#it's just that before 2x3 it didn't have a huge amount of chance to be on the wrong side

[and-damntheconsequences]

Maybe a bit controversial, but rewatching 2x3, something stuck out to me that I didn't really think on before about Morgana. And perhaps I'm not reading this right but I'm gonna give my thoughts on it anyways, because this is the earliest scene that really sticks out to me as a hint of Morgana turning against Camelot as a whole, long before Morgause is involved. And it's such a small moment.

So Morgana goes to the druids, on Merlin's advice. And she finds Mordred, she finds people that she considers to be like her. She discovers beyond any more doubt that she does have magic. Which means a lot to her, it's an escape from a world she'd left that she was now afraid of. She fully intends to stay with them.

Except Uther is convinced she's been kidnapped and has ordered Arthur to go and massacre the druid camp (side note... how many times do we think Arthur has had to do that? but I digress). But Uther also had previously rounded up every single person he suspected of using magic in at least the citadel, if not the wider kingdom. And upon finding Morgana missing, he is going to put every single one of them to death.

When Merlin finds her, he tells her this.

And knowing the consequences, she refuses to come home.

I'm not saying it would be her fault if they died, Uther is clearly the evil one here. But she knows what will happen if she stays away. And she has always been so openly and vocally against the execution of sorcerors, even as early as episode one.

She is afraid for herself and rightfully so. I don't blame her. But she doesn't so much as consider it. Dozens of people will die, maybe some of them children, a large amount of them likely innocent. Again, it wouldn't be her fault, but knowing she could spare them, she still dismisses it immediately.

And it shows her fear. Of not only Uther, but of all of Camelot. For the part of herself that has internalised the evils that they have.

There is an argument to say that her turning against all of Camelot seems unrealistic, and I do wish we'd seen more of that arc. But I think she washes her hands of that care far easier than it first seems. Not here, exactly, because she still goes through far more before that, and with Morgause. But if she is willing to throw dozens of people's life away for her freedom and safety, is it truly so surprising that she could be taught to sacrifice them in the name of creating a better, freer, kingdom, like the one she believes that she (and initially Morgause) will build?

Merlin, on the other hand, never wanted anyone to die for him, though it happened several times over. And while no one is morally obligated to risk death to save others, it does show a difference there.

Remember when Uther told Arthur that many people would die for him, and that he would have to accept that, and Arthur was hurt and angry and didn't want to? Morgana wasn't hurt by this idea. She believed it. Firstly this, then her willingness to let people starve to see her as Queen, then her ordering people to be shot to force the knights' loyalty... The end to her, I think, has always justified the means. And though that "end" doesn't start off selfish or cruel, that mindset carries through when it does.

Honestly there are a lot of parallels and interesting similarities and differences between Uther and Morgana, which I absolutely could go into, and I don't consider this to be one, because Morgana wasn't about to kill those people and would have opposed it had she been home. But I think it says a lot more about her than its given credit for.