Board Thread:What If?/@comment-5674726-20130816211001/@comment-5674726-20130817000344

This one would have been a game changer, one that would have had a huge impact on Merlin and Morgana's interaction from that point onwards.

Keeping his secret from her would no longer be an option for Merlin, no matter how much he was warned, and that would mean that Morgana would see events differently. In The Gates of Avalon, for example, I imagine that it would be more difficult for Merlin to convince her that he had knocked Arthur out when he and Sophia tried to elope, which could have led her to come to terms with her Seer power at an earlier stage. When her own magic developed, she would have known that she wasn't alone, which would have helped.

For Merlin, I'd say that he would have been less likely to see her as somebody who could not be trusted when he was warned about her. In early Season One, he didn't want anybody to know of his magic and, by The Mark of Nimueh, the only person in Camelot who knew of his magic was Gaius, and he never meant to reveal it to him in the first place. He would be in a position where he had to trust Morgana to keep his secret, even when it meant going against her guardian's laws and teachings, and he wouldn't be able to ignore the fact that she kept his secret. It's a toss-up whether he'd have confided in her about his destiny with Arthur but I could see him being more open with her about her own magic.

If Morgana didn't turn on Camelot, I could see her being an ally of Merlin's.

If she did turn on Camelot, it's difficult to say how it would have played out; on one hand, knowing that Merlin had magic would allow her to plan around him but, on the other hand, if Merlin didn't need to hide his magic from Morgana, it could have impacted his ways of defending Camelot.