History Literature / TheRoadToAvalon

* StarterVillain: Lot has his eyes on the high kingship and challenges Uther after he presents Arthur to the chiefs and kings as his heir, and Arthur puts down his rebellion.

* WorldsStrongestMan: Bedwyr is this.

** Arthur marries Gwenhwyfar mostly just to produce an heir, yet she is sterile. This leads to a lot of angst on her her end, as she wants to give him a child and is initially afraid he'll replace her due to her barrenness until he assures her he won't do anything of the sort. When she begins her affair with Bedwyr, she flirts with the possibility of ''him'' getting her pregnant, but it doesn't happen either.

* SiblingYinYang: Igraine is cold, ambitious and given to politicking while her full sister Morgause is warm, easygoing and content as long as she has a suitable man.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Arthur takes a lot after his father Uther in height, face and grey eyes and black hair, with his finer facial features coming from his also dark-haired mother Igraine. Mordred so strongly resembles him in turn that Pellinore was able to deduce his parentage when he was a toddler, and his mere arrival at Camelot years later causes a stir. It gets to the point that [[spoiler:after Arthur is mistakenly believed dead, Mordred as the heir (as prodded by Agravaine) suggests to Gwenhwyfar that they marry to keep things stable, and though it never comes to pass, he looks so much like a younger Arthur that Gwenhwyfar flirts with him bcoming her DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest and agrees, but it's called off once Arthur is revealed to be alive.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: As Gwenhwyfar angsts over not getting pregnant, Arthur says that it might be due to him being sterile, not (only) her. Unknown to him at this point, he has already sired a son but that was years earlier, and while both of them start or resume sleeping with other people, nobody gets (or can get) pregnant again if Arthur is indeed .

* AgeGapRomance: Arthur is 26 and Gwenhwyfar is 17 when their arranged marriage happens, and she genuinely falls in love with him though he only comes to see her as a dear comrade at most. This leads her into the arms of Arthur's cavalry commander Bedwyr, who is around his age.

* ChickMagnet: The dashing blond {{Hunk}} Bedwyr has many female admirers, while the bronze-haired HeadTurningBeauty Gwenhwyfar is similarly a DudeMagnet leaving many men in awe, not quite including Arthur.

* CoolBigSis: Morgause to Morgan, who helps her with her pregnancy and raises the baby as her own son, and later goes along with Arthur's plan to [[spoiler:continue posing as Mordred's birth mother even after Arthur acknowledges him as his son, to keep Morgan's secret safe]].

* {{Deuteragonist}}: The plot revolves around Arthur and thus he's the protagonist but Morgan has a good chunk of focus as his LoveInterest.
* FirstKiss: Arthur and Morgan's feelings for each other first boil over this way after they try to comfort each other after her dog dies of old age. They make a habit of it in secret and TheirFirstTime happens not too long after, quite naturally and innocently.
* GiveHimANormalLife: Morgan goes along with Morgause raising her son so that he can have a stable life away from the pressures Arthur must deal with.

** Arthur marries Gwenhwyfar mostly just to produce an heir, yet she is sterile.
** Averted however with Mordred's conception, as in many tellings Arthur only has to be seduced once by his sister for that to happen, but here Arthur and Morgan are implied to have innocently and passionately knocked boots more than once in secret even after they realize the complications of their family ties, until they're forced to be apart due to Arthur's duties and Morgan finds out she's pregnant.

** Bedwyr's ladies' man ways eventually leads him getting Gwenhwyfar's servant girl named Elaine pregnant, though he says he was seduced. Elaine is sent home to bear the child i.e. Galahad since Bedwyr is the Lancelot equivalent.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Arthur takes a lot after his father Uther in height, face and grey eyes and black hair, with his finer facial features coming from his also dark-haired mother Igraine. Mordred so strongly resembles him in turn that Pellinore was able to deduce his parentage when he was a toddler, and his mere arrival at Camelot years later causes a stir.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Arthur takes a lot after his father Uther in height, face and his black hair, with his finer facial features coming from his also dark-haired mother Igraine. Mordred so strongly resembles him in turn that Pellinore was able to deduce his parentage when he was a toddler, and his mere arrival at Camelot years later causes a stir.

* WhatBeautifulEyes: Morgan's most striking feature which Arthur notices even at their first meeting as children.

* CoolBigSis: Morgause to Morgan, who helps her with her pregnancy and raises the baby as her own son.

* StrongFamilyResemblance: Arthur looks just like his father Uther, and Mordred so strongly resembles him in turn that Pellinore was able to deduce his parentage when he was a toddler, and his mere arrival at Camelot years later causes a stir.

* YourSonAllAlong: When Gawain first joins Arthur, he's struck by the king looking exactly like his youngest brother Mordred. Arthur is yet unaware that he has a son so he just says that they must both take after Igraine, which Gawain accepts. Years later, Arthur finally meets Mordred in person and sees that he really takes after Uther, and once told his age, immediately realizes the youth must be his and Morgan's son.

* DamselInDistress: Gwenhwyfar is waylaid and kidnapped briefly by a smitten admirer, a tribal chief named Meliagrance, who overestimates his own capacity to challenge Arthur. Bedwyr saves her.

* IdiotBall: [[spoiler: Mordred successfully sneaks away from Agravaine's rebel army and is fleeing to Gaul like Morgan and Arthur advised him to, when he suddenly decides he has to see his father one last time for no apparent reason... and runs right into the impending battle.]]

* RescueRomance; Gwenhwyfar first beds Bedwyr after his RoaringRampageOfRescue soon after Meliagrance waylays her.

* OlderThanTheyLook: When Gwenhwyfar first meets Morgan around a year after marrying Arthur, she's struck by her looks, as they look the same age (late teens) even though she's heard Morgan is around Arthur's age (mid-20s).