Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-184.88.25.24-20131112235645/@comment-5674726-20141106004448

GianG wrote: Many evidences show that she is older than Artù, but (in my opinion), she is only 1 year (if not 1 year, 2 years) older than him. Also, Merlino is not 1 year younger than Artù... He is at least 2 and an half years younger and not more than 3 and an half years younger.

PS: Who said that in the script she had Merlino's age?

There's an image from the script for the first episode that describes Morgana thus:

"She is about the same age as MERLIN, but her obvious sophistication makes her seem slightly older."

I'll see if I can post the image.

Merlin's age was never stated. Logic dictates that he is at least a year Arthur's junior but beyond that, we cannot make any assumptions. It hinges on how long it took for Uther to track Balinor down, as Hunith can't have been very far along in her pregnancy if she had not told him.

As to Arthur and Morgana's birth order, my trouble with her being older is that I find that it doesn't fit with Uther's backstory. It is very clear that he loved his wife deeply so I can't imagine that he had an affair while she lived. I can't picture Morgana being so much older than Arthur that her conception predated Uther's marriage to Ygraine. Something about the way he talked about Vivienne being lonely gave me a sense that the affair took place not long after Ygraine's death, when Uther was grieving and also lonely.

Also, one of my little pet theories is that Morgana was Uther's punishment from the Disir, who tried him in absentia for the Great Purge.

Based on Arthur's experience, it would appear that the punishment may be one that a person can escape by complying with the Disir, in the sense that, had Arthur embraced the Old Religion as they required of him, the chain of events that led to him dying at Mordred's hand would not have happened. Whether they gave him the life of a loyal friend or his eventual killer would depend on his future actions regarding magic and the Old Religion.

In Uther's case, he was given a child with magic and his actions would determine whether he would have a daughter who loved him and who would be loyal to her family, or one who would turn on him, break his heart, do great harm to the kingdom and eventually bring about the death of his son.

Unfortunately for him (and Arthur) the Disir don't play fair and don't spell out what they need to do, and the consequences for not doing so.