Merlin 3.05: No Seriously, What Is Going On With the Gorlois-Pendragon Family Trees?

[themadpoker]

Okay SO! As far as I've worked it out the current state of family affairs is:

Morgana: Daughter of Uther and Vivian, half sister to Arthur and Morgause
Arthur: Son of Uther and Igraine, half brother to Morgana
Morgause: Daughter of Vivian and an unknown man who is not Gorlois, half sister to Morgana

Is there any info from the writers/producers on how long Uther and Igraine were married before they had Arthur? Because according to the comments on this post Morgana is confirmed as being 1-2 years older than Arthur. Which means the only way for Uther to NOT have been cheating is for he and Igraine to only have been married up to nine months before deciding to use magic to conceive Arthur. And since he fathered Morgana he would've known their lack of success was due to Ygraine being barren. And I know this show is set in pseudo-medieval times and it was important for the king to have a legitimate heir but a year is not a whole lot of time to wait before deciding you're going to go ahead and use the dangerous magical solution to the problem. So any way you slice it Uther comes off really horrible which is absolutely shocking really. -.-

Mostly though I am just really confused about why Morgause had to be smuggled out of Camelot. She's clearly older than Morgana which means she was born way before the great purges so it can't be because she showed signs of having magic. And I got the impression that Uther wanted her dead since Gaius apparently smuggled her at great risk to himself. Does it relate somehow to whoever her father was? :l The sucky thing is I am pretty sure the show is just never going to explain this.

Comments

[threemeows.livejournal.com]

Nothing to add of any relevance because I AM STILL SLIGHTLY CONFUSED, LOL and just going along for the ride, but you win at life for using a line from Rent as your lj-cut text. ;D

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

Haha, I think alot of people are confused right now. And it just popped into my head when I started thinking about Morgana and Morgause. Nothing could be more appropriate! xD

[purely-distel.livejournal.com]

uhm, yeah. This, pretty much several times over ... I mean ... I COULD have to do with the father. Maybe he was a dragon lord? Didn't Uther hate them before all that? ... or ... something? I mean, Merlins father left Camelot because of it and ended up with Merlins mother, fathering a kid etc before leaving again so I guess at least SOME time passed so ...

LOL! MAYBE IT WAS MERLINS DAD AND HIM AND MORGAUSE ARE RELATED, TOO! (I am just getting the crack out there, has to happen xD)

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

I don't think so? I got the impression he hated the dragon lords because they fell under the magical umbrella. So Merlin's dad left around the time of the purges which is why Merlin is about a year younger than Arthur.

But hey, maybe Uther already disliked dragons pre-purges just because they were giant fire breathing lizards who may have been destructive. Because I have to say, the crack involved in Merlin and Morgause being half siblings would be beautiful. =D

[hmsharmony.livejournal.com]

I...have no idea. At all. It's all just mush in my head. Maybe Morgana is more like four years older than Arthur? I know someone in charge said that she was the eldest, but I don't remember anyone ever saying that she was only older by a year or two.

Mostly though I am just really confused about why Morgause had to be smuggled out of Camelot. She's clearly older than Morgana which means she was born way before the great purges so it can't be because she showed signs of having magic.

I'm not even going to attempt to figure this one out. It makes zero sense. And as you said over at my post, I doubt the writers will address it. :-\

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

Maybe you're right and the showrunners never specified? General consensus in the comments seemed to be placing her there but it could be a fanwank. -throws hands up- Well whatever, Uther already made it into worst person EVER territory three episodes ago, I guess it doesn't make much difference either way.

[heather.livejournal.com]

IDK, I think this ep raises more questions than it settles, lmao.

I think Uther comes off as a bastard either way, even just going by his OVERWHELMING hypocrisy, but I'd agree, it's likely he was cheating as well. I get the impression that Ygraine and he had been trying to concieve for a while. He could've had Morgana during that time.

Morgause may have been smuggled out because she was also illegitimate? Also his? I ... don't even know, ugh.

[themadpoker.livejournal.com]

It kind of reminds me of Sins of the Father that way. Everytime the show runners try to explain more of the past we just end up with more questions than we had before.

Haha, Uther, at this point I absolutely cannot fathom why he is still alive. Like even with the whole blah blah Arthur is not ready to be king, the kingdom would be in chaos thing I just want Arthur to take over already. There is no way he could be worse.

I thought about Morgause being his but then I couldn't make sense of why he'd treat her so differently from Morgana then. Maybe I'll just adopt purely_distel's crack theory and go with Balinor being her father. They could be a dysfunctional magical M family! xD