A Little Incest Never Hurt Anyone

    Seeing women in power was a nice change in Mists of Avalon. In basically all of the stories during this time period women are depicted as weak, dependent, or evil. To see women as priestesses and to have a female goddess is a big step forward in how women can be viewed in a positive light. Of course this story came well after the first Arthurian tales, and women’s rights movements have made a little progress since then.

    Unfortunately, the animalistic rituals and incest kind of dominated this story and were hard to overlook. Obviously the title of this post is wrong and incest causes serious issues over time. However, before medical research, incest was the easiest way to keep bloodlines pure and keep royalty in power, so it was a very common occurrence. What is shocking though is that brother and sister relationships were never ok. Despite this, Viviane sets up the fertility ritual knowing that Morgaine is being given to Arthur. Just as concerning as the incest portrayed is whatever drugs are used in these rituals. Not only are drugs dangerous, but they are being given to children! Whatever effect they would have on a full grown adult will only be multiplied in kids. I know this is before medical research, but man that’s irresponsible.

    As a side note, I thought it was really funny when Merlin asks Arthur if he prefers the sword or the scabbard. Arthur chooses the sword and Merlin is like yeah but seriously keep the scabbard. I think this is a very typical response of someone younger versus someone older.

Overall this was an interesting twist on the conception of Mordred and on depicting women in a different light than usual. Yes it got weird, but the story itself was enjoyable. I just never want to accidently stumble into Avalon if that’s what they do over there.