass attempt at acceptance at best.

Merlin has had enough. Arthur's bane was really himself.

Tho I wish they had more time to talk it out. I think Merlin could have said smth a little more diplomatic than a “hard No.” I get that he was in a lot of pressure though. Arthur’s questioning sounded so urgent and taunting and he had to give an immediate answer. And I feel like Arthur was insincere the whole time coz to him, he was forced to reconsider his beliefs on blind faith with no actual basis.

His words goaded/challenged Merlin into saying Yes btw, like it was some bizzare test. It pisses me off. Merlin’s hands were tied from the start, he had to say that “No.” Arthur was leading him into it. Review the dialogue.

A: My heart says to do anything to save Mordred but I’ve seen what misery unfettered sorcery brings. Before my father outlawed magic, Camelot was almost destroyed by sorcery. In my own time Morgana’s used it for nothing but evil. What would you do? In my place?

A: If I do save Mordred, all my father’s work would be for nothing. Sorcery will reign once more in Camelot. Is that what you’d want? Perhaps my father was wrong perhaps the old ways aren’t as evil as we thought. So what should we do? Accept magic? Or let Mordred die?

Arthur had reasoned that the “magic will reign” instead of yknow, be accepted and embraced. Magic isn’t even asking to take over. It just wanted to be welcomed back and treated kindly. His perception of magic immediately reigning once he allows magic again is such fascist wording tbh. Arthur is still his Father’s mouthpiece. Morgana just reinforces his ideas but it all boils down to Uther.

“I have seen the misery brought by unfettered sorcery. Before my father outlawed magic, Camelot was almost destroyed by sorcery.” The “I am afraid that it will happen again” is unspoken. Way to be paranoid about something that’s yet to happen, Arthur. It’s like this dude forgot how people can be healed thru magic and that Camelot actually used to survive and flourish with it. His own lack of knowledge, unwillingness to learn and deliberate ignorance of magic despite having faced it countless times is his downfall.

To Arthur the only pros of accepting magic is “Mordred living” and “the possibility that his father being wrong.” What a sick joke. For all he declares and stylizes himself that “He is not his father” Arthur still holds his father’s teachings quite dear and have not gone much to explore anything else beyond his own sense or justice. Arthur is fckn complicit in the death of so many innocent people and he still acts like the main victim of it all because what? Opressed people wanted to assasinate him? His sister wanted revenge by taking him and the kingdom out?

I get that Merlin covered for his ass multiple times by telling arthur that humans killed and defeated the mythical beasts. I recognize the effect Merlin and Gaius’s lies have shaped Arthur’s perception, tricking him to believe that magic can be defeated by his own strength.

Still! He’s supposed to be smart and can think for himself. He’s not a damn child. If he can track animals and outlaws in the woods and coordinate war tactics then he can use his brain to piece together events that dont make sense! He can come to the conclusion that there is no way, absolutely no way, that earthquakes and falling branches/rocks just miraculously and luckily happen when he’s in a pinch!

I don’t really have that much sympathy for Arthur because he had access to court records and books and people beforehand! He has Gaius who is like the holder of all magical knowledge! He still had Geoffrey who keeps the history of Camelot! At the end of the Secret Sharer in S4, Gaius had encouraged him to Ask, to Learn. But nooooo he just went on doing what he does best and think ill of all magic practitioners. He could have talked to the druids after s4ep10! He’s had 3-4 years of kingship to seek out other peaceful groups and learn from them! But hey yeah pledging an oath to a goddamn ghost is seemingly enough for him. How benevolent.

Arthur has no excuse other than his fear and paranoia. And unforunately that has bled out to his personal Knights and nobility. Their comments on sorcerers were already so misguided, so hateful, so disgusting in s5.

Imagine being so proud of “having no problems with the druids” yet calling all magic folks as “desperate, deranged and fanatics” in the next instance. Also I just realized that he told a druid in their face that it is "their fault that they were oppressed." LMAOO. Arthur is such a hypocrite. He never once thought of the druids or magic folk with respect. To him letting them live is the best kind of mercy he could offer. As long as they don’t enter camelot or spread their beliefs then they’re fine.

Even so, Merlin still continued to survive in that bleeding pool of sharks. Yet Merlin persevered. He was still quietly and patiently nudging the King to more justified actions while being constantly ridiculed and dismissed. Merlin has been suffering his grief in silence and alone, clinging more and more to his destiny and duty, to his friend, Arthur, coz he has lost everything and everyone else anyway.

But hey put all the blame on Merlin for saying “No to Magic” for one private moment coz he’ll rather prioritize Arthur’s life before anything else amirite?

Stop treating Merlin like he has actual political and administrative sway for fuck’s sake. If one word from Merlin was really all it could take then how come Arthur and Merlin still had to have Gaius intervene just to tell Arthur that Merlin was right to be upset and concerned? Let’s be real, Merlin only matters when Arthur decides that his word matters. Other than that Merlin has to always be chipper, happy and subservient in front of him coz otherwise Arthur would be upset. And that’s only the time Arthur chooses to be kind to him. He wants Merlin’s approval only after Merlin proves to him that he has fckd up. It’s awful that even Guinevere finds it cute.

Arthur still has the last word! Because he is the goddamn King! Arthur has to be blamed. Arthur has to pay for his own choices! He’s always had the agency over his own decisions! Merlin knew that! The Disir knew that! Stop babying this bigoted oppressor!

[retro-wallflower]

I think we all blame Merlin a little too much on things aren't exactly his fault. him being the main character kinda pushes the narrative into blaming him because he feels guilty, despite evidence to the contrary.

like I often hear people saying Morgana wouldn't have gone evil if Merlin had been more honest with her. but even though he kept his magic from her when she probably deserved to know, he still accepted her magic when she told him. she confided in him about her magic, her fears and her feelings on uther and Merlin was there for her. he listened to her and supported her, accepted her magic even though in Camelot most people wouldn't. having an ally like that in a place where there isn't many makes the world of difference.

after Merlin sends her to the druids, we don't really see her confiding in him again. she didn't have to feel quite as lonely as she did because merlin would've been there for her.

in the witchfinder, when Merlin is accused of magic, Morgana doesn't stand up for him. because one, she was likely in shock and two, she doesn't want to implicate herself. there's almost a sense of 'him or me' in the episode because when you're oppressed you're terrified you'll be found out. so both Merlin and Morgana don't make the most of a friendship which could've been so much more to them - they could've helped eachother feel less isolated, listened to eachothers woes, guided eachother from darkness when it beckoned.

Merlin doesn't take any action against Morgana, even though he's being incessantly told to, he shows her kindness. until in the fires of idirsholas. Morgana is on the precipice here, between good and evil - she knows she's the center of this spell but doesn't tell Merlin or Arthur. again, because she doesn't want to put suspicion on herself. merlin doesn't do anything to her until Arthur's life is on the line - he waits and waits until if he didn't stop this spell, Arthur would die.

in the later season we hear Morgana blame uther for what happened to her, then Arthur for following in his footsteps. she's bitter that Merlin poisoned her, but never brings up when she had the chance to confide in him, when he was her only ally. she doesn't blame him for her being alone, only for ruining her and morguese's plans.

but Merlin blames himself for all of this, for not being better to Morgana, for not trusting her with his magic, for making rash decisions and eventually for poisoning her. he bears the burden of how Morgana turned out, because he had knowledge she didn't. knowledge that could've changed things but, like Morgana, he was scared.

that's not to say Merlin telling Morgana of everything he knew about destiny and magic would've stopped her from betraying Camelot. I think Morgana was built to stand up against the oppressors, she always fought against uther when she disagreed with him. and this manifested over years of loneliness and fear that I don't think Merlin could've prevented.

it was a combination of choices from so many different people that led Morgana to join Morguese and those like her. while merlin undoubtedly holds some of the responsibility, it's unfair to say he was the catalyst for her turning to dark ideas when things that didn't even involve him (like in to kill the king) planted the seeds for her defection.

[aftertheskyy]

The Lion King but Merlin

Or Hamlet but Merlin. It’s now my goal to Merlinify every Disney movie

Our story starts with the birth of Prince Arthur Pendragon

His parents, Ygraine and Uther have a ceremony to present him to the kingdom

(Gaius as Rafiki holds him up in front of all of Camelot while everyone sings)

Flash forward 10 years-- Uther’s been dead for some time, and Ygraine is teaching Arthur how to be a king and what it means to have a destiny

His best friend is Merlin, the magical son of the Court Dragonlord

They run around and play, getting into all sorts of trouble, much to Leon/Zazu’s frustration, whose job is to watch over Arthur

Meanwhile, Ygraine’s brother Agravaine (Scar) is growing frustrated that he’s not in line for the throne

He’s the oldest, so shouldn’t he be king when Ygraine dies?

Agravaine’s been thinking about this for awhile and finally decides to act

So he rounds up his henchmen-- Morgana, Morgause, and Cenred, and the four of them start to hatch a plan to take the throne from Ygraine and Arthur

One day, Agravaine he tells Arthur about the Valley of the Fallen Kings, where he’s sure to meet his downfall.

Arthur takes Merlin with him (Leon accompanies for supervision) and they go exploring through the Valley, running through the old ruins.

But Morgana, Morgause, and Cenred are hiding and ready to attack them

When they do, Leon runs back to Camelot to warn Ygraine about the situation

She comes and rescues Merlin and Arthur, not seeing Agravaine in the background, who’s angered with his failed plan

The following week, Agravaine lures Arthur to the Isle of the Blessed, where he plans to kill the prince and later, the queen

Arthur is soon facing Nimueh, who makes threats against him. Agravaine acts as if he isn't involved and rushes back to Camelot to get Ygraine so she can help

They both return, ready to save Arthur, but Agravaine pushes Nimueh to cast a spell to kill Ygraine  (“Long live the queen-”)

The queen falls dead and Agravaine immediately blames Arthur for her death, telling him to run away

Agravaine then takes over Camelot

Arthur flees, wandering on his own, until one day, he meets a group of misfit knights

Gwaine, Percival, Lancelot, and Elyan take Arthur in, teaching him what it means to have no worries and to live a carefree life Percy: Why, when he was a young trainee- Gwaine: When I was a young trainEEEEEEEE Percy: Very nice Gwaine: Thanks

Another 10 years pass with the knights, and Camelot is just a distant memory to Arthur

Except one day, someone with glowing eyes stumbles across their little field that they call home

It takes a little bit, but Arthur soon recognizes him-- it’s Merlin. And wow, he really grew up well

They reunite and rekindle their friendship, and eventually start to fall in love with each other

Merlin starts to convince Arthur to come home to Camelot. He tells him about Agravaine’s tyrannical reign over the once-beautiful kingdom

“We need you, Arthur.”

Arthur feels overwhelmed and refuses before rushing to the lake of Avalon to clear his mind

It’s there where he’s visited by Ygraine’s spirit in the water. She urges him to take his place as king

Arthur, with a change of heart, goes back to Camelot with Merlin, taking Gwaine, Percival, Lancelot, and Elyan with him

Arthur sneaks past the guards while Gwaine distracts them Gwaine: What do you want me to do, dress in drag and do the hula?

Camelot has turned to near ruin. The people are hungry and struggling but Agravaine is living in riches

Arthur enters the castle and confronts his uncle, where it’s revealed that Agravaine was the one who actually killed Ygraine 

The two men begin to fight in front of the kingdom; everyone is shocked to see their prince back home

With the help of Merlin’s magic, Arthur defeats Agravaine and returns to his rightful spot on the throne and takes Merlin as his husband

A few years later, Camelot has been restored to its old glory and Arthur fulfills his destiny as king

[weakforarwen]

You're right about Gwen's passiveness being a flaw. I think she understood her precarious position as a servant & felt couldn't do much on her own. However, I believe that Arthur would have listened to her suspicions about Morgana (he wouldn't have listened to Merlin). Unlike Gwen, Merlin IS in a position to change things but, as the meta points out, he either chooses not to (under advice from the dragon/Gaius) or screws up every chance he gets to show Arthur that not all magic is evil.

Exactly, but from season 3 onward, Gwen wasn't "just a servant" anymore and she knew it. I think she was so used to being invisible (all her life, the noble class must've treated her the way Uther did) that she downplayed her influence with Arthur. He proved many times that he would go above and beyond for her; she was just too used to observing but not sharing her findings.

Gwen had been in a privileged position as a servant who was also Arthur's girlfriend. She'd been a servant preparing herself to become Queen. Perhaps she'd felt her future was uncertain, but I doubt she'd ever thought Arthur capable of banishing or firing her for sharing her suspicions. That's preposterous. She had nothing to lose. She was just too used to watching from the sidelines. She probably thought it best to monitor the situation and not act without hard proof. You're right that Arthur would've listened to her but not Merlin.

But even if we know Gwen couldn't have done more than share her suspicions, unlike Merlin who had the power to change things, she still ended up making the same mistakes Merlin did. Gwen had no way of proving beyond doubt that Morgana or Agravaine were evil, but she knew Arthur listened to her and still chose to keep silent. Had it been anyone else in her situation, she would've told them to share what they knew. Merlin, on the contrary, knew Arthur rarely listened to him but had all the power in the world to find or fabricate evidence to back up his claims. He chose not to. In either case, both were wrong to just let things happen and pray for the best, but, obviously, that was the whole point. That's what the writers had wanted - for the worst case scenario to come to pass.

And, yes, I agree about Merlin, but his worse flaw wasn't necessarily listening to Kilgharrah. It was not listening to him more. Perhaps Merlin could've stopped Morgana and Mordred from turning against Arthur had Kilgharrah not poisoned his mind against them, but, in all fairness, Merlin wasn't much better than Kilgharrah on that front.

I imagine Kilgharrah had once seen or been told Mordred would one day kill Arthur with Morgana's help. He must have figured out the best course of action was to kill them before they grew too powerful. So how was that any different from Merlin seeing a vision of Mordred killing Arthur and immediately wanting to kill him in Arthur's Bane?

Kilgharrah had been thousands of years old. He probably hadn't wanted to take any chances with Arthur's life, hoping Mordred and Morgana could still be saved from becoming Arthur's downfall. Season 5 Merlin had felt the same, but seasons 1 to 3 Merlin had thought it cruel to kill Morgana and Mordred. Thus, he had ignored the dragon's advice without having a backup plan. If Merlin had truly believed Kilgharrah's warnings yet disagreed with his methods, he should've come up with a better solution to the very real threat that Morgana and Mordred presented. Kilgharrah wasn't solely to blame. Even if you believe Merlin should've helped Morgana and Mordred rather than condemning them like Kilgharrah suggested, it's a fact that Merlin had believed Morgana and Mordred couldn't be trusted, yet had done nothing to stop either of them. He had two choices: to either listen to Kilgharrah and kill them (would've been effective), or to prevent Morgana and Mordred from betraying Arthur in the first place. Kilgharrah had planted the scenes of distrust in Merlin's mind, and so Merlin had given up on Morgana and Mordred before they had even become a threat, but that doesn't make him responsible for everything that happened.

Maybe it's because I haven't watched the last three episodes yet, but I don't blame Kilgharrah the way fans seem to. There were times he was vague or straight-up wrong and manipulative, but warning Merlin to kill Morgana and Mordred had been a natural thing to do. Unfortunately, because of Kilgharrah, Merlin had attempted to kill Mordred and Morgana, making both of them distrust him, but from that point onward Merlin had chosen to do nothing to stop Morgana and Mordred. He had known Mordred was an immediate danger to Arthur and that Morgana's powers were growing fast so he had to stop her before she became his match, yet he did nothing. Gaius had advised him to do nothing about Mordred, yet he had still tried to kill him in The Disir. Merlin often disregarded Gaius and Kilgharrah's advice, so they alone can't be blamed for Merlin's inaction and poor choices. Merlin knew Mordred had to die but chose not to kill him. If, like Gaius, he had believed there was a chance that Mordred wouldn't kill Arthur, then, instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop, he should've made sure that Mordred had no reason to betray Arthur. Otherwise, instead of hoping that Mordred would die, he should've done something.

Also, Merlin didn't screw up every chance to show Arthur that magic wasn't evil as much as he created no opportunities to show Arthur magic could be helpful, but, yes, I see what you mean. For example, in Queen of Hearts, to save Gwen's life, Merlin posed as the "true" wizard who had enchanted Arthur and confessed to wanting to kill the King and using an innocent girl to bring shame upon Camelot... Perhaps if Dragoon had simply come forward to Arthur and Uther and confessed he'd been wrong to enchant Arthur and Gwen but hadn't meant to hurt Gwen, that would've given Arthur a new outlook on warlocks. Dragoon could've said he enchanted Arthur and Gwen to show the Prince that everyone was equal or some such bullshit. Arthur would've probably pleaded with Uther to spare the old man.

Sorry, this post is a mess! Thanks for the ask!

[atlasshrugd]

I know that this has already been a thing in this fandom, but we can actually surmise that Kilgharrah was the real villain of Merlin. He does and says nothing but shady shit for the entire show. If he hadn’t fed merlin paranoid bullshit about his destiny Merlin would never have done the exact things that caused it by trying to stop it. He tells merlin to gaslight and murder innocent people to advertently stop their future actions. He manipulated Merlin into setting him free so he could...attack camelot? Further killing innocent people? This proves that Kilgharrah wanted revenge on the Pendragon’s the entire time. He almost killed Arthur during that attack, when he had just told Merlin countless of times that making sure Arthur lived was the priority. 

Not to mention the whole mess of Aithusa. 

Ok, in the Arthurian legends, it is said that a young Merlin told the usurper Voritgern that the white dragon of the Saxons, though winning the battle at present, would soon be defeated by the welsh red dragon (the red dragon of wales). In this case, the red dragon is the House of Pendragon ('Pen' (Head) and 'Dragon', being translated as "dragon's head"). We see in the show that Camelot’s colours are red and gold, and that the sigil is a golden dragon on a crimson field. 

The earliest sources regard the two dragons as distinctly different, and in a metaphor of the Adventus Saxonum describes one as being native to the island of Britain (it had arrived first) which was then joined by another new and alien dragon that fought it for supremacy. This can be seen as the reign of Pendragon vs. the reign of the Saxons. The same story is repeated in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain, where the red dragon is also a prophecy of the coming of King Arthur. 

Another legendary Welsh king, Owain Glyndŵr, had a banner known as Y Ddraig Aur or 'The Golden Dragon'. The flag has ancient origins; Glyndŵr chose to fly the standard of a golden dragon on a white background, the traditional standard that, supposedly, Uther Pendragon had flown when the first Celtic Britons had fought the Saxons to a standstill almost 1,000 years before, which had been passed down to his son Arthur.

Thus, the correlation in legend of the red and gold dragon to Arthur’s reign of Albion, and Aithusa (the white dragon) being the symbol of his downfall.

So, when Kilgharrah tells Merlin to save the dragon egg because ‘it is the last of his kind,’ and that “a white dragon bodes well for Albion,” he was intentionally leading Merlin astray. He knew that Aithusa would be the downfall of Arthur, leading to the taking of Camelot by the Saxons, so he made sure Merlin made it hatch. Thus confirming Kilgharrah’s long revenge plan against the Pendragon dynasty. When Arthur died at Avalon, Kilgharrah told Merlin that he had already fulfilled his destiny, despite the fact that Arthur was dead before uniting Albion. He says this because his goal wasn’t even to unite Albion. It was to end it. Soon after Arthur dies, historically, Camelot soon falls to the Saxons, making the white dragon prevail after all. Kilgharrah wanted Morgana to turn evil, he wanted Morded to turn evil, he wanted Arthur to die and Camelot to fall, as the Disir prophecised. 

Kilgharrah did not want Merlin to know this plot, so he told him that Arthur would rise again when Albion’s need was greatest, giving Merlin false hope to cling onto so that he would not blame Kilgharrah for misleading him. Kilgharrah knew of the prophecy of the once and future king, but I doubt he believed it, as many prophecies turned out to be false.

But as I quoted above, ‘the white dragon of the Saxons, though winning the battle at present, would soon be defeated by the red dragon’, despite it supposedly failing at the end of the show, this prophecy still stands. As when Arthur rises again, so will the red dragon, and the great battle will commence once again. Then, Merlin can fulfill his destiny, despite Kilgharrah’s best efforts.

[but-master]

Your opinion on your future self and the art of Knowing - Your thoughts on Morgana - Your thoughts of Arthur's current path of self destruction

Hisirdoux looks a touch confused at the last one, but tries his best to decide which question to answer. In the end, one of them is the easiest. 

“Morgana is kind to me. She teaches me things when Merlin isn’t looking, and she makes me laugh. She treats me respectfully, if not with a touch of pity sometimes, which I only half dislike, because at least I know that pity from her isn’t going to be too condescending. She seems like she cares about me, I think, and I certainly care about her. 

“...Though, since this must be the question I answer truthfully, I do... sometimes fear her. And for her. There’s darkness there, sometimes, in her eyes. Darkness that I don’t think she knows I can see... It scares me, but I don’t know what to do about it. 

“But, then, maybe if it’s so obvious that even I’ve noticed it, she must be aware that it’s there, too? So, it’s likely that she can handle it herself, I think, or... I hope so, at least. 

“It is possible, however, that it could just be a side-effect of shadowmancy, too. I’m not often allowed lessons in that field, so I have to believe that she has herself and whatever it is in her heart under control. She’s strong. 

“Besides, I believe I’ve said so before, but I can’t always blame Morgana for the anger that she reveals to us sometimes, no matter how dark it seems.

“Although, you know, now that I think on it, most of this is something I’ve said before, isn’t it? 

“...Do I have to answer another question from this set, then?” 

He taps his chin for a moment, before deciding to be kind, and offer another answer. It feels like the right thing to do, despite how... controversial his truth-telling may be, in the question he chooses next. He is not quite ready to face what he has learned from his future self, yet. Nothing about what he’d learned is being particularly... easy for him to swallow, and as of now, it is easier to admit confusion than panic. 

“I suppose, carrying on what I said about understanding Morgana’s anger...” He finally continues, “It isn’t difficult to sympathize with her, when Arthur spouts some rather, uhm, cruel words against us magic folk. I would never dare speak treason against our king, but... well, I suppose I do see where her ire stems from. 

“However, I am not so sure I see self-destruction in him... I am not entirely certain to what you’re referring, here. To say that he destructs himself implies that he is his own reason for downfall, whatever that downfall may be. But why would our king do such a thing? He is entirely in control of Camelot. We are thriving, and his people love him. Even Morgana loves him, deep down, loathe as she’d be to adm-” He pauses, then, a thought striking his head fast and loud, impossible to ignore. 

“...What did you mean, when you used the word ‘destruction’...? Does our king... does he--” so much for no panic. “Does he drive Morgana away? Is something going to attack Camelot? Without her... well, Merlin is only one wizard... Is that it? Something attacks Camelot, and while we could win with two wizards, we lose with one? There has been talk of troll warriors... even I haven’t missed those rumors. But they’re only rumor, right? Does Camelot fall?” 

[panharmonium]

Hey! Loving the Merlin takes on ur blog, and I wanted to ask—what are your opinions on Morgana? Haven’t seen a lot of talk abt her. I loved her, esp in season 1, which is also my fav season cuz after that I feel like things started to make less and less sense, lmao. I understand her descent into villainy (mostly, but why does she start to hate Gwen so quickly? feel like that could’ve been handled better) but I would’ve loved to see some solidarity between her and merlin!!!!!

hi there! :D

so, i LOVE morgana.  most of what i’ve said about her has been in the tags of gifsets that are now scattered haphazardly around my blog; i don’t think there are larger pieces yet besides my finale round-up (urgh lol), and most of that is just a function of time - i can’t possibly write expansive tracts of meta about every single merlin thing i love, because i love the whole show; i’d never leave my computer again.  i generally sit down to write long essays about whatever grabs my mind at a particular moment, even though there are a bazillion other things out there i love just as much. XD

but with morgana, i also feel like part of the reason i haven’t written much about her is because up until three and a half weeks ago (....oh my god, was it THREE AND A HALF WEEKs???  IT FEELS LIKE A YEAR) i hadn’t even finished the series yet, and the whole time i was watching this show i was sort of...waiting to see whether they would finally tie her arc together.  i didn’t feel like i could say too much about what was happening with her, because my evaluation of her arc was going to depend on where the writers finally chose to take it and whether they brought it to the place i thought it needed to go.

and...they didn’t, obviously, which is what i sort of suspected would happen, though i was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt all the way up until the end, because i don’t believe they ever wrote themselves into a corner with her.  there were things they could have handled with more depth, definitely, but i do not believe that they ever dug themselves into a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

i. what happened to you, morgana

essentially my opinion (just mine; nobody else is obligated to share it) of morgana is this: that the series ended before her arc was over.  

to me, season 5 was the nadir in our characters’ journeys.  they had reached their lowest point, their...“darkest hour,” to quote the show itself.  and in many familiar storytelling formats (the ones that have the most in common with bbc merlin, at least), we take our characters to a moment where they hit rock bottom, where everything is going wrong and things seem hopeless, and then we light a spark under their butts that starts the process where they fight their way out of it.  the nadir isn’t the endpoint of the curve; it’s the point where characters start climbing their long, slow way out of the pit.  it’s what they have to overcome in order to earn their eventual triumphant ending.

to me, season 5 was that nadir, for morgana and everyone else.  i never would have imagined season 5 to be the final season of the show, if i hadn’t known it was beforehand. i would have read season 5 as the show’s ‘empire strikes back’ moment.  the episode that ends with our team losing, but with a whole other episode remaining where they can fight to Make It Right.

i view merlin bbc as tantamount to a cancelled tv show, to be honest.  i know that’s not necessarily what happened (though it does feel pretty weird that they officially announced S5 would be the final season only four weeks before the finale was about to air??  very bizarre), but regardless of the actual behind-the-scenes-whatever, the fact of the matter is that for me, the series doesn’t end.  it stops.  and those two things are not the same.

this is particularly relevant to morgana because, as you said, there are aspects of her character arc that weren’t handled as deftly as they could have been, but if the show had brought morgana’s arc to the place where it felt like they were going in 5.09, they could have rescued so much of what came before.

to get into more detail -

i think the biggest issue with morgana’s arc for me isn’t so much what she does, it’s what we’re not shown as she does it.  

i fully believe that morgana would eventually start working to ensure uther’s downfall.  (obviously.  she’s been presented as the voice of moral authority on this show since episode one, and there’s no reason to believe that she wouldn’t ultimately start rebelling against the king’s oppressive policies.)  i believe that she would reject arthur, eventually.  and i believe that she would reject gwen, too.  but i don’t believe the show illustrates enough how painful this would be for her, or how conflicted it would make her feel.  

and again, as i said, there are my own personal opinions, couched in...some personal experience with certain kinds of family conflict - but i do understand where morgana’s bitterness toward arthur and gwen comes from.  arthur, for all that he’s “a better man than [his] father,” never fully breaks with uther the way morgana does.  he has his own little rebellions, yes, but ultimately he always falls in line.  he tolerates his father’s actions even if he doesn’t necessarily agree with them, and he continues to support uther even after uther is revealed to have lied about being morgana’s illegitimate father.  and because of this tacit acceptance of uther’s poor behavior, arthur reaps benefits and privileges galore.  morgana is cast out with nothing, whereas arthur, who didn’t even take a stand for justice, wants for nothing.  arthur is sitting pretty on the throne of camelot because he continued to bestow his honor and respect upon a man who deserved neither of those things, because he chose the villain of the series over his sister, even knowing what uther did to her.  and that’s gutting, for her.  he betrayed her.

(and there are things to be said on arthur’s end of this, too, of course - morgana doesn’t ever confide in him; she doesn’t come to him for help or give him a chance to even be informed about what happened to her before she jumps into invading camelot and dethroning uther - so for arthur, her sudden turnaround comes as a total shock, and HE feels betrayed, like he has no choice but to fight her - i mean, it’s just a big mess.)

but i understand why she hates him.  he continues to stand with a man who did demonstrable evil, despite the harm that was specifically done to morgana herself.  and by shutting up and letting atrocities be committed in front of him, arthur escapes the harm that morgana suffers for speaking up.  i understand why morgana is so bitter about it.

and gwen is a very similar situation - from morgana’s point of view, gwen is playing the arthur to arthur’s uther.  gwen sides with arthur over morgana, despite knowing full well that arthur’s policies harm people with magic.  gwen abandons morgana for her love interest, and for morgana that’s just like - “why would you do that?  i was your friend before he ever cared about you, i loved you before he ever did - don’t you see the evil he’s perpetuating?  don’t you care what he does to people like me?”  

that’s why morgana tells merlin, “don’t think i don’t understand loyalty just because i’ve got no one left to be loyal to.”  she feels like everybody who supposedly cared for her ultimately dumped her because her situation interfered with their comfortable, morally uncomplicated lives.  they weren’t willing to acknowledge what was done to her, and they stuck by the man responsible for it, and it seems incomprehensible to her, that they would make that choice, when his misdeeds are known and out in the open.  i can’t blame her for wanting to raze the city to the ground.

HOWEVER.

while i believe that all these things are completely plausible, i don’t believe that the series shows us appropriately how these things would be tearing morgana apart inside, underneath the rage and the armored front of  ‘you brought this on yourself, so burn in hell, i don’t care.’  

there are moments where the show gets it right.  when morgana wakes up after uther dies and says that she felt his pain - it’s not presented as gloating; she’s - almost confused.  uncertain.  like she doesn’t know what she feels.  when she confronts arthur at the end of season 4 (i thought we were friends/as did i) there’s real pain under the surface there.  when they confront each other at the beginning of season 5, too (what happened to you, morgana/i grew up) - you can feel the undercurrent of something deeper there, too.  and that moment with mordred in 5.09, when he appeals to her humanity (i hope one day you will find the love and compassion which used to fill your heart) - that is an amazing scene.  the show absolutely nails that moment.  morgana hesitates.  you can see the grief and the - the conflict written all over her face.  it’s perfect.  it’s exactly the turn i would have expected morgana’s arc to be taking, at that time in the series.

but then the show just stopped.  and without taking morgana’s arc further - without following it through all the way to its conclusion - there’s never any resolution to all the ways the show dropped the ball earlier.  all the moments where morgana appears to be just...evil-smirking her way through her revenge, the way she suddenly seems to have no feelings for gwen whatsoever, the utterly lost opportunity that was the “enchanted gwen” arc (which could have been such a powerful exploration of their broken relationship) - all those could have eventually made sense and fit into a narrative where morgana’s conflicted feelings finally begin to escape the stranglehold in which she has them choked, where we start to see the pain of these destroyed relationships rising to the surface.  

i can understand how morgana would just - shut off her feelings about these people.  she had to close her heart to them - the alternative would have been too painful.  but underneath - we know it wouldn’t be that easy.  we know it eats at her.  and it’s just - so incredibly frustrating that the series was starting to go there - the moment with mordred in 5.09 feels like the beginning of morgana’s big crisis of faith - and then the show just Stops.

so the thing about morgana for me is that, like you said, the show does drop the ball on illustrating her quick descent into evil-villain territory, and they especially drop the ball on her break with gwen, but all of it could have been salvaged, if they had committed to following her arc all the way through to its conclusion.  instead they chose to kill her (and everybody else, lol) just as her deep-rooted internal conflicts were finally starting to rise to the surface.

ii. we can find another way/there is no other way (aka the merlin problem)

i’ll say right up front that anything i say here is, as always, just my personal interpretation of things.  this is not necessarily the One True Way this show is meant to be understood; it’s just my own preferred read.

i have definitely seen some things in my brief foray into internet fandom that are sort of...piling on merlin for abandoning morgana or “gaslighting” her, most of which seem to be centered around the beginning of episode 2.03, which is weird to me, because the whole point of that episode is that merlin does help morgana, in the end - he’s the one who doesn’t gaslight her.  he defies gaius and takes her to the druids, specifically so they can tell her yes, she does have magic.  he tries to distract the attacking knights in order to enable morgana to escape with the druids permanently, like she wants.  and when the attempt fails, and they’re brought back to camelot, he comes to morgana’s chambers specifically to check on her and to assure her that he won’t reveal her secret to anyone, and she’s grateful for this - she thanks him, she’s appreciative of everything he did for her, she feels comforted to know the truth and to know that someone else knows it, too.  this episode ends with their relationship at a high point - it’s overwhelmingly positive, and it doesn’t take a nosedive until 1.12, when morgana gets in way over her head and merlin thinks she’s trying to murder them all.  (and even in that episode, it’s worth it to note, merlin is still covering for her magic in front of arthur, giving her chances.)

(and obviously also, of course, the end of that particular situation gets Real Bad Real Fast, which could be a whole post in and of itself, so let’s stay focused on the earlier eps, for now.)

the criticism of merlin in those earlier episodes seems to stem solely from the fact that he doesn’t out himself to morgana, which i can understand - i mean, i like the idea of a ‘merlin+morgana secret magic squad’ AU as much as anyone - but i’ll be honest and say that nowadays, i’m not quite as willing to condemn him for it as i might have been on my first viewing.

i’m not willing to condemn him for it at all, actually.

(and again - as i said, these are my own opinions!  everybody else is welcome to have different opinions!  we all engage with media differently, and there isn’t a right or wrong way to approach this situation, just whichever way feels best to you.)

so, for me, i’m not interested anymore in telling merlin that he should have revealed himself to anyone, at that point in the story.  it would be different if he had been like - continuing to tell morgana ‘oh, no, you don’t have magic, don’t be crazy,’ or if he had been pretending to hate magic like everyone else so he could blend in, but he doesn’t do that, at the end of the episode.  he sends her to the druids.  he chases after her when he realizes she's in danger.  he openly acknowledges her magic, he supports her in having it, he makes sure she knows she has nothing to fear from him.  by the end of 2.03, he’s gone to great lengths to help her; he’s already made certain that she knows he’s on her side and that she can trust him.  she clearly knows that he accepts her and that he supports her - those are his responsibilities to her as a fellow human and as a friend, and those are exactly the responsibilities he makes sure to fulfill.  she knows her secret is safe with him.  

now - whether or not merlin feels safe enough to out himself, after making sure morgana knows he accepts and supports her, is his own business.

i think there are a number of reasons why it wouldn’t be fair for me to criticize merlin for continuing to conceal his secret, the first of which is something i already mentioned in another piece - that a marginalized person’s first responsibility is to their own safety, when forced into hiding under oppressive social conditions.  merlin isn’t obligated to reveal himself for anybody.  he’s not obligated to put himself in danger out of some kind of...responsibility to the community.  (not at this point, anyway.  it gets more complicated later, as merlin becomes more powerful, which i also address in that other piece, but that’s all in the future for him and not relevant at this moment.)

i think it would be easy for me to forget that merlin isn’t safe, in the early seasons.  we’re so used to thinking of merlin as ‘the greatest sorcerer to ever walk the earth,’ because that’s what we keep being told he’s going to become, but again, that’s all so far in the future for him.  merlin in the early seasons can do some things with his abilities, but not consistently, and not to the level where we can reasonably expect him to resist the entirety of camelot’s army, if they were to come for him.  merlin is in real danger, and he’s not evil for being unwilling to share a secret about himself that would ensure his death, if it somehow got back to the wrong people.

second - i don’t think it would be fair for me to discount merlin’s personal history, either.  merlin’s life didn’t start in camelot, and he hasn’t even been in camelot for all that long, comparatively, by the time we get to S2.  season one takes place over a few months, starting in either spring or summer and ending in the fall (after the referenced harvest in 1.10/1.11, but before winter sets in).  the weather is nice by time season 2 starts, so we can probably assume that S2 takes place once winter has passed (although, it’s technically possible that S2 takes place over the same autumn as S1, I guess...but it’s not made clear to us, timeline-wise.)  either way, we just really have to remember that merlin’s stay in camelot by the time we reach 2.03 is still this blip compared to the rest of his life.  

it would be very easy for me to say that merlin should have told morgana, that there’s no way she would ever have given him up - and i probably would have said that very thing, after the first time i watched the show - but like - nowadays, i really think i have to step back from that certainty and be a little more gentle.  we say we “know” that morgana wouldn’t have willingly betrayed merlin’s secret at that point, and sure, i agree, that’s probably true - but does merlin know that?  

of course not!

i think he hopes that.  i think he would dearly like to believe that.  i also think merlin grew up in a situation where he couldn’t fully trust even the people he’d known all his life, with two (vital!!!) exceptions, and he has been in camelot with a bunch of brand-new people for less than a year, and he can’t be certain of them, however much he wants to be.  (and that’s not even considering the possibility of accidental betrayals, or coerced ones - remember, the witchfinder shows up in S2 also, as just one example.)

remember that exchange merlin has with freya, later this season?

“you can’t always trust people.”

“i know.  that’s why i left home.”  

merlin is not used to showing himself to people.  he has been taught all his life to NEVER, EVER show himself to anybody.  everyone in camelot who finds out about his magic finds out either by accident (like gaius or lancelot), or necessity (like freya and gilli - though gilli is interesting, because i think merlin’s decisions there are motivated precisely by the choices he didn’t make with morgana - which i’ll go into more later).  

in twenty-odd years, merlin has only ever told one person about his magic.  and even that generous assumption requires a little bit of inferencing for us to determine, though i think it’s likely enough, if not confirmable.

(i am, in case it’s unclear, referencing 1.10, when merlin is explaining to will why hunith sent him away to camelot: “when she found out you knew - she was so angry.”  that, to me, has always been a signifier that merlin told will about his magic, as opposed to will finding out by coincidence.  i know there are a lot of headcanons floating around out there about various...accidental situations that may have occurred which forced merlin to reveal his magic in front of will, and those are all obviously totally fun to play with, but after hearing this particular line - i never understood that to be the case, to be honest.  we’ve seen hunith enough to have a pretty solid understanding of her character.  she and merlin are always easy and gentle together, she’s so kind and calm and thoughtful - i can’t imagine that she wouldn’t have understood, if there had been some kind of accident that forced merlin’s hand.  she’d be just as afraid for his future safety, of course, and she would have wished he’d told her right away, but she wouldn’t have been “so angry.”  

...she might, however, have been “so angry” if she’d found out that merlin had specifically undermined every sacrifice she’d ever made to keep him safe/ignored every single one of her warnings/rejected every cautious thing she’d been telling him for his entire life and TOLD somebody about his magic when it wasn’t remotely necessary.  that’s the only scenario i can imagine that would prompt merlin to say “she was SO angry” in that half-awed, half-intimidated tone, with that little headshake, like it was such a singular event, like it’s still formidable for him to remember.)

so anyway, that said - it’s too easy for me to say ‘he should have told morgana/gwaine/gwen etc; they would never have turned on him,’ as if it would have been such a simple thing for him to do, as if there were no dangers associated with their knowledge even if they would never have willingly given him up, as if he was refusing to do it because he didn’t want to, or because his fears were overblown, or because he was foolish for thinking they would ever hate him for his gifts.  i think that really minimizes the reality of his struggle, and the danger of his situation.  without the pressure of some crisis to force his hand, merlin has only ever willingly revealed himself to one person.  that person is dead.  that person died specifically ensuring that merlin could stay safe and hidden from the rest of the world, morgana included - merlin’s continued secrecy is a gift that was bought at an impossibly high price, and it’s not simple for him to contemplate squandering it, especially with no guarantee that things will turn out okay.

because there IS no guarantee that things will turn out okay!  a lot of the “merlin should have told morgana” online talk centers around the idea that knowing about merlin’s magic would have kept morgana from feeling alone/betrayed, thus preventing her from turning to the “evil” methods she uses later, but again, i don’t think we actually know that at all.  solidarity between merlin and morgana would have been a nice thing, definitely; i’d like to see that too, but i don’t think the fact that she and merlin are both magic-users would have guaranteed harmony between them.  merlin and gilli are both magic-users, too, and merlin expects this to be enough to convince gilli to “see the light,” but the fact of the matter is that merlin and gilli just have very different ideas about what it means to do the right thing.  merlin thinks it means biding his time and waiting for change to come from the top (because he’s been TOLD by greater powers that this is the right course of action, of course; let’s note again that merlin’s situation is extremely complicated) whereas gilli thinks that doing things merlin’s way makes merlin complicit with an unjust regime.  gilli says ‘i shouldn’t haven’t to wait for someone else to give me my rights.  i’m going to take them myself.’

the fact that merlin and gilli share a bond as magic-users doesn’t protect them from an ideological divide that puts them on different sides of the same struggle.  i’m not sure that merlin and morgana wouldn’t have still ended up in the same situation, eventually, if merlin had chosen to out himself to her - but doing so would certainly have made him a thousand times more vulnerable to attack.

third - it’s also important to remember that if we’re going to hold merlin to this rigid ‘he should have told morgana everything/confided in her/trusted her at the expense of possibly his own life despite the fact that she exists at the completely opposite end of a rigid social hierarchy as him and he’s known her for less than a year’ then maybe we ought to raise the bar for morgana, as well.  morgana is very clearly shown to trust and appreciate merlin at the end of 2.03, but by 2.11, when alvarr and mordred show up and convince her to steal the crystal of neahtid, she doesn’t hesitate or come to merlin at all, despite the fact that we never see him do anything to lose her trust between then and now.  she never asks him for help, even when she’s uncertain about alvarr’s methods, and that leaves merlin in the dark, only privy to confusing images of her sneaking around and acting suspicious.  and even with that, merlin doesn’t condemn her for what she does, the same way he doesn’t blame her when she tries to kill uther in 1.12 - he helps arthur retrieve the crystal, but he doesn’t give morgana up.  and he doesn’t hold any kind of grudge, either - in the next episode, merlin doesn’t even suspect her, at first - he thinks it must be her magic protecting her; he doesn’t even consider the idea that she has anything to do with the illness, not until kilgharrah tells him.  

and even after that, he STILL covers for her in front of arthur, and he gives her a chance to come clean to him - but she doesn’t take it.  

i’m not condemning her for that - i get why she would be afraid to admit to such a big mess - she was in way over her head and didn’t know what to do.  but if we’re going to cut morgana this much slack and accept her fears as a valid enough reason to block a potential moment of connection, then we have to accept that merlin’s fears were valid, too - morgana’s descent into “villainy” was not something we can pin solely on merlin’s already overburdened shoulders.  the end of season 2 was not some kind of one-way failure.

in summary: merlin and morgana were trapped in an impossible situation.  they were both victims of the same oppressive regime, and both of them had very real, very dangerous obstacles to letting themselves trust in and reach out to others, and i think pitting them against each other while forgetting who the real villain was is unfair to them both.

also, a brief postscript: circling back to the first section of this piece, where i talked about how season 5 just stopped before anyone’s arc was finished - merlin and morgana could have had so much more, if we’d gotten another season.  their relationship is really in the pits, by season 5, but there is this deleted scene where arthur is reflecting on what happened to morgana and blaming himself, and merlin says arthur shouldn’t take the blame, that “there were others better placed to help morgana” (implicating, of course, himself) and that was SUCH a jumping off point for their story to have continued.  merlin wanted to do better by her.  he blamed himself for what happened to her.  and morgana, for her part, was starting to question herself, as we saw during her confrontation with mordred in 5.09.

there were places for this relationship to go.  it wasn’t a lost cause.  but the writers decided that it made more sense to just...eliminate everybody at the exact moment when things were poised to possibly change.

the story wasn’t over at the end of season 5.  but the show was, and i am always going to regret those many lost opportunities.

[lepratonn]

Wizards spoilers:

I must admit that Wizards was super good in the beginning (amazing opening episode!!! Mystery! Who’s this green knight? What’s going on!!! ) but turned sort of... lukewarm towards the end. I feel it would’ve done better with two seasons or at least 13-15 episodes? It had such amazing potential!

The ideas were fun and fresh, and I really liked the whole deepening Morgana as a character, though I feel that was also the show’s downfall (okay bit dramatic there). It was super hard to read her motives and with having to work with two already existing series, past and future, and fit everything together with canon lore, it got a bit confusing... like why didn’t she turn against Arcane Order from the get go when Arthur died? Why blame Merlin for Arthur’s death? It all felt a bit shoehorned because it all had to follow the canon. Like the idea of her motives was clear - keep all magical creatures safe, which gets twisted by the arcane order, get struck by grief of losing brother, etc. etc., but I feel that with you, the watcher, having to make sense of two previous series’ timelines, the past timeline of wizards and the present timeline of wizards, it got really muddled in practice.

I also felt the Arcane Order was a bit detaches? It was a good idea to tie in a lot of things, but they felt pretty abstract and loose from the get go because they didn’t get fleshed out much, and to fit the canon they had to be sorta constantly dodging shit with their writing. I loved them because they were so cool but... with more time given to the series it would’ve felt less “BAM THESE WERE THE BADDIES ALL ALONG” and more “here’s the hand that guides the puppet”, you know? (Also what on earth was the point in randomly giving the seals to the arcane order??? Lmao. )

I did love Douxie though. He’s my favorite of all the main characters of Tales of Arcadia series and I liked his dynamic with Merlin (I genuinely like how Merlin is written as a character - he’s an asshole who puts everything aside for common good... but despite his powers he is fallible, faulty and.. uh, a grumpy old man. Ive grown tired of the “infallible super powerful amazing mentor” trope).

And I still am excited for the movie!! I can’t wait to see it. But when the writers said that it was difficult to make Wizards because they had to cram 20 episodes worth of content into 10, it does show a bit. Hats off to them regardless! I think all things considered they did good job, the series was enjoyable. But I still feel bad they didn’t get all the episodes they would’ve needed to make Wizards more fleshed out and fully realized. The last few episodes had to focus on twenty different things, which made the end fractured and not as impactful.

I know I’m rambling in great part and my notes aren’t too coherent on the subject either, but, well.. eh. I liked the series but I just feel like nothing can achieve the mood of Trollhunters. It’s like a cake that keeps getting piled on. The extra five layers just don’t make the cake better, they make it topple over.

[mythsandmagicfancast]

Thoughts on Merlin's pivotal mistakes with Mordred and that being the downfall rather than Mordred's choice to go to Morgana, after Arthur executes Kara? Mordred is constantly trying to prove Merlin wrong about him and is seen really doing his best to convince Merlin that they are on the same side. If Merlin had accepted Mordred even before Kara came along, do you think it would've made a difference? Otherwise, should Merlin have let Kara and Mordred go, when they tried to escape?

These are all questions we’re very... passionate about, so we’ll save them for the episode. But let it be known we are very pro Mordred on this podcast, and definitely think Merlin had some, if not blame, then at least responsibility for what happened! Thank you for the questions!

[lespendragons]

questions for muns of canon muses // accepting.

anon asked: 6 & 7

6. What is the general opinion of your muse’s fandom about them? Do you agree with it?

Morgana: One thing I’ve noticed a lot is that people tend to see Morgana’s dark side thing as either a result of Morgause’s influence, or an act of a strong woman rebelling against men who try to control her. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with both points to a certain degree – Morgause was a bad influence and Morgana is a strong woman (which in my experience is just called a woman). 

But the decisions she made were her own. Her first attempt to kill Uther was an impulse she eventually regretted, it was purely emotional, but it was long before Morgause came into play. But Morgana isn’t strong enough – she breaks. She breaks first when she opposes Uther’s hatred and his methods, yet resorts to the very same means. She breaks again when she loses everything she preached in the beginning of her transformation – she fixes on destroying Arthur instead of helping those with magic, she simply doesn’t give a damn about them anymore (though as a High Priestess she should). It’s hard to say whether Morgana’s rise as a powerful witch is actually a rise, or a downfall. There is nothing worth glorifying or romanticizing about that: she gets twisted, she goes insane, it’s not powerful and it’s not pretty.

Also her fate is often blamed on Merlin and Gaius, and... yeah. They could have acted differently and it had all the potential to change her story, but a) I get why they didn’t; b) again, the decisions she made were hers and hers alone. An important thing about Morgana is that up to the end of season 3 she was loved. By everyone. When she was dying, the entire castle was going mad – so many people cared about her. She never faced the extremes of the magic law, and she probably wouldn’t have if she opened up about her powers (which doesn’t mean she had nothing to fight for, but at the very least Arthur wouldn’t have turned his back on her even if Uther would). She chose to fuck it all up. Not Merlin, not Gaius. 

Uther: Nobody seems to have any sympathy for the man, and the reasons are obvious. But I genuinely felt for him sometimes. He brought it on himself, sure, but he was devoured by guilt that he turned into hatred. Much like Morgana, he was obsessed, except Uther had some redeemable moments. His love for Arthur, for once, though it’s a separate topic. Basically, Uther doesn’t deserve as much hate as he gets. He deserves pity. 

7. For movie or TV muses, what is your muse’s favorite scene? Why? Can you show a screenshot?

Honestly? I loved the scene in 1.12 when Morgana was all set on killing Uther and then realized she loved him more than she hated him and ended up saving him instead. It’s not about redemption, it’s just powerful, and it makes it all the more tragic that she lost this ability to be a better person in later seasons. 

And every. Single. Scene. With a sword. 

[icarusblade]

yes, this is partly an excuse to make pretty graphics. but this is also a headcanon, ‘cause I should really be writing those. So...

                                   ARTURIA’S TEMPERMENT.

As I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, Saber has a bit of a...bad temper. Though she was taught how to be a good king, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s human, and as such has human emotions. It...just so happens that anger is a pretty prominant one.

In multiple versions of Arthurian legend, this is shown to be true. Arthur was a very benevolent ruler, that much is true, and anyone who came to him seeking help would be granted it. However, the moment someone crossed him, he was known to get very angry, very fast. I believe someone had mentioned talk of murdering babies?? Honestly, I’d believe it. Probably the only reason he didn’t fly off his hinges completely was because of Guinevere and her level-headedness.

Speaking of Guinevere, perhaps one of the best times Arthur’s anger is highlighted is the one time Guinevere couldn’t reason with him, and that was after Mordred had revealed her affair with Lancelot. I can’t blame Arthur for feeling betrayed and angry, but I think ordering Guinevere to be burned at the stake was a little much. We get it, dude, she cheated on you w/ your best friend, but maybe you should chill out a sec. (Arthur, however, would not chill out at all.)

So, back to Arturia. 

Well, Guinevere’s gone, as is everyone else that could ever reason with her, so it’s safe to say Arturia’s bad temper hasn’t changed at all. Sure, she tries her best to remain the stoic, chivalrous knight she was raised to be, but once someone lights her fuse, it’s pretty damn difficult to get it to go out.

Because this is about her temperment and not just her sslliiighttt anger issues, there’s something else I have to point out.

Arturia has horrid, and I mean HORRID issues when it comes to guilt and self-loathing. To put it simply, SHE HATES HERSELF. A lot. She saw herself as two things only: a knight and a king. Not a human being, not a person, and certainly not a woman. And as far as she’s concerned, she failed at both of those things, the king thing especially. So here she is, having failed at what she percieved to be her life’s purpose, while inadvertently (or sometimes directly) causing the downfall of her kingdom and most of her dearest companions. She is ashamed and guilt stricken and wants nothing more than to undo her reign entirely, so that someone better suited could handle things.

On a side note, let’s hope to fucking God she never learns that in at least one version, Merlin knew that Morgana would have made a better ruler and put Briton into a Golden Age, because she will clothesline a bitch.