Valiant

Valiant was a renowned warrior in Albion who fought in the Tournament in Camelot with a Serpent Shield. He was killed by Arthur in Camelot's tournament.

Biography
Before entering the tournament, Valiant acquired a magical shield from a sorceror named Delvin which was painted with snakes enchanted to come to life on command and strike an opponent. After Delvin gave the shield Valiant immediatley commanded the snakes to kill the sorceror. Valiant used the shield throughout the tournament, invoking the snakes only once in order to defeat Ewain; he later activated the snakes in his private quarters in order to feed them, and was caught doing so by Merlin, who reported the incident to Gaius and Arthur. On Merlin's word, Arthur accused Valiant of using sorcery, forcing a hearing before the King, in which Ewain was to be called as a witness. However, Valiant sent a snake to Ewain to fininshh him off which meant that Gaius and Merlin had to inform Arthur that Ewain had died, thus forcing the Prince to withdraw his allegations.. Valiant pursued Uther not to punish Merlin for prompting the accusations.

Before the final duel between Arthur and Valiant, Uther invited Valiant to become a knight of Camelot following the tournament and Valiant appeared agreeable to the idea.In their final confrontation, however, Valiant's treachery was exposed when Merlin used an Animation Spell to invoke the snakes on Valiant's shield. Arthur slew the snakes, and killed Valiant, winning the tournament, and becoming Camelot's champion. (Valiant)

Personality
Valiant was arrogant but also polite and was good at hiding his true nature. On the outside he appeared to be an honest and noble knight and even pursuaded Uther to let Merlin  off the hook after Merlin  accused him of sorcery, just so he would make himself seem a better person than he actually was.

Despite his exterior Valiant was perfectly capable of commiting murder and seemed almost casual about it, as shown when he ordered his snakes to kill the very man that had made the shield and later when he had one of his snakes murder Sir Ewain, so that Ewain couldn't confirm Merlin 's story about him using magic. He was aware of the dangers of using magic in Camelot and therefore kept his magical snakes hidden. Against Sir Ewain he pinned the knight under his shield so that nobody could see the snakes strike him.

However, Valiant wasn't completely heartless and was slightly remorseful (albeit only temporarily) about the thought of killing Arthur during the tournament, genuinely believing he was a great warrior. He was also attracted to Morgana and was very polite and charming to her.

Abilities
Valiant was a skilled swordsman and Uther noted that he had a very aggressive fighting style, as he would rely on brute strength to overpower his opponents. Valiant made it to the final round of the Tournament though against Sir Ewain he used the snakes on his shield to defeat him. He proved to be a formidable opponent to Arthur even before he used the snakes.

Behind the Scenes

 * Valiant is also a bird in a movie called, Valiant.
 * Valiant has snakes on his armour which could represent Cenred, therefore unlikely due to Camelot being enemies with the kingdom. To further support this, they say that he is from the "Western Isles," but it is still possible that it could be located within Essetir.
 * Valiant was the first character of the show to have an episode named after him.