Board Thread:(Re)Writing "Merlin"/@comment-5674726-20150818201631/@comment-5674726-20150918135206

Fimber wrote: I agree, ReganX.

First of all, I would have dealt with an explanation as to why it was tradition and so important to have only nobles as knights. My guess is that it was Uther's way of consolidating support among the noble families who supported him when he conquered Camelot and became its King.

The way it is described, it sounds as if it was Uther's initiative but, if it was a case of him not wanting commoners to become knights, he wouldn't need to set down a formal code against it, all he'd need to do would be to not knight any commoners. If it was a case of an unwritten rule based on a tradition of restricting knighthood to men of noble birth, there would be no need for a code. I'd say that, when Uther took the throne with the support of the nobility, he instituted the First Code of Camelot as a reward or as a way of reassuring them that they would continue to enjoy their privileged, without their status being diluted by the knighting of commoners.

I don't think that they needed to go into huge detail but it was a cop-out to have everybody okay with it, just as it was a cop-out to have the problem of Arthur not being able to marry a servant vanish when the time came for it to vanish. Short of Merlin using his magic to force a change of heart on the nobility, they should have had a problem with it.