Merlin - Cracked Reflections - An Uther/Morgana Ship Manifesto

[firthgal]

Title: Cracked Reflections
Author: firthgal
Fandom: Merlin
Pairing: Uther/Morgana
Spoilers: All of series 1
Disclaimer: Merlin and it's characters do not belong to me.
Author's Note: The intro and character bios were heavily beta'd by the wonderful llivla. If not for her, this would have been a lost cause.

Comments

[mossylawn]

They clearly love playing house together.
They really really do. As dysfunctional house as it is, I love how Morgana uses Arthur sometimes to both do what she thinks is right but also get back at Uther. Their dynamics are so very marital that it's just ridiculous.

Personally, I don't really see Morgana/Gwen at all, I mean it's cute and even hot in fandom and all but I just don't see it in the show, not as anything more than platonic deep friendship at least, girls normally show more feeling as it is, it doesn't mean they go down on one another for Christ's sake, I act like that with loads of my girlfriends and I doubt anyone would feel like slashing us ha ha. Despite never backing down from some good old femslash, I just can't force myself into shipping something I don't see. It's natural to juxtaposition the two against Merlin/Arthur since both Gwen and Morgana end up beraying them, but I like the Uther/Morgana parallel since I think it runs deeper that the treason/loyalty relations. Uther and Morgana are both tyrants in their own right, Uther is a typical military dictator of the Dark Ages and Morgana is a bit like a Machiavelli follower, she might be even a bit of an uncrowned Queen, but she definitely does not back down from getting what she wants by whatever means, as revenge for instance, whereas Arthur and Merlin represent a bit of the egalite, fraternite, liberte quality.

Oh god, I wish could stop meta-ing.

[firthgal]

Oh, I definitely see Morgana/Gwen, but it's more like Gwen is to Morgana as Gaius is to Uther, only... Morgana/Gwen is hot while Uther/Gaius is not (sorry, Gaius). But Morgana's relationship with Gwen is really her only loving, supportive relationship and they are both fiercely protective of each other. But, sometimes it seems like Morgana doesn't quite know how to connect with Gwen and is quite awkward when she tries to simply because she's not used to such normal interaction. It's hard for her to lower her shield and just open herself up like that. She's too used to getting hurt. And of course this will cause angst for them in future happenings. Honestly, I don't think there's a ship on this show that I can't ship at least a little (except perhaps for Arthur/Morgana, but even with them I think they're a little bit in love, no matter how much it bothers me). But for OTPness? It's Uther/Morgana all the way. And of course Arthur/Merlin.

[mossylawn]

Oh, I'm defo with you there!!