User blog:Ksrouse94/Power isn't even a question

So, in a fight who’d win: Morgana or Merlin? Clearly, Merlin wins at the end of the series, but he just stabbed her with a dragon’s sword and avoided magic altogether. But in all seriousness, which is the more powerful wizard? The canon doesn’t really help answer the question. Sometimes it’s Morgana, and sometimes it’s Merlin. But the overall award for consistency in power definitely goes to Merlin.

Let’s start with Morgana. She’s a High Priestess of the Old Religion, who supposedly can’t be killed by a mortal blade. However, throughout the seasons, she gets hurt in some of the most mundane ways and looks death in the face. First, in the episode The Crystal Cave, she almost dies from a head injury until Merlin saves her. It doesn’t make much sense. For someone so powerful, how in the world could she be injured by something as ordinary as falling down the stairs and hitting her head? Adding on to that, she is stabbed with a dagger by Sir Gawain in The Diamond of the Day, and almost dies again. Confused? So am I. If she can’t be killed by a mortal blade, then why is she so wounded by such an inconsequential thing as a dagger? It doesn’t make sense. By all accounts, it would seem that Morgana is incredibly weak, right?

However, let’s step back and look at her from a magical standpoint. She starts at absolutely nothing. She has magic, but doesn’t know about it. This then brings up the question, how did her magic get “activated”? If she always had it, why didn’t she know about it? How did it just suddenly appear? As Reaper47 points out, Vivienne is Morgana’s birth mother, which explains how she has magic. It still doesn’t explain though why it took so long for the power to manifest. There was no specific trigger. It just happened. Does that suggest power? I don’t think so. I think that’s just a freak incident that triggered everything else. Then she meets Morgause, who teaches her all about the ways of the Old Religion and trains her to be a High Priestess. Now we see the strength of Morgana’s power. She is able to control weather by generating or clearing fogs; she can control people’s minds; she poisons Merlin and places a spell on Uther so that he could not be saved. She is definitely powerful; that cannot be argued against. But her powers are so sporadic, whereas Merlin is consistent in his abilities.

Merlin looks like your average teenage boy: lanky, uncoordinated, and kind of awkward, and yet his destiny is to protect Arthur and bring magic back to Albion. Quite a heavy load for a teenage boy. Add on having to cater to a spoiled prince. Not a fun job. But Merlin takes it all in stride. Time after time, he has to fix the damage that Morgana has done, with and without magic. Clearly, he is just as strong as Morgana. He, too, faces death on multiple occasions. From being poisoned twice and shot by an arrow to being clobbered in the head by a man on horseback, Merlin has escaped death just as many times as Morgana. However, what separates the two wizards is that Merlin never claimed that he couldn’t be killed by a mortal blade. He is just as mortal as the rest of the population of Albion, whereas Morgana sees herself above the rest of the world. Adding on to that, Merlin’s power is not just tied to his magical abilities. He shows strength in every aspect of his daily life because he has the restraint to hide his magic in front of people, but also has the wherewithal to use it when necessary.

On top of that, Merlin’s following is huge. The Druids almost worship him as a god, and everywhere he goes, there is always someone willing to help him. And it’s not just because he’s a powerful wizard. It’s because a genuinely good person too. Numerous times, he comes to Arthur’s aid and saves him and almost never gets credit for it. He earns loyalty from people, not fear, which is all Morgana has. Her followers tag along behind her because of fear that they’ll be killed if they decide to disobey her. She aligns herself with thugs, who would turn on her the first chance they got, whereas Merlin attracts trustworthy people, who will help in whatever way possible. His power increases because he is never alone in his destiny. There are so many people, such as the Catha, who go out of their way to protect him from Morgana and ensure that he fulfills his destiny. Morgana wields her power as a weapon that she will use to destroy anyone who dares threaten her. She scares people at every turn, and for someone who wants to rule so badly, she does an absolutely horrible job at getting people to follow her. Her power is restricted only to her magical prowess and nothing else. Before her magic was discovered and she was just the king’s ward, no one cared at all what she want or what she thought. The only reason anyone cared after her magic reared itself was out of sheer self-preservation.

Finally, Merlin defeats all odds to accomplish his destiny. Fimber brings up that the Triple Goddess stacked the odds against Merlin and placed their faith and power within Morgana. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and the canon never really explains it, but confusion aside, it sheds light on just how powerful Merlin must actually be. The Triple Goddess is the embodiment of the Old Religion and yet Merlin still defeats Morgana.

With all that said, how is it even a question of power? Merlin clearly is the more powerful of the two. His humble demeanor and presence allow his magical abilities to shine on their own. He doesn’t need to rely on his magic to force people to follow him. He has that innate ability to make friends and lead and therefore is definitely more powerful than Morgana.