- "Morgana" redirects here. For the episode, see Morgana (episode).
Queen Morgana is a major character in Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders. She is the main antagonist of the series' second season, voiced by Deborah Allison. Morgana and Lady Kale later both inspired the character of Dark Sorceress in Avalon: Web of Magic.
The mysterious, sinister, and seemingly eternally young Morgana was once the Queen of the Wild Magic and a leader of the ancient wizards who have been eliminated by the good wizard Merlin 1,000 years prior to the events of the show. Introduced in "Revenge of the Dark Stone", she first appears in person in the titular episode "Morgana" as she revived by the power of the Dark Stone. She and Lady Kale then make a deal to work together against the Jewel Riders as Morgana hopes to find the Wizard Jewels, get her vengeance upon Merlin, and finally conquer Avalon. Can Princess Gwenevere and her friends stop Morgana in time?
"That's the trouble with you Jewel Riders, always thinking of others first. That is your weakness and my strength!"
In the series
Background
Derek through the Fortune Jewel describes as her as "a great witch out of legend". A thousand years ago, Morgana the Sorceress was the treacherous leader of ancient wizards, as well as the original creator and wielder of the Dark Stone. However, together with the other wizards, she had been defeated and banished in the form of dispersed energy into Wild Magic by Merlin after they had had conspired against him in order to take over the magic of Avalon and use it for evil. Since then, all that that seemed to have remained of Morgana has been a legend—until now.
Return
The enchantress returns with a vengeance in the show's second season when the Dark Stone restores her physical form in her lair after both the jewel and her palace went into the Wild Magic in the final episodes of the first season. Unable to control her Dark Jewel anymore, Morgana is forced to allied herself with Lady Kale, a wicked would-be Queen of Avalon and like her too a sworn enemy of Merlin, lending Kale extra power so she can collect all the lost Wizard Jewels for Morgana to destroy Merlin and rule Avalon and Wild Magic in his place. However, Kale secretly plots to betray Morgana and does not intend to give the Wizard Jewels to her.
Now, Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders must fight to prevent this and overcome her dark magic, so the hopefully returning Merlin may be able do away with Morgana again (but this time make sure she will remain history). During their adventures, the girls and their friends (especially Gwen's beloved Prince Ian) have several very dangerous confrontations with the powerful evil sorceress, both in Avalon and in the other realms, as Morgana is appearing either alongside Kale (in Avalon) or alone (in the other realms that Kale can not access as she has no help from the Gliders).
Abilities
Like Merlin, Morgana does not age[1] and actually does not need a jewel for her spells as they both are able to channel the magical energies with their very hands, but hers is mostly purple like the Dark Stone's. She is furthermore able to use her hair as magic tendrils, and she can float in the air and is also seated on a flying throne during some episodes.
Similar to the Jewel Riders and Queen Anya in the Jewel Keep, Morgana has a device in her lair for detecting (but not precisely locating) magical jewels inside the Wild Magic. The Crystal Palace overall very much limits her power to aid Kale if she is inside or too close to it. As a wizard, Morgana can also order the Guardian of the Magic, but he later rebels against her and sides with the Jewel Riders.
In "Lady of the Lake", Morgana finally leaves the Wild Magic physically when she absorbs enough of magical energies from the myst surrounding the Heart of Avalon after Kale gets there. In "The One Jewel" she briefly takes a mermaid form, described in the episode's script as "sea witch", and eventually later turns into a goddess-like figure.
Appearances
"Revenge of the Dark Stone" (cameo), "Morgana", "Shadowsong, "Fashion Fever", "Vale of the Unicorns", "Prince of the Forest", "The Wizard of Gardenia", "Mystery Island", "The Fortune Jewel", "Spirit of Avalon", "The One Jewel" (demise)
Fate
In the end, Merlin uses the power of the ultimate One Jewel, provided by Princess Gwenevere, to defeat Morgana once and for all. She gets trapped in magic forge and seemingly annihilated completely, leaving no trace of her and the four ghosts of other evil wizards: "The forge shrinks, shrinks and vanishes taking Morgana and the other wizards with her."[2] (German title of this episode, "The Last Dance", is actually "Morganas Ende", or "Morgana's End" in English.) And, with the Dark Stone no longer existing, it seems this time nothing is going to bring her back again.
Behind the scenes
Development
Morgana was voiced by Deborah Allison in English, Françoise Cadol in French, and Aleksandra Cucic in Serbo-Croat. She was loosely based on the Arthurian character of Morgan le Fay (often known as Morgana, among a variety of other names).
Morgana did not appear in the series' 1994 Show Bible and was only later created for the toy series, even as no toys of her have been ever actually produced. Art director Greg Autore said: "When the second set of episodes was turned on, the only two directions to start with were – 1) Search for wild magic jewels since the first set was all found 2) Use Morgana as the ultimate villainess instead of Lady Kale."[3] Autore said the show's creator Robert Mandell "always had Morgana in the back of his head as a villainess he wanted to do. Her time finally came." Autore then "went completely different and made her cold as ice (note the colors) since she was more mature and less flamboyant of a character" than Kale.[4]
In her concept art pictures, Morgana was was yet unnamed and yellowish-skinned. In the never-released action figure, "her long skirt was to be molded and would open up to be a hovering throne she used to fly around in."[5] In the show, she is wearing long boots under her skirt (as it can be seen in a screenshot below). Autore said about how her action figure would look like: "her skirt was to transform into a flying throne and we would have her flying around on it in the show. I admit it was probably the dorkiest figure I planned. However, she did have a transparent flash of lightning that could be attached into her hand as if she was blasting someone. Morgana would have had a woman's body and even been a bit taller" (than Kale's figure).[6]
Legacy
Together with some aspects of Kale, Morgana later inspired the character of the Dark Sorceress who serves the main antagonist of Avalon: Web of Magic. Like Morgana, the Dark Sorceress has silver hair and she destroyed the ancient forest of Aldenmor similar to how Morgana burns down the Forests of Arden. She and the Spider Witch also have a villain team-up during the second half of Avalon, as do Kale and Morgana.
See also
References
- ↑ To Kale: "I can sit here for another few centuries. Can you?" ("Morgana")
- ↑ The Last Dance (script)
- ↑ Greg Autore and the Toy Design of Jewel Riders - Part Two - The Jewel Riders Archive
- ↑ Greg Autore and the Toy Design of Jewel Riders - Part Three - The Jewel Riders Archive
- ↑ Greg Autore and the Toy Design of Jewel Riders - Part One - The Jewel Riders Archive
- ↑ Greg Autore and the Toy Design of Jewel Riders - Part Four - The Jewel Riders Archive
External links
- Morgana compared to Lady Kale (as well as to Morgana from King Arthur and the Knights of Justice and Jana from Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic) (fan analysis by PB)
- Jewel Rider Project - Morgana (fan redesign by Bluelily)
Characters |
---|
List of characters List of episodic characters Main characters |
Magic |
---|
Magic, Wild Magic, Jewel Quest, Jewel Armor |