The Reality Of Fantasy — A Closer Look At Why Morgana Turned “Evil”

Morgana. Who ever could have predicted that that princess, once so sweet and compassionate, would become so cruel? That she would meet her death at the end of Arthur’s blade—her own brother’s sword—wielded by Merlin, of all people, who had once been her friend.

The fandom’s response/reaction to all this, is usually something like: “She got what was coming to her!” “Morgana was weak, and let her hatred and bitterness consume her!” “She deserved it.” “How did her heart become so cold?” “Oh well!” “What a shame she wasn’t stronger…”

Morgana did a lot of things that were evil. I am not here to justify her wrongdoing—but what I am going to do, is explain why she cannot be held entirely accountable, and why she is not actually as evil as people make her out to be.

Pretty much all of Morgana’s wrongs were committed in reaction against the wrongdoing of those around her—Uther (and Arthur & Merlin, but we will get to those two later). ;)

To Kill the King is generally considered the episode where Morgana “turned evil.” Though upon closer examination, that is not exactly the case.

In To Kill the King Morgana is struggling—she’s still trying to do what she believes is right—she’s just really confused about what that is—and rightly so. How can you discern right from wrong when the “good” guys are murdering innocent people, and the “bad” guys are just innocent sorcerers trying to defend themselves and stay alive? It’s no wonder Morgana ended up so messed up! She was caught up in the midst of extremely messy circumstances.

Morgana did not see killing Uther as murder: she saw it as stopping him from murdering her people who he was shamelessly slaughtering left and right. Many of them had been beheaded right outside her bedroom window. Can Morgana really be blamed for being fed up?!

She had tried reasoning with Uther, but he was unflinching in his resolve to wipe out all sorcerers—all of them. Even the ones who were peaceful and had no desire to harm him or his kingdom whatsoever—even the women and children—even when he didn’t have any proof that they were sorcerers at all!

Morgana’s initial rebellion was righteous. She loved Uther (that’s why she couldn’t bring herself to kill him in To Kill the King)…

…but she also knew that she could not allow his bloody reign to continue. It would be wrong to just sit back and allow someone to murder innocent people if you had the power to prevent it. True: trying to kill her father was not the answer (there was clearly still some good in Uther) but you can see why Morgana would feel so conflicted.

Now, as for why Morgana came to hate Uther.

Morgana felt unloved. Severely and deeply unloved. Her father had denied her to her face. He put his pride before his own daughter. Morgana turned on him because she felt like she had to in order to survive—in order to distance herself from how much he had hurt her.

Her heart was broken. Her own father was ashamed to admit that she was his daughter, and Arthur (her brother) usually regarded her with annoyance and irritation, mocking her for her nightmares. And as if that wasn’t enough already, had Uther found out about her magic, then she would’ve been the next person he would’ve executed.

And as for why Morgana came to hate Arthur: several reasons. First and foremost, Arthur too, had killed many of her kind. She did not feel like she could trust him. Also, Uther favored him (and illegitimacy aside, Morgana was actually next in line for the throne since she was born before Arthur) so it was natural for her to feel jealous of him. (That doesn’t make it right for her to want to kill him, but she did have extensive motivation). Maybe if Arthur had just been nicer to her, or reached out to her, she never would’ve turned on him to begin with.

But alas, no. Arthur, too, left Morgana feeling unloved.

Now what about Gwen? What did Gwen do to Morgana?

Nothing. Gwen did nothing—and that is the problem. When Gwen realized Morgana had magic, she didn’t ask her about it or anything—she just immediately assumed the worst. Just a kind word from Gwen would’ve done Morgana a world of good (and no—occasionally putting flowers in her room doesn’t cut it). It’s like as the show went on, Gwen cared less and less about her. If a friend of mine was suddenly going all evil on me, I would try and help her out—I would not just act like we’d never been friends to begin with. Gwen should’ve tried to talk to Morgana instead of just telling on her.

Ah. And now it’s Merlin’s turn.

Merlin was the last person left that she trusted.

Merlin was Morgana’s last hope.

Merlin was good. Surely he would never let her down.

That was it. The last straw. Morgana had already been hanging at the end of her rope—and Merlin was the one who cut it. Merlin: the person who Morgana was sure would never hurt her, ended up being the one who hurt her most of all. “Evil” Morgana was born. Her hatred toward Uther and Arthur deepened at the realization that Merlin cared about both of them (even Uther) more than he cared about her. He sacrificed her to ensure that they would live, and now—

Morgana would never be the same.

I love Merlin—I love all the characters—but what he did to her was so wrong. Merlin poisoning Morgana was an act of murder. Morgana had not even turned against him or Arthur yet: her only real grievance was against Uther for killing innocent people—she probably didn’t even know she was Morgause’s “vessel.” Yet even so (when she had been left alone with Uther) she had had numerous opportunities to kill him in that episode, and yet, she didn’t. Even then, she was still conflicted.

You cannot kill someone simply to save someone that you happen to like better. I mean, just think it through. What if the same ideology was applied to real life? Just imagine: what if Colin Morgan suddenly decided that he was going to kill Katie in order to save Bradley and Anthony from something—or whatever! You see what I mean?? It doesn’t work like that. That kind of thinking is scary and could be used to try and “justify” all sorts of terrible things.

And last (but certainly not least) we have Morgause. So why did Morgana side with Morgause, anyway?

Why wouldn’t she? Sure, Morgause was manipulative and only taking advantage of Morgana to gain access to control over Camelot—but Morgana didn’t realize that. All Morgana knew was that Morgause was the only one left who hadn’t hurt her. Of course Morgana sided with her.

There you have it. Morgana has done her share of wrongs—but only because she was wronged by everyone else. Uther, Arthur, Merlin, Gwen—everyone. They all share the blame for what happened to her.

And Merlin knows it.

Oh, it ended—but not as it should have. Not for Morgana.

At least Arthur got to die in the arms of someone who cared about him.

Who was there for Morgana?

No one. No one ever really was.