#bbc morgause

[starrieisdelusional]

morgause calling merlin out is so fucking funny “why are you so obsessed with arthur merlin 🤨???”

i like to think that the antagonist had a silent agreement that merlin is just a clumsy servant who had a one-sided crush on arthur that somehow managed to stay alive and ruin their plan every single time for reasons unknown

Morgana: when i was in camelot back then those two were kinda 👨‍❤️‍👨

[steve-needs-a-hug]

𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒎𝒐𝒖𝒓

[goth-emrys]

morgause: why does a lowly servant continue to risk everything for arthur and for camelot?

Im curious about the origins of the prophecy this entire show revolves around. Kilgharrah and other magic users who know merlin and emrys are knowledgeable about the destiny arthur and merlin share, but why doesnt morgause know? She is a high priestess of the old religion, but maybe hasnt been around long enough to be anything other than revengeful? Now that i think about it, there is a distinct line between those obviously connected to magic (anhora, the druids, those spooky priestesses in that sacred cave in s5) and those who seem to just be using magic for their own gain (the antagonists in s1, morgause, etc). Maybe the prophecy is so old that only those connected to magic know about it, but magic was only bannished after arthur was born, so was it known that it would go away and come back? Was magic in the realm dwindling even before it became illegal? IS THE PROPHECY EVEN REAL? (< not ready to go into that)

[twistedshipper]

Notes on the Mandrake Root from The Witch's Cabinet: Plant Lore, Sorcery and Folk Tradition by Corinne Boyer

[salty-we-never-got-mergana]

Correct me if I'm wrong but Morgause and Morgana were never the same people in the legends.

In the legends, Morgause is the wife of King Lot and the mother of Gawain, Gareth, Gaheris, Agravaine, and Mordred, I believe. It is she who Arthur accidentally sleeps with to conceive Mordred. But Morgan Le Fay is the apprentice of Merlin and the wife of King Urien and the mother of Ywaine and Morfyd.

It's just modern-day writers conflating the two characters into one, but traditionally, Morgan le Fay is the sorceress, and Morgause is not. Those recent stories have made her a sorceress, too.

Morgause doesn't play much part of the story beyond being the wife of King Lot, who rebels against Arthur for the crown due to the question of Arthur's legitimacy since many see him as a bastard She is the mother of the Orkney brothers and Mordred. She just happens to be perfectly set up as a villain with it making sense, unlike Morgan Le Fay, who just comes off looking crazy.

Though Morgan's villain arc seems to be more intense due to her established close relationship with King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, and Merlin. It seems what makes Morgan turn against her allies was due to Guinevere's betrayal in intervening in Morgan's affair with Guinevere's cousin Guamar (I believe) when Morgan was unhappily married to Urien and meanwhile Guinevere is married with love to her brother and yet is having an affair with Lancelot. It's Morgan who leaves court in disgrace due to the reveal of her affair by Guinevere and abandoned by her lover while pregnant with his baby.

That's when she goes to Merlin for refuge. She actually doesn't have a bad relationship with Merlin but due to the fact that she turns against Arthur and Guinevere, her relationship with Merlin crumbles though both of them seem to still think of each other fondly...at least the gist that I've read.

I know there's a lot of stories... but yeah, Morgause and morgana aren't the same people. They just tend to get conflated due to the similarities of their names.

[daisymintt]

Merlin: Who's that?

Arthur: His name's Cenred. It's Morgause’s right-hand guy.

Merlin: He's got a very punchable face.

Arthur: Yeah, I noticed that.

[tiodolma]

Morgana: I prevented a murder today. Morgause: How did you do that? Morgana: Self-control.

Morgana when she sees Merlin still freely walking down Camelot halls.

[kessilover]

The day after : a season 3 Mergana AU

[runboybeneaththemoon]

[loosethreadsofyoursoul]

the degree to which magic in bbc merlin is an allegory for queerness is insane. what do you mean people with magic hide in fear for their lives because it’s illegal. what do you mean merlin’s mother sent him away to the big city bc she was afraid of what would happen if their small town found out he had magic. what do you mean merlin is taken in by an unmarried old man who used to practice magic but can’t anymore. what do you mean morgana was morally on uther’s side until she realized who she was and that he was wrong for wanting people like her dead. what do you mean anti-magical propaganda spreads misinformation that all magic is evil and everyone who practices it is also evil and should be killed. what do you mean there’s a recurring underlying theme of magical being solidarity

[merlin-gifs]

MERLIN 2x12 | 5x13

[starrieisdelusional]

Uther’s death:

Merlin fights for his life as he battles hundreds of the undead with only one thing in his mind: Arthur is going to die. Knocking the last soldier away. He rams the door open.

Morgause sat on the throne with Arthur under her heels, bloody and bruised. On the other side of the floor, Uther lays unconscious. Merlin runs to her but immediately collided into nothing. There’s an invisible wall separating them.

Arthur: …merlin…

Morgause: Oh great, you’re here

Merlin: GIVE HIM BACK!!

Merlin tries to break the barrier with the sword he’s carrying, but it’s futile. Merlin tries to hit it again with higher force but the sword snaps in half.

Morgause: You can’t break it, not unless I die. It’s useless.

Morgause pulls the ends of Arthur’s hair and rest her sword on his throat

Morgause: Here’s what’s going to happen Emrys. Either you kill that tyrant- (tilts her head towards uther) or your prince dies

Arthur: Don’t do it! MERLIN DON’T DO IT!!! Damn you! Let me die for him-

Morgause: You don’t get to decide that (presses her sword)

Arthur and Morgause stares at Merlin in silence. Merlin doesn’t know what to do.

Morgause: well?? Hurry up!!

Arthur: NO! Don’t you DARE DO ANYTHING!!

Merlin: I…let him go morgause…

Morgause: Not unless you kill him

Merlin stays still. Not knowing what to do. Morgause grew impatient.

Morgause: Fine then, you think I’m not serious?

With quick reflexes Morgause stabs Arthur’s stomach, Arthur howled with pain, gripping his wound. Merlin felt like his heart just stopped.

Morgause: the next one is through his heart (forces arthur to look at merlin) well???

Merlin bit his lip. Stading still. Morgause tsked, and plunged her sword at Arthur’s heart

Merlin: NO WAIT!

Morgause stops

Morgause: Yes?

Merlin took a deep breath and picked up his broken sword, he started walking torwards uther.

Arthur: Merlin…? Merlin? MERLIN! MERLIN STOP!!

Merlin stops at Uther’s unconscious body.

Morgause: Wait!

Merlin looks at her with a questioning glance.

Morgause: Do it with magic

Merlin: …what??

Morgause: I want you to kill him with your magic

Arthur: are you insane…? Merlin doesn’t practice magic!

Morgause waits for him but Merlin didn’t do anything.

Morgause: do you want him to die?

Merlin: i don’t have magic.

Morgause: oh stop pretending emrys

Merlin: isn’t…isn’t killing him enough?

Arthur: ARE YOU INSANE?? Merlin if you kill my father I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!

Merlin: …why are you doing this?

Morgause: kill him now.

Arthur: merlin! Don’t listen to her! Please!!

Merlin: i…i don’t…i don’t have magic…

Morgause: liar! Do what you’re meant to do! Kill Uther Pendragon! What are you so afraid of? Magic will thrive again!! You can stop hiding who you are….or if you’re a coward…things will stay the same…with the loss of your prince.

Arthur: Merlin…if you kill him, i’ll never forgive you.

Merlin looks towards at the floor looking deep in thought. Just as Morgause got tired of waiting, Merlin’s eyes suddenly glows gold and Uther’s body levitated on the air. Arthur was stunned, shocked at the display.

Merlin: I’m sorry…Arthur, but between you and everything. I will always choose you.

A resounding crack echoes throughout the room, and Uther’s body lay motionless. Dead.

Arthur: no…

Morgause smiles, pleased.

Morgause: good choice

She undid the barrier and throws Arthur across the room. She disappears to thin air.

With a bleeding abdomen, Arthur forces himself to go to Uther’s side. Merlin tries to tend him but Arthur weakly shoves him away.

Arthur: get away from me…

Merlin: i need to heal you

Arthur: i don’t want to be healed by a traitor!

Merlin: You’re in critical condition!

Arthur: I DON’T CARE!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!

Arthur struggles against Merlin’s hold before passing out.

season 3:

main post:

To find my other ramblings about this AU, filter with the hashtag #must we really rely on fate?

[starchaser45]

Arthur: I need anyone that lied or betrayed me to tell me right now

Gwaine: I lied about not being a noble

Arthur:good start but more important things please

Merlin: I lied about having magic

Agravaine: I sold you out to Morgana

Gwen: I lied about no longer having feelings for Lancelot

Gaius: I lied for and harbored Merlin

Uther: I lied about your mother's death

Morgana: don't look at me we all know what I did

Arthur: wow so everyone has lied to me at some point IS THERE ANYONE THAT DIDN'T LIE TO ME

Morgause: surprisingly me

Arthur:....... WHAT THE FU___

[goth-emrys]

Geoffrey: I've searched the records going back more than 300 years. I could find nothing to say a woman cannot issue a challenge.

Uther: There must be some way to put a stop to this.

Geoffrey: According to the knights' rules, it appears her challenge is perfectly valid.

HECK YEAH. WOMEN WITH SWORDS.

[twistedshipper]

prompt: "frozen" | Morgana & Morgause | Not Rated | references to illness & dying

{Midwinter written for @merlinmicrofic}

Out of doors, the wind blew wild across a frozen landscape, the birch and alder with branches bare and quaking against the gale, below them, drifts upon drifts of snow, a world etched in white and silver, stinging with penetrating cold.

Sighting ghosts of her breath in the air, Morgana hurried onward into the winter wood, wrapping her wolf fur tighter about her, whispering words of prayer that the Cailleach spare she and her sister on this the longest night of the year before the sun’s rebirth come the dawn.

It had been an uncharacteristically cold winter this season for Camelot, with days of sleet and snow, as opposed to the onslaught of rain, and a dampness that set into the bones, which only a warm fire burning in the hearth of the ramshackle hovel both she and Morgause occupied could possibly offset.  

It was for that very reason, she had headed deep into the forest, in search of wood to stoke that very fire, that must never go out for her ailing sister’s sake, or so Morgana ruminated in her desperation to see Morgause restored to her former health the summer past when they, the two of them in their prime, had succeeded in usurping the throne from her tyrannous father and ruling the kingdom for a smattering of days before everything—their dreams, their cause—came crashing down asunder, and Morgause had nearly died.

Was dying, Morgana reflected as she collected her bundle of wood, and there was nothing she could do to stop the slow encroach of death, so akin to the onslaught of winter when it comes. As a child, she had seen this season as a time of joy, a festivity of light in the months of darkness, as they welcomed the solstice and the newborn sun with drink and merriment and candles in every window. Now though, the beeswax tapers she took for granted back in Camelot were few to come by and ever precious in the hovel of their making, and there was little to revel about; they had lost the battle, though the war still raged on, howling like the wind without.

Nothing she could do except on this night forage the wood for a charm to safeguard the life remaining in Morgause’s body. She thought to do so by hanging a branch of evergreen upon the few windows and single door, the entry points to the hovel, a means in the days of the Old Religion to ward off evil and illness.

Thus, as she approached the heart of the wood, sighting with awe the towering stature of the pine, and slipping her boline out of her skirt, she sliced open a nick upon her palm, giving to the tree her blood, as she intended to retrieve from the tree its essence in return; in such a manner, she collected its sacred branches, breathing in their earthly scent with relish, and then, her task done, turned toward the wind and home.

[poug1y]