Board Thread:Rewatching "Merlin" - Season One/@comment-5102537-20130223112431/@comment-5102537-20130303121327

Your logic is undeniable, ReganX. So the only explanation would be what MerlinDragonLord said, that he held a gruge against Uther and/or Arthur and was some sort of a kamikaze-warrior. However, the episode failed to state this out if this was the case. Maybe Valiant was just a fanatic about winning even when he gets in trouble afterwards. He tried to kill Arthur in the tournament after the snakes were summoned by Merlin and despite the fact that now everyone could see that he was using magic. If he had been clever, he would have dropped the shield and pretended that this was a conspirancy in order to blame him instead of chouting "kill him" in front of the king and everyone else.

It's also a miracle why the snake bites on Ewan's body weren't evidence enough. If Arthur had been bitten by the snakes, the same bite wound would have shown on his body and would have proven that Valiant really used magic.