Important things of Merlin BBC season one
MERLIN
Merlin comes from Cendred’s kingdom. From a very poor village. His mother sent him in Camelot because she fears the people in the village will find out about his powers. She sent him to Gaius probably because she knew about Gaius (she had to do know him well because Gaius is Uther's friend and only in secret he liked/protects magic and only recently).
Merlin is desperate to know his own origins and the reasons for his magic. And he feels he is nothing without magic.
Merlin is not very good. In this season he kills two or three people and a couple or human-magical creatures wuthout blinking. He knows magic is good and he thinks he has all the answers.
He often lies to Gaius but always, in the middle of the episodes he tells him everything. Gaius is his mentor. He is the one who gives him the book of magic, who teaches him and who always confront him.
Merlin trusts Gaius in, almost, everything.
He is not THE good person. He is unsure if to save Mordred when the Dragon tells him about Mordred's destiny. He saves him only when Mordred calls him in his mind.
He is also unsure about saving Uther when Morgan tries to kill him but at the end he does the right thing.
He clearly has a special relationship with Arthur since the beginning. He doesn't stop from making fun of him, joking with him and thinking him as a prat. With the episodes he groes fond of him and he also discovers that his destiny is to protect him.
For Arthur he would do everything, even letting himself die. I don't think there is a lot more to say about Arthur and Merlin. Just this: in 1x10 Merlin returns home with Arthur, Gwen and Morgan that want to help him and clearly see him as a friend.
There he meets his friend Will who is the only one who knows about magic and who is clearly jealous and suspicious about Arthur. Merlin realizes that he cannot be really Arthur's friend if he doesn't tell him his secret but at the end of the episode he decides of not telling him (also: Arthur gets angry because Merlin was hiding "Will's magic").
I think this episode is the main reason for the strange new friendly but-not-so-much-as-in-the-first season behaviour of Merlin in the next series.
Gwen is his best friend. She is the first nice persone he meets in Camelot. They are always together and he always complain about Arthur with her. Gwen has a crush on him but Merlin barely realizes it. He saves her father and then he tries to save her (sacrificing herself) from the accuse of being a witch.
Gwen is always there for him and she is there for Gwen.
ARTHUR
Arthur is a bully. At the beginning he treats his servant very very cruelly. When Merlin replies, sarcastically, to him, he is very intrigued.
Maybe because Merlin always challenges him or because he saved his life, Arthur instantly believes him when Merlin tells him Valiant is using magic in the tournament.
He is quick to defend Merlin when, in the third episode, he tries to say to everyone that he is a sorcerer. Also if he often makes fun of Merlin he sincerely cares for him.
Arthur is officially made a prince in 1x09 when he is of age. He was raised by his father alone and the only thing of his mother he knows is that she died giving him birth.
He has a difficult relationship with his father. He thinks Uther disapproves everything he does and he obsessed by the fear of being seen as a coward.
He also tells him that in one of the last episodes and finally Uther tells Arthur that he loves him more than anything.
He would never disobey his father and more than once Morgan is the only one who can convince him of doing something against Uther's orders.
Arthur is very important for Morgan and she is very important for him. He usually helps her when she fights with Uther and during the "Lancelot" episode she is totally mesmerized by her beauty. He is often annoying around her but it is made clear that he doesn't want to disappoint her and he kind of needs her approval. Often it is Morgan who makes Arthur see how a good king should behave for the good of the people.
At the beginning he doesn't even realize the existence of Guinevere. He is the one who arrests her in the third episode and he doesn's defend her.
They interact when Arthur gives her the flower to save Merlin buttheir real first interaction was in 1x10 when Gwen said to him that women should fight too and he cannot being too picky on food because the people are starving. Arthur seems impressed by the fact that she speaks her mind. Gwen says she has faith in Arthur in that episode and also in the 1x11.
In 1x12, Arthur is the one who arrests Gwen's father and also if he is not sure of he being guilty, Arthur does not defend him as much as Morgan does. When Tom dies, Arthur says to Gwen he is sorry and that she still has her home and job.
In the last episode, while Arthur is unconscius, Gwen talks to him about how she saw a good king inside him and when Arthur wakes up he seems to remember, as in a dream, what Gwen told him and her hand on his foreheard.
UTHER
Uther is a sever and cruel king towards magic and common people. He often fights with Morgan about how cruelly he treats magic.
Uther is so scared by magic that he has no problem of risking Arthur’s life if he can ignore the existence of magic itself. And he also has no problems killing children, women or unarmed men if they are magical or suspected of doing magic.
For Uther magic is bad. And that's it.
To read about why Uther hates magic: NIMUE, YGRAINE and THE SECRET OF ARTHUR's BIRTH.
He is also very cruel towards servants and common people. He doesn't care about the death of his servants (Merlin, for example) and he can threaten people's lives just to give a lesson to Arthur (for example: Sophia and his father).
He also made the idea of all knights being noblemen the fundamental rule of Camelot.
He loves Morgan as the daughter he never has and he is glad she is so much like Gorlois (challenging him) because Gorlois was his best friend.
He clearly loves Arthur also if he expects a lot from him and he does not tolerare disobbediance and disrispect.
He was ready to sacrifice himself against Tristan to save Arthur.
At the end of the season he cries when he thinks Arthur is going to die.
It seems that Uther wants Morgan and Arthur to be together. He wants Morgan to go to the fest with Arthur and in fact everyone thinks that sooner or later Morgan will marry Arthur.
In the second episode the prize of winning the tournament is going to the feast with lady Morgan. Uther is the one who decides the prize. Uther wants Arthur to win. Uther wants Arthur to go to the feast with Morgan.
When Arthur annunces his marriage with Sophia Uther is so mad that he wants to imprison Sophia and his father and kill them.
Gaius is one of his oldest friends but still he doesn't trust him enough to listen to him and accept his word. He was even ready to dismiss Gaius and assume as a physician a stranger named Edwin in the 6th episode.
Also if he doesn't completely trust Gaius, Uther still goes to him to talk about Arthur's secret birth and Tristan of Bois because Gaius is the only living person (a part from Uther and Nimue) that knows about them.
GAIUS
Gaius is the court phisycian but he is not a freeman (whatever this means) until episode
Gaius is also a sorcerer but not very powerful. He gives Merlin the magic book but he doesn't want Merlin to use magic if it is not striclty necessary.
Gaius prefers science over magic.
He knows a lot about herbs that himself picks.
Gaius probably helped Uther during the killings of sorcerers because he knows everything about it. Both Nimue and the Dragon accuse him of “Turning a blind eye” and being an hypocrite and a traytor because he did nothing to save and help the witches and wizards killed by Uther.
Still, Gaius doesn't think magic is evil and he wants it to return. He thinks Merlin will be the one who will restore magic.
He thinks Uther is a severe but just king.
In the 6th episode, Gaius is made by Uther "a freeman".
He seems to really care for Morgan because he wants to protect her from Uther, but for some reason he doesn't help her with her powers while he did it with Merlin. Probably because he doesn't trust her enough to not tell about them to Uther?
Geoffrey of Monmouth, the librarian and genealohist, knows about the killings too and he is also Gaius' oldest friend.
NIMUE, YGRAINE and THE SECRET OF ARTHUR's BIRTH
Nimue is a priestess of the Old Religion. She is very powerful and she knows how to conceal herself to the eyes of Uther and Gaius.
Uther and Gaius are the only ones who know about her.
Gaius is the one who originally asked Nimue to help Uther. Uther welcomed Nimue into Camelot and they became friends.
Uther asks Nimue to help the barren Ygraine to conceive a child. Nimue knows that to create life there must be a death.
Also if Nimue has the power of predictions she didn't know that the price of her magic would have been Ygraine's life.
Ygraine dies giving birth to Arthur and Uther doesn't forgive Nimue because he thinks Nimue knew about the high price. Uther starts to kill everyone close to magic, the magical creatures and the people.
Tristan of Bois (a brother of Ygraine) accuses Uther of being the reason for Yraine's death and they fight. Tristan of Bois dies by Uther's sword.
Nimue, during the season, wants to get revenge for her kind and she wants to kill Uther. She knows that she is not supposed to kill Arthur and that in the future someone else will kill him.
Nimue, Uther and Gaius are the only living people who know about the secret of Arthur's birth and Gaius took an oath and swore he would never tell Arthur.
At the beginning she wants to kill Merlin too because she finds out about his powers but then she tries to make an alliance with him. In fact Nimue wants to kill Uther, the tyrant, and gives to Arthur the crown because she believe Arthur will permit the return of magic.
She lives in the Isle of the Blessed, one of the central places for the Old Religion, and she has access to the Cup of Life that she probably used to help Ygraine to conceive Arthur.
She is killed by Merlin in the last episode.
MORGAN
Morgan knows Gorlois is her father and that Uther was a friend of Gorlois who promised him to protect and adopt her.
She was old enough to remember Gorlois when he died and to remember his death.
Morgan doesn't fear Uther (Merlin says that she is the only one in Camelot who doesn't fear him) and always confront him on his decision. She loves and hates him at the same time, she even tried to kill him when he killed Gwen's father. She thinks that Uther was the reason of the death of Gorlois.
Merlin, during the same episode, is the only one who knows that Morgan was trying to kill Uther and he doesn't see her saving Uther's life so he still thinks she is Uther's enemy.
Still, Morgan thinks Uther is a brutal king and a tyrant. She doesn't trust him with her secret dreams because she feels Uther would kill her.
She knows how to fight with a sword and when they she was little she used to beat Arthur.
She saves his life in a battle (during the fight at Merlin's village).
She is clearly attracted to him also if she doesn't want the people to know it. When Sophia says to her that Morgan is in love with Arthur and she is jealous she doesn't deny it.
She cares for Arthur and more than onces tries to saves him of the danger she sees in her dreams. But still she doesn't trust him enough to tell him.
Morgan knows Gaius since she was a child and he always was her phisycian.
She doesn't sleep easily because she has dreams that she thinks are only bad dreams. Gaius knows about this dreams and he usually gives her sleeping potions. During the season she suspects they are premonitory dreams but sometimes she lets Gaius convinces her about the fact that they are only bad dreams.
Merlin knows about her dreams too and he knows that she has magical powers (but Morgan doesn't know about him) because Gaius told him.
She talked about her dreams also with Gwen who is the only other person who knows about them.
Morgan and Gwen are friends more than lady and maid. They talk to each other, they hug, Gwen picks flowers for her and she often contradicts her. Morgan worries for Gwen and Gwen worries for Morgan.
When Gwen is accused of being a witch Morgan does everything she can to save her.
When Gwen's father is imprisoned, Morgan lets him escape and when he is killed Morgan promises Uther that she will never forgive him.
Morgan, since the first episode, is kind towards magic. She thinks magical people are like everyone else. She saves Mordred, the druid boy, helped by Merlin, Gwen and Arthur, because she feels a special connection with him.
GWEN
Gwen is a servant in the castle. She is Morgan's maid and friend. They sit together at tournament, they tell each other everything. She picks flowers for Morgan. They are really close.
Gwen's second best friend is Merlin. She is the first nice person he meets in Camelot and she clearly has a crush on him also if he doesn't realize it. She kisses him once. She consoles him. She helps him and when there is a problem she always goes to tell it to Merlin and to Gaius. When her father is killed she even sleep in Merlin's bed for a while.
She is the best dress maker of Camelot and she is the one who makes Lancelot's vest.
She has a crush on Lancelot too, mostly because he was extremely kind with her.
She is the daughter of Tom, the Blacksmith, and for that reason she knows everything about armors and swords. She can fight and she thinks women should fight besides men.
Tom and Gwen are really close, they live together, she cooks for him and in an episode he is very happy of finally being able to buy her a dress as a gift.
When Tom is killed, Gwen says that now she is alone.
During more than half of the first season Gwen and Arthur ignore each other. She thinks Arthur and Morgan will be together and she even teases Morgan about it. She thinks Arthur is a tough guy and a bit of a bully and she says she prefers people like Merlin.
During the last episodes she starts to confront Arthur on some things (like the possibility of women to fight etc.). She seems to start liking Arthur after the battle to help Merlin's village, where Arthur really fights for the common people. After that she also start to have faith in him and in the last episode she tells him that she saw in him a good king and a good person. She pets his hair while Arthur is unconscius.
THE DRAGON
The Dragon is the last of Dragons. he was imprisoned into Uther's dungeons by Uther himself as a proof of Uther's power. He calls Merlin in his mind.
He knows about the fact that Merlin is called Emrys among the druids. He knows a lot of things. He also personally knows Gaius.
He tells Merlin that his destiny is to protect Arthur and he really wants Arthur to live because for him he forges Excalibur and tells Merlin of Mordred's future.
Still he is not enterily good because what he wants to for Uther to die and for Arthur to become king with the help of Merlin. And in this way to restore magic in the kingdom and to be freed.
He also isn't really Nimue's enemy.
LANCELOT
Lancelot is a warrior. He comes from a village that was attacked by the raiders of the North. His mother and his father (all his family) were killed so he dedicated all his life to the art of combat. He is humble, gentle, kind and very able with the sword.
His dream is to become one of Camelot's knights but he can't because he is not a nobleman.
Also if he is an honest man, he decides to use a fake nobleman name because his dream is very important to him.
Merlin helps him also because Lancelot saved his life. There is an instant simpathy between Lancelot and Merlin.
When Lancelot finds out about Merlin's magic he promises to keep his secret.
Lancelot seems to know enough about magic to recognize and remember the words that Merlin used.
Arthur is impressed by Lancelot's abilitied and he trusts him enough to let him out of prison. Lancelot admires Arthur enough to want to save him.
He leaves Camelot because he doesn't want to come between Arthur and Uther and because he is too noble to take Merlin's credits of having killed the beast.
Lancelot has an instant attraction towards Gwen, he treats her like a lady, he thinks she is beautiful (and tells it to Arthur) and she is the first person she goes to visit after he escapes prison.
AT THE END OF THE SEASON
1. Arthur knows how much Uther loves him.
2. Morgan knows how much Uther cares for her but she could never forget that Uther imprisoned her and killed Gwen's father. There is some tension between Uther and Morgan.
3. At the end of the season, Morgan nearly goes crazy because of her dreams and her worries for Arthur but Merlin treats her coldly, probably because he never forgave her of what she wanted to do to Uther. So there is also some tension between Morgan and Merlin.
4. Morgan still cares for Arthur a lot and she thinks he is a better man than Uther.
5. Morgan cares for Gwen a lot and for her she fought against Uther and was imprisoned.
6. Gaius, Merlin and Gwen are the only ones who know about Morgan's dreams. Morgan starts to think it is magic. Gaius wants her to keep the secret and gives her sleeping potion. Morgan doesn't know Merlin knows about her.
7. Uther still hates magic a lot.
8. Gaius and Lancelot are the only ones who know about Merlin's secret.
9. Gaius says Arthur is not ready to be king.
10. Gwen starts to think of Arthur as a good man and a future good king. She says she has faith in him. Arthur starts to notice her.
11. Gwen seems to have forgot about her crush on Merlin, mostly because of what happened with her father that distracted her and the incapacity of Merlin of noticing her.
12. Merlin is still Gwen's BFF.
13. Merlin found out that the Dragon wanted to see Uther dead and Arthur as king to restore magic in the kingdom. Merlin promises the Dragon that now they are enemy because the Dragon never told him of the price of the magic of the Old Religion.
14. Arthur is less of a prat.
15. Lancelot is away.
16. Mordred is away.
17. Merlin and Arthur are really friends also if Merlin couldn't find the courage to tell him about his magic.
18. Merlin knows how much Gaius loves him. He is like a father to him.
19. Gwen's father is dead.
20. Excalibur is in a lake.
previous: episodes 1x09 - 1x13 // next: arthurian legends in season one
Merlin comes from Cendred’s kingdom. From a very poor village. His mother sent him in Camelot because she fears the people in the village will find out about his powers. She sent him to Gaius probably because she knew about Gaius (she had to do know him well because Gaius is Uther's friend and only in secret he liked/protects magic and only recently).
Merlin is desperate to know his own origins and the reasons for his magic. And he feels he is nothing without magic.
Merlin is not very good. In this season he kills two or three people and a couple or human-magical creatures wuthout blinking. He knows magic is good and he thinks he has all the answers.
He often lies to Gaius but always, in the middle of the episodes he tells him everything. Gaius is his mentor. He is the one who gives him the book of magic, who teaches him and who always confront him.
Merlin trusts Gaius in, almost, everything.
He is not THE good person. He is unsure if to save Mordred when the Dragon tells him about Mordred's destiny. He saves him only when Mordred calls him in his mind.
He is also unsure about saving Uther when Morgan tries to kill him but at the end he does the right thing.
He clearly has a special relationship with Arthur since the beginning. He doesn't stop from making fun of him, joking with him and thinking him as a prat. With the episodes he groes fond of him and he also discovers that his destiny is to protect him.
For Arthur he would do everything, even letting himself die. I don't think there is a lot more to say about Arthur and Merlin. Just this: in 1x10 Merlin returns home with Arthur, Gwen and Morgan that want to help him and clearly see him as a friend.
There he meets his friend Will who is the only one who knows about magic and who is clearly jealous and suspicious about Arthur. Merlin realizes that he cannot be really Arthur's friend if he doesn't tell him his secret but at the end of the episode he decides of not telling him (also: Arthur gets angry because Merlin was hiding "Will's magic").
I think this episode is the main reason for the strange new friendly but-not-so-much-as-in-the-first season behaviour of Merlin in the next series.
Gwen is his best friend. She is the first nice persone he meets in Camelot. They are always together and he always complain about Arthur with her. Gwen has a crush on him but Merlin barely realizes it. He saves her father and then he tries to save her (sacrificing herself) from the accuse of being a witch.
Gwen is always there for him and she is there for Gwen.
ARTHUR
Arthur is a bully. At the beginning he treats his servant very very cruelly. When Merlin replies, sarcastically, to him, he is very intrigued.
Maybe because Merlin always challenges him or because he saved his life, Arthur instantly believes him when Merlin tells him Valiant is using magic in the tournament.
He is quick to defend Merlin when, in the third episode, he tries to say to everyone that he is a sorcerer. Also if he often makes fun of Merlin he sincerely cares for him.
Arthur is officially made a prince in 1x09 when he is of age. He was raised by his father alone and the only thing of his mother he knows is that she died giving him birth.
He has a difficult relationship with his father. He thinks Uther disapproves everything he does and he obsessed by the fear of being seen as a coward.
He also tells him that in one of the last episodes and finally Uther tells Arthur that he loves him more than anything.
He would never disobey his father and more than once Morgan is the only one who can convince him of doing something against Uther's orders.
Arthur is very important for Morgan and she is very important for him. He usually helps her when she fights with Uther and during the "Lancelot" episode she is totally mesmerized by her beauty. He is often annoying around her but it is made clear that he doesn't want to disappoint her and he kind of needs her approval. Often it is Morgan who makes Arthur see how a good king should behave for the good of the people.
At the beginning he doesn't even realize the existence of Guinevere. He is the one who arrests her in the third episode and he doesn's defend her.
They interact when Arthur gives her the flower to save Merlin buttheir real first interaction was in 1x10 when Gwen said to him that women should fight too and he cannot being too picky on food because the people are starving. Arthur seems impressed by the fact that she speaks her mind. Gwen says she has faith in Arthur in that episode and also in the 1x11.
In 1x12, Arthur is the one who arrests Gwen's father and also if he is not sure of he being guilty, Arthur does not defend him as much as Morgan does. When Tom dies, Arthur says to Gwen he is sorry and that she still has her home and job.
In the last episode, while Arthur is unconscius, Gwen talks to him about how she saw a good king inside him and when Arthur wakes up he seems to remember, as in a dream, what Gwen told him and her hand on his foreheard.
UTHER
Uther is a sever and cruel king towards magic and common people. He often fights with Morgan about how cruelly he treats magic.
Uther is so scared by magic that he has no problem of risking Arthur’s life if he can ignore the existence of magic itself. And he also has no problems killing children, women or unarmed men if they are magical or suspected of doing magic.
For Uther magic is bad. And that's it.
To read about why Uther hates magic: NIMUE, YGRAINE and THE SECRET OF ARTHUR's BIRTH.
He is also very cruel towards servants and common people. He doesn't care about the death of his servants (Merlin, for example) and he can threaten people's lives just to give a lesson to Arthur (for example: Sophia and his father).
He also made the idea of all knights being noblemen the fundamental rule of Camelot.
He loves Morgan as the daughter he never has and he is glad she is so much like Gorlois (challenging him) because Gorlois was his best friend.
He clearly loves Arthur also if he expects a lot from him and he does not tolerare disobbediance and disrispect.
He was ready to sacrifice himself against Tristan to save Arthur.
At the end of the season he cries when he thinks Arthur is going to die.
It seems that Uther wants Morgan and Arthur to be together. He wants Morgan to go to the fest with Arthur and in fact everyone thinks that sooner or later Morgan will marry Arthur.
In the second episode the prize of winning the tournament is going to the feast with lady Morgan. Uther is the one who decides the prize. Uther wants Arthur to win. Uther wants Arthur to go to the feast with Morgan.
When Arthur annunces his marriage with Sophia Uther is so mad that he wants to imprison Sophia and his father and kill them.
Gaius is one of his oldest friends but still he doesn't trust him enough to listen to him and accept his word. He was even ready to dismiss Gaius and assume as a physician a stranger named Edwin in the 6th episode.
Also if he doesn't completely trust Gaius, Uther still goes to him to talk about Arthur's secret birth and Tristan of Bois because Gaius is the only living person (a part from Uther and Nimue) that knows about them.
GAIUS
Gaius is the court phisycian but he is not a freeman (whatever this means) until episode
Gaius is also a sorcerer but not very powerful. He gives Merlin the magic book but he doesn't want Merlin to use magic if it is not striclty necessary.
Gaius prefers science over magic.
He knows a lot about herbs that himself picks.
Gaius probably helped Uther during the killings of sorcerers because he knows everything about it. Both Nimue and the Dragon accuse him of “Turning a blind eye” and being an hypocrite and a traytor because he did nothing to save and help the witches and wizards killed by Uther.
Still, Gaius doesn't think magic is evil and he wants it to return. He thinks Merlin will be the one who will restore magic.
He thinks Uther is a severe but just king.
In the 6th episode, Gaius is made by Uther "a freeman".
He seems to really care for Morgan because he wants to protect her from Uther, but for some reason he doesn't help her with her powers while he did it with Merlin. Probably because he doesn't trust her enough to not tell about them to Uther?
Geoffrey of Monmouth, the librarian and genealohist, knows about the killings too and he is also Gaius' oldest friend.
NIMUE, YGRAINE and THE SECRET OF ARTHUR's BIRTH
Nimue is a priestess of the Old Religion. She is very powerful and she knows how to conceal herself to the eyes of Uther and Gaius.
Uther and Gaius are the only ones who know about her.
Gaius is the one who originally asked Nimue to help Uther. Uther welcomed Nimue into Camelot and they became friends.
Uther asks Nimue to help the barren Ygraine to conceive a child. Nimue knows that to create life there must be a death.
Also if Nimue has the power of predictions she didn't know that the price of her magic would have been Ygraine's life.
Ygraine dies giving birth to Arthur and Uther doesn't forgive Nimue because he thinks Nimue knew about the high price. Uther starts to kill everyone close to magic, the magical creatures and the people.
Tristan of Bois (a brother of Ygraine) accuses Uther of being the reason for Yraine's death and they fight. Tristan of Bois dies by Uther's sword.
Nimue, during the season, wants to get revenge for her kind and she wants to kill Uther. She knows that she is not supposed to kill Arthur and that in the future someone else will kill him.
Nimue, Uther and Gaius are the only living people who know about the secret of Arthur's birth and Gaius took an oath and swore he would never tell Arthur.
At the beginning she wants to kill Merlin too because she finds out about his powers but then she tries to make an alliance with him. In fact Nimue wants to kill Uther, the tyrant, and gives to Arthur the crown because she believe Arthur will permit the return of magic.
She lives in the Isle of the Blessed, one of the central places for the Old Religion, and she has access to the Cup of Life that she probably used to help Ygraine to conceive Arthur.
She is killed by Merlin in the last episode.
MORGAN
Morgan knows Gorlois is her father and that Uther was a friend of Gorlois who promised him to protect and adopt her.
She was old enough to remember Gorlois when he died and to remember his death.
Morgan doesn't fear Uther (Merlin says that she is the only one in Camelot who doesn't fear him) and always confront him on his decision. She loves and hates him at the same time, she even tried to kill him when he killed Gwen's father. She thinks that Uther was the reason of the death of Gorlois.
Merlin, during the same episode, is the only one who knows that Morgan was trying to kill Uther and he doesn't see her saving Uther's life so he still thinks she is Uther's enemy.
Still, Morgan thinks Uther is a brutal king and a tyrant. She doesn't trust him with her secret dreams because she feels Uther would kill her.
She knows how to fight with a sword and when they she was little she used to beat Arthur.
She saves his life in a battle (during the fight at Merlin's village).
She is clearly attracted to him also if she doesn't want the people to know it. When Sophia says to her that Morgan is in love with Arthur and she is jealous she doesn't deny it.
She cares for Arthur and more than onces tries to saves him of the danger she sees in her dreams. But still she doesn't trust him enough to tell him.
Morgan knows Gaius since she was a child and he always was her phisycian.
She doesn't sleep easily because she has dreams that she thinks are only bad dreams. Gaius knows about this dreams and he usually gives her sleeping potions. During the season she suspects they are premonitory dreams but sometimes she lets Gaius convinces her about the fact that they are only bad dreams.
Merlin knows about her dreams too and he knows that she has magical powers (but Morgan doesn't know about him) because Gaius told him.
She talked about her dreams also with Gwen who is the only other person who knows about them.
Morgan and Gwen are friends more than lady and maid. They talk to each other, they hug, Gwen picks flowers for her and she often contradicts her. Morgan worries for Gwen and Gwen worries for Morgan.
When Gwen is accused of being a witch Morgan does everything she can to save her.
When Gwen's father is imprisoned, Morgan lets him escape and when he is killed Morgan promises Uther that she will never forgive him.
Morgan, since the first episode, is kind towards magic. She thinks magical people are like everyone else. She saves Mordred, the druid boy, helped by Merlin, Gwen and Arthur, because she feels a special connection with him.
GWEN
Gwen is a servant in the castle. She is Morgan's maid and friend. They sit together at tournament, they tell each other everything. She picks flowers for Morgan. They are really close.
Gwen's second best friend is Merlin. She is the first nice person he meets in Camelot and she clearly has a crush on him also if he doesn't realize it. She kisses him once. She consoles him. She helps him and when there is a problem she always goes to tell it to Merlin and to Gaius. When her father is killed she even sleep in Merlin's bed for a while.
She is the best dress maker of Camelot and she is the one who makes Lancelot's vest.
She has a crush on Lancelot too, mostly because he was extremely kind with her.
She is the daughter of Tom, the Blacksmith, and for that reason she knows everything about armors and swords. She can fight and she thinks women should fight besides men.
Tom and Gwen are really close, they live together, she cooks for him and in an episode he is very happy of finally being able to buy her a dress as a gift.
When Tom is killed, Gwen says that now she is alone.
During more than half of the first season Gwen and Arthur ignore each other. She thinks Arthur and Morgan will be together and she even teases Morgan about it. She thinks Arthur is a tough guy and a bit of a bully and she says she prefers people like Merlin.
During the last episodes she starts to confront Arthur on some things (like the possibility of women to fight etc.). She seems to start liking Arthur after the battle to help Merlin's village, where Arthur really fights for the common people. After that she also start to have faith in him and in the last episode she tells him that she saw in him a good king and a good person. She pets his hair while Arthur is unconscius.
THE DRAGON
The Dragon is the last of Dragons. he was imprisoned into Uther's dungeons by Uther himself as a proof of Uther's power. He calls Merlin in his mind.
He knows about the fact that Merlin is called Emrys among the druids. He knows a lot of things. He also personally knows Gaius.
He tells Merlin that his destiny is to protect Arthur and he really wants Arthur to live because for him he forges Excalibur and tells Merlin of Mordred's future.
Still he is not enterily good because what he wants to for Uther to die and for Arthur to become king with the help of Merlin. And in this way to restore magic in the kingdom and to be freed.
He also isn't really Nimue's enemy.
LANCELOT
Lancelot is a warrior. He comes from a village that was attacked by the raiders of the North. His mother and his father (all his family) were killed so he dedicated all his life to the art of combat. He is humble, gentle, kind and very able with the sword.
His dream is to become one of Camelot's knights but he can't because he is not a nobleman.
Also if he is an honest man, he decides to use a fake nobleman name because his dream is very important to him.
Merlin helps him also because Lancelot saved his life. There is an instant simpathy between Lancelot and Merlin.
When Lancelot finds out about Merlin's magic he promises to keep his secret.
Lancelot seems to know enough about magic to recognize and remember the words that Merlin used.
Arthur is impressed by Lancelot's abilitied and he trusts him enough to let him out of prison. Lancelot admires Arthur enough to want to save him.
He leaves Camelot because he doesn't want to come between Arthur and Uther and because he is too noble to take Merlin's credits of having killed the beast.
Lancelot has an instant attraction towards Gwen, he treats her like a lady, he thinks she is beautiful (and tells it to Arthur) and she is the first person she goes to visit after he escapes prison.
AT THE END OF THE SEASON
1. Arthur knows how much Uther loves him.
2. Morgan knows how much Uther cares for her but she could never forget that Uther imprisoned her and killed Gwen's father. There is some tension between Uther and Morgan.
3. At the end of the season, Morgan nearly goes crazy because of her dreams and her worries for Arthur but Merlin treats her coldly, probably because he never forgave her of what she wanted to do to Uther. So there is also some tension between Morgan and Merlin.
4. Morgan still cares for Arthur a lot and she thinks he is a better man than Uther.
5. Morgan cares for Gwen a lot and for her she fought against Uther and was imprisoned.
6. Gaius, Merlin and Gwen are the only ones who know about Morgan's dreams. Morgan starts to think it is magic. Gaius wants her to keep the secret and gives her sleeping potion. Morgan doesn't know Merlin knows about her.
7. Uther still hates magic a lot.
8. Gaius and Lancelot are the only ones who know about Merlin's secret.
9. Gaius says Arthur is not ready to be king.
10. Gwen starts to think of Arthur as a good man and a future good king. She says she has faith in him. Arthur starts to notice her.
11. Gwen seems to have forgot about her crush on Merlin, mostly because of what happened with her father that distracted her and the incapacity of Merlin of noticing her.
12. Merlin is still Gwen's BFF.
13. Merlin found out that the Dragon wanted to see Uther dead and Arthur as king to restore magic in the kingdom. Merlin promises the Dragon that now they are enemy because the Dragon never told him of the price of the magic of the Old Religion.
14. Arthur is less of a prat.
15. Lancelot is away.
16. Mordred is away.
17. Merlin and Arthur are really friends also if Merlin couldn't find the courage to tell him about his magic.
18. Merlin knows how much Gaius loves him. He is like a father to him.
19. Gwen's father is dead.
20. Excalibur is in a lake.
previous: episodes 1x09 - 1x13 // next: arthurian legends in season one