Board Thread:What If?/@comment-5674726-20141004175104/@comment-37017073-20181227214209

MonJoh4 wrote: I agree with Areanna more than Machairodus. Morgana's actions are her own - her decisions, her mistakes. She readily let her fear and loneliness turn against everyone and that is no one's fault but her own. Although Merlin blames himself I think this is unfair, even though maybe he could have helped her it does not excuse what she chose to do.

And ReganX makes an interesting point about Morgana trusting anyone with magic. I had not noticed that before but it's true. And maybe that means I am wrong about how much Merlin could have influenced her.

I don't think you are. Something that's often overlooked about Morgana's alliances with Morgause and Alvarr is that the main reason she was drawn to them was because their goals and motives aligned with her own. They not only encouraged and shared her vendetta against Uther and desire for revenge, but were willing to actively plot against him to get it.

Merlin, by contrast, did not share and would try to discourage these things. He would tell her to lie low, to use her magic for the benefit of others, to wait and work with destiny, and the latter especially was never Morgana's style. She typically preferred much more direct, high-handed and often violent means of getting what she wanted, which is another reason she was so easily recruited by Morgause and Alvarr. That's exactly the kinds of plans that they offered her.

In fact, the only thing that Merlin could offer her that they couldn't was the hope of his destiny, but as he had no definite means of seeing his destiny through beyond the general plan of using his magic for good and hoping that Arthur would one day come around to the idea that not all magic was evil, I doubt that Morgana would be satisfied with it longterm.

I could see her maybe going along with it at the start, when Merlin was the only other person of magic available to talk to and advise her, but as the days went by and nothing seemed to change, I don't think it would take her long to grow frustrated with their perceived lack of progress. Her frustration would eventually become a point of contention that would divide her and Merlin and would ultimately leave her just as open to manipulation by other magic-users as any of her other problems did. If not by Morgause, then by someone else.