Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Three/@comment-5102537-20130810111259/@comment-5674726-20160426180121

Gleek:D wrote:I just wish Morgana really had been telling the truth at the beginning of these episodes, but it's obvious that they didn't want her as a heroine anymore... I think that it could have made things interesting if Morgana was a sleeper agent of sorts.

She could have returned to Camelot genuinely believing that she had been held captive by bandits for the past year, raising red flags with Merlin as her story makes no mention of Morgause. Morgause could use her to do things like raise the skeleton army without Morgana having any memory of it. As the season progressed, Morgana could start to wonder about the holes in her memory, a bit like Ginny Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Maybe she might even have confided in Arthur or Gwen if she was afraid that she was being used.

It would have allowed her to cause trouble but not be cast as a villain but, unfortunately, I think that you're right that she wasn't allowed to be a hero any more. I'd say that the writers knew that the logical outcome of Morgana staying an ally of Arthur's is that she would have influenced him in favour of magic once he became King, likely confiding in him about her own inborn magic. Nobody but Merlin was to be allowed to be the one to show Arthur the light.