Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season Four/@comment-5102537-20140208132408/@comment-5674726-20140824213416

I think that Agravaine was rather a wasted opportunity.

They didn't give any credible reason for why he would side with Morgana over Arthur, not even that he resented him for Ygraine's death or that he had had any particular enmity towards Uther. They threw in him having a thing for Morgana but that didn't make sense as a motive as he would not have been around her for years.

If they wanted him to turn on Arthur, they could have had him start out as generally supportive of his nephew but also a staunch traditionalist and somebody who believed that he should be his closest adviser. It would be natural for him to be aghast at the idea of a gang of commoners being knighted in defiance of the First Code, and that he wouldn't like the idea of the King having an inner circle that comprised almost entirely of people who were not of noble birth or of him listening to the advice of a mere servant like Merlin. The less said about the prospect of Arthur making a servant woman his queen, the better.

He wouldn't need to side with Morgana, he could lead a faction of nobles who hated the idea of the established order being overturned.

Make him a somewhat distant cousin of Uther's rather than kin to Ygraine, and he has a motive to side with Morgana if he hopes to oust Arthur and then combine their shaky claims so that they can take the throne between them.

If he lost a loved one to the Great Purge or was a follower of the Old Religion, it'd be believable that he would back Morgana over Arthur.