Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon
I remember, back when Arthur's Bane part 1 was first posted on youtube and I excitedly all but pressed my nose to the computer screen in excitement as the video buffered, how I found myself thinking that the show was becoming almost the non-explict Arthurian version of A Game of Thrones (what with all the political intrique and Gwen giving Sefa -whose meek personalty did put me a little in mind of a certain Miss Sansa Stark- the death setance, and an actor who was actually IN the HBO series based on A Game of Thrones -which, I will confess I have not had the chance to see yet, though I have read the first book all the way through and formed intense love/hate feelings in regards to it as a whole).
However, deeper thought has moved me to think, as a whole, viewing series 1-5 as a single, collective story (I apologize if viewing it this way offends those who prefer to think of the first three series as seperate, in part because the "King Arthur" thing sort of got enhanced in the last two series and I know not everyone agrees that all five series fit together), Merlin actually is much more similar to Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon (and its mini-series adaption) than A Game of Thrones.
To those of you who are doubtless thinking, "All right, what is Adelina yammering on about? They're both adaptions of Arthurian legend, sure, but they could not be more different! Why on earth is she comparing them?" no worries, I plan to explain myself entirely.
Yes, I admit there are several major differences. And I am in no way implying the brillant writers of Merlin (with the exception of Howard Overman's attempts at turning it into a ghost story when he could have just kept writing the way he was for the first few seasons -or even The Wicked Day- and done fine) tried to mooch off Marion Zimmer Bradley's Arthurian parade. Indeed, the Morgana character alone is very disimilar. Marion's Morgana
(Morgaine) is a sort of plain, small-boned, girl who loves her half-brother, is almost entirely a victim of circumance, misunderstandings, and some plotting from other characters, and eventually she more or less suceeds, and in a sad, watered-down kinda way does gain a "redemption" both plot wise and in a spirtual sense; whereas BBC Merlin's Morgana is a tall, courtly, 'good girl' who had a close friend called Arthur, son of the man whose ward she was believed to be, and then turned against him when she found out they were rivials for the throne, being actually half-siblings. And, gosh, GUINEVERE could not be more different! A kind blacksmith's daughter in Merlin, and a religiously fanatical high-born lady with an intense phobia of open spaces (seriously, if you read the book, she has to go around literally touching walls to calm herself down if a ROOM is too big for her) in Mists of Avalon.
Though if you think about it, Merlin himself is the "Morgaine" character in BBC's Merlin.
Cases in point:
1) Like Morgaine in Mists, Arthur's pain and unhappiness causes Merlin unhappiness (look how upset he was when Arthur banished Gwen and almost married someone he didn't love in her place). Given how attached to her little brother Morgaine was, you could describe them as "two sides of the same coin" as well!
2) While I will admit, in the novel, Morgaine does turn on Arthur, which Merlin never does, in the film version Morgaine is more or less loyal to him till the end.
3) Morgaine is a hardcore pagan. Given, paganism is generally HINTED at in Merlin, with terms like "Druid" and "The Old Religion" but it seems that all of the 'pagans' in the show who are aware of Emrys do treat Merlin almost like a priest, with deep respect, though he isn't a catha like Alator and his rival, Morgana, is the offical "Last High Priestess". But Merlin fills the role of their being a "pagan" at Arthur's side and trying to show him that the "old ways" are not "all bad". Gwen, unlike in Mists, never encourages Arthur to rid Camelot of all who follow the Old Religion, but she IS slightly against "magic-users" because of what happened to her father. Morgana does not try to influence Arthur for good after becoming a priestess, she just wants him dead, so that's left up to Merlin.
4) At the end of Mists (I'm thinking of the movie, but if I'm not mistaken, the book, does this too) Morgaine is the last one with Arthur. Unlike in the legend where Morgana is generally accompanied by at least one other queen (usually the lady of the lake, so if the writers of Merlin had choosen to do it that way, it probably would have been Freya -or Nimueh, back from the dead, maybe), Morgaine is with her dying brother alone and plays Bedivere's role in throwing the sword away. In Merlin, Merlin does this -filling the role of the knight who returns the sword- and puts Arthur's dying body in a boat.
5) Morgaine is asked for help, and then hated because of the result. In Mists, Guinevere asks Morgaine for a charm that will help her have a baby so Arthur can have an heir; this goes wrong (Lancelet/Lancelot gets invovled, it's not pretty, if you want to know more, you'll have to read the book yourself, I'm afraid), and Gwen hates Morgaine forever after, though she distrusted her before. In the BBC version, Arthur went to Merlin (though he didn't know it was him) and asked him to help heal his dying father. When the spell backfired, he turned on "Dragoon" and probably would have killed him if he could have caught him. His hatred is long-lived, even after Gaius gently tells in (In The Secret Sharer) that the old sorcerer meant no harm, as he coldly remarks in season five (With All My Heart) that the last time he trusted a sorcerer his father was killed. In fact, we can assume he hated Dragoon until he found out, on his deathbed, practically, that it was in fact only his manservant, Merlin, all along.
6) Though not shown in the mini-series film, in the book Morgaine traveled to the fairyland and was on close terms with fairies, though her memory of some of the (less than tasteful, in certain cases...) things she did there. Merlin is a Dragonlord, and secretly can speak to Kilgharrah and Aithusa, in English AND their own tongue, though only the former sticks by him and is able to speak and reply. Both Dragons and Fairies tend to be protrayed in fantasy stories as creatures of magic.
-There are a dozen more examples I can think of, but I think that gets my point across.
Also, in Mists, Morgaine DOES have a turning point (in the book) which can be compared with Morgana in Merlin. She "uses" Accolon to fight Arthur much as Morgana "used" Mordred in Merlin. Both cases result in a saddened Morgana who never wanted things to end badly for her "champian" (Mordred/Accolon). She was also a trained Priestess in both stories. Morgause plays a major part in Morgaine/Morgana's backstory, but she is less "sisterly" in
Mists, planning to take Mordred from Morgaine at birth because she wants to use him to her own gains against Arthur. Actually, Vivienne (the same name BBC Merlin uses for Morgana's mother!) is the one who trains her to be a priestess.
What really amazes me though is how, in spite of the major content/viewing age difference, the message is. Merlin tries to get Arthur to accept the old ways, like Morgaine does in Mists. Even when this means standing by and watching Arthur/Uther make choices against such persons that can be of a distressing nature. In the end, both Morgaine and Merlin come clean with Arthur as best they can before he dies. Both endings are left up to the imagination as far as the fate of magic-users/pagans goes. In Mists, Morgaine sees a statue of Mary and believes she has found the "Mother Goddess" again. We don't know for sure if Morgaine ever tried to slide this back to the old ways entirely, or if she accepted the change in the long-run because they weren't so "different" as she imagined, or if she was in wait for her "right moment" to try and make her "faith" "pure" again. Likewise, we are never told if Gwen's guessing Merlin is a sorcerer and loyal to Arthur in all ways, helping him all those years, means she will permit the return of the old ways or not.
Guinevere has little in comon at first glance with her Mists counterpart, but they both got kidnapped, and had a thing for Lancelot, so that's something... LOL.
Any thoughts on this?