Morgana (Tales of Arcadia)/Synopsis

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The story of the chaotic witch Morgan le Fay from DreamWorks's Tales of Arcadia trilogy.

Background

“	Merlin: She is as ancient as I am, perhaps more so. Craving chaos, she sowed the seeds of dissension between humans and trollkind… Claire: I know her will. She's a real headcase. Merlin: …hence the Eternal Night. She realized if trolls could not survive in daylight, what if the night were everlasting? Jim: Gunmar and his forces could do whatever they wanted! Merlin: Morgana had to be stopped at any cost. It turns out… Jim: That cost was your magic! Merlin: Aye, the only way to stop her was to expend almost all my power and confine her for as long as possible.	„
	~ Merlin explaining his battle with Morgana.

Morgana was an ancient witch who once lived in the dead-filled forests of Bulgaria, which has existed before humans and trolls, and eventually became Merlin's student with whom she experimented on magic. However, she eventually betrayed her teacher through unknown means.

Having been fueled by an obsession with chaos, Morgana manipulated the planet Earth's history by creating the first war between mankind and trollkind: the War for the Surface Lands, which lasted for around a millennia. The bloodshed and violence Morgana made has caused the first Heartstone to rot from within, thus causing the warlord Gunmar to be born. Having indirectly created Gunmar because of said wars, Morgana came up with the idea of a doomsday-scenario called the Eternal Night, which she could use to commit genocide on mankind by trollkind destroying them all without the fear of being turned to stone by daylight. However, she was just using them to get what she truly wanted all along: to conquer the world through chaos. To resolve this war by making a line of champions who would forever be a bane to Gumm-Gumms and evil creatures alike, Merlin cut Morgana's left hand clean-off to forge the Amulet of Daylight. Following this, she forged a green prosthetic to replace her left hand and developed an intense hatred towards her former master.

Morgana makes the Inferna Copula.

It is shown that in the year 1297 A.D., Angor Rot sought out Morgana and asked for power so he can protect his village from Gunmar and his armies. However, the Pale Lady instead turned Angor's offering into a curse and created a ring called the Inferna Copula, which she would use to enslave Angor Rot by encasing his soul, using him to kill the Trollhunters. At some point in her life, she lost the Inferna Copula, which eventually came to another one of her creations, Stricklander, by unknown means.

A century after being chosen to be the Trollhunter, Deya the Deliverer picked up an omniscienstone, but Merlin warned her that using it would court madness. However, she didn't listen to the wizard, and used it anyway. Through the stone, she saw events that Merlin knew about: events in the past, present, and future, as well as events that would not, or should not, happen. One of them was Morgana's right hand emerging from green water.

Morgana and Merlin dueling for the fate of the world during the Battle of Killahead Bridge.

Unbeknownst to the trolls in the Battle of Killahead, when Deya banished Gunmar and the Gumm-Gumms into the Darklands, Merlin and Morgana clashed to determine the world's fate. However, Merlin won the battle and trapped Morgana in the Heartstone in Trollmarket, which was beneath the land that would eventually become the town of Arcadia, although he lost most of his magic upon doing so. After his battle with Morgana, Merlin went to his tomb, where he slept for centuries.

Despite this, Morgana's spirit was completely awake and able to frequently exit her body despite being imprisoned, as she continued her plot to free herself and Gunmar so she could eventually unleash the Eternal Night upon the planet. During her imprisonment, she became the spiritual advisor of an evil organization of changelings known as the Janus Order, led by Otto Scaarbach, who became dedicated to freeing Gunmar. They worshiped Morgana as their Lady Creator, who spoke to them through an old turntable.

Trollhunters

Part 2

Through the turntable, Morgana speaks to Otto while he was interrogating Toby, Claire, Blinky, and NotEnrique. However, she abandons them after Gunmar enters the Janus Order's secret base and kills them all before going to Trollmarket (except for Otto Scaarbach, who he uses as a vessel to distract the new Trollhunter, Jim Lake Jr., but Otto is killed by Jim).

In the final episode of Part 2, "In the Hall of the Gumm-Gumm King", after Gunmar takes control of Trollmarket with Usurna's help, Claire Nuñez uses her Shadow Staff (which she took from Angor Rot in Part 1) to create a portal so big that her friends and the remaining trolls could evacuate Trollmarket. However, as a result, she is linked to Morgana because of the Shadow Staff. She takes Angor's head and goes to Morgana to free her from her imprisonment. When Claire presents his head, Morgana says that Angor shall rise and set her free, before telling Claire that they are forever linked to each other, and that they are one.

Part 3

After Gunmar has taken control of Trollmarket, Dictatious Maximus Galadrigal tries to find anything that can help him, but couldn't see well because his eyes were blinded by Blinky. However, he hears Morgana's voice, which comes from the Janus Order's turntable and repeatedly whispers, “I will return.” When Dictatious gets soothed by her voice, she creepily reaches out her right hand out of the phonograph's horn at his ear. Dictatious tells this to Queen Usurna, who believes Morgana to be nothing but a myth. In an attempt to prove him wrong, Usurna repeats her name four times, but since her name is cursed, the phonograph starts turning again and Morgana says to call to her. Because she believes that Gunmar should remain unaware of this, Usurna throws the phonograph down a deep chasm, saying it will be forgotten to the ages.

In Blinky's library, as Gunmar scurries through many books in desperation to finding the key to creating the Eternal Night, Morgana uses a magical book to tell him to call to her so the key to the Eternal Night will be his, despite the fact that the phonograph is now lost in a chasm, and reveals to him a shrine in Bulgaria. Gunmar reaches the said shrine by crossing the Black Sea, and when he arrives, Morgana has Claire give him the head of Angor Rot, promising that her champion will find the way to bring forth the Eternal Night upon the world. She also tells Gunmar that Dictatious is a fraud.

As Claire still has her sickness, Morgana toys with her and sadistically possesses her, and later tries to use her connection with Claire on a murder attempt on her boyfriend, Jim Lake, Jr., who is now the Trollhunter. Jim is surprised to see that Morgana is using Claire's body to try to kill him, and she tries to suck him down a black portal, but NotEnrique manages to get Claire unconscious. When Jim asks him who Morgana is, NotEnrique tells him that it's not someone he would want to date.

Morgana tries to trick Stricklander into sealing Jim and Toby's fate by using his love for Barbara Lake.

Following this, Morgana, in Claire's body, gets subjugated by Jim and Toby with help from Blinky and Stricklander. She gloats about herself and tries to use it as a distraction, but Stricklander and Blinky are able to open a portal to the Shadow Realm, thus allowing Jim and Toby to return Claire's spirit to her body before she is lost for good. Morgana nearly succeeds in tempting Stricklander into closing the portal, but it is too late for her; the boys are able to return Claire's spirit to her body, thus severing her and Morgana's connection.

Morgana's spirit appears once again at the Temple of Aysa-Thoon toward Gunmar, a brainwashed Draal, and a chained AAARRRGGHH!!!. Gunmar gives her Angor's eye. Using this, she restores his soul and resurrects him so she can use him as her assassin once again. Once resurrected, Angor vows to kill Jim Lake, Jr. once and for all. Morgana tells Gunmar and Angor to set up a trap for the Trollhunter and his friends.

At the time Gunmar takes the Staff of Avalon from Merlin's tomb, a wisp reveals that Morgana's body is trapped in a secret chamber beneath the Heartstone in Trollmarket. Angor soon arrives at Trollmarket to confront Gunmar for betraying him and leaving him for dead, but Morgana reminds Angor of who he truly serves, but threatens to destroy him if he fails her.

Gunmar attempts to use the Staff of Avalon to free Morgana's body, but realizes that only humans can wield the staff. With that, he demands that Ursuna kidnap a changeling, who fails. However, Gunmar is able to use his forces to kidnap both Stricklander and Barbara Lake, holding Barbara hostage to convince Stricklander into freeing Morgana in exchange for Barbara's life. While Stricklander holds the staff and speaks the incantation, he uses it to attack Gunmar. Then, he and Barbara escape, not realizing the Staff is still activated, thus unknowingly allowing Gunmar to use it to free Morgana's body. Morgana's spirit enters her body seconds before this happens. With Gunmar's help, Morgana is finally free of her imprisonment, where she proclaims, “The Eternal Night is here!”

Morgana massacring many Gumm-Gumms to use their ashes to create the Eternal Night.

Now that she is finally free after centuries of being imprisoned, Morgana begins to create the Eternal Night, starting with killing off a few of Gunmar's Gumm-Gumm soldiers to use their remains in her spell, declaring it a sacrifice. She also activates the Staff of Avalon. While Gunmar makes a speech about trollkind's dominance in the world, Morgana holds a private meeting with Angor Rot, in which, while telling him that he is her champion and she will be by her side when she dominates the world, she reveals that Gunmar is merely a pawn to do what she wants, and that he will be disposed of once he's outlived his usefulness.

Soon, cracks begin to form in the ground underneath the canal, and Claire and Toby, wearing new suits of armor gifted to them by Merlin, arrive at the Battle of the Bands once high school is over for the year. Once her, Darci, and Mary's performance starts, Claire tries to get everyone to evacuate from what is to come, but Darci and Mary don't believe it, believing it's just part of the performance. They realize it's too late and that Claire was right all along, as the ground shatters and a fiery twister shoots up into the air, covering Arcadia entirely in darkness and allowing Gunmar's army to emerge from underneath and attack the citizens. Meanwhile, both Merlin and AAARRRGGHH!!! try to ambush Morgana. They manage to regain the Staff of Avalon, but realize too late that she has drained it of its power and siphoned Merlin's magic for herself. At that time, Morgana arrives and brutalizes Merlin without hesitation, but AAARRRGGHH!!! is able to summon the spirits of past Trollhunters, which possess the Gumm-Gumms guarding Trollmarket, using them to attack Morgana.

Presumably slaying all of the possessed Gumm-Gumms, Morgana proceeds to come from underground, and confronts Jim in his new half-troll form, who has just slain Gunmar. She uses her power to toss Jim from Arcadia square all the way to the bridge, where she begins to attack him mercilessly. When Jim asks her what her problem is with him, Morgana reveals that Merlin cut off her left hand and used it to create the Amulet of Daylight, but uses this as an excuse to her advantage. She tries to cast Jim into the fiery twister, only for the latter to be rescued by Toby, who has emerged from a portal. Soon, she sees that the Trollhunter and company are attacking her from all sides. She uses her magic to restrain them all, only to be confronted by Angor Rot. Morgana offers him a final blow to Jim, but he instead punches her, where he detests Morgana, claiming he's no one's pawn. Seeing that Angor was redeemed, Morgana demands Jim what he told Angor, and strikes Jim before fighting Angor, the latter of which is able to restrain her, allowing Jim to ram the Sword of Daylight through both of them.

Morgana meets her debatable fate when she ends up defeated by being trapped in the Shadow Realm.

While Angor bids him farewell, Morgana gloats about how the Sword can only work on trolls, before she casts a deadly spell to attempt murder on Jim and his friends. However, Jim is able to take the full blast of her spell, which knocks him unconscious. In his final moments, Angor spots the Shadow Staff, urging Claire to use it. Claire opens a portal to the Shadow Realm and tries to force Morgana through, but the latter blasts Angor into pieces and takes Claire with her into the portal. However, Claire is able to make another portal out of the Shadow Realm, but is snatched by Morgana's magic, who tries to pull her into the Shadow Realm by force. Claire tells Toby to destroy the Shadow Staff and throws it to AAARRRGGHH!!!, who holds it on the ground so Toby can smash the Staff with his warhammer. The Shadow Staff is destroyed, thus causing an explosion of dark energy which forced Morgana to release Claire and enabled Blinky to pull Claire out. Morgana shrieks as the portal closes and she gets trapped in the Shadow Realm. With that, Merlin gets all his magic back, and uses it to end the Eternal Night.

Morgana's status is left debatable, because it's possible that she remains in the Shadow Realm for the rest of her life. At the end of the episode, however, Merlin got his magic back,and the only way he could get it back was that Morgana was killed, which he has been saying for a long time, so it's possible that she died off-screen due to the suction into the Shadow Realm.

3Below

Part 1

Morgana never appears in this series; however, her assault on Arcadia and creation of the Eternal Night leave a huge impact in the events taking place. Eli observes the cracks from beneath the ground and calls Steve (who is in the Zeron Brotherhood's ship) about what is going on, but he accidentally drops his phone into the cracks.

When the Eternal Night takes place, Aja, Krel, Varvatos Vex, and Zadra were shown to kill some of the Gumm-Gumms that Morgana used in her attack, and the Zeron Alpha and the first OMEN made by General Morando are revealed to have used the Eternal Night to keep the Royals occupied while the Mothership's programming is corrupted by the OMEN to go back to Akiridion-5 where Morando could crush the cores of King Fialkov and Queen Coranda. However, the OMEN is destroyed by Aja and the royal cores are kept safe, while the Zeron Alpha kidnaps Varvatos and takes him to the Moon where Morando's bounty hunters are after the Eternal Night has ended.

Part 2

Morgana was mentioned a couple times by Toby, including the beginning of Part 2 when he goes to Eli Pepperjack's house and sees his conspiracy wall. Toby mentions that he met a couple wizards, referring to Merlin and Morgana. Later on, Colonel Kubritz shows General Morando the footage of Morgana making the Eternal Night while the latter is on his quest to get Gaylen's Core for himself so he can become a self-proclaimed "god".

Morando sees that Aja, Krel, Varvatos, Toby, and AAARRRGGHH!!! used a Horngazel to enter Trollmarket, but the portal closes and he and his OMENs can't catch up with them, but remembering that the fiery twister used to cause the Eternal Night in the first place came from underground, he tells the OMENs that they can use the lasers beneath the bridge to enter Trollmarket, and upon finding Gaylen's Core, takes it for himself and eventually merges with it to become even bigger and more powerful than ever before. However, Morando is vaporized by Aja and Krel using Seklos's Cannon during the final battle of the series, and during said battle, Toby mentions her when he compares Morando’s strength to Morgana's.

Wizards

Despite her imprisonment, Morgana has been confirmed to appear in the upcoming third installment. It is unknown if she would be the main antagonist of the show, proving that she is still alive, or a posthumous antagonist, proving that she is either dead or trapped in the Shadow Realm for good.