What do you reckon happened to Mogdred?
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According to a rather obscure description in The Quest fanzine, after season 4 ended, Merlin went back in Time to Dark Age Britain and took Mogdred with him.
According to Famous For Retreating, Merlin was murdered by Lord Fear, and his death caused Mogdred to die with him.
Neither explanation is definitive, but they're the only ones I know of. (And as I wrote the second one myself, it's even more of a long shot than the first! )
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Merlin died at the hands of Lord Fear? That is deeply saddening to know, but at the same time it does reinforce Fear's evil which some fans seem to think was forsaken a little in favour of his comedy value.
I have great difficulty in believing Mogdred and Merlin are the same person. Even though the evidence is there (although we mostly only have Merlin's word, and this is someone who calls himself Bert and No) - i.e. they never appear together and if memory serves Mogdred never mentions Merlin there's also evidence to the contrary. In the same meeting where Merlin names Mogdred as his alter ego he also says something to the effect of "He lurks down in the lower levels" (don't quote me on that by the way). Now can you see Merlin suddenly morphing into Mogdred whenever a dungeoneer reaches "the lower levels" without warning, regardless of what he is doing at that particular time?
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Merlin might have died at the hands of Lord Fear. As I say, it's not definitive as Famous For Retreating was a fan-made project. (Tim Child did approve the play for release, but this doesn't necessarily mean he endorses its content.)
Mogdred did mention Merlin once in season 3 when he encountered McGrew and a dungeoneer in the Vale (the cave with the bridge).
The exact relationship between Merlin and Mogdred is never explained. I always took it to mean that Merlin was a 'bi-furcated' character, with his good and bad halves separated off from each other into two distinct bodies. This doesn't quite mean they are one and the same person, but it does mean that they are both extrapolated from the same person. They can't be the same person because any characteristics that manifest in one of them will not appear in the other. (The real reason why we never saw them together on-screen is of course because they were both played by the same actor.)
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That's the way I've always seen it as well - that Mogdred is the personification of Merlin's bad side but a completely independant character. This could also explain why Merlin was always on the side of good and seemed genuinely pleased when he was able to offer spells and advice once the dungeoneer had answered his riddles correctly, whereas other influential characters such as Treguard and Hordriss started out as neutral/possible threats before becoming completely good characters. Merlin never once displayed any malice or intent to disrupt the dungeoneer's quest. If you cast your mind back, didn't Merlin state "Truth accepted" a little more jovially than the other riddlers, indicating his delight at the dungeoneers' success?
If this theory regarding Merlin/Mogdred is ccorrect, it also prompts a new debate: When did Merlin's bad side split away from him and form Mogdred? And how old is Mogdred?
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When did Merlin's bad side split away from him and form Mogdred? And how old is Mogdred?
There really is no way of knowing the answers to either of these I'm afraid. If we take the time-travel explanation above as accurate, we can conjecture that Mogdred might have split from Merlin some time after the Battle of Camlann (where King Arthur died at the hands of the dying Mordred - the death of Mordred might well have something to do with the bi-furcation of Merlin/Mogdred, hence the similarity in the names), and travelled into the future to succeed the Gruagach, with Merlin pursuing him in hope of returning him to the pre-England era.
Unfortunately, this really is an elaborate guess more than anything else.
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I also go for the bi furcated thing. They are like two sides of the same coin. If you go with the concept of good and evil or light and dark etc, then Merlin represents a powerful embodiment of good and Mogdred a powerful embodiment of evil. Most people have both of these things within them and they form an internal struggle; with these crazy guys the forces a personified and and externalised and the struggle takes place externally.
I love both characters and that they were played by the same actor. I think it also parallels the paradox of games where there is a gamesmaster (like Tim Child for instance) who is ultimately responsible for both all the helpful and hindering things that come the players way.
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In keeping with the same actor/different characters scenario, does this also mean that Gundrada was the alter ego of Malice? Or Greystagg the alter ego of Sidress? What about Hordriss and Smirkenorf!! The possibilities are endless
(BTW I'm not taking the pee, I actually think it's worth thinking about, if only for fun).
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It would have been nice if it were explicitly mentioned and also would hav e liked to have seen merlin and mogdred face 2 face thus destroying each other in episode 16
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I once came up with a theory as to what happened to Mogdred for another forum thread; and more recently, an idea about Mogdred's separation from Merlin for Interactive Story #4. Don't take either theory too seriously though.
I like Jake's speculation about how Quest 8 of Series 1 might have been destined to end:
This is what should have happened in level three:
Richard takes horn from the clue room, quest progresses to the Wall of Jericho as per what actually happened, Richard blows horn to get rid of wall (exactly the same as Chris in the next series), Merlin's room is revealed beyond, Mogdred appears and gloats/threatens/starts trying to kill dungeoneer, advisor (Edward) casts OPPOSITE, Mogdred turns into Merlin, Merlin tells team they've won, Treguard gives team silver spurs and congrats and then says goodbye to watchers, episode ends.
That's what I think, anyway.
Had this happened, we would have seen Mogdred and Merlin in the same scene, and the nature of their connection would surely have been made unambiguous. Series 2-4, and beyond, might then have been rather different...
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It would have been nice if it were explicitly mentioned and also would hav e liked to have seen merlin and mogdred face 2 face thus destroying each other in episode 16
Makes sense that Merlin would have to sacrifice himself in order to destroy Mogdred. (Think of Neo and Agent Smith in The Matrix who were also hinted to be like two sides of the same coin.)
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