Artoria Pendragon: The Burden of Leadership

Leadership is akin to being an island. All eyes are towards you as the people await their orders but all decisions made will fall squarely on your shoulders alone. It’s a burden very few can carry. It is fitting then that Artoria

Pendragon would become the king of Britain for few understood the burden leadership more than her. Like an island she withstood the turbulent waves all around her to resolutely create a kingdom she could be proud of. A kingdom that would work toward her subjects best interests

And not of those of the king. She was also born into a world where Britain was supposed to fend for itself against hordes of invaders after the once proud Roman Empire abandoned it. It was because of the chaos that ensued that gave Artoria the desire to become a king and a

Knight that could bring order to Britain. This she resolutely believed was her only purpose in life and willingly sacrificed the life she could have as a young girl to become the king she believed her people needed. For Artoria what she believed her people needed was a leader who

Could carry the dreams of her people but be cold and calculating enough to make the decisions necessary for her people to survive and prosper. This made Artoria a ferocious warrior commanding respect from her fellow knights as she lead them to victory after victory for a decade.

Domestically she ruled justly with an incredible ability to find compromise among the various interests of her kingdom. Despite her accomplishments Artoria was concerned that if she let her kingly image slip for even an instant her subjects would turn on her and vicariously

The ideals that formed the foundation of Camelot. Couple this with the complex she carried with her about her gender it is not surprising she became someone who locked all of her emotions under a suit of armor. These fears were justified for the very Idea of Camelot was

Revolutionary in an era where the feudal system predominated. Her ideas of a king living selflessly for her subjects ran contrary to alternative models of kingship. Artoria’s ideas were so foreign that it would only be long after her death that they would be Accepted by the

General public. In fact the ideas Artoria based Camelot around are very much rooted in Lockean Social Contract theory where the people intrust the government with power and in exchange the government secures their natural rights. The natural rights Locke argues the government

Should protect are life, liberty, and property. If a government properly protects those rights then on balance the governments rule should not be questioned. Artoria’s thoughts on kingship are not rooted in any sense of romanticism But are instead rooted in a logical

Understanding of the proper relationship between a government and its subjects. She was also under know illusions of the sacrifices necessary to maintain her kingdom. On her military campaigns she would regularly suck the local Villages of their resources to maintain her army and

Would brutally crush any opponents to her rule. The decisions she made were rarely wrong but her fatal mistake was being unable to educate her subjects about her ideals. While Artoria’s rejection of Mordred can be rooted in her Twisted birth, the primary cause from Artoria’s

Point of view was that unlike Artoria Mordred detested humans and did not share Artoria’s view that the king lives for their subjects hopes and dreams. This philosophical difference made Mordred unfit in Artoria’s eyes to become the next king.

While logically sound Artoria’s inability to open up to others made it impossible for her to teach Mordred and many of her subjects the ideals she built Camelot on and in the process her subjects trust in her began to waver. It was not that she didn’t lead her people it was

That she didn’t teach her people. Yet even as Mordred lead a rebellion and her subjects betrayed her. She never hated them. She knew as the king that just as she must become and object of adoration she must also become an object of great scorn. If this is what the people

Demanded of her she would accept this burden over and over again if it meant she could grant them true happiness. For the securing of their happiness is the duty of not just the king but of leaders across time. That duty to the people by nature becomes Isolating. Even Artoria

Even Artoria with as firm ideals as hers felt this loneliness in the end. She was revolutionary but a revolutionary who would reject her revolution if that meant the smiling faces of her subjects could be maintained. Artoria’s ideals though rejected in life would form the

Foundation for a new Britain. A Britain that while an island isolated from the continent it would be resolute in its culture and values and refuse to fall no matter the invader. For Artoria this is vindication her path while tragic was not the wrong one.