User blog comment:Morganaforever/Why NOT to hate on Morgana/@comment-37001937-20190118015542

Morgana started as a kind, compassionate, brave, and caring person. She never hesitated in confronting Uther on behalf of her friends. She encouraged Arthur to do the same. It’s easy to see how she could be a favorite character. As the seasons progressed, however, Morgana was simply an evil brat who didn’t care about anyone else, and none of her actions can be justified. Ironic that all of the insults that Merlin calls Arthur apply more to Morgana. Morgana went from good person to evil witch with no stops in between, and there is nothing compelling about her as a villain. She has no cause, other than to sit on a throne that was never hers to begin with, because she is a bastard. Her relentless and ruthless wish to be queen of Camelot punishes the only person who never did anything to her, Arthur, except love her and fight alongside her for her causes. He never learnt of her magic until it brought him and everyone he loved much pain and misery. “In addition, let's not forget that she never had the heart to kill someone herself.” No, she just decided to let them be killed by an immortal army, instead of doing it herself. She didn’t care that poor people, women, and children were dying. She also was willing to execute people and burn down their crops and livelihood in order to force them to accept her as queen. Morgana’s lack of interest in changing the law in favor of magic users is more the writers’ fault than it is hers. ***

They set up Morgana as someone who was against Uther’s decrees and actions towards people with magic. Later she was revealed to have magic herself, and that she has a claim to the throne. The set up was there for Morgana to be a game changer, a champion for magic users that Arthur, and Merlin ironically, never was.

Instead her hatred and irrational deeds extend to those of her own kind. She threatened Mordred for failing to bring her Arthur, and then again in “With All My Heart” because she wanted to choose his allegiance for him. She wasn’t trying to convert people to the old religion, or to join in her cause for change for magic users. She simply used people and killed them when they failed in delivering what she wanted, like she did with Alator, and to an extent, Finna, forcing her to kill herself rather than be tortured and give up Emrys’ identity. She was the one killing people even in villages where magic was legal. She even enslaved people to find a key that would help her eliminate her biggest obstacle in trying to kill Arthur.

How right Uther was when he told her that she knew nothing about being a ruler. She finally has what she wants, the throne of Camelot, and her first order of business is to force the knights to yield to her reign and execute innocents, when they rightfully refuse. She was a terrible stateswoman. In her first tenure as queen, she executes innocents and tortures her father. If she wanted to be accepted as a daughter with magic powers, she should have talked to Uther. She also should have talked the knights and the court about considering changing the law in favor or magic users, an ending the dark magic threats to Camelot and the other kingdoms, but this wasn’t her goal. She should have been the one who tried to unite the kingdoms. Her goal and cause were to be queen, for the cool wardrobe and head jewelry, I suppose. She spends her second brief reign holding gladiator matches, gloating and torturing. This wasn’t a political move; it was pure sadism from a woman gone mad with power.

“Morgana thinks she has lost all love for her former friends, and thinks she has finally gotten rid of the feelings making her vulnerable. However, Uther's death, and Lancelot's ressurection, or her talk with Arthur prove that this is wrong, and that she is still attached to her former friends, making her not a heartless and ruthless person, but a complex character who struggles between sparing or killing the ones she has to for the "greater good". She thinks she can kill them, or forget about them but fails to do so."

She's never tried to do it to Merlin, and she did not bear to watch Gwen getting killed, once she had her at her complete mercy. Even the second time, some moments of hesitation in killing her were enough for her to lose."

There is so much misconception with this section that I hardly know where to begin. The author chooses to see Morgana with characteristics that she never displayed; she displayed the opposite. Whether it was because of an enchantment by Morgause, her own will, Morgana turned her back to her friends and family; neither Arthur, nor Gwen ever did anything to warrant her wrath, but nonetheless, they are probably the ones that suffered the most at her stupid, failed attempts to hurt them or kill them.

She didn’t have the heart to kill Gwen herself, but she schemed to have her executed by accusing her of magic. How ironic is that the witch who is afraid that her guardian might kill her because she has magic, accuses an innocent friend, condemning her to the same fate she fears?

Mercy was the last thing in her mind, especially with that evil smirk she had when she enchanted Gwen to turn into a deer. She wanted to have the satisfaction having someone in Arthur’s hunting party, or Arthur himself kill Gwen whilst she was completely defenseless.

What does it matter that she felt something when Uther died, when it was a object of her dark magic that killed him?

Sadly, Morgana they never gave Morgana any nuance or internal conflict. She simply wanted the throne of Camelot, but not for the power and influenced it afforded her to make changes for the sake of peace in the land. She ends up being its demise instead.


 * The same can be said of Arthur’s unwillingness to change the laws in Camelot and of Merlin’s penchant to keep vital information from him, as well as putting Arthur’s life and safety before others.