Great Dragon
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Great Dragon, Slash Dragon, Kilgarrah (spelling unofficial) |
| Occupation: | prisoner |
| Relationships: | trapped by Balinor, imprisoned by Uther, advisor to Merlin |
| Fandom: | Merlin |
| Other: | created Excalibur, attacks Camelot once freed |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Great Dragon is a dragon that has been imprisoned under the castle of Camelot by King Uther in the TV Show Merlin. Many fans nickamed this character the Slash Dragon from the start because of his cryptic comments about Arthur and Merlin's shared destiny. The dragon's real name was revealed late in series two as Kilgarrah.
Fanworks
In solign's vid Camelot Be Prepared the Great Dragon is the leader of Camelot's villains who wants to become king. In To kill the King by Nuarity the Great Dragon is the villain and the Slash Dragon at the same time. He tries to kill Uther by making Merlin and Arthur fall in love, which comes as a deadly shock to the king.
In modern AUs the Great Dragon is sometimes human or appears in human form. In the Military AU Loaded March he is the commanding officer of Captain Arthur Pendragon.
Before the name of the Great Dragon was revealed, some modern AUs used instead the last name of the actor who provides the voice for the Great Dragon. One of the first stories to do so was the college AU MERLIN where the dragon character was Professor Hurt.
Sometimes AU versions of the Great Dragon take the close connection between him and Camelot into account. In Sky Full of Stars he is the computer core of the space ship Camelot, an AI that speaks in riddles, is shunned and feared and presents itself as an enormous holographic dragon. On the other hand, in We're Lost, It's Cold, and There Are Dragons Out There, a modern magical AU where people use magic instead of electricity, he is exactly what he is in the show, a dragon chained in a cave and the source of Camelot's power.
Gallery
Great Dragon (2009) by wheres_walnut, illustration for Defenders of the Realm, created for Box of Magic 2009
Riding Kilgharrah (2011) by itzcoatl, illustration for Before Dawn
Enter The Garden (2012) by reiya_wakayama, illustration for The Dragon's Circle, created for Paperlegends 2012
Kilgharrah (2011), by goss, illustration for Now I Will Unsettle The Ground Beneath, created for Paperlegends 2011
