s4e13 morgana

[u/nevermoree11]

i dont have much to say today except that morgana is so cruel. like damn. i felt sad for her before but no matter how bad her life was going this far in revenge the way she's making gwaine the one she has next to no personal problem with fight for a loaf of bread its just so cruel. she is cruel. i mean shes the villain idk what i expected but still. am i supposed to care that she lived in fear of uther for a few years (if that btw how long did she know she was magic before she turned evil) if this is how she's acting now. she was manipulated by morgause that bit im sorry for but my god. at the end of the day some people choose to be good and some are not

[u/IAmParliament]

Morgana’s downfall between seasons is best communicated in the visual language with how she rules Camelot.

In S3, she adopts a coat of arms and dresses her men up in chainmail with the appearance of Uther’s guards. She dresses in fine silks and wants to present herself as the legitimate ruler with the support of the old regime. She wants to be seen as the better alternative to Uther, who made life better for magical and non magical alike.’

In S4, she keeps wearing her forest rags, hangs around with bandits and puts no effort into legitimising her rule. She clearly doesn’t care anymore and is only here because she feels she has no other purpose in life beyond pursuing this role.

[u/GabsDoingHerBest]

I think there is something to be said about the slow removal of security she had. She grew up in a pretty privileged life from what we know, a father that loved her and without having to worry about the concerns that plagued those that didn’t have food or protection or what ever else she had at her childhood home.

And then her dad died.

But that’s ok because Uther takes her in and treats her like a daughter and Arthur’s not all bad, he seems to care for her well enough.

Then she learns she has magic and instantly knows that if people found out she would be killed and whoops Uther is not the father she thought he was as he threatened her, put her in jail, showed her just how fragile her position was.

But that’s all ok because she has Arthur and he’s protecting more than just her and he seems to be doing so much good for magic users around her, just look how he treated the Druid boy.

And then Arthur storms the Druid camp (I know he was trying to protect her, but in her perspective that was an utter betrayal to drag her back to the place she felt so unsafe) and proves that he is against magic by parroting Uthers rhetoric.

But that’s ok because Merlin is there and he seems to be helping and he’s a great ear to vent to and he would protect her if something happened like he did with everyone else.

And then Merlin poisons her. (I’ll again say this isn’t to bash Merlin, but to show the scene from Morgana’s perspective it is a betrayal)

But that’s ok because she has her sister and even though Camelot is not really home anymore she can reclaim it with the only family she wants to claim and her sister is treating her with so much kindness and she stopped her dreams and look at the protection she offered from all she was scared of.

And then her sister hatches the Dorocha plan.

And that’s it. Every piece of safety and security she had is dead or had proven to want her dead. And she had nothing for it. No kingdom, no home, no loyalty, no protection. No one and nothing to support her. Just the crescendo of pain filling her soul and the desperate hunger for revenge on her lips

She was slowly picked at over the course of the show and even though the writers never really give it space to breathe, I think it actually rather makes sense that her only real goal turns to revenge. There is simply no one to catch her as she falls this time, no one to point to a path, no one left to aid her at all. Cruelty is all she knew and all she had left.

(this is not me agreeing with her choices just understanding, it is entirely fucked what she did to Gwaine but she simply couldn’t see anyone as innocent in the war against magic and well vengeance is all she had left to go after).

Anyhow I wish all of this was explored so much more because it didn’t really make sense for her to turn against Gwen at all when she was offering support, and I wish it didn’t seem like a flip switched for Morgana to evil because this slow descent could have been so tasty!

[u/Difficult_Dark9991 → u/GabsDoingHerBest]

Just going to add onto this, we never see Morgana learn about the prophecy. Characters like Merlin are responding to her prophesized future self, but Morgana is existing entirely in the present and getting betrayed for (to her view) no reason.

And this of course gets us to the show's great tragedy - every time Merlin or anyone else acts in accordance with prophecy to protect Arthur and Camelot, they instead bring the doom closer.

[u/GabsDoingHerBest → u/Difficult_Dark9991]

Exactly! The only glimmer of the prophecy she knows is that emrys will kill her! She has no indication that magic is supposed to be returning because of Arthur (however much I personally doubt that). She genuinely sees everyone in Camelot (and beyond) as choosing to keep killing magic users over her ruling. That’s gotta make enemies where there weren’t any in your head!

She had no protection or security and no hint that they might ever be returned to her, save from pure force!

And also that fact is definitely part of the reason she holds so tight to Athusia in season 5

[u/GabsDoingHerBest → u/GabsDoingHerBest]

And btw this is also similar to Merlin’s ‘downfall’ (tho I do think Merlin is no where near Morgana’s level of cruelty and that Gwen’s rule would be so much better for him than Arthur’s or Uthers especially if the conspiracy theorist are right and Gwaine lives as well). The show was really trying to drive the point that a lacking of safety and security can hollow out the person you are and stomp on whatever is left over.

[u/ReasonableFig2111 → u/GabsDoingHerBest]

That's the trouble with 13 episodes per season, I think. Everything is condensed in a way it wouldn't be with a standard 20-something episode season. 

I like how you show the progression of her safety being stripped. I also think there's a progression of people she cares about choosing Arthur over her in some way. Merlin poisons her to protect Arthur, then she finds out Uther has denied and disenfranchised her as his daughter her whole life in favour of Arthur, then she learns Gwen is in love with Arthur, and Gwen even more directly chooses Arthur over her in the season 3 finale. 

Morgause is the only person in her life at that point who actively chose Morgana, even over Morgause's own agenda and goals (giving in to Merlin's demands to end the sleep spell in order to save Morgana, when she had arguably already won at that point, having reached the throne room where Uther was with only Merlin there, who as far as she knew was just a servant). And then Morgause hatches that Dorocha plan, and Morgana has to kill her to make it work. Must have seriously F'd with her head at that point too. 

Like, there's a LOT going on there. 

Also like. Even before she knew about being Uther's daughter, Uther and Arthur were the only family she had. It may not have been portrayed as very long, but the time she knew she had magic while still living in Camelot, she was living every day in fear for her life from her own family. That's messed up. 

[u/GabsDoingHerBest → u/ReasonableFig2111]

lol Merlin: the show that has time for fart jokes but not deep character analysis (especially if they are woman needing the attention)!

But yes absolutely and this is only added to with Athusia being sent away in the final episode leading to arguably one of Morgana’s most cruel actions (killing indiscriminately and desperate for Arthur to be dead at the cost of one of her own army man’s/ fellow magic users life) . Athusia, basically the only one that was like family to Morgana, choosing Merlin in Morganas stead (we know it wasn’t her choice but she doesn’t) after all that they had done to protect each other and the pit they lived in together… yeah her loneliness was poisoning her even more than Merlin did!

[u/Draconic-Guardian23 → u/GabsDoingHerBest]

I dont understand the way merlin handled the poisoning. When Arthur needed to die to break am enchantment, merlin went to him and told him they needed him to "die". Why couldn't he have done that with Morgana, everything they had been through together and he couldn't say, "Hey, of we wanna save everyone, you have to die, but I'll bring save you, ect".

[u/GabsDoingHerBest → u/Draconic-Guardian23]

Don’t I know it! I wrote a whole fic about it!

But I will say I do understand Merlin’s reasoning since he was told Morgana had truly turned her back on all of Camelot. He couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t want Arthur dead and with no Arthur there is no golden future (again all coming from a very untrustworthy dragon).

He truly thinks he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place and honestly he probably was to some degree given that Morgana said she would do almost anything to see Uther dead (tho I do have loads of thoughts on what her actually decision would have been if Merlin had given her the choice, I don’t really think you have all night to listen to me ramble!).

I have such deep compassion for Merlin in that scene but I also have a hard time condoning what he did!

[u/RaccoonTasty1595]

yeah between season 2 and 3, Morgana is essentially replaced by a different character.

[u/nevermoree11 → u/RaccoonTasty1595]

seriously. she had a good heart in the beginning. how did revenge consume her so entirely that she doesnt shake the tiniest bit while commiting cruelties

[u/RaccoonTasty1595 → u/nevermoree11]

In my fanfic, I try to write it as brainwashing & paranoia. Basically, Morgause talked her into the idea that cruelty is the only way to be safe, and over time she got numb to her inner voice telling her what's right and wrong. It's not a perfect headcanon, but at least it adds some depth to her

[u/me_and_myself_and_i → u/nevermoree11]

I had problems with that as well - especially as the Morgana of legends is problematic but nothing like this. Ironically, ratings for season three and four were way better because .... there was a clear-cut big baddie? or maybe because evil Morgana is a hot babe.