This is a one-page shrine dedicated to the character Morgan Le Fey from the Aa!Megami-sama (Ah!My Goddess) movie. This shrine was created as part of the
challenge at
amassment.
Aa!Megami-sama or Ah!My Goddess is a manga series that was createed by Kosuke Fujishima and started in 1988. It is still ongoing to this day. It was also
adapted into a popular anime in 2005. Before that there had been a 5 episode OVA (original video animation) in 1993 as well as the mini series,
Adventures of the Mini Goddess in 1998.
The series is centered around a fumbling young man, Keiichi Morisato who is just entering the world of college. At one point, he goes to order a pizza and
mistakenly dials the number to the Goddess Helpline and a beautiful young woman appears in his dorm room. This young woman turns out to be a goddess named
Belldandy. She has works for the Yggdrasil system and is one of their maintainers. She has come to grant him a single wish. In his stupor, he mumbles out "Stay with me forever" and while Belldandy looks shocked and confused, his wish is granted. Not long afterwards, his dorm mates stumble upon him and beautiful Belldandy and they are kicked out of the dorm as it is a male only complex. After some interesting exploits, the two end up living in a temple and the scene seems set for young love.
However, it is not long after that some new arrivals throw Keiichi's life into chaos. First it is the arrival of Belldandy's older half-sister, the goddess
Urd who is a sexy, buxom woman who likes to refer to herself as the Love Goddess. Urd is determined to get the two young lovebirds together, at any means
possible. The situation is complicated further by the arrival of Belldandy's younger sister, Skuld who is clingy with Belldandy and wants to make sure that
Keiichi has nothing to do with her. Both sisters work for the Yggdrasil system as well. All four of them make an interesting family and eventually things fall into a pattern where now Keiichi has all three goddesses living with him on Earth. They definitely make his life interesting as he has to struggle to help keep their secrets all the while trying to get closer to Belldandy. With his college classes, the goddesses, the rest of the heavens interferring and regular attacks by demons, the world of Ah!My Goddess is never boring.
If you want to learn more than my overview of the series, Ah!My Goddess, please check the links below for some great informational websites.
Without giving away too many spoilers, below is an overview of the plot line of the movie. The movie was released in 2000 in theaters in Japan and shortly thereafter on dvd in the United States.
The movie is set years after the beginning of the series. Keiichi and the goddesses are living comfortably at the temple going about their day to day activities. This is disrupted when Celestin, one of the gods who had been locked away for eternity in the Luna Prison, escapes with the help of Morgan Le Fey, a fairy. He has been trapped in a lower life form, a mask, so he must use Morgan as a tool to get his work done. He often takes over her body and uses it as his own. Morgan allows this because she has been made to believe that by helping Celestin accomplish his goal, all her hopes and wishes will in turn be granted.
Before being locked in the prison, Celestin was Belldandy's childhood mentor from when she was a goddess in training. Belldandy was very devoted to him. We learn that she had thought that all this time he had simply gone "away". Her memories of him being imprisoned were locked away so as not to distress her.
Celestin, once released, is determined to finish what he started and he needs the help of Belldandy, willingly or not. Celestin uses Belldandy to infect the system Yggdrasil and and tries to wipe away her memories of her life with Keiichi. Keiichi and her sisters are obviously upset at the change and try to help her remember. The battle ensues on Earth while the maintainers of the Yggdrasil system attempt to stop the virus from their end. The goddesses must struggle to stop Celestin from creating his new world order, at any cost.
Morgan Le Fey is an interesting character in the Ah!My Goddess movie. While she is not given a lot of dialogue, her role is very important to the overall plot. We are first introduced to her in the opening of the movie. She is seen flying across the moon and she goes to a large gate. There, she uses some magic to break through the shield and begins to trace symbols on what must be a seal on the prison. After succeeding, a small mask appears and they have a discussion. After this point, Morgan is the body through which Celestin uses to attempt to accomplish his goal of starting a new world.
What we learn of Morgan during the movie is that she is a Fairy Princess. She is named this by Urd during one of their battles. Morgan is helping Celestin because she wants a world in which no one will suffer as he does. In addition, she wants a world where she can start over and not have so much sorrow. Through a scene that Celestin shows Belldandy, we are told about the Judgment Gate and what happened to Morgan to make her so disilluisioned and bitter towards love and the world. After being torn apart from her lover after going through the gate, Morgan despaired. This single event is what draws her to help Celestin.
During the movie, Morgan takes human form to get closer to Belldandy and Keiichi on Celestin's instructions. There are several moments where it becomes clear that Morgan does not entirely understand what Celestin's plans are and it seems she is following him blindly in the hopes that his success will give her what she wants. Morgan gets in between Keiichi and Belldandy for two reasons. The first is that Celestin is attempting to draw certain emotions out of Belldandy that will cause the virus in her to move faster and be stronger. The other reason is that Morgan is honestly jealous of the relationship between the two lovers. It is something she desires and at the same time, wants them to realize the futility of their desires. They are from two different worlds and will not be able to stand the test of the gate.
It is likely that Morgan was once like Belldandy. She was in love and hopeful that they would be together forever. However, unlike Belldandy, Morgan let her fear and doubt get to her at the end. This single tramatic event has shaped her character ever since.
According to Celestin, the Judgment Gate is a creation of the gods. The purpose of the gate is to test lover's to see if they could stand the test of time. If there was any doubt or unfaithfulness among either of them, it would tear the lovers apart forever. It is supposed to be the ultimate test of love and if the two were true, they would have an unending love. However, Celestin tells us that it is a cruel joke of the gods. He says that its real purpose is to make sure that two people from different worlds would never be together. In essence, it is a giant, cruel trick and Celestin wants to destroy it. While we can never be sure if Celestin was right about the gate's purpose, or if it was just his view of it, we do see at the end that the gate does not tear everyone apart.
As is usual, the creator Kosuke Fujishima loves to use names from myths. In Ah!My Goddess up to this point, he had solely used Norse myths. However, the name
of Morgan Le Fay has roots in Celtic mythology as well as Arthurian legend. Morgan Le
Fay is a direct play on Morgan Le
Fey, an anicent
celtic goddess. Morgan or Morgaine was part of a triad in Welsh mythology. She was sometimes portrayed in the form of a crow. In the newer pagan traditions,
she is seen as a battle goddess. She would appear at the site of great battles and carry the dead heroes into the afterlife.
In Arthurian legends, she is the half sister of King Arthur himself. She studies in the magical arts, sometimes under the tutelage of Merlin and sometimes
under the Lady of Avalon, depending on the myth. One version paints her as an unhappy woman, trapped in a marriage she did not desire and so she takes many
lovers until caught. In some versions, Morgan is seen as a seductress and a villain. She is also accused of plotting the downfall of her half brother, King
Arthur and yet, it is also said that she took the gravely injured King Arthur to Avalon to heal him.
Overall, the image of Morgan is that of a dark, mysterious woman/goddess with magical powers torn between her desires and her duties.
Below are a few buttons to link back to
Embittered with as well as some other Ah!My Goddess related links.
A Japanese Boy and a Goddess
Gateway to the Goddesses
Megami-sama.net
Open Your Mind
The Goddess Project.net
Working Girl
All the layouts and graphics here are © of
Skylark of the
Leshyae Network unless otherwise stated.
So no stealing!
