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Arthur Pendragon

Prince (later King) Arthur Pendragon

"I want to say... something I've never said to you before... Thank you."

Portrayed By: Bradley James

"He is a future king. People expect so much of him. He's under a lot of pressure."

— Gaius

The prince of Camelot, Arthur starts out as a Jerkass but ends up developing a heart thanks to his gradual strong friendship with Merlin, Morgana's guidance, and his inevitable and budding romance with Gwen.

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• Aborted Declaration of Love: Arthur seems to be on the verge of telling Guinevere that he loves her in the series three finale. However, she interrupts him after he makes the mistake of saying "if I never see you again..." which only compels her to insist that they will meet again.
• Action Hero: Combat is his main way of solving problem. Too bad he's in a series where the most dangerous enemies are manipulative and subtle.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Arthur has serious Daddy Issues and issues with everyone lying to him and betraying him, including his own best friend, Merlin.
• Adaptational Backstory Change: Most versions of the Arthurian Legend have Arthur be conceived through a Bed Trick arranged by Merlin, who takes him away shortly after his birth and gives him to be raised by Sir Ector. Arthur is Happily Adopted and unaware that he's Uther's son until he pulls the sword from the stone as a boy. This version of Arthur was raised by Uther as a prince, with his parents having been married.
• Adaptational Badass: Arthur in the show series comes off as more badass, strong and tough than his Arthurian legend counterpart.
• Adaptational Dumbass: Even when he's king, Arthur is incapable of dressing himself without Merlin's help.
• Adaptational Heroism: As with most adaptions, the show makes him far more heroic and selfless if a little spoilt at the start.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: He might be classist and prejudice at times, but he's far better than his Arthurian Legend counterpart.
• Adaptational Personality Change: Two major changes in his personality are caused by his Adaptational Backstory Change in this version. Arthur has grown up as the prince of a magic hating king, and therefore Arthur is pretty spoiled, especially at the start of the series, and has a strong distrust of sorcerers.
• Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
  • Merlin has almost always been The Mentor to Arthur and his most trusted advisor. Here he's his manservant and Heterosexual Life-Partner with a Vitriolic Best Buds dynamic.
  • Traditionally Arthur was Happily Adopted and never knew Uther, while in this version he was raised in Camelot by Uther.
  • Guinevere is a servant in this version instead of the daughter of a lord, meaning that there are issues that prevent their romance from happening at first.
  • Because he was adopted, he never knew Morgana until they met after he became king. Here they grew up together with neither being aware they were actually siblings until they were adults.
• Adipose Rex: At the end of Series 4, Arthur seems to be getting fat and heading down this path. Thankfully - or not, due to him dying? - it is stopped before it becomes too bad... though it does require an extra hole in his belt for "extra comfort and ease of use".
• Aggressive Categorism: In the beginning Arthur was rather prejudiced, bigoted and judgmental. He changed as the series progressed, mostly thanks to Merlin and Gwen. However while he becomes more determined to create a more fair and equal society, he never comes to fully accept magic even though he doesn't hate it as much as Uther.
• Aerith and Bob: Arthur and Merlin. While Arthur's name sounds rather normal and is considered to be quite common, the name Merlin is somewhat exotic and unique sounding by comparison.
• Always Second Best: Feels this way about Lancelot. Arthur believes that Lancelot is "the better man" in everything from their skills in combat to how Guinevere feels about them.
• Always Someone Better: Compares himself to Lancelot and believes that he's the better man. And for good reason.
• A Real Man Is a Killer: Arthur describes himself as "the ultimate killing machine" and this is in no way an Informed Ability. In fact, it's almost disconcerting to see him kill another man (albeit one who was trying to kill him) without a moment's hesitation in the very second episode of the show.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With Merlin and Morgana, sort of. Arthur may tease and make fun of Merlin constantly and he frequently calls Merlin many different insulting names, but it is very clear that despite all of that, Arthur deeply cares for Merlin and is strongly protective of him. Although, Arthur simply cannot admit how much he values Merlin and his friendship at first. It could be argued that Merlin is a Living Emotional Crutch for Arthur as without Merlin, Arthur would not only be dead a thousand times over but would eventually crack emotionally and psychologically without Merlin and his influence and presence. Series 5 really showed how dependent Arthur really is on Merlin for many things.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: When Arthur is crowned King in 4x03.
• Badass Normal: Arthur has no superhuman abilities and is completely human, yet he can still kick major ass and is a very skilled fighter and warrior.
• Bad Liar: When he contemplates using the horn that can resurrect dead people, it is obvious that he is hiding something. However, he can pull rank on Merlin to end all questions.
• Because Destiny Says So: Arthur is destined to be the greatest king Albion has ever known. He's also destined to unite the five kingdoms back into the great land of Albion, rule as High King with the most powerful warlock ever (Merlin) and free the magical people. He accepts this prophecy and does everything to realize it. In a Prophecy Twist, he dies before he could achieve any of those. It's his Queen Guinevere who brings about a golden age.
• The Berserker: Arthur seems to be always willing to throw himself into a battle, regardless of the consequences and dangers. Thankfully, he has Merlin watching his back and saving him constantly.
• Big Good: Except for his prejudice against magic and in spite of his Violence, Arthur stands for honour, chivalry, and compassion. His dreams and idealism are what reign Merlin in when the latter is on the verge of Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. Arthur's also the one Morgana considers her main rival and seeks to destroy, and the prophesied great king that Merlin bets everything on. He is the opposite of Morgana, who is the Big Bad.
• Blood Knight: Arthur loves fighting and defending his kingdom. He believes that it is a part of his duty to do so.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Arthur goes hunting or travels for quests with gusto, especially in the beginning of the series.
• Brains and Brawn: Arthur is the Brawn to Merlin's Brains. While Arthur is more of a fighter and a warrior, Merlin relies more on strategy, his brains, his intelligence and manipulation tactics in order to fight the enemy.
• Broken Pedestal: Arthur is a huge "Well Done, Son" Guy who's basically spent his entire life having it hammered into him that whatever he does, his father Uther does it better. After about three years of ruling as king, he gets a chance to contact Uther from the otheworld, who immediately reams him out on all the "stupid" decisions he's made to bring equality to the land. Arthur's heartbroken, and accidentally lets Uther's spirit free, who proceeds to wreck the Round Table, attack Percival with an axe, and attempt to set Guinevere on fire. Arthur's in denial for a lot of this in the show, even when he tries to banish and later execute Guinevere for her relationship with Arthur, but it's only when dealing with Uther's ghost that he finally breaks and realizes just how terrible a man his father was.
• Broken Tears: When his father dies, and when confronted with the ghost of a boy who died in a raid led by him.
• Brother–Sister Incest: With Morgana. The show started out heavily hinting at a Arthur/Morgana pairing in series 1. In the pilot episode, Gwen tells Merlin that Morgana was born to be a queen, and it's assumed she'll marry Arthur. Then as series 2 started, all of the build-up was dropped and the pairing was completely ignored. Then in series 3, Arthur and Morgana were revealed to be half-brother and -sister.
• Brutal Honesty: Sometimes Arthur can be too blunt and harsh, especially towards Merlin. Luckily, Merlin is just as sarcastic and blunt as well, so it equates to constant Snark-to-Snark Combat between Arthur and Merlin.
• Cain and Abel: With his half-sister Morgana. In terms of roles, Arthur is the Abel (the Big Good) to Morgana's Cain (the Big Bad). It doesn't help that Morgana spent much of her time plotting against Arthur and trying to kill him. See Sibling Yin-Yang.
• Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: His relationship with Merlin. Though it may seem that Arthur constantly picks on Merlin and teases him, it has been proven and shown that without Merlin, Arthur really doesn't function all that well, if not, at all. Hell, Arthur can't even get dressed without Merlin.
• Cannot Spit It Out:
  • He can't bring himself to express his feelings for Gwen.
  • He's infamous for frequently giving backhanded compliments to Merlin instead of acknowledging the guy's wisdom.
• Cannot Talk to Women: After asking Princess Mithian out for a picnic lunch, he mutters to himself: "I've never been much good at this." Something of an Informed Flaw, as he never really seems that uneasy around the likes of Morgana, Guinevere, or any other visiting princess.
• Catchphrase: "Shut up, Merlin."
• The Chains of Commanding: He is willing to try his best to be a better ruler, but is haunted by his inability to make good judgements about people. He has also complained about the burden of expectations placed on him.
• The Chosen One: The Chosen One of the series, destined to be The Once and Future King destined to unite the lands of Albion and return magic to the land. He has Merlin and Guinevere, who are chosen ones by their own rights one way or another, to protect and guide him.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Arthur has the constant need to save people as much as possible.
• Commonality Connection: With Merlin. Originally, when Arthur first met Merlin, Arthur thinks of Merlin as a silly, incompetent, foolish and stupid peasant. But eventually Arthur comes to realize just how important Merlin is to him as the series progresses. On the outside, Arthur and Merlin don't share anything in common in terms of backgrounds, personalities, upbringings and outlooks, but what they do share in common is the same destiny.
• Competition Freak: Arthur is really competitive by nature.
• Composite Character:
  • With Gwaine, as elements of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are given to him by being the knight who makes a deal with a mysterious warrior and then being asks to put his head on a chopping block as a Secret Test of Character.
  • Also with Percival and Galahad to a lesser extent. Both are known as the knights to find the Holy Grail, while Arthur is the knight given the task of finding the Cup of Life in Series 3. Related to this is that he's the one to go on the quest to the Fisher King, which is unrelated to the Holy Grail in this version but was also a role given to Percival and Galahad.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Arthur has moments where he butts heads with Uther, usually when the latter is being too harsh, accusing an obviously innocent person of witchcraft, or not taking good enough care of the people of Camelot.
• Cool Crown: He's probably meant to have this but ends up getting the short end of the stick. Whilst Uther wore a simple but respectable looking circlet, Prince Arthur had something that looked like a shiny metal head-band. In a Flash Forward, Arthur was seen wearing Uther's crown, but when he finally became King himself, he switched to a giant gold crown with fleur-de-lis spikes on it, which most people thought looked a little bit like the Burger King crown.
• The Corruptible: Arthur is probably the most corruptible character in the entire series. It's mostly because Arthur is too easily trusting and naive in regards to others and their intentions.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Arthur has been corrupted or deceived by almost every single person who was close to him. He is often the victim of much corruption from various characters (such as Agravaine and Morgana, for example).
• Costume Porn: Arthur wears highly impressive armour.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Arthur doesn't appreciate Guinevere having close friendships with any other males (except Merlin) and becomes jealous every time she seems particularly fond of any one other than him. When he catches her and Lancelot in an embrace, he attacks Lancelot and would have killed him had Guinevere not thrown herself between them.
• The Cynic: Subverted. Arthur was cynical in the beginning, the opposite of Merlin, who was The Idealist. Later on, Arthur became much more idealistic and hopeful while Merlin became more pragmatic, realistic and cynical in his thinking.
• Cultured Badass: Arthur is from royalty and enjoys all of the finer things in life that come along with it. For the badass side, he's a skilled knight who likes to fight.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Defrosting Ice Prince/Defrosting Ice King. Due to the influence of Merlin and Gwen, Arthur goes from an arrogant, entitled, impulsive young noble to a much kinder, humble, and understanding leader.
• Dark Secret: "A Herald of the New Age" reveals that as a young and inexperienced man with a desire to prove himself he led the Knights of Camelot on a raid on a Druid camp. Despite telling the Knights to spare the women and children, he knew some disobeyed and froze instead of telling them to stop.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Arthur can be sexist and elitist at times.
• Designated Victim: In almost every single episode, Merlin always has to save Arthur from many enemies and dangers. It's a Running Gag in the series.
• The Determinator: Most of the time, Arthur is rather determined and doesn't quit when he really wants something.
• Distressed Dude: In almost every single episode. He's the target of dozens of assassination attempts, and is regularly poisoned, shot, knocked out, hypnotized, held prisoner, and put under enchantments.
• Does Not Know How to Say "Thanks": Arthur is never that good with expressing gratitude and appreciation towards others, notably Merlin. This is up until the series finale when Arthur's final words to Merlin before he dies are, "thank you."
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Arthur hates it when others feel sorry for him.
• Doomed by Canon: It was pretty much expected that Arthur would end up dying at the end of the series. And he does.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: He seeks to make a kingdom that is fair and just. However, he fails to notice that the people who need fairness and justice the most are the magic-users, and continues to persecute them.
• Dumb Muscle: Unfortunately, for someone expected to be a wise ruler, perceptiveness isn't his strong point.
• Emotional Bruiser: He's a knight and king and very much a tough guy, but thanks to Merlin and Gwen, Arthur becomes more comfortable with opening up and expressing his feelings and vulnerability.
• Emotionally Tongue-Tied: Especially in the beginning. Arthur always had issues with expressing his feelings. This changes later on though, thanks to both Merlin and Gwen.
• Even the Guys Want Him: King Alined admits to being a bit attracted to him.
• Extreme Doormat: Sometimes Arthur seemed this way in regards to Uther, much to Arthur's detriment. He had a tendency to follow his father and his orders blindly due to Arthur's strong desire to please his father.
• Famed In-Story: Not just because he's the ruler of Camelot, but because his destiny is already known to the likes of the dragons, the druids, and other magical beings.
• Fatal Flaw: He just can't help trusting the wrong people. It's endearing, but also immensely frustrating.
• Flaw Exploitation:
  • It didn't take long for Morgana to pick up on Arthur's love for Guinevere and use it to her own advantage on at least two separate occasions.
  • Agravaine exploits his insecurities and desires to please his father to manipulate him into potentially disastrous decisions.
• Flirty Step Siblings: Arthur and Morgana are like this during series 1 since Arthur's father Uther is the guardian of Morgana, and she is like a daughter to him. It is almost as if Uther adopted Morgana, which would make Arthur and Morgana's relationship to that of step-siblings. There is some attraction and flirting going on between them. And it turns out, they're half-siblings.
• Foil:
  • To Lancelot. Lancelot's presence highlighted both Arthur's faults and his virtues. On the one hand, when Arthur realizes that there may be something between Lance/Gwen he pulls a massive sulk and makes an off-handed comment that he's only there because Morgana begged him; whilst Lancelot graciously admits defeat and bows out of the Love Triangle before there's any more trouble. On the other hand, the fact that Lancelot leaves in the middle of the night without even saying goodbye highlights Arthur's honesty with Gwen when he tells her that nothing can ever happen between them.
  • To Merlin. Their backgrounds, upbringings, outlooks and personalities are entirely different. Arthur is rich, a noble and comes from Royal Blood, while Merlin is a commoner who is poor and comes from humble beginnings. Personality wise, Arthur and Merlin could not be more different; Arthur starts off as more arrogant, entitled and spoiled while Merlin starts off as humble, selfless and idealistic. Arthur was also The Cynic while Merlin was The Idealist (however, Arthur and Merlin start to switch roles in the later series as Arthur becomes more optimistic and hopeful while Merlin becomes more cynical and pragmatic). Arthur is a regular human, a Badass Normal who possesses no supernatural abilities whatsoever (he uses swords and combat to fight and defeat the enemy) while Merlin is The Archmage who is a powerful warlock or sorcerer who possesses very strong magic (he uses his magic to help fight or defeat the enemy). Their contrasting personalities and their opposing backgrounds could have been the major reason why Arthur and Merlin had clashed so much in the beginning, but could also be the reason why Arthur and Merlin also complement each other in beneficial ways.
• For Great Justice: Basically Arthur's motto regarding his duty to Camelot and Albion — he wants to rule with justice in his kingdom.
• Freudian Excuse: It's clear that many of Arthur's emotional and psychological issues and insecurities stem from the fact that he was raised by an emotionally distant and abusive father (Uther). It didn't help that Arthur was completely motherless growing up (thanks to Uther, of course - though unwittingly on Uther's part).
• Friendship Denial: With Merlin in the beginning. Merlin would often acknowledge Arthur as his friend, but Arthur would often deny this and say that he is just his servant. Subverted now that Arthur has frequently addressed Merlin as his friend later on in the series.
• Good Is Not Dumb: Best demonstrated in these two lines from The Coming of Arthur. Justified in that most of his smarter moments stem from being a tactician, which makes sense since he leads an elite army.
  Arthur: The best place for this cup is the vaults of Camelot
  Arthur: *stops and looks around worriedly* It's Quiet… Too Quiet.
• The Good King: What he is expected to be and what he eventually becomes in series 4, despite him making some mistakes along the way. Arthur is destined to become the greatest king Albion has ever known. He is meant to unite the land of Albion during a Golden Age and free the magical people. Character and personality wise, Arthur has shown that he is noble, brave, honourable, virtuous, chivalrous, empathetic, and compassionate and stands for all that is right and good. He has shown that despite being a royal, he has compassion and understanding for those who are of lower status than him and he has shown to care immensely about the well being of the inhabitants of Camelot. Honor Before Reason is basically Arthur's motto in everything that he does and stands for. He has shown to be a fair and just leader and he always respects the input from the people that surround him, people such as Merlin, Gwen, Gaius and the Knights of Camelot, etc).
• Green-Eyed Monster: He gets very jealous a couple of times, when Lancelot or Gwaine look particularly friendly with Gwen.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Arthur is chivalrous, noble, brave and honourable and he is pure of heart. Despite originally starting off as selfish, spoiled and entitled, even from the start he shows a streak of nobility (in the very first episode when his and Merlin's second mock duel ends with Merlin being dumped on his arse, he tells the guards to let Merlin go, because "He's a fool, but a brave fool"). He eventually shows his real personality once he goes through Character Development and learns to discard his Pride. His mother Ygraine, to whom he bears a Strong Family Resemblance to, was the embodiment of this trope as she was seen to be kind, good hearted, caring, and nurturing. Therefore, it seems as though Arthur inherited his good and pure heart from his mother. Arthur has Innocent Blue Eyes to match his Hair of Gold.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: In the beginning of the series he gets angry very easily over minor things. An indication of his maturity throughout the series is the frequency of his temper tantrum, especially towards Merlin.
• Hard Head: Arthur getting knocked out is both Running Gag and a convenient way to keep Merlin's magic from him.
• Hero Antagonist: Arthur occasionally lapses into this. While he's undoubtedly a good guy, he has been raised from birth to be distrustful of magic and will not hesitate to arrest anyone caught using it, even though the penalty is death. What separates him from Uther is that he does this not out of maliciousness, but because it is his Father's law and he's honour bound to obey it.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Arthur always uses his sword, even though he's shown to be quite handy with a mace.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • When his uncle betrays him, he breaks down very badly in 4x13 that he feels he must Abdicate the Throne because he was such a horrible leader. If it weren't for Merlin, Arthur wouldn't just be dead a thousand times over, he'd be insane.
  • Has a HUGE one in the series finale, when he discovers that the one person he trusts the most, his best friend (Merlin), is in fact a sorcerer and that Merlin had been lying to him for the whole time.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Drinks the (supposedly) poison for Merlin in "The Labyrinth of Gedref".
  • He intends to sacrifice himself to close the veil between the living and undead worlds in "The Darkest Hour"
  • He offers his life for Mordred's in "The Disir".
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Merlin. Arthur and Merlin originally don't like each other. Although, eventually, the two become very close and start to bond with each other, mostly because of the fact that their destinies and their paths are intertwined. Arthur repeatedly teases Merlin and makes fun of him, but regardless of Arthur's constant teasing of Merlin, he has shown to be very protective of him and has repeatedly shown that he does care for and love Merlin. It is also apparent that there are plenty of deep Ho Yay moments between the two, especially when they have deep and meaningful conversations with each other (where they end up sharing deep and meaningful glances with each other). But this is mostly due to Bradley James and Colin Morgan's intense and palpable onscreen chemistry with each other.
• Hidden Depths: He first appears as a spoilt royal Jerk Jock but as Merlin gets to know him better, his insecurities about his own worth as a leader and his genuine strong sense of honour surface.
• Homoerotic Subtext: With Merlin. Although Merlin and Arthur are Heterosexual Life-Partners and even more accurately, Vitriolic Best Buds, there is no doubt about it that Arthur and Merlin share the most Ho Yay moments of any duo in the series. Part of it has to do with the strong and undeniable onscreen (and off screen) chemistry between Bradley James and Colin Morgan. The other part of the reason for the strong homoerotic subtext and implications between the two is the fact that they frequently tease each other, seemingly having a love/hate relationship with each other. Therefore, their interactions with each other could be taken as Belligerent Sexual Tension. Also, there have been some sexual comments and innuendo that have been included in the dialogue between the two, although this is often Played for Laughs.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Honour? Chivalry? Bravery? Arthur has those qualities honed to perfection! Being capable of noticing if someone is Obviously Evil? He might need to work on that some more.
• Hot-Blooded: Arthur is hot headed, brash, impulsive and passionate by nature. He has a tendency to act before he thinks sometimes, especially when it comes to battle or fighting for Camelot. Both Merlin and Gwen often had to tame Arthur's impulsiveness and his brashness from time to time in order to prevent him from making impulsive decisions that could prove to be costly or detrimental. There is also the fact that Arthur has a bit of a temper, especially when he is angered, frustrated or irritated. His tendency towards throwing a tantrum, especially in the earlier seasons and before he became more pragmatic and went through Character Development, showcased his trait of having a temper. Seems that Arthur inherited his hot headiness and his temper from his father, Uther.
• Hunk: Arthur is very physically appealing to the female fans or audience. Although, Arthur's good looks lean more on the masculine side and he is not a Pretty Boy like Merlin, who is shown to be very delicate and fragile looking physically. Arthur also has plenty of Shirtless Scenes, solidifying his status as Mr. Fanservice.
• Iconic Outfit: Mail shirt with the Pendragon red cape.
• Incest Subtext:
  • Now that Morgana has been revealed to be his half-sister, their relationship in series 1 seems like this.
  • In the episode "Sins of the Father", Arthur meets the (young and beautiful) ghost of his mother, whose words inspire him to gallop straight home and nearly commit patricide.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: His Jerkass behaviour near the start of the series is quickly put down to his Freudian Excuse of having a very demanding and emotionally distant father, and it's clear in his insecurity with Guinevere, Merlin, Morgana, and Lancelot that he doesn't consider himself worthy of their affection or friendship, even as he takes them all for granted. Merlin and Gwen have to give him many pep talks about believing in himself instead of following his father's examples during his Heroic BSoD moments.
• I Have No Idea What I'm Doing:
  • Arthur wasn't entirely sure that his plan to smear himself in Gaia berries to confuse the Wilderen would be successful. Merlin is not hugely pleased when he finds out.
  • Arthur gets a moment of this when his father starts dying and he's about to be the new ruler.
  • Arthur in 4x11 when faced with marriage to a lovely princess or seeking out the woman that (he thinks) betrayed him, tells Merlin that he has no idea what to do.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Arthur begins to fall for Guinevere after she calls him out on his rude behaviour and he realizes that she's the only one who doesn't just tell him what he wants to hear.
  • Also the reason why Arthur and Merlin get along so well. Arthur acknowledges more than once in the series that he likes Merlin's impertinence, and actually gets worried when Merlin gets too quiet and deferential.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Has blue eyes that are appropriate to his heroic character. Matching his Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold, fitting the honourable, chivalrous Once and Future King.
• Innocently Insensitive: He doesn't realize that it is rude to refuse Hunith's breakfast in "The Moment of Truth" and his stay inconveniences Gwen in "The Once and Future Queen". Gwen calls him out on both cases.
• In-Series Nickname: Merlin calls Arthur "Clotpole" or "Dollophead". Arthur is never amused by this.
• Interclass Friendship:
  • He's a Prince, and later King, while Merlin is his servant. While they are genuine friends with Arthur proving that he's ready to sacrifice himself for Merlin, this difference in social class does create a serious power imbalance as Arthur doesn't treat Merlin as an equal.
  • Prior to their relationship becoming romantic this applied to Guinevere, and with Lancelot until he knighted him. However, while he got along with Elyan they seemingly didn't become friends until after he was knighted and while Arthur never found out Gwaine was in fact the son of a knight.
• Interspecies Friendship: With Merlin. Merlin is a warlock and a Dragon Lord with magical abilities and Arthur is a human.
• I Owe You My Life: Arthur infuriates his father early in Season 1 by going to insane lengths to save the life of a "servant boy" (Merlin) he hasn't even known for particularly long. Arthur points out repeatedly that Merlin was dying of a poisoning attempt intended for Arthur, and that Merlin's actions had saved Arthur's life.
• It's All About Me: Originally, Arthur was very entitled and self-centered even if he genuinely cares for the people of Camelot. He started to display humility as the series progressed.
• It's All My Fault: It says something about Arthur that when he is betrayed by his loved ones, the first question he asks is "Where did I go wrong?"
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: He complains about his life being planned out for him and the resulting expectations several times. Also, being the chosen one for him means he suffers from countless betrayals from people he loves.
• I Work Alone: Due to his father's influence, he believes that as a leader, he cannot afford to rely on anyone, especially emotionally. Merlin, Gwen and the knights prove him wrong.
• Jerk Jock: In his first appearance, he's an athletic knight who bullies the scrawny Merlin.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Arrogant and self-centered, but with a genuine sense of justice and near unshakeable loyalty to his friends, his people and his king. Nobody could really see the noble and good side of Arthur in the beginning because he had put up walls to prevent himself from appearing vulnerable to others. Hence why Arthur had such a hard time expressing himself and showing emotion and vulnerability. A lot of this had to do with having to be The Stoic because Uther had basically instilled upon him to be tough, firm and strong at all times and therefore, this made Arthur feel as if he was not able to show weakness when it was necessary.
• Kick the Dog: In one episode, Arthur went to go get a flower to cure Merlin against his father's orders. As soon as he came back, his own father imprisoned him for disobeying orders. Arthur didn't care if he stayed in prison for days or weeks, as long as the flower got to Merlin. He even begged his father to at least deliver the flower. Uther simply crushed the flower in front of Arthur, told him to get another servant and dropped the flower just out of Arthur's reach, to underline the lesson that people will die for him and he'd better get used to it.
• Last Girl Wins: Gender-Flipped Arthur may have known Gwen longer than her other two love interests, but he was the last to be introduced as a potential love interest for Gwen in 1x10 (though the ship was teased upon in 1x01 and 1x05).
• Last Request: Not to be left alone. And Merlin doesn't, living up to the present day waiting for him to return.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Played With between him and Merlin. Not that he wants to admit it, but Arthur becomes increasingly physically and emotionally reliant on Merlin, often devolving into panic or helplessness when he can't find Merlin or thinks he's in danger. This intensifies when he becomes King, to the point that Merlin becomes his constant companion and advisor and even foreigners (such as Mithian and Annis) pick up on Merlin's importance to him. While Uther, Agravaine, and others continually push Arthur to become more brutal, Merlin pushes him to stick to his ideals, which earns the respect of his rivals and helps usher in a golden era of peace.
  • At the same time, Arthur provides Merlin with a sense of purpose from the very beginning, then becomes a comfort and close friend to Merlin, until by Series 5 they nearly switch positions, with Arthur preventing an increasingly ruthless Merlin from Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
• Long Lost Sibling: Revealed to be a long lost paternal half-brother to Morgana. But she does not appear out of nowhere, she is present in his life as his father's ward.
• Magnetic Hero: His biggest asset as a leader is his ability to inspire respect and loyalty in other people.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Arthur and Gwen are essentially this trope because Arthur is royalty while Gwen is a servant girl and King Uther won't hear of a romance between them. Though Arthur is white and Gwen is mixed-race, race is not a factor in Uther's disapproval.
• Manly Men Can Hunt: At least six episodes and one deleted scene involve him out hunting in the forest with Merlin or his knights, in fact it's a crucial part of "The Labyrinth of Gedref" and "The Hunter's Heart". And occasionally played for laughs:

  Arthur: After Sophia left, I wanted to take my mind off things. So, I went for a hunt.

  Morgana: And killing things mends a broken heart?

  Arthur: No, but it's good fun.

• Master of Delusion: He was completely stunned when Merlin finally confessed his magical abilities to Arthur in the series finale. Despite the fact that by the final season, Merlin was straight-up doing magic right in front of him on multiple occasions. And once announced to Arthur and a roomful of people that he was a sorcerer. ^note  Some fans theorize that he must have been aware on some level, but couldn't reconcile it with his preconceptions that magic is evil, thus repressed the knowledge.
• Master Swordsman: Arthur is the best swordsman in Camelot, with only Lancelot consistently being his better.
• Marry for Love: He's determined to do this, and even manages to make it sound like a politically sensible idea: "I'll be a much better king for the strength and support of a woman I love."
• Martyr Without a Cause: Arthur is willing to die or sacrifice his life even when it isn't a wise thing.
• The McCoy (Freudian Trio): In the trio between himself, Merlin and Gwen, Arthur is The McCoy (arrogant, aggressive, impulsive, Hot-Blooded) to Merlin's The Spock (calm, logical, intelligent, The Chessmaster) and Gwen's The Kirk (motherly, nurturing, sensitive, The Heart). See Freudian Trio.
• Meaningful Name: The name Arthur means noble. However, it also means bear. His last name Pendragon means Head Dragon or Chief Dragon.
• The Men First: He is unwilling to risk his knights' lives, and can go to great lengths for them.
• The Millstone: Aside from the problems he has caused himself, how many times has Arthur's general refusal to listen to Merlin, follow common sense, or even consider that someone Obviously Evil is...well..evil... made the problem worse? He gets better throughout the show, but still refuses to believe he is wrong.
• Missing Mom: She's long dead... and it's Uther's fault (though, to be fair, not his choice).
• Modest Royalty: Even though Arthur can appear arrogant, he doesn't always believe that he is worthy of his position as leader and King of Camelot. Merlin and Guinevere have to constantly remind Arthur that he is worthy of his position.
• Morality Chain: To Merlin. As a contrast to Morgana, who doesn't use her power for anyone else, Merlin's loyalty to Arthur designates the warlock as the "good" guy.
• Morality Pet: Was this to his father for most of the show, as most of Uther's more likable/redeeming moments involve Arthur until season 5, at least, when Uther's spirit returns in one episode.
• Mr. Fanservice: With his endless shirtless scenes, he's a treat for anyone who appreciates male beauty.
• Muggle Best Friend: To Merlin.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Arthur's first reaction when he sees Lancelot kissing Guinevere.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Can tell there's something about Merlin, looks worried after realizing the boy he liberated is Mordred, and guessing from the musical cue, can sense the importance of Excalibur. However, he always thinks It's Probably Nothing, so this is pretty much useless.
  • Interestingly, on occasions where Merlin is upset about something he can't share with Arthur, Arthur is often able to guess at the issue and land on an incorrect, but related, supposition that makes sense to him. For example, when Merlin is depressed about Freya, Arthur guesses he's upset that Arthur had dumped water on him earlier. When Merlin is worried about meeting Balinor, his father, Arthur guesses that Merlin misses Gaius, his foster-father.
• Named Weapons: The infamous Excalibur, the sword that is basically created especially for him. However, the name only appears as title for an episode and is never mentioned by the characters.
• Nice to the Waiter: Arthur flip-flops with this in regard to Merlin. While he clearly assumes he's the superior and constantly insults and berates Merlin while Merlin's trying to do his job, he has shown that he cares about the common people and occasionally shows Merlin some measure of affection and respect.
  • He's also willing to risk his life to protect or save Merlin without a second thought.
• No Guy Wants an Amazon: It's subtle, but it's there, with Arthur getting rather stand-offish at the sight of any Action Girl (or at least surprised by the activities of Tom Boys). He instead prefers the feminine and nurturing Guinevere, whose appeal lies in her forthrightness and/or supportiveness. He has congratulated Gwen on her bravery in combat, but it's clear that he prefers her to stay well out of such situations.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: Arthur is the Noble Male to Merlin's Roguish Male. While Arthur is very noble and chivalrous, Merlin is more careless and is willing to use underhanded means from time to time to accomplish his goals or mission.
• Noble Bigot: While Arthur was raised to hate magic, it's seems he actually merely distrusts it. Several episodes imply that he only hunts down sorcerers because it's the law and personally, he doesn't care about magic as long as it stays out of Camelot.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: Never explicitly, but the best way to get Arthur to do something is to insult his bravery.
• The Not-Love Interest: To Merlin, who will go to extreme lengths for him not only because he is prophecized to be the Once and Future King who will bring back magic but also because he has become a friend.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Arthur often seems to be deliberately ignoring things or making excuses to disguise anything strange. For instance, in an early episode he tries to suggest that Tom had some other illness rather than the currently deadly plague ravaging Camelot, knowing that otherwise he'll be accused of sorcery.
• Official Couple: With Gwen. At the end of season four, they get married and become the Ruling Couple of Camelot.
• Only Mostly Dead: In several episodes, he's on the verge of dying. And it's true to the legend about coming back when the world needs him the most.
• Opposites Attract: In regards to his romance with Gwen. While Gwen was a poor servant, Arthur is a wealthy royal.
• Overlord Jr.: Arthur qualifies completely. A bit of a "Well Done, Son" Guy, extremely loyal to his father, although he increasingly questions his most hardline policies, particularly on magic (which is logical, because Uther's stance on that particular matter is heavily irrational).
• Pet the Dog: Arthur is particularly brutal to Merlin in the early part of the series before he starts maturing, but once or twice in any given episode shows genuine friendship or concern towards him as well, including taking serious risks for Merlin or going against his father for him.
• Pinball Protagonist: Happens a lot to Arthur, particularly in the later seasons.
  • In one notable example is in The Eye of the Phoenix, Arthur has a vision that instructs him to seek out the Trident in the lands of the Fisher King. He wanders all the way to the Perilous Lands where he's promptly knocked unconscious by a spirit-destroying bracelet given to him by Morgana. Merlin follows in his wake, meets the Fisher King, retrieves the true MacGuffin (the trident is useless) and is told that the entire journey was for his benefit. Arthur was just the catalyst for getting him there, and one can't help but wonder why the vision wasn't just sent to Merlin in the first place.
• The Power of Trust: Arbitrary Skepticism to Merlin's claims aside, he's the most trusting person in the whole cast and that makes him sympathetic and earns him incredibly loyal knights. On the flip side, unfortunately for him, just about every loved one in his life betrays him one way or another.
• Prince Charming: Especially to visiting ladies.
• The Promise: "When I am King, I promise you; things will be different. We can be together."
• The Proud Elite: In the beginning. He becomes less arrogant as the series progressed.
• Puppet King: Sadly, he comes across as this in series 4, spending the entire thirteen episodes being manipulated by Agravaine or blind-sided by Merlin. The only clean victory he gets (without any secret help from Merlin) is freeing the spirit of the Druid boy. Everything else, including his retrieval of Excalibur in the Stone, is in some way organised and controlled by Merlin.
• Rage Breaking Point: When Arthur confronts Gwen about kissing Lancelot on the night before their wedding. He starts out speaking quietly and calmly, listing reasons for her behavior. When she doesn't agree with any of them he completely loses it, starts yelling, and grabs her by the shoulders. Almost immediately, though, the rage subsides and he apologizes.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Uther's education philosophy. Arthur has to prove his worth as Crown Prince through tournaments and military leadership.
• Real Men Get Shot: In The Fires Of Idirsholas, Arthur is almost delighted by the fact that Merlin has sustained his "first battle wound!"
• Real Men Hate Affection: He prefers to show fondness for Merlin and Morgana through backhanded compliments and snarking contests.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Arthur is a fair and just king, significantly more fair and just than his father, Uther.
• Red Baron: The King Of Camelot, Courage, The Once And Future King.
• Red Is Heroic: Arthur is a swordfighting knight with red as his wardrobe's most dominant color. His long cloak with the pendragon crest is especially noteworthy.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Arthur is the Red to Merlin's Blue. Arthur is more hot-blooded, impulsive and passionate, while Merlin is more practical, logical and intelligent.
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Arthur in the episode "The Once and Future Queen", when he's staying with Gwen. He says he'd like to take a bath, she tells him that might be hard as she doesn't own a bathtub, and he just stares at her, speechless.
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: In regards to the love triangle between himself, Gwen and Lancelot. While Arthur is a wealthy royal (Rich Suitor), Lancelot is a poor commoner (Poor Suitor).
• Risking the King: He usually jumps head first into dangers, to Merlin and Gwen's distress.
• Royal Blood: Arthur comes from a family of royalty in which is father (Uther) is the King of Camelot. Once Uther died, Arthur became King.
• Royal Brat: Basically Arthur's middle name. One of Merlin's nicknames for him is "Royal Prat".
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The series shows him to be not only the Camelot's heir apparent, but also the day-to-day commander of the kingdom's armed forces. He not only leads them in battle, but also recruits the knights and oversees their training. He also seems to be the closest thing that the kingdom has to a sheriff or chief of police. If any "crime" occurs, it's usually Arthur that's sent to investigate.
• Ruling Couple: With Queen Guinevere since season four. Subverted since Arthur dies at the end of the series.
• Say My Name: Says Merlin's name really quite frequently, including screaming it whenever Merlin isn't nearby, whispering or shouting it whenever he thinks Merlin's in danger, and also sometimes emphasizes the first syllable as "MUR-lin" when he's mocking him. He's even mumbled Merlin's name in his sleep on multiple occasions, to the point that when he wakes up saying Merlin's name in 5x12, Gwen barely seems surprised.
  • Always addresses and refers to Gwen by her proper name, "Guinevere", even after they marry.
• Selective Obliviousness: Not counting not knowing Merlin has magic, Arthur seems to have rewired his brain to ignore everything that Merlin does competently to the point where it seems like he's consciously unaware he's doing it. This actually gets pointed out to him in With All My Heart, and he's still unable to grasp the idea.
  Merlin: Without Merlin, your queen would still be lost.
  Arthur: Not sure that's true.^note Let's see, what did Merlin do to free Gwen again? Oh, yeah, he figured out she was brainwashed and found a way to cure her!
• The Spock/Superego (Freudian Trio): In the team of three consisting of himself (Courage), Merlin (Magic) and Gwaine (Strength), Arthur is The Spock/Superego (serious, noble, honourable, The Stoic, The Strategist, Knight in Shining Armor) to Merlin's The Kirk/Ego (balanced, neutral, peacemaker between the opposing personalities of Arthur and Gwaine, friends with both Arthur and Gwaine, Take a Third Option, The Heart, The Conscience) and Gwaine's The McCoy/Id (fun loving, roguish, rebellious, Loveable Rogue, Knight in Sour Armor, Plucky Comic Relief).
• Spoiled Brat: So much. Especially in the beginning.
• Stay with Me Until I Die: Arthur tells Merlin in the series finale before he knows he's about to die for Merlin to stay with him and hold him.
• The Stoic: Arthur didn't show all that much emotion early on in the series. Merlin and Gwen's influence manages to change that quite dramatically.
• The Strategist
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: He maintains a stoic demeanour when in front of his father, the court and his knights, but relaxes considerably when he's alone with Merlin, and is quite the big softie when it comes to Guinevere.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: How he acknowledges Merlin's wisdom without having to actually admit Merlin's right. Examples include?
  It's turns out Merlin's not always entirely stupid.
  It appears on this single solitary occasion you might have been right.
  I should have listened to you, Merlin. For once, you were right.
• Sword and Sorcerer: Arthur is the Sword to Merlin's Sorcerer.
• These Hands Have Killed: The Herald of a New Age reveals that he has done pretty horrible things in the past before Merlin arrives in Camelot.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Chucks one at a cockatrice.
• Tragic Bromance: With Merlin. Arthur dies at the end of the series while Merlin stays with him.
• Tragic Hero: Arthur grew up trying to please an emotionally distant father. Most of the people he trusts betray him one way or another for different reasons. All his efforts to be a good king turn out to be not enough and Camelot is repeatedly threatened because of his tendency to blindly trust the wrong person.
• Trauma Conga Line: The end of series 3 and series 4 are not kind to him. Morgana usurps the throne of Camelot, leaving his father a broken shell. His father later dies under circumstances that he blames himself for. Guinevere apparently cheats on him with Lancelot. To top it all, it turns out his uncle Agravaine has been betraying him all along. He's in such a bad Heroic BSoD that Merlin has to find a Magic Feather for him to regain faith in himself.
• 24-Hour Armour: It's not very consistent, but sometimes he can wear his armour at the oddest times, including to banquets and other casual celebrations.
• The Unfavorite: It seemed as though Uther favoured Morgana over him. Uther was more tough on Arthur than he was towards Morgana.
• Unfit for Greatness: Sometimes Arthur believes that he is not a worthy king or leader. He needs many pep talks from others, primarily Merlin and Gwen, in order to believe that he is a worthy king and leader of Camelot. In the season four finale, Arthur loses all hope in himself that he is worthy of being the King of Camelot, even agreeing with Tristan that there is nothing special about him that grants him worthy of his power and position. It takes Merlin getting Arthur to pull Excalibur out of a stone for Arthur to believe and have faith in himself again.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Gwen. It's resolved by the end of series four when they get married.
• Unwitting Muggle Friend: For the whole series, Arthur was completely unaware and in the dark about Merlin being a powerful warlock who possessed magic. Merlin kept his secret from Arthur out of fear that Arthur would banish him or execute him. This is now subverted in the series finale, when Merlin FINALLY reveals the truth to Arthur that he is a powerful sorcerer. Much to Merlin's surprise, Arthur comes to accept Merlin and his magic, despite being extremely shocked and disgusted at first.
• Vague Age: Out of all the young cast, it's generally accepted that he was twenty-one in the first series, thus making him twenty-nine by the fifth.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Merlin, usually accompanied with throwing things on his side.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Arthur has plenty of them throughout the series, that it's too many to count.
• Warrior Prince: Arthur may be the Prince of Camelot but he is also a the best and strongest warrior in Camelot. His strength in combat and fighting is one of Arthur's defining characteristics and he is often known or regarded by others as the best warrior and fighter in the land.
• Was It All a Lie?: After Merlin comes clean to him about having magic, he questions everything he knows about Merlin.

  Arthur: So you're not an idiot, that was another lie

• We Used to Be Friends: In regards to Morgana, after she did a Face–Heel Turn.
• Weapon Twirling: Often does this with his sword, especially when he has the time to do so before he goes in for the kill. Arthur twirling his sword seems to be one of his trademarks or his signatures as a warrior and a fighter, since it is not seen amongst other characters, such as the Knights of Camelot.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Growing out of his desire to please his father is a big part of his characterisation.
• Will They or Won't They?: His relationship or romance with Guinevere. Their budding relationship constantly grows strained because of their different social classes. Arthur and Gwen eventually become an Official Couple in series 4 once Uther, who had strongly disapproved of Arthur and Gwen's relationship because of their differing social statues, passes away and Arthur becomes King of Camelot. Arthur then asks Gwen to marry him and become his Queen. Arthur and Gwen are Happily Married at the end of series 4 and they become the Ruling Couple as King and Queen of Camelot.
  • The magic reveal subplot with Merlin has shades of this too. For 5 series, Merlin's secret of being a sorcerer is kept secret from Arthur and from pretty much all of the major characters in the series (including Uther, Morgana, Gwen, Gwaine, etc) with the exception Gaius and Lancelot. However, in the series 5 finale, Arthur discovers Merlin's true identity as a very powerful sorcerer, when Merlin reveals his secret to Arthur as he is dying.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Unlike Merlin or Uther. Arthur has shown that he has a very strong respect for the opposite sex and he would never resort to the use of violence or combat against women. He has shown this trait in his confrontations with Morgana. Even though Morgana is his ultimate enemy, Arthur still cannot find it in himself to physically attack Morgana in any way and would rather defeat Morgana by using more diplomatic approaches.
• Young and in Charge: Arthur becomes King of Camelot during his 20's. But this occurs, because his father ends up tragically dying at the beginning of season 4. Basically, Uther's death had forced the position of being the ruler of Camelot onto Arthur at a much earlier time then expected or prepared.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: It's hinted that Arthur, despite his arrogance, suffers from low self-esteem thanks to the high expectations of his father. It's usually Merlin and Guinevere who provide the moral support needed for him to really embrace his role as a leader and future king.

Morgana

Lady Morgana Pendragon

"I am a High Priestess. No mortal blade can kill me."

Portrayed By: Katie McGrath

"What if... magic isn't something you choose? What if it chooses you?"

Morgana is the beautiful ward of Uther who suffers from premonitions in her dreams, unaware that she is in fact, a seer. She is close to her maidservant Gwen. Her strong sense of justice often clashes with Uther's rules and judgement. In series 2, Morgana discovers that she is a seer, but fears what Uther may do if he finds out she has magic. She also briefly befriends the sorceress Morgause, unaware that Morgause is her half-sister. However, Morgana's growing resentment towards Uther and his treatment of those who use magic inevitably leads to her Face–Heel Turn. When she is used as a catalyst for a spell under Camelot, Merlin is forced to poison her. Morgause rescues Morgana, and it is implied that she can save her life. In series 3, Morgana has been recovered and returned to Camelot, but she is firmly set on the Dark Side, pretending to be the "loving ward" while she secretly plots with Morgause for the downfall of Uther and Camelot.

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• Accomplice by Inaction: Believes all of Camelot is this.
• Action Girl: In season 1/2 and season 3 respectively. As well as the last episode of season 4.
• Action Fashionista: Morgana loves fashion plus she's an Action Girl to boot.
• Adaptational Name Change: There is no mention of her traditional surname of le Fay, and instead once she finds out that Uther is her father she is referred to as Morgana Pendragon.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Compared to older versions of Morgan le Fay. Morgana actually starts out as a heroic character before Slowly Slipping Into Evil. She was born with magic but tries to keep it suppressed because her guardian King Uther despises magic and persecutes anyone who practices it, so she lives in fear for years. Her half-sister Morgause manipulates her into turning against her friends; their own actions don't help as Merlin poisons Morgana to force Morgause into calling off an attack and Morgause subsequently whisks her away from Camelot for months, not allowing Merlin to explain. And then Morgana discovers Uther is actually her biological father via an affair with her mother but never told her this, and then killed the man who raised her in an UriahGambit , so she's understandably upset and hacked off. She then decides she'd make a much better ruler than either Uther or Arthur, spurred on by Morgause.
• A God Am I: Well, not god as far as we know, but she certainly doesn't consider herself on the level of Muggles, and even treats her own kind with contempt if she has no use for them.
  Morgana: I am more powerful than you could ever imagine.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: She seemed particularly interested in both Valiant in season one and Alvarr in season two.
• Always Second Best: The mere mention of "Emrys" is enough to reduce to her a nervous wreck. It's repeatedly shown that compared to Merlin, she's basically an ant. According to Merlin however, the day she grew more powerful than him was not far away but nothing ever came of it. The writers have confirmed that by the time of the second to last episode, she had grown as powerful as him so she didn't actually even need to take away Merlin's powers. When he emerges from the crystal cave, he's more powerful than ever before.
• Ambition Is Evil: Morgana's thirst for power and to become Queen of Camelot and gain entitlement to the throne at any cost, including trying to kill her own half brother (Arthur) and turning against her own former best friend (Gwen), is nothing but pure evil. Morgana's hunger for power turned out to be her ultimate downfall.
• Antagonistic Offspring: To Uther.
• Anti-Hero: Pre-Moral Event Horizon. Morgana could be classified as Pragmatic Hero and Unscrupulous Hero.
• Anti-Villain: TypeII and III. Afterwards, she goes from a qualmless and often emotionless Well-Intentioned Extremist traumatized by her experiences and mostly seeing things in their light to a more thoughtful and calculating but also more human and confused antagonist, with a slight episode of Sanity Slippage (thus being technically a type III for anyone who sees her as a villain and doesn't choose the popular Alternative Character Interpretation).
• Arch-Enemy:
  • To Merlin, though she doesn't fully understand to what extent until the very end. After her Face–Heel Turn, she hates Merlin for trying to poison her but largely sees him as an annoyance while Uther and Arthur are her true enemies. Then she learns that the man named Emrys, who she sees in a vision, is destined to be her doom, not knowing that Emrys is actually Merlin aged into an old man using an aging potion. It's only in the Grand Finale that she finally learns the truth.
  • Once Arthur learns the truth about her and becomes King, she firmly becomes his main enemy.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: With Arthur, although the specifics of this trope don't apply due to their mostly siblingly relationship.
• Axe-Crazy: Definitely becomes this season four onwards albeit in a rather cold and manipulative way.
• Badass Boast: Morgana has zero problem with using her powers to try to intimidate others.
• Badass Normal: Before she discovered that she was a witch who possessed magical abilities.
• Bad Boss: Consistently treats Agravaine poorly and is very quick to insult and blame him when things go wrong, even though he has been of enormous help to her at great personal risk.
• Bastard Bastard: After her Face–Heel Turn, before which she was a compassionate, good-hearted young woman. It is revealed Morgana is the illegitimate daughter of King Uther and a woman named Vivienne.
• Batman Gambit: Towards every character in the series, primarily to Arthur, Merlin and Gwen. Morgana often used manipulation (primarily with the use of magic) in order to cause harm to others.
• The Beautiful Elite: Especially in season's one and two. Not to mention that Morgana does come from Royal Blood, although that was unknown in the first few seasons.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Eventually subverted.
• Beauty Is Bad: From season three onwards after Morgana did a Face–Heel Turn.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: She went through many personality changes after series 2. You can find almost no similarities between her former self and her new self. Morgana was at first a confident, brave, and always compassionate young woman, who didn't judge any differences between magicians and non-magicians. After she discovers she has magical powers and would thus be hunted by Uther and shunned in Camelot, she becomes insecure and paranoid. Her feelings of isolation and lack of self-worth make her more self-focused. She slowly begins seeing everyone in Camelot as an enemy and reinterprets her relationships with them. After a betrayal, she begins to feel justified in her fear and considers all non-magic users in Camelot as worthless and cruel enemies who deserve to die. She then uses her insight into their inner lives to trap them, manipulate their minds, and ruin their romantic plot lines.
• Big Bad: In series four and onwards. She is the opposite of Arthur, the Big Good.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In the first episode of series 3 alone, Morgana's killed a knight, plotted with Morgause for the downfall of Uther and Camelot, while making numerous Psychotic Smirks to pretty much let us know she's way into The Dark Side.
• Big "NO!": In 3x13, after Morgause is gravely injured; she literally brings the roof down.
• Birds of a Feather: With Merlin, Mordred and Morgause. All have the gift of magic, although Morgana is originally unaware of that Merlin has magic.
• Black Cloak: In series 4, complete with hood.
• Bling of War: Morgana's "action gear" involves a shiny metal corset of some kind. Unless she were shot directly in the stomach, it's utterly impractical.
• Bracelet Of Power: Morgana wears a special bracelet which was given to her by her half sister Morgause. The bracelet has magical power.
• Braids of Action: Whenever she has time to prepare for a fight, her hair is put back in a braid.
• Brainy Brunette: Of the Manipulative Bitch type.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Practically an inversion. She could be quite bratty in the first series (understandably so, given her status) when she was merely Uther's ward, but by the time her true parentage is revealed, she had moved from "bratty" to "homicidal".
• Break the Cutie: Although she has become evil, everything had gone wrong for Morgana. It is probably the biggest reason why Morgana did a Face–Heel Turn to begin with.
• Broken Bird: Morgana's resentment towards Uther's hatred for magic and those who use magic led to her Face–Heel Turn, so much that Merlin sympathizes with her in 3x02 and even tries to pull a "I Know You're In There Somewhere" Fight.
• Brother–Sister Incest: With Arthur. In the first season, there were hints of a Arthur/Morgana pairing, but in the third season, it was discovered that Arthur is her half-brother due to the fact that she and Arthur share the same father, Uther. Which is interesting, considering that in the original Arthurian legend, it's Arthur and Morgause, not Morgana, who have an incestuous relationship as the parents of Mordred (although adaptations often fold Morgause into Morgana and give her these relationships).
• Butt-Monkey: Even before her Heel–Face Turn, the writers did not seem to like her.
• Cain and Abel: With Arthur. In terms of roles, Morgana is the Cain (the Big Bad) to Arthur's Abel (the Big Good). She spends most of her time plotting to bring Arthur down and has made many attempts to kill him and make him suffer. And it seems as though she doesn't even care even after learning that he's her half brother. It's a far fall from when she actively defended him in 1x07. See Sibling Yin-Yang.
• The Caligula: Her short stints as Queen of Camelot didn't seem to involve anything except demanding that the people accept her as their ruler, killing them when they refused, and burning their crops just to drive the point home. Indeed, it often appears that Morgana seems to be under the delusion that by taking the throne of Camelot, everyone will automatically bow down and worship her as their new Queen. Thus her plans always spectacularly fail to take into account exactly why everyone has such Undying Loyalty towards Arthur.
• Catapult Nightmare: Plenty. They get worse as the series goes on.
• The Chessmaster: Morgana has no problem using and manipulating people to get what she wants.
• The Chosen One: According to the Dochraid, she's destined to bring back the Old Religion. Given that she's the Big Bad of the series and is killed by Merlin in the Grand Finale, it's doubtful that this is true.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: After losing Morgause, Morgana is never fully loyal again, even to the magic users who serve under her. This eventually becomes her biggest downfall.
• Chronic Villainy: Morgana cannot stop committing evil acts.
• Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive: A couple of times in series three.
• Cleavage Window: Most of her outfits.
• Color-Coded Eyes: Morgana's eye colour, which is one of her most noticeable and defining physical features. Interestingly enough, her green eye colour reflects on her personality and her temperament as a person, especially considering that she did a Face–Heel Turn after series 2. Morgana has always been somewhat of a jealous and envious personality, even before she became evil and consumed with darkness and hatred, but her jealous nature and her thirst for revenge became even more amplified and obvious after she became evil and turned to the dark side. Morgana particularly aimed her jealousy towards Arthur and Guinevere, so much that she spent all of her time plotting against the both of them.
• Complexity Addiction: Hoo boy. Nearly every single one of Morgana's plans falls under this trope.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Ended by Series 3.
• Consummate Liar: Morgana is always lying.
• Costume Porn: Morgana's entire wardrobe, including dresses that wouldn't look too out of place at a cocktail party.
• Convenient Coma: She ends up in at least three of these over the course of the series.
• Cool Big Sis: To Arthur. At least in series 1. Ironically, neither of them knew it at the time, and when they both finally realize that she is his half-sister, she's already tried to kill him several times.
• Cool Crown: At the end of season three, when she is briefly crowned Queen of Camelot.
• Corrupt the Cutie: She became evil after her half sister Morgause started to manipulate her over to the dark side.
• The Corrupter: Could be to every character on the show. But mostly to Gwen in season five. Also, to Merlin, when she tried to brainwash him into killing Arthur at any cost in season four.
• The Corruptible: It could be argued that Morgana was easily swayed over to the dark side because of how broken, fragile and vulnerable she was emotionally, psychologically and mentally. Darkness had already existed inside of her but it could be that a combination of psychological and mental issues, a dysfunctional family (being a Pendragon), the people she surrounded herself with (bad influences such as Morgause, Agravaine and even Uther) and the people who had somewhat of an influence on her turning evil (such as Merlin's betrayal, finding out that Uther arranged an Uriah Gambit on her father, and finding out he was her father, ect) is most likely what caused her to be so corruptible and what was able to let the darkness fully consume her to the point where she was filled with nothing but anger, hatred, jealousy and vengefulness on the inside.
• Cute and Psycho: She was getting there in series 4, but seems to have fully crossed into this in series 5.
• Daddy's Little Villain: To Uther of course.
• Dark Is Evil: Morgana started dressing like Bellatrix Lestrange in season four. In season five, she strays from the Bellatrix look, but continues to wear black from head to toe.
• Dark Messiah: The Dochraid prophesies that Morgana will bring back the Old Religion to the land. A contrast to Merlin, who is the prophecised sorcerer who will guide Albion into a Golden Age.
• The Dark Side: Morgana becomes evil and does a Face–Heel Turn in season three. She becomes darker and darker as the series progresses, so much that she is no longer recognizable to the character she was in season's one and two.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: She starts out with the best of intentions, (her first act of treason is to avenge the death of her best friend's father), but her fear and tendency to take everything personally eventually leads to violence and genocide.
• Deadpan Snarker: Before she had her Face–Heel Turn, she had her witty and humorous moments.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Only to revert back into an Ice Queen in series 3.
• The Determinator: Morgana will do anything, anything, to gain access to the throne of Camelot, including killing people, causing destruction, and betraying and backstabbing others (like Arthur). Hell, she has started wars due to her determination to get what she wants. Morgana is probably one of the most determined characters in the entire series, probably up there with Merlin.
• Diminishing Villain Threat: The more Morgana tries to kill Arthur, the less threatening she becomes. It quickly becomes clear that without Morgause around to make the plans, she's out of her depth.
• Does Not Like Men: An unusual case. In the first two series she was portrayed as friendly and flirty toward men, but as she falls further into evil she becomes less and less interested, to the point where she appears practically asexual in her complete lack of awareness of them.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Morgana has the ability to see the future.
• Driven by Envy: This seems to be the source of her new-found hatred toward Guinevere, considering that her former serving maid is destined to be Queen of Camelot - a position that Morgana believes is hers. Then again, it could be because Gwen chose Arthur over her after she invaded Camelot.
• Driven to Madness: Morgana being betrayed by Merlin at the end of season two and watching Uther, her father, endlessly execute her kind (magic users) as well as deny being her father to the public caused her (who already has a host of psychological and mental issues to start with) to become obsessive, sociopathic and insane.
• Driven to Villainy: Many factors contributed to Morgana doing a Face–Heel Turn.
• Drunk with Power: After Morgana discovered that she had magic and became very powerful, she used her powerful magical abilities to destroy Camelot and bring down Arthur.
• Dysfunction Junction: Morgana is a highly dysfunctional individual. Her upbringing and her family (the Pendragons) are the most dysfunctional royal family ever.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Morgana has very dark hair with extremely pale complexion. It is very noticeable, especially when she wears black clothing.
• Empowered Badass Normal: After Morgana gained her magical abilities. Not only did Morgana become a powerful witch and High Priestess, but she is also a master swordswoman and highly skilled in combat, skills which she possessed before she gained any of her magic.
• Ermine Cape Effect: Well, Morgana is royalty after all.
• Et Tu, Brute?: She did not take Merlin's betrayal or Uther not publicly recognizing her as his biological daughter well...
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Although Morgana is evil with bad intentions, it is clear that she cared for a few select group of people such as Morgause, Mordred, and Aithusa.
• Evil Costume Switch: As of series four, Morgana wears a gothic black dress and green eye-shadow with dark eyeliner, as well as having wild hair.
• Evil Counterpart: To Merlin. See Foil.
• Evil Feels Good: Justified. After becoming a sorceress, the only time she doesn't feel terrified and alone is when she's associating with the bad guys. Although she subverts it with Uther's death. Agravaine expects her to rejoice, but she's in a Troubled Fetal Position and wondering why she feels so empty.
• Evil Former Friend: To Gwen, Arthur and Merlin.
• Evil Gloating: There was never a time when Morgana didn't gloat about how powerful she was and how she would defeat Emrys and become Queen of Camelot one day.
• Evil Is Petty: Sure, her animosity toward Uther and Merlin is justified, but her treatment of Gwen is just catty and mean. Though Gwen did betray her for Arthur after she invaded Camelot.
• Evil Mentor: To Mordred and Aithusa, sort of.
• Evil Plan: To destroy Uther, bring down both Arthur and Gwen, defeat Emrys (Merlin) and rule Camelot as Queen. She fails.
• Evil Sorcerer: Gender-inverted. Morgana is a very powerful witch and a High Priestess. However, she uses her magic for evil purposes and she also practices Black Magic. She uses her magic to bring down Arthur and the rest of Camelot. Morgana is the opposite of Merlin, who is a good or benevolent magic user who practices White Magic.
• Evil Wears Black: After Morgana does a Face–Heel Turn, she starts to wear much more black or darker colours, indicating her status as someone who has turned to the dark side. In the earlier series, Morgana wore brighter colours such as purple, blue and green for example, which had reflected not only her royal status but her good natured personality.
• Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: After Morgana became evil, she started to wear heavier eye makeup, such as heavier eyeliner and heavier eyeshadow (the colour of her eyeshadow was green). Before Morgana became evil, she wore much lighter makeup.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Morgana's hair style change is vert noticeable after she does a Face–Heel Turn.
• Face–Heel Turn: In season three onwards.
• Fallen Hero: Morgana was originally a kind and nice person who had shown herself to be compassionate and understanding. However, she does a Face–Heel Turn in series 3 and becomes evil, succumbing to The Dark Side. There are many factors that contributed to Morgana becoming the way that she did, such as her dysfunctional upbringing, feeling like an outsider within Camelot as somebody who possesses magic, watching those like her constantly being ostracized and killed because of who they are, being corrupted by immoral people (Agravaine, Morgause, even Uther) and being betrayed by those she considered to be her friends.
• False Friend: Towards Merlin, and later towards Arthur, Gwen, and (in a daughterly manner) Uther.
• Faux Affably Evil: Morgana appeared this way to everyone, including to Merlin, Arthur, Uther, and Gwen, during the beginning of season three. She appeared to be polite and nice to everyone's faces, primarily Uther and Gwen. However, Morgana had already slipped over to the dark side. She became full-on evil in the later part of season three onwards.
• Flirty Step Siblings: Arthur and Morgana are kind of like this during series 1 since Uther is the guardian of Morgana, and she is like a daughter to him. It is almost as if Uther adopted Morgana, which would make Arthur and Morgana like step-siblings.
  • As of 3x05, Arthur and Morgana fall into Brother–Sister Incest, given that they share the same father.
• Foil: To Merlin. She's consistently referred to as "witch" in parallel to Merlin's "warlock". They both have great power and live in loneliness because of it, and are both prophesied to bring magic back. However, she's more unforgiving of non-magical people's fears and mistrusts than Merlin, and are more inclined to take out her resentment on them. As the Great Dragon puts it, she's the darkness to his light, the hatred to his love. She is also the Dark Messiah to Merlin's Messianic Archetype. She's also a noble as opposed to Merlin's commoner background.
• Foregone Conclusion: Morgana becoming evil (or at least becoming an enemy of Camelot and its people).
• Freudian Excuse: There are various and understandable reasons as to why Morgana did a Face–Heel Turn. Some of them include her dysfunctional upbringing, watching Uther (her own father) consistently persecute and execute those of her kind (magic users), having to hide her identity as a witch within Camelot out of fear of being executed, suffering from psychological, emotional and mental issues, and also being betrayed by both Uther and Merlin.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Averted. It's not that Morgana was nobody, it's that Morgana goes from being a "normal" King's Ward into one of the most powerful and most dangerous characters in the entire series. Most of this has to do with the fact that Morgana became completely corruptible and let power, jealousy, anger and greed take over her and her motivations.
• The Gift: When Morgana finally accepts her magical powers, sometime between seasons three and four, she becomes a High Priestess after one year of training. She eventually becomes a serious threat to Merlin, who is the most powerful warlock in history. She is a skilled swordswoman and is always able to get her hands on an army.
• Girly Bruiser: Morgana is very feminine but she's a rather capable fighter and is pretty handy with a sword.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Inverted. More like Psycho Girl With Weapon. It's not that the weapon Morgana often has on her (mostly a sword or a knife) is psycho, it's that Morgana is psycho.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Morgana was crowned Queen of Camelot in one of the final two episodes of season three. Also, she was momentarily Queen in season four.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: When Morgana was still good in the first two seasons, she wore lighter colours such as blue, purple and green. However, after Morgana did a Face–Heel Turn, she started to wear much darker colours, specifically black.
• Good Girl Gone Bad: Morgana went from being a kind, caring, compassionate and understanding person to someone selfish, hateful, manipulative, vengeful, and jealous. There are many factors that contributed to Morgana doing a Face–Heel Turn such as growing up in a dysfunctional family and environment, being rejected or not being acknowledged by her real father (Uther), feeling like an outsider within Camelot as someone who possesses magic, seeing people of her kind (magic users) constantly being persecuted and killed by the hand of her own father, and being betrayed by people she saw or referred to as her friends (i.e. Merlin).
• Good Hair, Evil Hair: Morgana's hair changed rather dramatically between the time she was "good" and when she became bad. Morgana's Face–Heel Turn takes her from shiny, flowing tresses to a bird's nest of messy hair that seems to include dreadlocks.
• Go Mad from the Isolation: For two years in between series 4 and 5, Morgana and Aithusa were locked at the bottom of a well away from the sun. It seems to have shattered nearly every remnant of sanity she had left.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: She gets no less than four purple dresses over the course of the first three series, two of silk and two of velvet: one◊, two◊, three◊, four◊ which denote her status as the king's ward, as well as the fact that she is also of Royal Blood ( considering that she is King Uther's illegitimate daughter after all.)
• Green-Eyed Monster: Morgana is strongly driven by envy, jealousy and revenge. It became more evident after she became evil. Even before Morgana turned to darkness, she still possessed somewhat of a jealous and envious personality and temperament.
• Hard Head: Holds the record for being knocked unconscious more than any other character on the show, which is saying something. What do you expect? She's Merlin's equivalent of Lex Luthor.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: At the end of the second season, Morgana is unknowingly the source of an enchantment that has put everyone in Camelot to sleep. The only way to break the enchantment is to kill the source (the source being Morgana) - so Merlin poisons her. Throughout that season, Morgana had been teetering between good and evil but this act of betrayal (Merlin's betrayal against her) acts as a catalyst. So when she returns a year later, her half sister Morgause has corrupted her completely. Then in a season three episode, Morgana discovers that she is King Uther's birth daughter. When he refuses to acknowledge her, it's a pretty definitive door slam for Morgana.
• Heroic BSoD: Kate McGrath said that Morgana sort of "shuts down" in 2x12 as she realizes her role in Morgause's plot.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: By the time that she trapped Merlin in the Crystal Cave, her powers had finally managed to become strong enough to be equal to his. Too bad that it was the Crystal Cavern where Merlin managed to reach the full potential of his abilities, becoming more powerful than ever and, more importantly, more powerful than she could ever hope to become, returning her to her usual Always Second Best. Had she not trapped Merlin in the cave and (apparently) stripped him of his powers, she might have had a chance to defeat him, but instead what she did was ensure that would never happen.
• Hourglass Plot: With Guinevere. The two essentially switch positions over the course of the show.
• Humiliation Conga: Is unnervingly prone to being on the receiving end of these.
• Ice Queen: Morgana is cold, icy, selfish and sociopathic.
• In the Hood: Is often wearing one when she's up to no good.
• Internalized Categorism: Morgana explicitly tells Uther that she hated herself for years after realizing that she had magic, having been brought up for a significant portion of her life by a man who claimed that it was evil and executed anyone who possessed it. It almost becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: having taken in Uther's teaching that magic was evil, she subconsciously believes that having embraced her magical side, she has to act evil.
• Irrational Hatred: The sheer, inexplicable vehemence with which she plots Guinevere's death is difficult to grasp. Granted, she feels as though Gwen is usurping her position as Queen of Camelot, but that she so quickly leaps to the betrayal and attempted murder of her once-closest friend with no remorse whatsoever is rather jarring. Of course, she also plots Arthur's death, but for whatever reason, she takes Guinevere's existence that much more personally. Probably due to the fact that Gwen, like everyone else, thought that magic was evil, and thus would likely have feared her had she known about her powers. See Gwen's entry in Fantastic Racism.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Has shades of this through the first two series, attempting to kill Uther at least twice because of her hatred towards him. By the third series, she's long since become a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and crossed the Moral Event Horizon. By the fourth, the Morgana who'd rather die than see a child hurt in series 1 (Mordred), callously reacts to the news of innocents death with an expression of "So?".
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: She does come from royalty after all.
• Kill the Cutie: She is killed by Merlin in the series finale after he stabs her with a sword in dragons breath.
• Lack of Empathy: This was actually telegraphed fairly early on. Though she's sympathetic when Gwen's father dies, the end of the episode suggests that she was channelling her own grief for her father's death all along. Likewise, whilst she was still in her "good phase", she refused to return to Camelot when she heard that hostages would be killed if the druids did not release her (Uther having mistakenly believed she was kidnapped). By the third series, she responds to Merlin's plea that women and children are dying with the word: "Good!"
• Lady of Black Magic: Beautiful, intelligent, poised, and a powerful sorceress who can use highly destructive magic. Her magical powers only become more powerful throughout the story.
• Lady of War: A graceful sorceress who is also a masterful swordsman.
• Last of His Kind: She is the last High Priestess of the Old Religion.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Dark obviously, though with less emphasis on sexuality (in the later series) than the trope usually implies.
• Little Dead Riding Hood: Morgana narrowly avoids this fate in The Nightmare Begins after escaping to the forest in a bright red hooded cloak.
• Long-Lost Relative: She is revealed to be Morgause's and Arthur's half-sister.
• Magic Is Evil: At least when Morgana uses magic. Morgana often practiced dark magic, as opposed to Merlin, who practiced good magic.
• Making a Splash: Whereas Merlin's powers seem to be based on air and fire, Morgana is often connected with water, most obviously in The Tears of Uther Pendragon in which the damp mandrake root conjures up visions of drowned murder victims.
• Mama Bear: Morgana's strong attachment towards Mordred causes her to become very protective of him and a willingness to do anything for him in order to keep him from harm's way.
• Manipulative Bitch: Even when she was good, she was very adept at getting people to do what she wanted them to. See her manipulation of Arthur throughout The Beginning of the End and Uther in To Kill The King.
• Master Swordsman: Morgana has been shown to very capable and effective in sword fighting.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: She began turning against Camelot when she discovered that she has magic and feared for her life. Merlin's poisoning her clinches it.
• Morality Pet: Is more or less one for Uther, and is definitely one for Morgause. Aithusa and Mordred become this for her in series 5.
• Motive Decay: At some point her goals shift from ridding Camelot of a tyrannical king (justifiable) to killing her half-brother and becoming queen herself (not so much).
• Ms. Fanservice: Some of Morgana's outfits have been somewhat revealing.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Though she keeps changing her mind on this. Usually she goes straight for the kill when she shouldn't and relies on overly complicated plans when she should just be killing.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Morgana.
• Nice Girl: Was this before her Face–Heel Turn.
• Nice to the Waiter: In the first two seasons she treats her maidservant Gwen very nicely, and the two are close friends. This obviously changes after Morgana's Face–Heel Turn.
• No Sympathy Between Mooks: Morgana even treated her own allies and people who were on her side badly, most notably Agravaine.
• Not as You Know Them: Her return in series 3.
• Not Quite Dead: Many times in the series, but most notably after Merlin poisoned her in season two.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Annis calls her on her similarities to Uther, despite her hatred of him. Also, in "The Sword in the Stone: Part 2", when Morgana calls Arthur out for being not so different from Uther, only for him to counter back.
  Morgana: Maybe you're not so different from Uther as you like to think.
  Arthur: Nor are you.
• Of Corsets Sexy: In series 4 her black outfit is fitted with a laced-up corset.
• Offing the Offspring: She's terrified of Uther for exactly this reason.
• Offscreen Teleportation: She's a master of this after going evil. If the camera drifts away from her for more than a few seconds, she's gone.
• Oh, Crap!: Morgana in A Servant Of Two Masters upon seeing the 80-year-old disguised Merlin, having had visions of him as "Emrys" and foreseeing that he will stand over her on a corpse-littered battlefield, admonishing her for her misdeeds. Occurs again for "The Sword in The Stone, Part II".
  • In "Diamond of the Day Part 2", the smug expression on her face turning to rapid horror after Merlin reveals that the sword he ran her through with was actually Excalibur, a weapon forged in Dragon's breath. In other words, a weapon that can actually kill her.
• Orcus on His Throne: In series 4 Morgana spends a lot of time sitting in her hovel, waiting for other characters to bring her news of what she's ordered them to do.
• Parental Abandonment: Her father died ten years ago, and her mother's whereabouts are unknown. But as it turns out, Uther is her biological father and kept it secret all along.
• Parental Substitute: Of sorts, towards Mordred.
• Pet the Dog: Has a genuine bond with Aithusa.
• Plucky Girl: Before her Face–Heel Turn.
• Politically-Active Princess: Both before and after her Face–Heel Turn. Prior to it, would often stick up for the rights of magic-users, afterwards she tries to topple the Pendragon dynasty.
• The Power of Hate: In season three she is driven entirely by hate, some of it understandable (toward Uther and Merlin) and some of it inexplicable (the writers never give us a reason why she suddenly loathes Arthur and Guinevere).
• Proper Lady: Primarily in the earlier seasons when she was King Uther's ward before she did a Face–Heel Turn.
• Proud Beauty: At times, especially in the earliest episodes.
• Psychotic Smirk: Morgana gives these all of the time.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Morgana displays traits of entitlement, selfishness and brattiness. At times, she displays immaturity, especially when it comes to feeling that she is entitled to the throne of Camelot. Morgana can come off rather bratty and immature and she throws temper tantrums whenever she doesn't get her way.
• Purple Is Powerful: Morgana wears a lot of purple, which strongly reflects her coming from Royal Blood as well as being a powerful witch and high priestess.
• Put Them All Out of My Misery: At this point, she seemingly just wants to make everyone suffer.
• Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: The contrast of Morgana's very dark hair and pale skin is even more noticeable in the later seasons.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation:
  • She is revealed to be Arthur's paternal half-sister. In the Arthurian legends they're usually maternal half-siblings. Interestingly, the series does still feature Gorlois, Morgana's legendary father - Morgana believed he was her father for much of her life, not knowing Uther secretly had an affair with her mother. This partly explains why Uther took on Morgana as his ward after her parents died, though it also results in Morgana resenting Uther more than ever for never acknowledging her as his child. It also drives her ambition to become Queen of Camelot eventually, because the way she sees it she has just as much right to rule as Arthur.
  • As a consequence of this, Morgana and Morgause are presented as maternal half-sisters rather than full sisters, though it doesn't diminish their closeness (especially as they both hate Uther).
• The Resenter: Of Arthur and Guinevere for their positions in Camelot and their adherence to Uther's anti-magic policy.
  • She also has a strong resentment against Merlin for poisoning her in season two. In fact, it could be argued that Merlin's betrayal is what cause Morgana to do a full on Face–Heel Turn. It’s highly possible that Merlin’s guilt over causing this to happen is what causes him to tolerate her existence as it’s abundantly clear that he could effortlessly destroy her whenever he wanted to.
• Rich Bitch: She comes from royalty after all.
• Rival Turned Evil: Morgana became this towards Merlin, Arthur and Gwen in season three onwards.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: What she's been doing for the past two series.
• Royal Bastard: She's revealed to be the illegitimate daughter of King Uther Pendragon.
• Royal Blood: Morgana is the daughter of Uther, who was the former King of Camelot.
• Royally Screwed Up: Morgana could be the Trope Codifier. She is the illegitimate daughter of King Uther. Morgana hates Uther but ironically, shares many traits in common with him. Morgana also has many psychological, emotional and mental issues.
• Same Character, But Different: The abrupt switch in her personality between series 2 and 3.
• Sanity Slippage: By series 5, her desire to rule Camelot seems to be the only thing keeping her even remotely grounded. She's so lost in her hatred that the mere mention of failure to kill Arthur sets her off.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Morgana possesses magic. Therefore, she believes that she is able to do whatever she wants because she is a powerful witch. Morgana often tries to use her strength and power of magic to intimidate others.
• Secretly Selfish: Morgana certainly cares about her friends and feels sympathy for those persecuted because they use magic, but most of her actions are actually motivated by her own desires. After Gwen's father is killed, she becomes willing to betray Uther not because of how this hurts Gwen but because of her own issues with him, and after discovering that she has magic becomes far more willing to betray him and aide those who are willing to kill anyone working for him. She also refuses to return to Camelot after Merlin warns her that people will be killed since Uther suspects them of having kidnapped her, showing that at the end of the day she only cares about herself. And it's notable that after her Face–Heel Turn, she seemingly swears revenge on all of Camelot despite Uther and Merlin being the only ones deserving of her anger, not caring how this would result in the death of people like Gwen and Arthur who have always treated her fairly and even helped her in going against Uther's commands such as when they saved Mordred.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Which leads to her Face–Heel Turn.
• Self-Made Orphan: Her mother and the man she looked to as a father and believed for a long time was her father were already dead, but she gave Agravaine the amulet to kill the wounded Uther—her birth father.
• Shipper on Deck: Morgana became a bit of a shipper of Merlin/Gwen in 1x03 and 1x04.
• Show Some Leg: Morgana devises this plan in order for Gwen and her to escape from bandits in 2x04.
• Smug Smiler: One of her defining traits after her Face–Heel Turn, to the point that it's a source of Narm and Memetic Mutation among the fans of the show.
• Smug Super: When she doesn't have to hide her magic, she's not shy about lording it over non-magic users.
• The Snark Knight: Morgana won't hesitate to use sarcasm.
• The Starscream: Morgana beginning in Series 3 becomes this to Uther.
  • In Series 4, this ends up repeatedly being her downfall, seeking allies to take control of Camelot, but whom end up abandoning her after realising her Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
• Start of Darkness: It could be argued that Morgana started to become evil after Merlin poisoned her in season two. In the series finale, Merlin even admitted that he blames himself for Morgana turning evil and into a villain. However her actions prior to this imply she would have turned evil anyway, but poisoning her is just what finally caused her to become the villain.
• Stay in the Kitchen: In Series 1-3, while she's a high-ranking noble, her role in Camelot as the King's Ward is basically to show up at functions and look glamourous, and she doesn't have much actual power (compared to Guinevere later on who actively takes part in ruling). Arthur has made some disparaging comments that she should just comb her hair or whatever a girl of her station does all day.
• Sugary Malice: She's good at this one.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: Like Merlin, when she uses magic.
• Token Evil Teammate: In season 3, when she returns to Camelot, after her Face–Heel Turn. In season 4 and 5 she's not even a "teammate" anymore.
• Took a Level in Badass: After she discovered that she had magic and found Morgause, she stopped being afraid and began to use her power purposefully.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: She always was rebellious and butting heads with Uther, but it was because she didn't like his treatment of magic users and was upset with the rumors of him offing the man she thought was her father. But, after she found out Uther was really her father and had lied she went full on evil. Even when Arthur became king (after she had Uther killed), she didn't stop because she views Arthur as being just like Uther and believes only she can bring back magic.
• Traitor Shot: Gets dozens and dozens. And dozens.
• Troubled Abuser: All her interactions with Guinevere post series 3.
• True Companions: Was this with Merlin, Gwen and Arthur before her Face–Heel Turn.
• The Unfettered: Morgana is extremely ruthless in her actions. She doesn't have any guilt or remorse for her actions or hurting others.
• Unkempt Beauty: In season's four and five. Morgana went from wearing fancy dresses and looking like royalty in the earlier seasons to wearing black gothic clothing with wild, untameable hair in the later seasons, though it does nothing to conceal her beauty.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Before season four. When Morgana was the King's ward in season's one to three, she had a variation of different outfits and dresses. After she turned bad in season three, her wardrobe became less vibrant and became more limited.
• Unstoppable Rage: Morgana has it towards Uther, Gwen and Arthur. She has anger towards Merlin to a lesser extent.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Arthur invokes this explicitly in 5x02 when he reminds her that she used to be so kind and compassionate as a child. Her response? "I grew up."
• Vain Sorceress: Subverted, as the more powerful and evil she gets, the less interested she becomes in maintaining her appearance. Though she's still beautiful, her messy hair and dark make-up she's not really trying to impress anyone.
• Villain Corner: Towards the end of season two, Morgana was already started to do a Face by joining forces with Morgause. Morgana became increasingly darker and more evil after Merlin poisoned her. It could be argued that Merlin poisoning Morgana and betraying her caused Morgana to do a complete Face–Heel Turn.
• Villainous Breakdown: At the end of season three, when she finds Morgause gravely injured. She screams so loud in devastation that she literally brings the walls down with her magic.
• Water Is Womanly: A cold, aloof Lady of Black Magic whose magical powers are often associated with water to contrast with Merlin's fire-based powers.
• Weak-Willed: She’s very suggestible and it only takes a year spent with Morgause for her to completely turn her against everyone in Camelot, in addition to being ridiculously easy to trick and manipulate.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Along with Morgause. Given Uther's treatment of those with magic, her shift in alignment is understandable and her side may even have the moral high-ground over Uther, but like Uther, she uses some ruthless tactics to achieve her end.
• We Used to Be Friends: To Merlin, Arthur and Gwen. In fact, she says these exact words to Gwen in The Hunter's Heart.
• White Stallion: When she was still on Camelot's side.
• Wicked Cultured: Morgana comes from royalty, therefore, she was raised cultured and was surrounded by all of the finer things in life.
• Wild Card: In series 2.
• Wild Hair: In series 4 and onward.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Morgana wants nothing but to bring Camelot, Uther and Arthur down. She is willing to do so at any cost. Although, if you look at Morgana's story, you can understand why she became evil or turned against Uther and Camelot. Morgana has always yearned to be accepted in Camelot as a magic user. However, watching her father, Uther, endless persecute and execute people of her kind has made her disdain and hatred for Uther and Camelot grow as time goes on. So, while Morgana doing evil things against Arthur, Uther and Camelot may be wrong on all levels, it is understandable why Morgana did turn against all of them at the same time.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Occasionally. She gets really good at almost fooling everyone.
• You Are What You Hate: As several characters point out to her in series four, Morgana has become just like Uther.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: What Merlin tells Morgana in season three after she did a Face–Heel Turn.
• You Killed My Father: Morgana accuses Uther of indirectly killing Gorlois by not sending troops to his aid.
• You're Not My Father: Morgana indirectly says this of Uther, telling a neighbouring Queen that it was Gorlois that raised her, and who she thus considers her true father.

Gwen

Queen Guinevere Pendragon

Portrayed By: Angel Coulby

Merlin: "You have such a good heart, Gwen. Don't ever lose that."

Guinevere — nicknamed Gwen — was the maidservant of Morgana and a good friend of Merlin's. She is a hardworking and kindhearted, young woman who is often awkward and shy when it comes to romance. As of the finale, she is queen regnant of Camelot.

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• Action Girl: Gwen is highly capable of defending herself and can use a sword quite effectively.
• Action Survivor: She has survived a lot, including being being dragged before Uther for crimes she didn't commit twice, being kidnapped by Cenred, being exiled by the love of her life, Arthur, after Morgana enchanted her to kiss Lancelot, and being kidnapped, dragged by a horse, and psychologically tortured by Morgana, until the had her will taken from her. Gwen endured so much, but was still as kind as ever.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Gwen is given a Rags to Riches storyline by becoming the wife of King Arthur later on in the series.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Gwen had feelings for Merlin in season one which were unreciprocated.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Gwen is crowned Queen of Camelot in the season four finale.
• Badass Normal: Gwen is completely human and therefore, she has no abilities whatsoever, yet she is highly capable of defending herself and others when the time calls for it.
• Batman Gambit: Pulls one off in 5.02 by gambling on Ruadan's Papa Wolf instincts.
• Battle Couple: With Arthur, especially before she becomes Queen, but also after as well.
• Betty and Veronica: Gwen is the Archie to Lancelot's Betty and Arthur's Veronica. Technically, Lancelot is considered to be Gwen's First Love and she fell in Love at First Sight with him (and vice versa). Gwen starts to display romantic feelings for Arthur in series 2, but even in the beginning of series 2, she still had very strong feelings for Lancelot; this was evident in 2x04 when Lancelot and Gwen were reunited when Gwen was kidnapped. Lancelot rescued Gwen and Arthur was also on a mission to rescue Gwen. Both Arthur and Lancelot realize that Gwen has feelings for the both of them, but Lancelot decides to step aside and not come between Arthur and Gwen. As Lancelot ids gone, Gwen starts to fall deeper in love with Arthur to the point where she ends up choosing Arthur over Lancelot. In series 4, Lancelot dies after he sacrifices himself to close the veil between worlds of the living and the dead. Gwen had made Lancelot promise to protect Arthur at all costs and Lancelot, being the noble and selfless person that he is, adhered to Gwen's wishes and promise.
  • However, it seems that the triangle had come back in 4x09, when Lancelot made a return in the episode after Morgana had used magic to bring Lancelot back from the dead. Although, it was not the real Lancelot and was in fact, a shade version of Lancelot. Morgana had raised Lancelot from the dead in attempts to destroy Arthur and Gwen's relationship so that she would not get married to Arthur and become Queen of Camelot. Morgana used methods to manipulate a situation where Gwen would resist the love and the feelings that she had for Lancelot so that Arthur and Gwen would break up. Sadly, it ended up working as Arthur and Gwen break up in the episode. Fortunately, Arthur and Gwen do end up rekindling their relationship and the two get married at the end of series 4, becoming the Ruling Couple of Camelot.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Gwen is normally a very nice and caring person who will go out of her way to help others without hesitation but she does not always extend that compassion, kindness and empathy to those she is suspicious of or those whom she considers to be her enemies. Gwen also will not hesitate to call out other people on their bad behaviour and she won't hesitate to kill those whom are posing as a serious threat to either her or those she loves and cares about. This is the same person who has stood up to both Uther and Arthur, calling them out on their behaviour. Gwen becomes even more stern when she becomes Queen in season five. She has shown that although she does have Camelot's bets interests at heart and wants to do right by her kingdom as Queen, she will resort to some rather ruthless methods when it comes time for her to do so. An example of this is in 5.01, when she sentences her servant Sefa to death.
• Big Sister Instinct: Towards Merlin and Elyan. She is highly protective of both of them. Merlin is even one of her weak spots — threatening him is not a good idea. Gwen sees Merlin as someone who is very dear to her and there is nothing that she would not do for him. She has risked her life to look out for Merlin whenever he finds himself in trouble. Although Gwen was rather distant and estranged from Elyan and did not seem to have too much of a close relationship with him, she is still very protective towards him considering that is the only family that she has left.
• Birds of a Feather: With Merlin. Both come from poor or commoner backgrounds. They both originally couldn't stand Arthur and thought that he was a bully, although both of their opinions of Arthur gradually change over the course of the series (Merlin develops a strong and intense friendship with Arthur; Gwen falls in love with Arthur). Both are servants to someone of status, nobility and wealth. Merlin is the personal man-servant of Arthur, the Prince of Camelot; Gwen is the maid-servant of Lady Morgana, the King's Ward). Also, Merlin and Gwen both share The Heart role on the show. Merlin represents the male emotional aspect of the series, while Gwen is the female centrepiece of the series. Both Gwen and Merlin are advisors to Arthur and guide him to do the right thing as much as possible. Both Merlin and Gwen are compassionate, humble, kind, friendly and understanding in personality. It is no wonder that Merlin and Gwen "clicked" from the very beginning since they share so many traits in common.
• Brainwashed: Post the events of 5.06. And all the resultant tropes:
  • Face–Heel Turn: An involuntary variant.
  • Stockholm Syndrome: Morgana invokes this by torturing her into thinking all her loved ones hate her, and then offering comfort and help, thus allowing a...
  • Symbiotic Possession: It is explained that her behavior is due to Morgana taking over her will and replacing her will with her own, which causes the following behaviors...
    • Decoy Damsel: Puts on quite the show of helplessness to manipulate her enemies.
    • Femme Fatale: She definitely acts more coquettish than usual when under Morgana's power. Arthur and the knights are completely wrapped around her little finger.
    • Obviously Evil: But only to the audience.
    • Psychotic Smirk: Again, only the audience sees it.
  • The Power of Love: What helps to break the enchantment, with the help of Merlin disguised as a woman, Dolma.
• Brainy Brunette: Gwen is quite smart, pragmatic and logical.
• Break the Cutie: In Lancelot du Lac, in which she is enchanted into betraying Arthur by Morgana, is banished from Camelot and none of her friends are there to see her off except Merlin. Not even her own brother wants to see her. The cherry on top? Only the audience and the villains know she was enchanted, so she believes everything is her fault. This isn't so much Break the Cutie as smash her to bits, stomp on the pieces, and grind them to dust. As if that isn't enough, she gets enchanted AGAIN by Morgana to kill Arthur and was probably tormented a bit while she was held captive.
• Broken Bird: At various points in the series. Most notably in season one, when Uther has Gwen's father, Tom, executed even though he was innocent; in season four, when Arthur banishes Gwen from Camelot; and also in season five when her brother Elyan unexpectedly dies. Gwen has lost all of her family and after her brother died, she was corrupted by Morgana.
• Cassandra Truth: Guinevere spends a lot of time in series 5 warning Arthur about the dangers inherent in him constantly riding out on missions. He never listens.
• Chickification: In Season 2, Gwen's role is pretty much just The Heart and Arthur's Love Interest.
  • Rectified in Season 3.
• Character Development: From shy, stuttering maid to regal, confident queen.
• Cleavage Window: Sometimes, from Season 2 onward.
• Closer to Earth: She is one of the few minority characters on the show.
• The Conscience: She's the moral compass of the show. With Arthur being morally compromised early on due to his allegiance to Uther and Morgana and Merlin going the slippery slope, she embodies honesty, principles and goodness.
• Cool Big Sis: To Elyan.
• Cool Crown: Gets one at the end of the season four finale. Guinevere is lucky enough to wear a very elaborate, but still elegant-looking silver crown adorned with jewels.
• Corrupt the Cutie: In season five, by Morgana.
• The Cutie: Primarily in season's 1 and 2.
• Cryptic Conversation: In "Diamond of the Day Part 2", she has this type of conversation with Gaius, confirming her suspicion that Merlin was indeed the Sorcerer that turned the tide at the Battle of Camlann in Camelot's favour.
  Gwen: The Sorcerer in the battle, you knew who he was?
  Gaius: *Beat* Yes.
  Gwen: Do I know him? Please Gaius, answer me honestly?
  Gaius: Yes.
• Damsel in Distress: A couple of times, but not nearly as often as you'd think. It's probably because the (very few) Gwen-centric episodes do involve her in considerable distress.
• Dogged Nice Girl/Unrequited Love: Towards Merlin in Season 1.
• Dude Magnet: In this version, Arthur and Lancelot have fallen in love with her, and Gwaine and Helios have shown brief interest.
• Ermine Cape Effect: Gwen's wardrobe changed drastically after she became Queen. She was seen wearing royal clothing.
• Expy: Of Chloe Sullivan.
• The Face: Gwen is more diplomatic in her approaches socially. See The Heart.
• Fantastic Racism: Subverted and Played With. She doesn't hate magicians, unlike Uther, but like him, she is afraid of magic and tries to punish people who use it. It leads to several inconspicuous Kick the Dog moments.
  • She tells Gaius what happened with Morgana after she used magic in front of her, an act that could have gotten her mistress imprisoned, even if she was declared the King's ward and had all along actually been his daughter. In her defense, what Morgana did was a curse and before that Morgana went off with someone who was not what they seemed.
  • In 4x03, she told Arthur in a deleted scene that she was mistrustful of magic and blames it for a tragedy which befell on her father, hoping that he won't use magic to heal his father (which is the equivalent of choosing lawful over good).
  • In 5x01, she sounded very angry (and had a frightening look on her face), just a short moment after learning that Sefa (her maid)'s father was a sorcerer, before pretending to sentence her to death while actually working to save her and getting her father, The Man Behind the Man, imprisoned in her place, an uncharacteristically harsh gambit which she doesn't seem to regret.
• Fanservice Pack: See for yourself◊. She starts out as a commoner, with the associated plain clothes and modest appearance but becomes Progressively Prettier as the show goes on.
• The Fettered: Gwen strongly believes in laws and following the rules. She is all about doing the right thing as much as possible.
• Forceful Kiss: To Arthur in 2x10 in order to break him out of an enchantment.
• Freudian Trio: In the trio of herself, Merlin and Arthur, Gwen is The Kirk or Ego (The Heart, motherly, nurturing, loved by both Arthur and Merlin as a Love Interest/Sister Figure to Merlin's The Spock or Superego (Calm, secretive, logical, intelligent, has made at least one Sadistic Choice in which he sacrificed a dear friend in order to save a greater number of people) and Arthur's The McCoy or Id (Arrogant, aggressive, impulsive, is driven by his emotions, usually puts the individual before the bigger picture to Arthur's). See The Kirk.
• Girl Friday: Can be this at times to Merlin, especially when they're teaming up to solve mysteries.
• Girl Next Door: When Gwen was still a maid servant. This changed after Gwen became Queen.
• Good Is Not Dumb: She's easily the most observant character in the show and knows how to talk people into action.
• Good Is Not Soft: After discovering her maid leaked information to her father, tipping off Morgana's forces about Arthur's plan of rescue, cue Gwen swiftly sentencing the maid to death for committing treason. Even Sir Elyan appears shocked at the ease of which she declares this. However, it turned out to be a ruse to invoke a Papa Wolf response from her father, who Gwen considered the actual threat. She just needed it to be convincing. It was a gamble, but it worked.
• Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Gwen wears a lot of purple dresses, especially when she becomes Queen. Gwen was seen wearing purple colours while she was a servant as well.
• Guile Hero: She simply talks to people, using a blend of logic and guile to convince them to act according to her wishes.
• Hair Tropes:
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Her hair goes from practical buns to long, loose curls as she rises in status.
  • Long Hair Is Feminine: Her hair is long and curly.
  • Quirky Curls: In series 1 and 2.
  • Regal Ringlets: In series 5.
  • Messy Hair: In series 1.
• Happily Married: To Arthur in series 5.
• The Heart: Gwen shares this role with Merlin.
• Heartbroken Badass: Gwen has gone through a lot of hardships and pain in the name of love and romance and she hasn't had the best of luck in the love department. Especially in regards to her male suitors, Arthur and Lancelot.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Morgana. This starts to deteriorate in series three.
• The High Queen: As of the end of series four. This is even more true in the series finale considering that Gwen became the sole ruler of Camelot after King Arthur dies. In fact, the very last words of the entire series are "Long Live The Queen!", as cried by everyone present in the throne room.
• Honest Advisor: Together with Merlin to Arthur.
• Hot Consort: For King Arthur.
• Hourglass Plot: With Morgana, essentially taking her place as the most powerful woman in Camelot.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Arthur.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: After Gwen becomes Queen.
• In-Series Nickname: Her full name is Guinevere but almost everyone calls her Gwen, except Arthur. Arthur always calls Gwen by her full name "Guinevere".
• Inter-Class Romance: With Arthur. Gwen was a poor servant/maid and Arthur is a rich noble. This is now subverted after Gwen married Arthur and became Queen.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Gaius.
• Interspecies Friendship: With Merlin. Merlin is a warlock and a Dragon Lord; Gwen is a human.
• I Will Wait for You: At the conclusion of Queen Of Hearts, she promises to wait for Arthur to become King, at which point they can marry.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Especially when she becomes Queen.
• The Kirk/Ego (Freudian Trio): In the trio between herself, Arthur and Merlin, Gwen is The Kirk/Ego (motherly, nurturing, sensitive, The Heart) to Arthur's The McCoy/Id (arrogant, aggressive, impulsive, Hot-Blooded) and Merlin's The Spock/Superego (calm, logical, intelligent, The Chessmaster). See Freudian Trio.
• Lady and Knight: Played remarkably straight with Lancelot and Guinevere, even though they aren't a lady or a knight when the show begins. However, Lancelot always makes a point of referring to Gwen as "my lady" and by the end of the third series he's been permanently knighted and by the end of the fourth season, she is "my lady" as she's Queen!
  • There's a little of this with Gwen and Gwaine as well.
• Lady of War: The feminine, graceful young woman who is more than capable of using a sword.
• Lady in Red: A Queen, Gwen wore a lot of red dresses.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: 1x10, 2x04 and 5x01.
• Like Brother and Sister/Platonic Life-Partners: Gwen eventually becomes this with Merlin in series 2.
• Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Light to Morgana's dark.
  • In The Hunter's Heart she is the dark to Mithian's light.
• Limited Wardrobe: In the first series she (understandably) only had two outfits.
• Living MacGuffin: There is nobody that wouldn't risk their life for Gwen if she is kidnapped, gone missing or is in trouble of some sort. Merlin, Arthur, Lancelot and the rest of the Knights would all come searching for her and risk their lives in order to find her without even a second thought.
• The Load: Depending on the Writer. On one hand, her quick mind has proven useful on several occasions, on the other, she's still a relatively small and untrained peasant girl who often winds up being a Damsel in Distress.
• Love Hurts: The poor girl never catches a break — her feelings for Merlin are unrequited, her brief romance with Lancelot abruptly ends when he leaves Camelot, only to return and their romance is rekindled until Lancelot leaves again after noticing Arthur's and Gwen's feelings for each other, leaving Gwen upset, and her budding relationship with Arthur constantly becomes strained because of their social classes. Once she and Arthur become stable, she is enchanted into cheating on him with Lancelot - the kicker being only the audience and the bad guys know - and banished from Camelot forever. To top it all, Gwen has to assume power at the cost of Arthur's death.
• Love Triangle: At the centre of the most famous one of all (between herself, Arthur and Lancelot). Gwen chooses Arthur.
• Maligned Mixed Marriage: Arthur and Gwen are essentially this trope because Arthur is royalty while Gwen is a servant girl and King Uther won't hear of a romance between them. Though Arthur is white and Gwen is mixed-race, race is not a factor in Uther's disapproval.
• Martial Pacifist: Guinevere dislikes violence and could under no circumstances be described as an Action Girl (though she wields a sword on a couple of occasions, she's clearly not that good at it, and she remains the only main character to have never taken a life). However, she embodies the Silk Hiding Steel trope, and at the beginning of series four, she witnesses the city gates being closed on refugees flocking to Camelot to escape the evil spirits invading the kingdom. She, a female servant, confronts the council of noble-born men, and using nothing but common sense and her own understanding of human nature, convinces all of them that their wisest choice of action is to re-open the gates and allow people to seek refuge in the city. They comply.
• Missing Mom: The whereabouts of Gwen's mother are unknown. It is possible that she is deceased.
• Modest Royalty: Though she gets a significant upgrade in clothing, she only ever wears minimal jewellery (just earrings and her wedding band). This is in stark contrast to Morgana of the first two seasons, who was often decked out in necklaces, rings, bracelets and earrings.
• Morality Chain/Morality Pet: Serves as this for Arthur.
• Ms. Fanservice: Especially in the later seasons.
• Muggle Best Friend: To Merlin. While Merlin is a powerful sorcerer with magical abilities, Gwen i s a regular human.
• Mythology Gag: She gets Arthur's conventional characterization in Arthurian legend: commoner to ruler of the realm, marriage to a royal, leader of the kingdom to a Golden Age of justice and chivalry.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Arthur witnesses her and Lancelot kissing the night before her and Arthur's wedding. Made all the worse because only the audience knows that she was under a spell the entire time and she actually believes that she willingly betrayed Arthur even if she doesn't understand why.
• Naming Conventions: At the start of the show, she was invariably referred to as Gwen as a reflection of her status as a maid. This changed as the series went on (in particular, her Love Interests usually called her by her full name), and by series 5, she's consistently called Guinevere to reflect her higher status.
• The Needs of the Many: She often gives wise advice to Arthur and/or the Council on this principle.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: The kingdom'd never benefit from Gwen's wise rule had Arthur not fallen in love with her.
• Nice Girl: Very much so. She becomes more struct after she becomes Queen, yet she still remains generally good and kind hearted.
• Ninja Maid: In The Moment of Truth at least.
• Non-Action Snarker: She might not be able to sword-fight an opponent into submission, but she's sassed quite a few bigger, stronger, more powerful people in her time.
  "I don't expect someone like YOU to understand that."
• Occult Detective: Occasionally, with Merlin before she became Queen.
• Official Couple: With Arthur. At the end of season four, Gwen marries Arthur and she and Arthur become the Ruling Couple of Camelot.
• Only One Name: Subverted. Before she married Arthur, Gwen's last name was unknown. Given the time period and having a last name would have been anachronistic even for nobility, it's likely that she doesn't have one.
• Opposites Attract: Gwen is a poor servant and Arthur is a wealthy royal. They come from completely different backgrounds and social statuses.
• Of Corsets Sexy: Wears them as outerwear in series 2 and 3. She seems to be wearing them as underwear in series 4.
• The One That Got Away: She is this to Lancelot.
• Parental Abandonment: Her father was executed at Uther's hand, and her mother's whereabouts are unknown.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Gwen gets a rather dramatic clothes upgrade after she becomes Queen at the end of season four. She starts to wear much fancier dresses in comparison to the plain dresses she wore when she was a maid and a servant.
• Plucky Girl: Gwen is very positive, optimistic, spirited and upbeat. She tries to believe the best in everyone and in everything, much like Merlin.
• Politically Active Queen
• The Pollyanna: Although she's also remarkably pragmatic.
• Pragmatic Heroine: Gwen is incredibly pragmatic and logical in her thinking, especially when she became Queen in season four.
• Progressively Prettier: It's not that Gwen wasn't pretty before, but after Gwen became Queen in season four, her physical appearance and her wardrobe took a turn for the better.
• Promotion to Parent: Elyan says of her: "she raised me."
• Proper Lady: Especially as Queen. Even as a maid, she was very polite and courteous.
• Race Lift: In the Arthurian legends, Guinevere is Caucasian. But on the show, Guinevere is not.
• Rags to Riches: Gwen went from being Morgana's maid to being the Queen of Camelot.
• Rags to Royalty: See Rags to Riches.
• The Reliable One: Gwen is highly dependable and trustworthy. She is always there for her friends at a time of need. Even Merlin can be seen depending on Gwen from time to time.
• Requisite Royal Regalia: After Gwen became Queen of Camelot.
• Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Their social classes aren't played into the Love Triangle, but Arthur (rich suitor) and Lancelot (poor suitor) for Gwen.
• Ring on a Necklace: After Gwen is banished from Camelot by Arthur for betraying him (albeit unwillingly, as she'd been under an enchantment), Gwen wears the engagement ring he gave to her around her neck as a reminder of their love. She loses it when Morgana rips the necklace off, although this results in Arthur finding the ring and being reminded that he still loves Gwen, prompting him to forgive her.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: The first episode that showcases her as Queen makes a point of demonstrating how active she is: she gives advice at a council meeting, she rules the kingdom in her husband's absence, and she ferrets out a traitor that was leaking information to her enemies.
• Ruling Couple: With King Arthur in season four and five.
• Satellite Character: Gwen really has no real Character Arc of her own, at least not one that isn't connected to her relationships with Morgana, Arthur or Merlin. She does have a father and a brother, but the former was killed off and she barely interacts with the latter. That said, it's also an example of Tropes Are Not Bad, as her relationships with Merlin, Arthur and Morgana make up a significant part of the show.
• Satellite Love Interest: She is often accused of being "just a love interest" by detractors, and though it's true that most of her screen-time does indeed centre on her relationship with Arthur, the ultimate purpose of her Character Arc was to become Queen of Camelot — and it's unclear how her cynics expected this to happen without a relationship with Arthur arising (as you may have guessed, a lot of Die for Our Ship was at work here). Her Character Development involved a significant boost in confidence brought about by Arthur's love for her, and many of her strongest scenes ^note outsmarting the Witchfinder, freeing Sir Leon, confronting Agravaine, withstanding Morgana, trapping Ruadan occurred when Arthur was completely absent. And by the end of the series, she assumes control over Camelot after Arthur's death with confirmation by Word of God that she successfully ruled over the Golden Age in his stead. She could be described as a case of a Satellite Love Interest in the sense that she's Never a Self-Made Woman, but her character was given plenty of personal development and independent power as a direct result of her role as Arthur's Love Interest.
• Second Love: As Gwen realizes her feelings for Merlin are unrequited in 1x05, she finds a brief romance with Lancelot.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Reveals in the finale that she knows about Merlin's magic. When she put it together is unknown, but as Merlin never found out she knew in the finale.
• Shrinking Violet: Gwen started out as shy, introverted and a bout on the timid side, although she eventually grows out of it.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Gwen's new look in Season 2. Not that she needed it, though.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: What attracted Gwen to all her three love interests.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Gwen was a kind, caring, and shy castle maid who takes pride in her work. If necessary, Gwen is a capable fighter and can hold her own in battle reasonably well. More importantly, she's the firm moral compass of the series and the connection to common people of Arthur (Merlin is also the other connection to common people of Arthur as well).
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Lancelot. Her marriage to Arthur ends tragically short too because of his early death.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Guinevere's job as Queen is to maintain control in Camelot while Arthur is away.
• Supporting Leader: To Arthur's The Leader when she becomes Queen. While Arthur leads most of the battles, missions and plans, Gwen will step in whenever Arthur is unavailable in any way.
• The Strategist: At times.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Several time it's mentioned that she's an excellent seamstress. That said, we don't ever get to see her doing any sewing.
• Took a Level in Badass: Definitely seems to be the case in series 5 after becoming High Queen.
• True Blue Femininity: Many of her dresses are blue; particularly in series 4.
• Tsundere: She is a Type B, primarily towards Arthur in the earlier seasons.
• The Unchosen One: Unlike Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and Mordred, who all have their destinies outlined by various prophesies and portentous words by the Dragon, Guinevere becomes Queen because Arthur loves her. Other than Morgana’s dreams, she is not mentioned in any prophesy. More importantly, by the very end, she is implied to be the monarch who will repeal the oppression on magic users and brings Camelot to the golden age instead of Arthur, who merely paves the way and is ultimately killed off.
  • Interestingly, in "The Hunter's Heart, Merlin does say that it is Arthur's "fate" to marry Gwen, but it's unclear if Merlin is referencing an actual prophecy or just voicing his own opinion.
• Unfazed Everyman: She's seen Merlin get up to some truly bizarre things over the years, but seldom reacts with anything more than a bemused smile.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Arthur and Lancelot. Her supposed crush on Merlin is more or less abandoned between series 1 and 2.
• White Stallion: In The Dark Tower.
• Whoopi Epiphany Speech: Gives one to Merlin, which encompasses the moral standing of the show, outlining why Uther can't just be killed.
• Will They or Won't They?: Arthur and Gwen. Their budding relationship constantly grows strained because of their different social classes. They are finally married at the end of series four.

King Uther Pendragon

Uther Pendragon

Portrayed By: Anthony Head

Uther Pendragon is the ruthless king of Camelot who has outlawed magic within the kingdom. Often his hatred for magic blinds him from his tyrant-like nature, but he nevertheless believes what he is doing for Camelot is right. While Uther does not often show it, he does strongly care about his son Arthur and his ward Morgana, as well as for his people, and acknowledging loyalty from his subjects e.g. Gaius and Merlin (occasionally).

---

• Abusive Parents: In many ways, at various points, to both Arthur and Morgana. In Series One, he had them both imprisoned in the dungeon for nothing more than calling him out on his tyrannical nature.
• Achey Scars: He has an old battle wound in his side that he sometimes complains about.
• Action Dad: Uther was always involved in whatever is happening with Arthur and within Camelot. His death was caused when he was defending Arthur from an assassin, the two getting in a swordfight which resulted in both fatally wounding the other.
• Adaptational Consent: While this version of Uther is not a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination, there's no evidence that he pulled the Bed Trick on Ygraine that he did in the original story to conceive Arthur.
• Adults Are Useless: Played With. A lot of the time he doesn't get involved because Merlin quite literally can't seek his help because of the need to hide his own magic. However, in Excalibur, and in a few other episodes, he steps up to the plate to protect Arthur.
• Aggressive Categorism: Against magical people.
• The Alcoholic: Subtly implied, as Uther is frequently seen with a goblet in hand. Though given the calamities that often nearly spell the end of Camelot, you can understand why his reaction would be I Need a Freaking Drink.
• Anti-Villain: Type III with a bit of Type I as well.
• A Sinister Clue: He wields sword and pen with his left hand.
• Badass Cape: His cape is red, like the Knights and Arthur's, and he is undeniably a badass.
• Badass Normal: Has been waging war against sorcerers and enchanters for twenty years, and is by and large winning.
• Badass Longcoat: Like his son, he sometimes wears one.
• Back from the Dead: Temporarily, in 5x03.
• Berserk Button: The subject of magic under any circumstances. Justified as he doesn’t want to be reminded that magic cost him his wife when he used it to produced an heir.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: Uther hunts down anyone related to magic, even healers, even children. He's a ruthless dictator (by our standards - by the standards of medieval kings, he's actually rather civilised). Getting rid of him would be a good thing. However the villains trying to kill him, Morgana and Morgause, tend to be just as bad, willing to kill others without a thought and having no care for civilians caught in the crossfire. Uther, for all his many flaws, genuinely cares for his people.
• Broken Pedestal: Arthur gradually comes to realize that his father is not the infallible father/king that he initially believed him to be.
• Bullying a Dragon: A literal example. He had Kilgharrah locked away in his dungeons for twenty years with magical chains to serve as an example what would happen to all magic creatures. When Kilgharrah got out in Series 2, he nearly burned Camelot to the ground in revenge.
• The Conqueror: It's hinted that he was this at some point in his past, as he mentions that when he was Arthur's age he conquered Camelot to become king.
• Cool Crown: Let's just say that Uther's crown was so much better then Arthur's crown.
• Create Your Own Villain: Uther certainly played a large part in how Morgana turned out.
• Despair Event Horizon: When he realizes the depths of his daughter's hatred for him.
• Did Not Think This Through: In 5x03 he was willing to kill Arthur for Camelot's sake, but doesn't seem to have planned what to do next. If Arthur were to die, nothing would stop Morgana, Uther's other child from taking the throne. Camelot would certainly be doomed then.
  • Probably justified considering that he was a ghost, which generally has a warped effect on the subject's psychology.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He wanted an heir but his wife was barren. Nimueh cured his wife's sterility but to keep the balance of life and death she died in childbirth and for this he has mounted a genocidal campaign against all magic users. Particularly disproportionate if Nimueh is telling the truth that she didn't know it would be Ygraine that would die.
• Doting Parent: To Morgana, but only after she returns from her year-long absence. Before that, he could be quite distant. A more charitable view of this would be that almost losing her gave him a shock.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Uther may be ruthless and cold, but there is no doubt that he loves his children (Arthur and Morgana). He also cares for his people, as a collective, if not as individuals, and both emphasises the responsibilities of a King to his people, and will do more or less anything to protect them (though he's more cautious than Arthur, who's got Chronic Hero Syndrome in his bones).
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's horrified at Morgana's slaughtering of civilians just to make a point to the knights, stating that they were innocent, and tells her that if she should kill anyone, she should kill him. Unfortunately, she's got Cruel Mercy lined up for him.
• Fantastic Racism: Uther is strongly opposed to magic and magic users. He that magic was a nothing but a source for evil and that all people who practice magic are the root of all the evil and damage within Camelot.
• Final Speech: He manages a few last words to Arthur before slipping into a coma that he awakens from only very briefly.
• Freudian Excuse: His extreme hatred of magic comes from the circumstances of Arthur's birth: Uther was desperate for an heir. His wife couldn't conceive, so he asked Nimueh to help him have a son. She didn't tell him, however, that giving life by magic requires the taking of a life to keep the balance. Arthur was born, but Uther's wife dies.
• Hated by All: Zig-zagged. While it's lampshaded by Merlin that everybody hates him, considering the number of people who try to kill him in every episode, and in fact, of the main cast, besides Arthur (and to an extent, Gaius) no one seems to like him and not without good reasons. However, the average citizens of Camelot seem to quite like him, at least the ones who are not related or close to someone with magic powers, and when he doesn't think magic is involved, he's a surprisingly good king. Unfortunately, magic is involved a lot.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Going by what is stated by those who knew him, he was, once upon a time, a genuinely good man.
• Heroic BSoD: Is rendered catatonic after Morgana betrays him in the third series finale. One year later, he's still a shell of the man he once was, leaving Arthur ruling the land in his stead.
• Hypocrite: He is a deliberate and fascinating example. After enlisting the help of a sorceress in order for his barren wife to conceive, he set about killing and terrorising everyone who practised sorcery (even those who did so for perfectly innocent reasons) even though he had no one to blame for his wife's death except himself. He had the Great Dragon imprisoned with enchanted chains in his dungeon. The real kicker is when Morgana gets sick in series 3, and he actually coerces Gaius into using magic to save her. You'd think this act of blatant hypocrisy would make him decide to ease up on the sorcerers a bit from then on, but you'd be wrong...
  • Later on in series 3, there was a sorcerer going around healing people miraculously who was Gaius's former lover. Uther wanted Gaius to see if sorcery was involved in the healings and it is implied he would have executed whoever did it. The fact that he was willing to use magic to miraculously heal Morgana is made even more hypocritical because of that in retrospect.
  • The reason he hates magic in the first place is because he made a deal with a sorceress to conceive a son with his barren wife. Furthermore, he describes his deceased wife as "my soul" and yet we later find out that he had an affair with his best friend's wife, and that (as he says to his son) "I know about the temptations of serving girls."
• Horrible Judge of Character: Among other things, he's chummied up to a knight who was trying to kill his son, invited two murderous Sidhe into his castle, married a troll (though in that case, she was disguised and he was literally enchanted), flirted with a shape-shifting witch, indulged the whims of a con-artist witchfinder, hired a man who tried to kill him to avenge his parents' deaths, and (in the third series) doted on the woman who was hell-bent on destroying him and taking over his kingdom. It goes both ways, as he's also banished both Gwaine and Lancelot, two accomplished and loyal knights, and is constantly belittling, alienating or even trying to execute Merlin and Guinevere, the two people in the world who would give their lives for his son without a second thought.
• It's All About Me: He bans and allows magic use as he wants it. There's also a subtle hint that he defines loyalty to Camelot as loyalty to himself (or to Arthur), as evidenced in the Great Purge.
• Jerkass: He's a ruthless tyrant - by modern standards, at least (and even by Medieval ones where magic is concerned). His Pet the Dog moments are overshadowed by his cruel actions and Lack of Empathy.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • When Merlin is poisoned in season 1, he is quite right to tell Arthur that people are going to end up sacrificing themselves for him when he is king and he'd better get used to the idea.
  • While he takes it too far in his war against magic and he's a hypocrite since he used magic so Arthur could be born, it's worth acknowledging that magic truly is dangerous, capable of doing all kinds of harm including altering someone's mind, and that many sorcerers do use it for selfish reasons. Many of the villains in the show often don't care about the innocent people they kill or are even a Smug Super like Morgana who believe their magic makes them superior, proving that he's not entirely wrong about the dangers of magic. Even Merlin at one point used magic to remove Arthur's will and make him more compliant, proving that even good sorcerers have the potential to do horrific things.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: That might be pushing, but underneath his hatred for magic and classist attitudes, Uther is genuinely a benevolent ruler who cares about others. He deeply loves both Arthur and Morgana, cares about his subjects and the innocent, regrets being unable to help Hunith, grows to appreciate Merlin's loyalty to Arthur even if he never respects him as an equal, and genuinely considers Gaius to be a close friend despite being a former sorcerer. Whenever he realises that he has made a mistake, such as when he believed the witchfinder Aredian when he framed Gaius for sorcery and planned to have him executed, he shows real guilt and regret.
• Judge, Jury, and Executioner: There is apparently some sort of court system in Camelot (people speak of getting "fair trials") but when it comes down to it, Uther can demand whatever sentencing he likes on whoever he deems guilty.
• Kick the Dog: Just about every episode.
• King on His Deathbed: In series 4 he isn't dying, but the shock from Morgana's betrayal and learning how much she hates him had completely demoralised him and left him deeply depressed, to the point that Arthur had to take over as leader while Uther stays in his room rarely talking or eating and being looked after by Gwen. However he does interact more when it concerns Arthur and immediately leaps to defend him against an assassin.
• Knight Templar Parent: See his hatred of magic.
• Like A Daughter To Me: Morgana. Quite literally.
• Love Makes You Evil: He hates magic so much, because it caused a death of his beloved wife.
• Master Swordsman: He could defeat Arthur in a duel if he wanted.
• Mysterious Past: He apparently conquered Camelot when he was Arthur's age. Whether the crown was usurped by another king, or if Uther conquered the kingdom just because he could, is unknown.
• Mythology Gag: Like in the original legend, Uther uses magic to get what he desires (to produce an heir and in the original legend, to sleep with Ygraine). However, and it comes at a price as Uther ends up losing a family member (Ygraine ends up dying in childbirth while in the original legend Merlin takes baby Arthur away as payment for Uther using Merlin’s magic to pull a Bed Trick on Ygraine).
• Never My Fault: He completely denies his responsibility in his wife's death, and taking his anger and sorrow on Nimueh and other magic users.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Inverted. Uther's genocide of the dragonlords actually causes the birth of Merlin, who is destined to undo all his work.
• Noble Demon: Uther might be a genocidal tyrant but he's also a loving parent and a brave warrior who cares for his people and will put himself in harm's way to protect his kingdom. And it's worth noting that he's only a tyrant by modern standards; compared to real life medieval kings and rulers, Uther's is a rather good ruler.
• Obliviously Evil: He actually believes himself to be a fair king, and that he's doing the right thing for his kingdom. In fairness, where magic isn't concerned, he's usually quite a good King.
• Papa Wolf: Is very protective of Arthur and Morgana when it comes to life-threatening situations (usually Arthur) or kidnapping attempts (usually Morgana).
  • We all knew that once Aredian pulled a knife on Morgana in 2x07 (in front of Merlin, Arthur, and Uther, no less) that he wasn't going to leave Camelot alive.
• Parental Favoritism: Uther seemed to show a hint of favouritism towards Morgana over Arthur.
• Parental Substitute: For Morgana. At least, it seems this way until it is revealed that she actually is his illegitimate daughter.
• The Patriarch: He's the father of Arthur and guardian of Morgana, who later turns out to be his biological father.
• Pet the Dog: Semi-frequently, serving to humanise him. For instance, it's obvious that Uther loves his children, and speaks of his late wife as "my soul." He's also fond of Gaius, and unusually, he cottons very quickly to the depths of Merlin's loyalty to his son, which he openly acknowledges and respects, even thanking him a couple of times for his loyal service, and trusting him to keep secrets - though with the caveat that he'll have him executed if he doesn't. And he can be made to see reason on several issues.
• Pride: Aside from his blind hatred of magic this causes or makes worse the problems in the series. He places the word of the nobility above anyone else, cannot stand to look bad due to self-image, jumps to conclusions and hardly listens to anyone since he thinks he is always right, and only changes his mind when publicly presented with irrefutable evidence. He tries to avoid apologizing when he is wrong and can barely spit one out trying to place blame on others, all due to his pride.
• Reasonable Authority Figure:
  • Surprisingly often, if he doesn't think that magic is involved in the situation at hand. Were it not for his hatred of magic, he'd probably be a very good King. For instance, he's more than willing to grant Merlin's mother an audience to hear about how her village was being attacked way back in Season 1, and is genuinely regretful that he can't do anything because the village is (just) in the land of a rival monarch. In comparison to most real life rulers, he's a rather good king by the standards of his time. It's also worth pointing out that he lives in a world with actual magic and villains who use it to harm others, so unlike real life kings he has a pretty valid excuse for being the way he is.
  • It's zigzagged when it comes to commoners however. While he does treat them with some compassion, he overall doesn't consider them to be as important or trustworthy as a noble. He hates it when Lancelot and Gwaine both break the knight's code since they are commoners, not knowing that Gwaine was in fact a noble, while also being unable to understand why his son would develop feelings for a servant like Gwen. When he returns as a spirit, he's angered and disappointed that Arthur made commoners knights and married Gwen. However it's worth pointing out that outside his hatred for magic, it's clear that he was respected by the commoners and was likely a decent ruler.
• Related Differently in the Adaptation: Morgana is his stepdaughter in most versions, but is eventually revealed to be his biological daughter.
• Royally Screwed Up: The second he finds even a hint of magic, Uther becomes obsessed with destroying it and disregards everything else.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Uther has many faults, but idleness is not one of them. He also remains quite handy with a sword years after aging out of knighthood.
• These Hands Have Killed: He clearly suffers from a guilty conscience when faced with the apparitions of his deceased wife and the children he drowned.
• Token Evil Teammate: He's just as bad as most villains, and sometimes even worse. Unlike most of them, however, he is a genuine Noble Demon, and aside from his raging hatred for magic, a Reasonable Authority Figure who's actually an excellent ruler by the standards of his time.
• Too Dumb to Live: To the point that you start to wonder how he and Arthur managed to stay alive until Merlin arrived - though that could just be because Nimue, the first Big Bad, hadn't resurfaced yet.
• Troubled Sympathetic Bigot: His hatred of magic stems from his grief and guilt over his wife's death (troubled), he dearly loves both his children and his kingdom (sympathetic) and yet he is utterly ruthless and hypocritical when it comes to eradicating those that practice magic (bigot).
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Mordred is just a random druid instead of his grandson in this version
• Upper-Class Twit: Sometimes.
• Vetinari Job Security: Of a sort, the only real reason Merlin prevents anyone from killing him is he is needed as a placeholder until Arthur is ready to take over and prevent another worse king/threat from taking over.
• Villain Protagonist
• Villainous BSoD: Suffers a nasty one once Morgana brings to light how much she truly hates him in 3x13.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He is convinced that magic is evil and threatens Camelot. And, to be fair, mages do try to bring Camelot around his ears on a regular basis - if only to get revenge on him.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Uther does a lot of awful things, but only sometimes has this treatment to his face.
• Would Hurt a Child: Has ordered the deaths of children in the past (via drowning) as well as the attempted execution of Mordred.
• Would Hit a Girl: Has no problem with this. He's attacked both Morgana and Guinevere.
• You Are Grounded!: To his children, several times. He's not adverse to shutting them in the dungeons either.

Gaius

Gaius

Portrayed By: Richard Wilson

"I'd give my life for you, Merlin."

The court physician, Gaius took Merlin under his care in his arrival to Camelot. He attempts to voice reason to Uther's judgement and ideals, but often gets rebuffed until his suspicions are proven correct.

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• Anachronism Stew: Gaius' medical knowledge is far too advanced for the time period of the series.
• As You Know: Gaius is the KING of this trope. How many hundreds of time have we heard him say some variation of: "you/he/she can't use magic or you'll be killed" or "we can't tell anyone about Morgana/Agravaine/any other obvious villain because they'd never believe us". Though considering how often Merlin needs reminding, this might be justified.
• The Atoner: It's impiled taking Merlin under his wing is his way to make up for his inaction during the Great Purge.
• Big Damn Heroes: Saves Merlin from Morgause in 3x13.
• Brick Joke: Gaius constantly telling Arthur that Merlin is in the tavern when he disappears to do his magical thing.
• Broken Masquerade: In series 3, Uther indirectly admits he knows Gaius was a sorcerer in the past, when he asks him to do anything, even magical to save Morgana.
• Category Traitor: A lot of magic users like the Dragon and Nimueh hold Gaius to be one, since he became Uther's court physician, and turned a blind eye to the deaths of magic users.
• Canon Foreigner: You won't find any Gaius in Arthurian legends (minus Romanisations of Kay) as he was created specifically for the show.
• Characterization Marches On: In the first handful of episodes, he was a typical Absent-Minded Professor who couldn't keep track of what day it was, accidentally set his bench on fire, and whose (egregious) Establishing Character Moment was falling off a ladder. Later he became a much more astute mentor with Feet of Clay.
• Composite Character: He takes a few aspects from the traditional Merlin, being an older man who acts as a friend and advisor to Uther.
• The Confidant: To Merlin and Uther, and occasionally to Guinevere and Morgana (in the early years) as well.
• The Consigliere: He is Uther's most trusted adviser and maybe the closest thing he has to a friend and tries to be the voice of reason to Uther's arrogance and prejudices. Unfortunately, Uther rarely bothers to listen, let alone heed his advice.
• Cool Old Guy: Snarky, generally kind, and a Cool Uncle to Merlin. Gaius takes on a Dorocha without even flinching in order to save Gwen.
• Court Mage: Several episodes imply that Gaius was the Court Mage before sorcery was outlawed in Camelot. One can infer that he was spared during the purge due to his loyalty to Uther, his skill as a physician and because his knowledge of sorcery meant he was invaluable at identifying any magical threats to the kingdom.
• Court Physician: Uther's court physician, who occasionally shows knowledge of medicine beyond what would be expected for the medieval setting. He's also implied to have been the Court Mage before Uther turned against magic.
• Deadpan Snarker: Gives as good as he gets in Snark-to-Snark Combat.
• Defector from Decadence: One possible interpretation for turning his back on the Old Religion. In the first episode he claimed that people were using magic for the wrong reasons and it was throwing the natural order of things into chaos. When confronted by Edwin Muirden over the fact he did nothing to stop his parents execution, Gaius claims they were practicing dark magic.
• Demoted to Extra: In series four and five, he is given virtually nothing to do except provide exposition and exist as a sounding board to Merlin. True, that was always his role, but he was also given several character-centric episodes in the past. This was not necessarily a bad thing, as the introduction of the knights of the Round Table at the end of series three meant that the show was juggling numerous characters, and he was getting too old to do as much as he used to.
• Dirty Coward: Not in the present, but it's heavily implied during the Great Purge, that although he helped certain people like Balinor, Morgause, and Alice escape Uther's prosecution, for the most part he sided with Uther in order to save his own skin (and might have given names as well, Uther mentions he's asked Gaius to do things he found difficult) as he watched countless witches and wizards be burned at the stake and did nothing. The Dragon cynically mentions that "turning a blind eye" is Gaius' talent in Series One.
• Expy: Of Jonathan Kent.
• Fascinating Eyebrow: To a memetic level. It's perpetually raised.
• Ignored Expert: He had perhaps a 50% success rate in convincing Uther of dangerous magical circumstances.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Arthur and particularly Guinevere (Merlin falls into the Like a Son to Me category).
• Like a Son to Me: Merlin is like a son to him and he constantly lives in fear that Merlin'll get himself killed one way or another. He also witnesses Merlin becoming increasingly world-weary and ruthless.
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Merlin. Except for the Great Dragon, he's the only one Merlin can confide in about what is going on and occasionally rants to. It's probable that he's never killed off for real because the chance that Merlin would completely go to the dark side like Morgana is too great.
• The Masquerade: He's a retired magician.
  • Becomes a Broken Masquerade in 2x07, as it's revealed that Uther always knew.
• The Medic: Chief one of Camelot, who helps whenever anyone is hurt or ill.
• The Mentor: To Merlin. Gauis not only serves as a parental figure to Merlin but he is also mentors and guides Merlin on how to use his magic usefully and wisely.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Almost dies three times.
• Morality Pet: He at least tries to be this for Uther, advising the king on the dangers of letting his hatred of magic consume him and offering alternative explanations to protect Merlin and others when their carelessness risks exposing their abilities. While Uther doesn't always listen to Gaius, the fact that he tolerates Gaius contradicting him shows that Uther acknowledges the value of his insight on some level.
• Mr. Exposition: Explains the Monster of the Week to Merlin and the audience.
• Occult Detective: Often alongside Merlin.
• Oh, Crap!: In Queen Of Hearts he is asked to identify a poultice as magical. After confirming it, he asks where it was found and is told: "Arthur's bedroom." He looks over at a smirking Morgana and realizes that he's just condemned Guinevere.
• Papa Wolf: Endanger Merlin in any way, Gaius will make you pay one way or the other. He is very protective of Merlin and is very much a parental figure to him.
  • Also rather protective of Gwen but not to the same extent of Merlin of course.
• Parental Substitute: For Merlin.
  • To a lesser extent, Gwen as well.
• Retired Badass: Gaius may have given up practicing magic, but he still has it in him.
• Secret-Keeper: the only character in the core cast knows about Merlin's magic.
• Shipper on Deck: From the looks of 2x13, he approves of Arthur/Gwen.
• Team Dad: To Merlin and Gwen especially, but also Arthur and Morgana (though he messed up spectacularly in that case).
• You Just Told Me: A variation in which he forces Merlin to reveal his powers by tipping a bucket of water over. Merlin automatically freezes it.

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