Part IV: The Prophecy Of Morgana - The Uncommon Comma - Tumblr

Part IV: The Prophecy of Morgana

It would be better if The Witch never knew the true extent of her powers.

The Great Dragon, 2x03

With Merlin, we see Gaius and the Dragon sabotaging and manipulating his actions so that he cannot act the way that he wishes. With Mordred, the creators employ a character replacement that is stripped of free will by fate. For the two Pendragon children, the show introduces a different method of control: ignorance. Keeping Morgana and Arthur in the dark about critical aspects of reality is paramount to the sacred stagnation to which Merlin devotes itself throughout its run. It’s not quite enough in Morgana’s case, however, and ignorance is also paired with a total character replacement to facilitate Morgana’s melodramatic plunge over the cliff of sanity and goodness.

In the early years of Merlin, Morgana is portrayed as a strong, though stubborn and rebellious, young woman. She believes in saying what she thinks, and her defiance of Uther during the hunt for Mordred and the execution of Gwen’s father lead to threats and imprisonment in Series 1. She tends to see people as simply people, more so than Arthur—she is the first to defend Gwen’s innocence in 1x03 and Gwen’s father’s innocence in 1x12, and the first to offer her sword to help Merlin rid his mother’s village of bandits. She is capable of seeing Arthur as different from Uther more than once: “You’re not like your father,” she tells Arthur in 1x08, and “You’re a better man than your father,” she says after he has freed her from the dungeons. Morgana is also gifted with Sight, which manifests through disturbing dreams that always come true.

Unfortunately, once she starts exercising this power of hers, the creators take pains to make sure that she is unable follow her visions with action. Their pet instrument of control, Gaius, keeps her powers in check by giving her sleeping draughts and thereby repressing her gift—for her own safety, of course. Yet even when these don’t work, Gaius still attempts to keep Morgana in the dark about the reality of her visions. We see this first in 1x07, when Morgana confides to Gaius that she saw a vision of a woman standing over Arthur, trying to drown him in a lake:

MORGANA: I saw Arthur lying under water, drowning, and there was a woman standing over him, watching him die. And she’s here in Camelot.

GAIUS: The mind plays tricks. It borrows from everyday life and plays out its own fantasy.

MORGANA: But I had this dream before she came to Camelot.

GAIUS: You must be mistaken.

MORGANA: No, I know what I saw. It was so real…so vivid. I saw him die, Gaius. She’s going to kill him.

GAIUS: These are just dreams, Morgana, nothing more. Are you taking the sleeping draught I made up for you?

MORGANA: Oh, it doesn’t help.

GAIUS: Here. Try this. It will induce a deeper sleep (hands her a bottle). You’ve nothing to fear.

Not once, not twice, but three times, Gaius tries to deny the truth of what Morgana sees. When that doesn’t work, he returns to his tried-and-true method of keeping her ignorant by drugging her. We see by her increasingly desperate attempts to get Gaius to believe her that denying the reality of her powers is at least as traumatizing as telling her what is happening, because she has a very good idea of what is wrong with her, and Gaius’ denial just makes her doubt her better judgment. At the end of that same episode, Gaius commands Merlin not to tell Morgana about her magic: “She must never learn the truth.” When Merlin protests, Gaius reiterates that it is too dangerous for her to know—after all, she might end up dead.

Considering that Morgana ended up dead anyway at the end of the show, after taking countless innocent lives with her, even if that were true, it would still have been better at this point to let Morgana know everything. Yet there is no hint anywhere in the show that Gaius is in the least to blame for Morgana’s eventual downfall. No one accuses him of keeping what is, in Camelot, quite literally a life-threatening condition from someone who trusts him as a physician. Nor does he (unlike Merlin) show any remorse in any future episode for keeping important knowledge from her. Furthermore, in 1x13, Morgana’s visions impel her to cry out against Arthur going on a hunt, to the point where she has to be physically restrained. Of course, Arthur goes on the hunt anyway and gets bitten by the deadly Questing Beast—but again, no one on the show confirms for Morgana that her dreams are, in fact, visions. By keeping her in the dark, Gaius (and Merlin, by extension) not only cause her unnecessary self-doubt, but they allow her to look like a babbling lunatic in front of a courtyard of people.

In Series 2, Morgana’s powers grow, and so does the creative control over her. When she shatters a vase with her mind and sets her curtains on fire (2x03), she goes to Gaius for help, and finding Merlin instead, she begs him to tell her that she isn’t crazy. Merlin, reluctantly acquiescing to Gaius’s wishes, tries to brush off her suspicions—which, instead of causing Morgana to doubt herself, just causes her to doubt Merlin. We have seen three times now that keeping Morgana ignorant of her powers is the worst possible thing anyone on the show can do, because it doesn’t stop her from being aware of them; all it does is make her feel cut off from all forms of help. And yet, when Merlin tries to convince Gaius to relent, the physician still forbids him from revealing anything about magic to her—and the Dragon maintains that it would be better if she never knew about her powers, in complete contrast to what we see.

The reason for the show’s insistence on this is clear: their fresh, new premise began with a Morgana who was compassionate and tolerant, and she had to end up as an evil sorceress. As with the return of magic, the intriguing part as far as the audience is concerned is the journey the character has to take to get from one end of the spectrum to the other. With care, Morgana could have willingly trodden the path they were determined for her to take—but there was always a chance that she would appear too sympathetic while doing so. The creators worried that they couldn’t make her take that path willingly…so they opted to drag her down that path instead. Throughout the show, they allow Morgana just enough knowledge about magic to suit their purposes, while keeping everything from her that would enable her to act contrary to their wishes.

Witness, for instance, Merlin attempting to circumvent Gaius’s prohibition by taking Morgana to the Druids. Aglain, a healer, helps Morgana to understand that her powers are nothing to be afraid or ashamed of, and that they are a natural part of her. Yet he conveniently dies in an attack by Arthur’s men before he can take Morgana in and teach her anything about good magic. The fact that this venture was disastrous for the Druids also leads Merlin to conclude that he was wrong even to think about going against Gaius when it comes to Morgana, allowing for no more expeditions of this kind. Gaius kindly forgives Merlin for daring to stray too far from the show’s agenda, and Morgana is left with knowledge of the existence of her powers but not how to apply them.

In the second half of Series 2, Morgana gets a mentor figure in the form of Morgause. Morgause’s healing bracelet does what Gaius should have done all along: it helps her to suppress most of the nightmares, but allows the really powerful and important ones to come through. Morgause also allows Morgana to act on them herself, instead of having Merlin take over once Gaius knows about whatever Morgana sees in her dreams. Morgause shows real concern for Morgana’s wellbeing and is willing to tell her the truth about her powers. She is even willing to let Camelot stand if it means she can save Morgana’s life at the end of Series 2. Yet at the same time as Morgause is opening up new magical possibilities for Morgana, Merlin is forced to shut them down, without the show letting Morgana know why he is doing what he does. When Merlin poisons Morgana, at the time she believes it’s because she has magic (as she thinks he is the only one who knows about it), when in truth, he is sworn by Destiny to protect Arthur and his city. Just as Merlin is cut off from any magical confidants that the show doesn’t want him to have, Morgana is cut off from any magical confidants that the show doesn’t want her to have. Merlin and Morgana have a lot in common…if they were only allowed to talk about it.

Then we arrive at Series 3, and the big unknown for the series opener is: what will Morgana’s reaction be to Merlin’s betrayal? Will she be bitter, but ultimately forgiving of him? Will she hate Merlin, and thereafter have to hide her feelings from Arthur and Gwen? No—it turns out that Merlin’s betrayal has led her to hate Merlin…Arthur…Gwen…and everyone else in Camelot, with a one-dimensional passion that is exceedingly hard to swallow. There is no character development for her between Series 2 and 3; we never learn what went on with Morgause and why Morgana goes against Camelot without so much as a backward glance. Yes, she trusted Merlin and he betrayed her, but she also knows that he had a good reason, since she herself voices that reason in 3x01: “You were trying to protect your friends.” Arthur never betrayed her; Gwen never betrayed her; Gaius never betrayed her (as far as she knows); and Camelot is still her home. In Series 4, she sees Arthur as just like Uther, but we never understand how she could have come to that conclusion when she said exactly the opposite three series ago. And to look with enmity at Gwen? Gwen has never been anything but supportive of Morgana; Gwen’s own father was murdered in Uther’s irrational pursuit of magic, and Morgana’s staunch defense of Gwen’s father speaks to the close relationship that they had in the early series. For Morgana to believe that her best friend betrayed her with no evidence whatsoever is completely out of character.

Not only is Morgana saddled with incomprehensible hatred for her old friends; she dons a swirling red cape and a Snidely Whiplash smirk, and is so much of a caricature that she can’t even play herself convincingly. When she shows up in a forest in 3x01, dirty and in need of medical attention, we are given a Morgana that appears to be good, except that she is now a damsel in distress. When Morgana regains consciousness, the first thing she does is apologize to Merlin for putting Camelot in danger at the end of the previous series. Morgana seems timid, almost submissive: “You don’t know how much I regret everything that I’ve done!” she exclaims tearfully to Merlin. This is not the Morgana of Series 1 and 2, but it is the show’s version of how a good Morgana would behave: taking the entire burden of guilt on herself and not blaming anyone else (especially Gaius and Merlin) for the previous attempt on her life. The fake-good version of Morgana is just as much of a caricature of the person she used to be as the evil version of Morgana is. She cannot express magical injustice while aware of the fact that she herself has done wrong; she is not allowed to go against Uther without going against Arthur, too. She cries, she implores, she even faints obligingly—as if she has no acquaintance at all with the person she used to be.

As Series 3 progresses, we see this more and more—that Morgana has not merely changed, but been removed to make way for the version of the character that is safely in the evil camp. The creators have her assume characteristics that she never before possessed, for no reason other than that those traits are evil, and since Morgana is evil now, she must possess them also. In addition to treating Arthur as just like his father, Morgana treats Gaius as a member of the lower classes: “I am the King’s ward, and you shall do as I ask” (3x03). Such posturing is something we have never seen her do before. Compounding that, in 4x06 Morgana constantly refers to Merlin as a servant, even though she was the least class-conscious character of the early series. Let us assume that somehow, Merlin’s betrayal did lead to Morgana’s blanket condemnation of everyone in Camelot; why would that cause her to adopt restrictive views on social classes? More inexplicably still, before Morgana even has a vision of Gwen being crowned Queen, she cruelly toys with Gwen’s secret affection for Arthur in 3x06—not for any interests of her own, but simply because she wants to. Yet later that series, she tries to recruit Gwen to her side, which means that Morgana is acting against her own interests just for the sake of being evil.

We are never shown how Morgana makes this complete and baffling about-face, and the only conclusion we can draw is that she is an entirely different character from Series 3 on. As with Morgana’s knowledge of events, if the show took the time it needed with Morgana’s reaction to Merlin’s betrayal, she might be too sympathetic to the audience. This might in turn lead to redemption for a character that Destiny never intended to save. Instead of being completely confident in the inclination of Morgana toward evil, the creators tack on attributes that have nothing to do with Morgana’s previous characterization, evil or otherwise, just so she can look bad. These traits keep cropping up even after she has already betrayed Camelot and worked toward its destruction. When a red cape is not enough, she dons a black dress. When killing innocent civilians (instead of the knights that actually carried out Uther’s orders) isn’t enough, she makes her sister into a human sacrifice in the next episode. The Morgana who liked flowers delivered to her now has only wilted plants and snakes at her command. The show is anxious to make sure we know how irredeemable she is at every level.

Because Morgana does not get character development, but a character replacement, she has no choice in her decision to join the dark side. We never even see her make the decision on-screen…because it would not be believable if it were actually shown. Morgause didn’t kidnap Morgana; the creators did, and they replaced her with an impostor to suit their own ends. While this is still unbelievable to the point of inanity, it is the kind of implausibility that they can narrate their way out of. If the creators of Merlin are afraid that they will not be able to do something effectively, they will do something ineffectively off-screen and browbeat the audience by telling them how effective it was. Series 3 is the show telling us that Morgana is evil, and that we had better accept it, because it’s here to stay.

As Morgana grows in magical power, her dreams grow in strength, too—except that her dreams never show her anything that might change her mind about her enemies. She never sees Merlin being Emrys, leading Arthur into a golden age and repealing the ban on magic as per the prophecy. She never sees Merlin trying to fight for her against his mentor figure, or Arthur being worried for her wellbeing, or Gwen defying Uther. Nor, despite the fact that she employs renegade magicians in the later series, does she ever come across the prophecy that all the Druids and Catha (except, conveniently, Mordred) know about: the prophecy of Merlin and Arthur uniting the land of Albion.

Morgana knows just enough to fight against Uther, but not enough to ally herself with the protagonists—so her only recourse is to pretend to love Uther as a daughter while secretly plotting to bring him down. Thus begins the Series 3–5 story arc: wherein a seemingly trusted advisor or confidant gets close to the King, only for it to result in a betrayal shocking to everyone but Merlin and Gaius. Ironically, the character whose personality was originally the most divergent from her legendary counterpart ends up consigning the show to a repeating pattern for the last three series of its run. That’s the creators of Merlin in a nutshell: whenever they “change the game” in the later series, it is only to make the show even more of the same.

Since Morgana is now everything that the creators wanted her to become, one might think that they are content with her non-journey and allow her some freedom in her evilness. Yet Morgana goes from a sumptuous room in a castle to a hovel in the woods…and then to a cage where she is tormented for two years straight. She loses her home, her family, her mentor, her position at court, and finally, in Series 5, her sanity. The show’s treatment of Morgana brings to mind Virginia’s Woolf’s perception of a professor in A Room of One’s Own: “His expression suggested that he was labouring under some emotion that made him jab his pen on the paper as if he were killing some noxious insect as he wrote, but even when he had killed it that did not satisfy him; he must go on killing it; and even so, some cause for anger and irritation remained.”

Why were Morgana and Aithusa both captured and caged for two years in the Series 4–5 gap? We didn’t need to make Morgana more evil; she was already as evil as she could get. We didn’t need to make her suffer more; she had already lost everything of value to her. The creators need to prevent Aithusa and Merlin from speaking so that the former cannot join the heroes’ side, but caging Morgana—for all that time, with every ally dead—means there is no explanation for how they both got free. It would have made more sense for Morgana to be the one to rescue Aithusa from the cage, thus explaining why Aithusa would choose to go with Morgana instead of returning to Merlin (on whom s/he[i] actually should have imprinted). Yet even though there is no point to her confinement, the creators still take away Morgana’s freedom; they want and need to make her suffer this way. The narrative anger toward Morgana as a character is palpable, because in the end she was too much for the show to handle. You see, it ought to be satisfying, being able to vilify her so easily in Series 3—but it’s not, because the creators secured their objective by using the series gap to cheat. Good!Morgana was a character development challenge they never fairly defeated, and as a challenger, they fear her still. Thus, they cannot help taking revenge on Morgana for exposing a failed attempt at control.

In the end, they give Morgana the only fate they are capable of: they kill her. Merlin stabs Morgana with Excalibur, just as she has made a typically grandiose claim that no mortal blade can end her life. After she dies, Arthur tells Merlin that Morgana’s death has brought peace to the land. This is where the show loses any right to claim that by introducing magical persecution, it portrays how wrong it is to discriminate against those who are different. Evil as she was, with Merlin failing to reveal his magic until the end, Morgana represented the only organized resistance to Uther and Arthur’s tyranny against magic users. The fact that slaughtering the magical army and killing its leader brings about peace—but we never see a declaration allowing magic into Camelot—speaks to just how little the showrunners valued any message of tolerance or compromise. Crushing the opposing side is not unity, and it is surely not peace, but because of the strict control exerted over Morgana, there is no other option when it comes to ending her struggle on the show. Morgana’s treatment in Series 5 is the final culmination of Merlin’s need to force-march her character to the sacrificial altar of villainy in much the same way as it did to Mordred.

Somewhere, the true Lady Morgana still lives, looking with outrage on all they have done.

[i] Aithusa’s gender: Julian Murphy seemed surprised when Katie McGrath brought up the fact that most of the villains on Merlin are female, which is curious considering the show’s treatment of Aithusa. In 4x04, the Great Dragon clearly says, “You have named him after the light of the sun.” In the Series 4 finale, Aithusa heals Morgana and then goes off with her, staying with the villainess for the remainder of the show and eventually helping her to kill Arthur by forging Mordred’s sword. After Aithusa’s alignment goes from good to evil, “he” is henceforth referred to as “she.” There is nothing plot-related that could account for this change in gender; Aithusa never takes a mate or lays a dragon egg of her own, nor are there any magical properties specific to female dragons in the world of Merlin. The only difference is that now Aithusa is on the side of evil, and so now Aithusa is female. The unselfconscious way this was done means that it almost certainly wasn’t deliberate; it was simply intuitive for the Merlin creators to match Aithusa more closely to the image of evil that the show depicts. The discussion of Merlin and sexism is a matter for another day, but this does make it easier to disbelieve the Merlin creators if they deny equating women with evil. After all, we don’t have to doubt the sincerity of their words to doubt the truth of them.

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