Morgwen

Morgwen is the femslash ship between Morgana Pendragon and Guinevere from the BBC Merlin fandom.

Season 1
THE MARK OF NIMUEH

Gwen enters Morgana's room holding a boquet of flowers. Morgana observes that Gwen looks happy, and Gwen says that she picked the flowers for her. Morgana says it's sweet and Gwen says it's too chear her up since she hasn't been sleeping well. Morgana says that Gwen makes her happy and Gwen offers to put the flowers in water for her. Morgana smiles as she watches her do so.

Gwen is in Morgana's room when Arthur comes in and has her arrested for practicing magic. Gwen screams that she hasn't done anything as they drag her away when Morgana walks in. Gwen calls for help and Morgana demands to know what Arthur is doing. Arthur explains that he found magic in Gwen's house, and Morgana says that's ridiculous. She insists that Gwen is innoccent, but Arthur can't turn a blind eye.

Gwen is brought to king Uder and keeps insisting that she's innoccent, Morgana walking in and defending her. Uder sentences Gwen to death and as she is dragged away Morgana turns to Uder. Morgana insists that she knows Gwen, and she's no enchantress. Morgana asks why Gwen would work herself so hard if she was a sorceress, when she could do anything with the snap of her fingers. Like Uder. Uder takes offense, but Morgana says he has no right to cast judgement on Gwen and he's sentencing the wrong person.

Season 2

Lancelot and Guinevere

Gwen gets kidnapped protecting Morgana. Morgana is seen distressed and distraught at Gwen’s kidnapping. She attempts to get Uther to send out a rescue party to bring her back but he refuses to do so because she is a servant. Arthur and Merlin instead go out to bring Gwen back home. When Morgana and Gwen are reunited, they hug and are seen crying tears of relief.

Season 1
The Mark of Nimueh
 * Morgana runs away from Gwen's cell crying.
 * Morgana asks what she can do to help save Gwen.
 * Morgana tells Gwen that Merlin was the one to save the day.
 * Morgana assumes that Merlin has a crush on Gwen.

Fanon
Morgwen is a fairly popular ship in the Merlin fandom, and is the most popular femslash one. The two are shipped due to their close relationship. Many prefer the ship to the girls canonical pairings.

The ship has also focused on other versions of Morgana and Gwen that appear close in franchises that use or focus on the Arthurian folklore. Like Tales of Arcadia, that had Morgana and Gwen as childhood kids long before Gwen's marriage to Morgana's half brother made them in-laws.

On AO3, Morgwen is the most written ship for Morgana and the third most written for Gwen. It is also the fourth most written ship in the Merlin (TV) tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

WIKI

Trivia

 * Their Tales of Arcadia counterparts were childhood friends long before they became in-laws through Arthur. They enjoyed their childhood playing in the woods that is home to magical creatures, as mush a Gwen loved the magic Morgana uses. One fateful day in those every woods, however, the two were exploring it for old time sakes when Gwen ran off ahead of Morgana and fell into a Stalkling's nest. By the time Morgana caught up to her it was too late. Gwen's tragic death caused Arthur to hate all things magic, while Morgana made it her mission to keep them safe. Knowing that Gwen wouldn't want that, or for her childhood friends to become enemies.