User blog comment:Emily Windsnap/How old are the Merlin characters?/@comment-96.232.203.146-20151109013257

I think Merlin was probably 16-17 years old when he comes to Camelot (keep in mind that the life expectancy was around late 30s through the forties up until recently with all the new medical inventions like penicillin. This of course leads to the question of why gaius is as old as he is and why Uther did not try to push Arthur into marriage when he was like 15. Also, Merlin would probably have a kid and wife by the time he was 18 as being from an outlying farming village would probably lead to an even shorter life expectancy but the BBC didn't seem to pay much mind to that but the point is that it would be considered completely normal for him to leave home in the middle of his teenage years) I think Arthur was about 19 in series one (though Bradley James is 4 years older than Colin Morgan) I think Morgana was about 20-21 in series one. Gaius I believe would be in his mid seventies (the show says he was in his 50s when he was appointed court physician and that it was only a couple of years later that the purge would start and that was supposed to be 20 years before series 1. This does make some sense because though many medical practices at the time were delusioned, there would be some credit to them so he could probably take care of himself, also, he had magic so) then Uther was probably in his mid 40s. Gwen is probably around 18-19 in series one. Leon is said to have grown up with Gwen but he seems to be like an eternal knightly entity at Camelot so I feel like he was around 23 in series one and you could almost see him maturing a bit from the goblin's gold but there are people who are just born with mature personalities. Lancelot was probably around 19-20 in series 1. Gwaine would probably be around 23 when we met him (keep in mind that this was later so if you subtract 5 years he would've been 19 during series 1 and that is probably when he really started swashbuckling) Elyan seems to be around 23 when we meet him. Perceval was probably around 25-26 when we met him. And mordred was around 11-13 when we first met him, making him about 20-22 when he became a knight (that might be a little off kilter but I can't deal with mordred growing up, it just never happened in my mind, he shall forever be that spooky silent kid that stares creepily at people and only speaks with his mind or to scream) so yeah