Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130223112431/@comment-5674726-20130303004227

But would he have had the gold if he killed Arthur, especially when he had already been accused of using magic to cheat? Whatever about cheating in his other matches, he couldn't use his shield against Arthur and hope to walk away with the prize.

It strikes me as odd that they were convinced that Arthur would die if he faced Valiant, and that it was presented as though Valiant was going to use his shield in the tournament. Logically, you'd expect that, no matter how much he wanted the prize, he'd know better than to cheat when he's facing Arthur. Of course, you'd also expect that the characters would have recognised that it need not have been a case of Arthur either letting everybody down by not fighting or getting killed by Valiant. Valiant wouldn't have bothered using the shield if he won without it.