If I were to nitpick at every weird thing Fate does with Arthurian legend, I’d be writing all night, but there is something the Fate series changes that really bugs me, and it has to do with Morgan le Fay.
Fate!Morgan is actually a composite character, derived from two characters from Arthurian legend; Legend!Morgan le Fay, from whom she gains her magical abilities, and Morgause, from whom she largely takes her role in story, as mother of the Orkney siblings (Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Mordred) and part of the reason for the fall of Camelot. Fate!Morgan being made up of those two characters doesn’t bug me. I think it’s actually not a bad idea to combine those two characters to make things a bit simpler than having them both around.
That’s not what bugs me.
What does bug me is the way they changed her relationship to Arthur/Artoria.
In Fate, Morgan is a legitimate daughter of Uther Pendragon. My search on the type-moon wiki doesn’t specify who her mother was, but it’s probably safe to assume her mother was Igraine, making her Artoria’s full sister. The reason for her antagonism towards Artoria is that she saw their father as loving her more, and placing his hopes in his younger daughter, even though both Morgan and Artoria were of equal status. This favoritism, whether true of perceived, led Morgan to resent Artoria and want to destroy her.
Now, in most versions of Arthurian legend, Morgan and Morgause are NOT the daughters of Uther. Instead, they are the daughters of Igraine and Gorlois, the Duke of Cornwall (the very south-western most part of Britain). Uther fell in love with Igraine, and went to war with Gorlois to steal her from him. On the very same night that Uther’s forces storm the castle Gorlois is staying in and kill him, Uther has Merlin use magic to disguise him as Gorlois, so he can sneak into the castle Igraine is in and rape her, conceiving Arthur. Igraine later learns the truth about what happened, and is coerced into marrying Uther. Her daughters, Elaine, Morgause, and Morgan, are then married to Uther’s allies.
From my point of view, Morgan and Morgause have a much more compelling reason to hate Arthur in the legend than Morgan does in Fate. The sisters see Arthur as the son of the person who murdered their father, raped their mother, and married them off to secure his own political alliances. Arthur presents himself as the rightful king of Britain and a just ruler, but this is predicated on being the legitimate heir of Uther Pendragon. For Morgan and Morgause, this means that Arthur, Camelot, and every ideal of honor and chivalry they stand for are built upon such an act of cruelty and barbarism that it renders everything a colossal monument to hypocrisy. How could they not want to see it all collapse in on itself?
All in all, I just think trading all of that in for “Dad loved you more than me so I hate you” is just wasted potential.
Gonna ramble for a bit.
Galahad’s portrayal in FGO kinda sucks for like, several reasons, but the main thing is how they underuse his connection with Mash. Like, it was one thing when the theory was ‘Galahad refuses to actively participate in anything relating to Chaldea’, but that got muddled in event after event where he imposes his will onto Mash exclusively to dunk on his father, and that’s it.
Like… Galahad’s whole thing was that he was this incredibly pure, uber-devout knight that constantly spent his time healing people and banishing evil spirits, and they do… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with that. Mash is defensive sure, and her skills may express that, but like… we fight so many ghosts and evil spirits, and yet there’s no mention of that aspect of Galahad at all.
Galahad’s personality only manifests around Lancelot? And purely to make Mash say rude things to him? For no reason? Which seems notably out of character for both of them, especially since a pretty large teaching in Christianity is ‘turning the other cheek’, which Mash!Galahad doesn’t do in the slightest- which is even weirder because Lancelot isn’t even at FAULT in the relationship, Galahad’s mother is.
Galahad’s relationship with Lancelot wasn’t even that canonically bad. Most of the ‘conflict’ between Lancelot and Galahad came from Galahad TANGENTALLY proving he was better than Lancelot by doing more good deeds and acting more knightly. When Galahad actually fought and beat Lancelot, Lancelot was so impressed that he was the one who ended up knighting him in the first place.
But like… why not have parts of Galahad’s personality manifest in other ways? Why not have Mash find herself drawn towards incredibly religious Christian Servants like Martha and Jeanne? Or have interesting conversations with David or Amakusa? Why not have her feel pity towards Caster Gilles, and maybe a obligation to bring him back to the ‘right path’?
Why not have Mash feel uncomfortable around the Roman Servants (especially Nero), considering Rome was
One of Camelot/Britain’s biggest enemies
Persecuted a ton of Christians, and…
Like, FAMOUSLY KILLED JESUS.
Actually, why don’t any of the Christian Servants express even the slightest bit of ‘eeeehhh…’ around Nero and the other Romans? Outside of the fact that it’s impossible for them to paint Nero and Rome in a slightly negative light. Wait, no. That’s it. That’s the reason.
And these are just a few possibilities, but there are SO many Servants in Chaldea that Mash could interact in a more meaningful way with due to sharing a body with Galahad.
Galahad just feels so stupidly underused during Part 1 and events, and maybe they’re saving some of the more intricate stuff for if he actually shows up as a Servant, but at the same time it feels like they’ll be doing the bare minimum with him.
The world deciding who’s gonna fuck up Camelot this time
So reddit got more PHH Morgan lore. First of all, she's actually Artoria's full blooded sister. When she was born, Gaia made her "the Child of Britain" who would inherit the island's mystery. The result was that she got three different split personalities like Kay mentioned: Morgan the human(Warrior), the fairy(Fairy), and the personification of Britain(Witch). Note: her Fairy self is named VIVIAN yes, LADY OF THE LAKE Vivian. According to Lancelot, Nimue, his mom, was an alias for Vivian so...
-Me: "So Nasu, which is it? Is Morgan Igraine's kid or Uther's kid?' Nasu: "... Yes."
-So basically Morgan's three bitches in PHH. I would have thought it was a gradual process from one to another but of course Nasu takes the fucking craziest and most metaphysical route possible just to clock me in the face.
-Well that explains the whole 'Evil Vivian' thing.
... Also-
Arturia: *at Gawain* You're Morgan's kid.
Arturia: *at Agravain* You're Morgan's kid. (Wish I wasn't)
Arturia: *at Gareth* You're Morgan's kid!
Arturia: *at Gaheris* You're Morgan's kid! (How'd I get here?!)
Arturia: *at Mordred* You're Morgan's AND my kid. (...Can you say that again?)
Arturia: IS THERE ANY MORE CHILDREN OF MORGAN IN MY COURT?!
Lancelot: ... Well...not biologically...but...
Arturia: ....
The Orkney Siblings: ...
Mordred: ... I'm not extending my family tree any further.
Also also-
Lancelot: My own mother tried to rape me...
Mordred: At least she gave a shit about you.
I drove myself up the wall working this out this morning, but this is how I assume Morgan could have possibly raised 6 children while Altria only lived to age 35. Please let me know if you see anything wrong, I’m doing my best!
@drunk-on-starlight
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The only thing funnier than his walk is the music to it
If Lancelot ran away after killing Agravain then coming back to kill Gareth to rescue Gwen, there was not enough time for a manhunt between the escape and the rescue. She did go to war with Lancelot at Gawain's behest. She turned back to Britain because a rebel broke out, not that she publicly made peace with Lancelot. When exactly did they have time to talk and for Artoria to say he wasn't at fault? Either Lancelot was referring to another incidence, he confused it with another time when the murder of the Orkney siblings hadn't happened or Fate being ambiguously confusing on purpose.
So, I mentioned a few times a little about the fact that Morgan being Uther's daughter and how I hate it. Since I got a few people mentioning that they wanted to see my thoughts on it, I'll give a few at least.
So, before we begin, I'm going to give a quick refresher on Morgan's backstory, just so people don't have to read back over things I've written or other stuff.
Morgan is almost always (other than in Welsh sources were she doesn't get mentioned until Arthur is mentioned going to Morgan the Healer) the daughter of Igraine and Gorlois, who Malory calls Duke of Cornwall. She and her sister Morgause (and their sister Elaine who doesn't much show up in the stories) apparently had a good relationship with their father, since he's called a 'good man' pretty consistently. However, Gorlois appears to be a political rival of Uther Pendragon, for the more or less shaky throne.
The problem occurs when Uther invites Gorlois to a feast to work out an alliance, but on seeing his wife, Igraine, he immediately wants her. Igraine seems to notice his interest, and immediately runs to her husband, who immediately takes her at her word and leaves.
Uther declares war. And while he talks about betrayals and such, the real reason is he wants Igraine THAT bad.
However, since Gorlois is himself powerful, and Igraine is actually faithful to her husband, Uther employs Merlin to make him look like Gorlois. Some stories say that he kills Gorlois on the battlefield others say that it was in his own house. Regardless, he is taken for Gorlois and Igraine sleeps with him.
Uther later reveals himself as Uther, breaks the news that he killed Gorlois and that Igrain slept with HIM that night.
He pretty much forcibly marries Igraine, and sends Morgause to be married to his ally Lot and Morgan into a nunnery where she is later married herself (girls used to be educated in nunneries).
This is a motivation. Morgan has absolutely EVERY reason to hate Uther Pendragon, the man who killed her father, raped her mother and tore her happy family apart. She has every reason to struggle with her feelings for Arthur, moving between hating and aiding him, sewing the seeds of his destruction and then coming to save him. She has every reason to despise Guinevere who not only accused one of Morgan's lady's of adultery, but also throws the chance of the happy family Morgan can never reclaim in the dirt. She has every reason to hate Lancelot, who comes in to the same thing she saw Uther do.
What making Morgan as the daughter of Uther does is completely nullify her reasons and motives. It makes her a villain with a nearly incomprehensible motive. She wants to take over Britain but she couldn't do it anyways because she'd have to be a man and she wasn't going to hide that. She hates Artoria for particular reason other than 'she's in my way'. She just seems to be there because the story needed a villain. This utterly erases Morgan's pain and rage, and it seems like all it's there to do is exonerate Uther.
Uther's defining act, and the thing that Arthur is born from, is a horrific deed that should solidify him as a monster. He knew perfectly well Igraine wasn't interested, but he forced her to marry him anyways. By making it having never happened like that, it makes Uther a more heroic figure than anyone whose name is "the Terrible One" should ever be.
While, yes, artistic license is a thing and all that, this particular change is both pointless and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
My favorite part about the Nasuverse is how it needlessly crams down the Arthurian mythos. Technically, there should be about 50 years of stuff, and Arthur should have reigned for between 20-30 years. Which gives time for several iterations of the Round Table, ending with the generation of Galahad.
(putting a cut)
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Yeah but like, don't you have to be chosen by the planet and be 'worthy' to use Excalibur or something like that??
I do not for the life of me remember how the fuck Excalibur works in fate beyond that Bedi not returning it was what resulted in The Lion King. It's also so subsumed with Caliburn in popular culture that I do not remember where one stops and the other starts most of the time.
The fact that they can shoot beams with it, doesn't that make all of Chaldea sabers?
The 'worthiness' thing is Caliburn, which Fate establishes as a different sword in its canon (which is a familiar take in some versions of Arthuriana, the Caliburn/Excalibur thing is historically kinda muddy).
Excalibur is just an incredibly juiced-up Divine Construct that needs a ton of mana and shoots super lasers that automatically scale in strength depending on how much of a 'threat to humanity' something is. And because of how powerful it is, and how much mana it consumes, will kill people who aren't properly built for using it- like Bedivere. Which is why handing Excalibur to Ritsuka and saying 'use it' would be the fastest way to get a Dead End, because they'd probably die instantly after firing it off.
Luckily, Artoria is built different (Dragon Core), and can use it without dying instantly. She'll just get really tired instead.
So, again, it's a fair weapon to stick on to your massive flying magical super ship, if not pretty energy consuming, so you need to make sure it works when you do fire it off.