ArMor Month 2021 - Week Five : The Mists of Avalon ( Free week)
"Morgaine," Arthur whispered, "is it really you? I cannot see you, Morgaine, it is so dark here... is the sun setting? Morgaine, take me to Avalon, where you can heal me of this wound... take me home, Morgaine-"
His head was heavy on my breast, heavy as the child in my own childish arms, heavy as the King Stag who had come to me in triumph. Morgaine, my mother had called impatiently, take care of the baby... and all my life I had borne him with me. I held him close and wiped away his tears with my veil, and he reached up and caught at my hand with his own.
"But it is really you," he murmured, "it is you, Morgaine... you have come back to me... and you are so young and fair... I will always see the Goddess with your face... Morgaine, you will not leave me again, will you?"
"I will never leave you again, my brother, my baby, my love," I whispered to him, and I kissed his eyes. And he died, just as the mists rose and the sun shone full over the shores of Avalon.
by Marion Zimmer Bradley // Stock images
for @twisted-shipper for hosting this fest and being Armor’s biggest supporter! We love you 💕 Have a happy, healthy 2022 🕊️
Fandom: BBC's Merlin (canon era) AU
AU: The Pendragon Siblings
Long live Morgana Pendragon, Queen of Camelot.
Despite Agravaine's meddling, Arthur manages to secure his throne with his secret blood sister at his side.
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Spurred into action by the @armor-month-2021. A manip with the power couple for this AU was on my to-do list, after an old, aborted attempt that will soon see the trash. Thanks to giving me the will to give this pair another chance, admins. ;)
In this AU Arthur and Morgana know about their siblings secret status and agree into a not-consumed wedding, although for all intents and purposes, to the eye of the court, people and neighbors they are a true couple. Only Gwen knows about their secret.
But hey, don't let this put you off: if you like ArMor as (intentional or not) incest be my guest. ;)
More about the AU under the cut.
About the AU
This is a double canon-divergence AU, one point of divergence is that Merlin never comes to Camelot near the Purge Anniversary, and Kilgharrah enlists Gwen to protect the Young Prince from his magical foes. Nonetheless to say that Morgana, as Gwen's mistress and friend, quickly gets involved as well.
The second point of divergence is that Uther does die in To Kill the King (although Morgana has nothing to do with it).
Arthur is therefore propelled on the throne way earlier and has to deal with all kind of shit before even his coming of age happens, including Morgana's magical awakening, a court eager to marry him off, and an uncle that eventually decides that Camelot cannot be left in the hands of a king who's opening up toward magic.
Arthur has only Morgana as ally in this fight against his own court to keep the throne and they eventually decide to turn their alliance into marriage - although with the plan to eventually null it and for Arthur to marry Gwen. Any hope about Gwen ascending to the throne is crushed by Agravaine's evil plots (because he really, really doesn't want a maid on the throne), and Arthur and Morgana are even lonelier than before - Arthur crushed by the knowledge that Gwen will never be his wife and Morgana fighting her personal war against Agravaine behind Arthur's back.
They then discover they are siblings, and that would be quite a reason to break the engagement off, but then Agravaine gets too bold and too ambitious and his plots to become the next king endanger the whole Camelot. When another dawn is rising, the dust of a war is settling and Camelot is safe, Arthur and Morgana decide it is time to secure the throne once and for all. And Arthur can only thrust Morgana as his shadow and partner.
Merlin and Morgause eventually will enter the picture and the two coins will be finally complete, but that's another story, and belongs to part 2 of the monster-fic-that-never-will.
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Tec stuffs (aka Behind The Manip)
Something I threw together for the @armor-month-2021. And, by "throw together", I don't mean it took me little time. Especially because, when it was finished, I remade half of it because I decided to change Morgana/Katie's pic.
Let's just start by saying the final product has been scaled down before the posting: the original is 5470 width.
Anyway. I had to, in order, replace the throne near Arthur's with another one since the throne didn't fit Katie's sitting position, which meant remake some of the wall decorations and retouches here and there on the background. After that, given that the throne replacement was already occupied by Gwen/Angel, I also had to remove Gwen from that throne in order to make space for Morgana. And yes, I did replace Uther's crown Bradley was wearing in the pic with his true crown. Phewwwww.
When the manip was already finished, I just went and decided I should've just used the other Morgana/Katie's pic from the same shooting, and then went to cut her out from her own background. Then I needed to scale up the throne a bit (which meant re-do again the whole work on the room wall behind the throne) and when everything was ready to place the newest Morgana... I don't know how it happened, but Morgana2's layer was vanished. So, in the end, I brought back the original Katie, but with some changes to fit better her sitting position (she wasn't sitting at the center of the throne). And, while at it, I went all "why Bradley's not wearing Ygraine's ring?! SHAME". And added that. And ended up adding Uther's necklace as well while at it.
I really needed to post it quickly before I found something else to add, modify or change.
ArMor Month // Week Four // A song that makes you think of them
I’ve always loved how the relationship of Arthur and Morgana has been portrayed, it has been very interesting to me, the dynamic is incredible. Bradley James and Katie Mcgrath played those characters in an amazing way and that made me fall in love with these two fictional and historic figures even more. Since the beginning of Merlin I have listened to so many different songs, but only few of them makes me think of Arthur and Morgana everytime I hear them. I wanted to share them with you all :) :) :)
Here is my Top 3 ArMor songs:
First favorite song - Banners “Supercollide” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX_GVa7jVts
Second favorite song - KALEO “Skinny” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYH_lkZ_3sM
Third favorite song - Holly Humberstone “Drop Dead” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiXpejhkBmY
This is finally my participation for the armormonth2021! I've been searching for a song to vid these two for days and finally, I happened to watch an amazing video (link below), so here it is!
These two have such a fascinating relationship as siblings. I might ship them as lovers, but I can't deny that as brother and sister, their dynamic has a lot of depth. In this video, I tried to explore more of how they affected each other and show that, no matter how much time passes, Morgana will always be his greatest guilt.
I hope you enjoy this little video! Below is a link to the video that inspired me to use this song:
ArMor Month 2021 - Week 1 : PENDRAGON SIBLINGS
And what lesson can we draw from Volentene history?
If you want to conquer the world, you best have dragons.
What do dragons eat, anyway?
Whatever they want.
~ George R. R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
I was always in love with arthurian mythology, and watched pretty much everything about it. I can say that I begun to love Arthur and Morgana’s complex relationship after watching Mists of Avalon.
When it comes to Merlin BBC, I pretty much wasn’t interested in ships of anything. I was young, and pretty much loved the adventure and the banter and the jokes and the mythos. Having a creature every week and stuff like that. It went so far that I genuinely believed Merlin and Guinevere had ended up together, and it was only upon a rewatch, years later, that I realized it wasn’t the case;
It was so strange too, watching that first season with that set up and then nothing comes of it.
Anyway, while I was all frustrated that Merlin and Gwen weren’t together as my mind tried to trick me into believing, I also noticed all the banter between Arthur and Morgana. It was a rewatch, it was weird. I could swear they were siblings, so having all those flirty moments, and arthur questioning other people if Morgana was beautiful while she watched him from across the room was weird. Such as any rewatch of a show where your memories are fogged and selective I shrugged it off. Maybe I was wrong about the siblings part to. Merlin BBC being so family friendly (with all that genocide, immolation and torture) I imagined they wouldn’t deal with a heavy subject like the complex Arthur Morgana dynamic with the incest and all. So I said to myself, screw it, they are cute together.
Well, as things go, fair to say the sibling reveal caught me off guard too!!!! Seriously, what the hell?
ANyway, by then I was shipping them, had already read fanfic for them. SO yeah, screw it, I ship it now.
