Title: Fire
Fandom: Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Gwen/Morgana
Rating: R
Word Count: 2,100
Summary: The Festival of Fire is strictly for the wedded, but Morgana is in the mood for breaking rules.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Merlin, this is purely for entertainment purposes.
Note: This was written for humanpieceoftoast’s birthday, though it’s a little late…
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I swear that if someone else tries to make that argument that all Morgana needs to make her whole is a man/’love interest’ then I will actually scream.
Let’s exclude for a moment the fact that she has already had subtextual love interests.
Now that has been put aside, we will deal only with canon and what has been stated/shown on the show.
Morgana has had no canon love interest and this has been repeatedly touted by people in this fandom as the cause of her ‘descent’. Or, at the very least, that getting a love interest would be a possible ‘cure’.
I really do not understand this as a concept. The idea that women alone are predisposed to or even inevitably determined towards mental or emotional instability has been around in several forms for thousands of years. There has been the concept of hysteria, which culminated in the explosion of the use of sexual stimulation to cure ‘hysteria’ in women in the 19th century. There has also been the repetitive portrayal of ‘spinsters’ in fiction as ‘mad’ or ‘bad’ and the inevitable social stigma that this helped to perpetuate.
But really, where is the rational or empirical evidence for this as real phenomenon?
And where is the equivalent for so called ‘perpetual bachelors’?
I will agree that there is at least some aspect of a ‘lack of love’ which has played a part in Morgana’s development into an enemy of the Pendragon establishment. But this lack of love is explicitly a lack of ‘family’ love.
It is the lack of unconditional love from her father figure (later revealed to be her father by blood) and brother figure (also later revealed to be related to her by blood) that drove her to so despise them.
She grew up in no doubt that those with magic would be punished for this by execution. And as time passed, her magic began to assert itself in more and more unignorable ways. That meant she was very much aware of how superficial her family’s love for her was and how quickly they would withdraw that love if they ever found out who she truly was.
It was that thought that festered and turned her love for them into hatred.
It has nothing to do with her lack of romantic love.
Now, let’s bring subtext back into the equation. Morgana has had as strong subtext with Morgause and Gwen as Arthur and Merlin have ever had, with much less screen time being allotted to it.
Even if these ‘relaitonships’ were never consummated, it is obvious that Morgana has had romantic or romantic-bordering feelings towards them. As far as I and a lot of people (not only people who ship her with Gwen or Morgause but also with Arthur or Merlin) are concerned, she has had romantic interests. Note, that ‘romantic interests’ don’t have to be consummated. So she has had them.
And this brings me onto the ridiculous practice of shipping her with any random male from another fandom just for the sake of finding her a love interest. I get that this is a reaction from her het-inclined fans to the fact that they don’t see a satisfactory het ship for her in Merlin, but the fact there is an almost obsessive need to find something to validate her heterosexuality is insulting.
I also know that cross-over shipping can be fun. But with het cross-over ships with Morgana it has become endemic. And it is that which smacks of casual-homophobia or at the least of obsessive heteronormativism.
There has been nothing that has definitively stated her sexuality as being heterosexual or otherwise. And as far as a lot of us are concerned, she has shown far more inclination towards to being at least bisexual. She has flirted to death with female characters on the show, but also with some of the male characters.
She is an unknown quantity, sexually speaking.
She hasn’t had a major canonical love interest but this has contributed in no way to why she is who she is now. She has become who is through intolerance and hatred, not a lack of man/love interest.
And before anyone accuses me of accusing people of anything, I’m not. I’m just trying to educate you in my point of view and the point of view of a lot of the other people I primarily personally engage with in this fandom.
caelins submitted:
Can I just say, your tags on this post are absolutely perfect. It makes me really angry sometimes that people can’t understand that like you do.
post/21580516145/morganas-journey
Thank you! I think that the vast majority of people watch Merlin with rose tinted glasses and, like Merlin, defend the people who were actually incredibly abusive or just outright genocidal. Morgana rebelled against that and found herself labelled as a villain as she was always told she would be should she show her magical abilities. It can’t really be surprising that she started to play the part of the villain. After all, she might as well have a little fun if she was going to be blamed for things anyway. And its not like Merlin hasn’t orchestrated the deaths of hundreds of people.
Double standards, much?
Movie Poster Meme | At My Most Beautiful with Katie McGrath and Emilia Fox
Based on my Merlin AU fic of the same name. In a world where things were ever so slightly different, Camelot had a young and beautiful Queen (McGrath) - a beautiful Queen, who was married to a cold and aging King. She lives her life in black and white, a colourless world where she is a hero to her people and means of getting an heir to her husband. One day, a knight (Fox) walks into her life and begins to change things, one brush stroke of colour at a time.
—— for humanpieceoftoast
Title: At My Most Beautiful (20/?)
Fandom: Merlin
Characters/Pairings: Morgana/Morgause
Rating: M/NC-17 (a lot more so than usual)
Word Count: 6,500 for this chapter
Chapter Summary: The court hears Elyan’s tale and, despite the threat of war, Uther refuses to cancel the feast. With Morgana self-conscious and upset at the reason her kingdom is being invaded, it is down to Morgause to give her back give confidence and keep her mind on sweeter things.
Series Summary: In a world where things were ever so slightly different, Camelot had a young and beautiful Queen - a beautiful Queen, who was married to a cold and aging King. AU
Disclaimer: I don’t own Merlin, this is purely for entertainment purposes.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 |Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18| Chapter 19
Read on: Livejournal, Fanfiction.net or Archive of Our Own.
Please remember that comments/reviews are increadibly welcome, especially as I feel absolutely horribly ill.
