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mordred through time (movies, tv shows, opera and musicals) - missing Mordreds I forgot to add!
This is from "Camelot: The Legend" (1998), where Mordred is Arthur's illegitimate son (though a spell) and he plots against him.
If you want to look at the complete list:
mordred through time (movies, tv shows, opera and musicals) - missing Mordreds I forgot to add!
This is from "Camelot" (1998), where Mordred is Arthur's son, and we see him crying at Arthur's death for the first time.
If you want to look at the complete list:
mordred through time (movies, tv shows, opera and musicals)
Part 5: From 2018 to 2023 (and 2024)
Other Parts: Part 1: From 1949 to 1981 -> here Part 2: From 1982 to 2002 -> here Part 3: From 2002 to 2010 -> here Part 4: From 2014 to 2017 -> here
For this last part I wanted to talk a bit about queer Mordred!
First of all, Mordred is one of the main characters who is written as LGBTQ in novels and other media. My arthurian excel list of queer arthurian characters (arthurian list of everything, in the LGBTQ sheet) is up to a few years ago, but the numbers seem to be: LGBTQ Lancelot in 16 media, Arthur in 13 media which is equal to Mordred who is also LGBTQ in 13 media (two being interpretations: White's "The once and future king" and "Fall of Camelot" fromt he Time Life books). Most of these are, of course, novels, with the first ever appearance of LGBTQ Mordred in 1956 Borowsky's novel "The Queen's knight", where Mordred is a gay man. Then in 1982 Cherryh's "Port Eternity" has asexual Mordred, even if the characters could be debated on how arthurian they are. We then jump to 1997 with the short story "The Pretender" by Stephen Dedman, with mlm Mordred.
2005 "A Connecticut Fashionista in King Arthur's Court" by Mari Mancusi (gay Mordred) 2006 "Mordred bastard son" by Douglas Clegg (gay Mordred) 2008 "The Silurian series" by Wilson (gay Mordred) 2012 "The Prince and the Program" by Mercer (bisexual Mordred) 2014 "Mordred and the king" by Curlovich (gay Mordred)
In movies, shows and musicals instead we could consider 2008 musical Mordred the first iteration of queer Mordred (part 3). This is of course an interpretation and it might probably just be a case of queer-coding of villains that reminds of Disney movies. Still, there is no doubt Bobby Steggert, who is an out gay actor (at the time, now he is a therapist) played an obvious queer coded Mordred.
It is only in 2014 that we have an explicit LGBTQ Mordred with "High Noon over Camelot" which also for the first time ever introduces Mordred as a trans man. From 2017 we also get introduced to Fate's Mordred (Fate/Aprocrypha and subsequient movies and stage shows) whose gender has always been a debated topic. I already talked about it in part 4, but Mordred in Fate is definitely written as a non binary character. In 2018 the webseries "The Campaign for Camelot" has Mordred as a protagonist and mlm, with a romance as well (another male character in the show). The last time we saw Mordred with a romance was back in the 60s, in the movie "Sword of Lancelot"!
I think the most interesting thing is that Mordred is without a doubt the character who is the most interpreted as LGBTQ in movies and tv shows. From memory, the only other characters are Morgana (in the Netflix's "Cursed", webseries "Legend" and "The Campaign for Camelot"), Lancelot (in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail", "High Noon over Camelot" and "Spamalot"), Galahad (in Josh Ritter's song "Galahad"), Arthur ("High noon over Camelot") and Merlin (webseries "Legend").
mordred through time (movies, tv shows, opera and musicals)
Part 4: From 2014 to 2017
Other Parts: Part 1: From 1949 to 1981 -> here Part 2: From 1982 to 2002 -> here Part 3: From 2002 to 2010 -> here Part 5: From 2018 to 2023
For this part I just wanted to talk a bit about sympathetic Mordred.
Through time we started to see a more sympathetic Mordred. I think the first iteration in audio/movies/tv was the the Blind Guardian's song in 1995. For the first time we have Mordred as a protagonist, mainly lamenting of regret, pain and lonliness. While I do not know why they decided to focus on Mordred, it is also notable that writing a more sympathetic Mordred was already happening in novels, around the same time. I used the arthurian list of novels I made so I might have missed any, but at this time we have 1956 "The Great Captains" by Henry Treece, "Sword at Sunset" by Sutcliff, "The Wicked Day" (the first novel focusing on Mordred as protagonist) by Mary Stewart, 1982 "The Idylls of the Queen" (Phyllis Ann Karr), 1983 "The Mists of Avalon" (Marion Zimmer Bradley), Persia Wolley's 1987 Guinevere trilogy, 1988 "The road to Avalon" by Joan Wolf and 1988 "The Book of Mordred" by Hanratty all depicting Mordred as a more round character, as someone the reader can feel sympathy too or even enjoy or relate to.
A slighty sympathetic but still villanous potrayal can then be found in 2001 ("The Mists of Avalon" miniseries) but we have to wait till 2008 ("Merlin", BBC) to have a tv Mordred who is actually shown trying to do the right thing (at least for a bit), and working with Arthur. I think this is more due to the fact that "Merlin" often tries to depict villains' origins and motivations than a real conscious attempt to redeem Mordred or make him less villanous.
Other following examples are the kid movie 2010 "Merlin and Arthur the Lion King" and the album 2014 "High Noon Over Camelot" that positions Mordred in a co-protagonist role and fully allows the listeners to empathyze with him. The Fate franchise (the introduction of Mordred should be around 2012 in the novels) continues on this trajectory, making Mordred a main sympathetic and beloved protagonist in many of the adaptations.
mordred through time (movies, tv shows, opera and musicals)
Part 3: From 2002 to 2010
Other Parts: Part 1: From 1949 to 1981 -> here Part 2: From 1982 to 2002 -> here Part 4: From 2014 to 2017 Part 5: From 2018 to 2023
Complete list of part 2 media with extra information and some of my thoughs regarding the evolution of Mordred’s role is under cut.
In part 2 I talked a bit about how in movie adaptations (since Excalibur 1981) Morgause disappears and Morgana takes her role as Mordred's mother. Here I wanted to note how we actually have a very big gap of Mordred movies in the 2000s. Most of the media in this video are recordings of musicals or opera or tv shows.
Another small point is that we have here the second instance of Mordred in a romantic relationship (the first instance being Mordred and his lady in "Sword of Lancelot") in Merlin BBC, where his love for Kara is a central part of his character development. The third and only other instance will be in a webseries (in part 4!).
mordred through time (movies, tv shows, opera and musicals)
Part 2: From 1982 to 2002
Other Parts: Part 1: From 1949 to 1981 -> here Part 3: From 2002 to 2010 Part 4: From 2014 to 2017 Part 5: From 2018 to 2023
EDIT: There is a mistake in the video, Blind Guardian's Mordred's song was released in 1995 not 1989, so I corrected it in the description.
Complete list of part 2 media with extra information and some of my thoughs regarding the evolution of Mordred’s role is under cut.
We left part 1 with Mordred appearing only as a generic villain not related to Arthur until 1960 where White's novel is adapted into a musical. The musical follows the novel enough to introduce Mordred as Arthur's incestuous son with Morgause. Since then the "son" element has been kept in almost every single adaptation. We also have the first tv iteration of Mordred as Morgana's son instead of Morgause: Excalibur 1981.
This is not only the first time we see Morgana as his mother on tv, but also one of the first time ever. I made a list of the evolution of Mordred's mother in novels here.
You can see Morgause is pretty constant until 1980-1982. I have no idea what happened in those years but for the first time we have the 1980 novel "Firelord" by Parke Godwin itroducing Morgana as Mordred's mother instead of Morgause (in this case Morgause is completely eliminated). The 1981's movie Excalibur does something similar (Morgause is eliminated and Morgana absorbs her role), and I am pretty sure it could not have been influenced by "Firelord", given the two events happened so close in time (and less than a year is not usually sufficient to write and produce a movie). In 1982 Marion Zimmer Bradley published "The Mists of Avalon" which does something similar to Catherine Christian's "Pendragon": Morgause is still officially Mordred's mother by adoption.
From this point onwards you will see that Morgause ends up completely eliminated in her role as Mordred's mother from future movies and tv shows.
Full list for part 2 and more info:
Mordred through time (movies, tv shows, opera and musicals)
Part 1: From 1949 to 1981
Next: Part 2: From 1982 to 2002 Part 3: From 2002 to 2010 Part 4: From 2014 to 2017 Part 5: From 2018 to 2023
Complete list of part 1 media with extra information and some of my thoughs regarding the evolution of Mordred's role:
