Character name: Lancelot
Age: Lancelot's age is never canonly mentioned. His actor was 30 when he started filming, but that strikes me as slightly old for a dark ages character who carries himself the way Lancelot does in his first season. I'm going to place him as 30 in the canon point I take him from, therefore, and that means he was around ~25 ish in the first season when he met Arthur. Which also means he isn't too much older than Arthur.
Canon: BBC Merlin
Canon point: 4x02 The Darkest Hour Part 2 -- I'm assuming the bureau grabbed him either as or just before he walked through the veil to his death!
History: The BBC Merlin Wikia isn't terrible!Three key adjectives: Loyal, Earnest, Determined
Influential Events: A village destroyed --
As a child, Lancelot's village was attacked by raiders. He was the only one who survived. We aren't told exactly how old he was, but to give the show some credit 'child' for a dark ages era character means he was probably younger than 10. Lancelot says that he escaped, though we are not told how, and after that he vows that he will never again be so helpless in the face of tyranny.
This is the building block of both his character and the arc he goes on, to become a knight. Lancelot firmly seems to believes that, despite being so young, that was not a factor in his helplessness -- he never excuses himself at all nor seems to consider it. He simply needs to learn to use a sword so he can protect people, so he throws himself fully into doing just that.
This initial failure also colours his own opinion of himself: Lancelot is a nobody, in his own eyes. He comes from a nowhere village, from a family that died because he could not protect them. To become
someone, to become a knight, his journey is both overcoming this tragedy and failure and also
proving himself. Achieving the dream of becoming a knight which he firmly believes will fix all his problems, although it is an ill-informed and somewhat rose-tinted dream. Driving himself relentlessly toward his goal helps him cope, helps him keep on moving despite such a heavy loss. Without it, without his tunnel-vision solution Lancelot would have had nothing. In fact, when he believes he has lost this opportunity forever he does in fact believe he has nothing.
A short lived victory --
Lancelot was originally knighted based on a lie.
When he first enters Camelot he is unaware that there is a law in place that only nobles can become knights. Lancelot is young, naive, and desperate to achieve his goal -- the answer to all his problems. So he allows Merlin to convince him to fake his own nobility, to essentially begin living a lie.
Once all this is uncovered, Lancelot quickly realises his mistake. He has caused people to argue, he has tarnished his own name. He has done something, in a way, that is unknightly. This is a harsh crash back to reality for him, the realisation that he has tried to simply walk into Camelot and become a knight, to cheat his way to victory, and the world is not that simple.
The redirection here teaches Lancelot that lying about who he is, and perhaps in some ways lying to himself, are something he doesn't enjoy. That before he can become a knight, he must grow up a little more. He finds himself ashamed of what he has done, and since fraud is not a light crime he must leave Camelot entirely and give up on his dream.
This failure once again underlines Lancelot's belief that he is not worthy of praise.
A meeting at rock bottom --
Away from Camelot, on the Mercian border, Lancelot had essentially given up and moved on.
After being turned away for not being a noble, he instead takes any job he can to survive. Though he still has enough moral compass and pride to not take part directly in any crime, he does end up working as an entertainment fighter for an unpleasant man named Hengist.
The Lancelot we see here has certainly grown up. He's cut his hair, grown stubble. He looks worn. Life has not been kind to him, and as such some of his innocence has been worn down too. He now better understands that things are not as simple as he believed. For Lancelot, his initial failure to save his village has now been compounded by a failure to become the solution to that. His existence as a nobody has been underlined, now as a nobody who deserves nothing.
Yet when he meets Guinevere again this is turned around:
she still believes in him, and her belief in him is now something he must live up to. Even if, as Lancelot believes, being with her is never an option he still cannot let her down. Her belief in him gives Lancelot the spark he needs to push himself. To become deserving of her belief and her kindness, and to live a full life.
Learning Merlin's intentions --
When Arthur learns that a life needs to be given to save Camelot, to close the veil between it and the other side, he offers to give his own. When Merlin learns of this, he naturally plans to take Arthur's place.
Yet Lancelot had promised to protect Arthur with his life, and the more he listens to Merlin and the more he thinks about it the more he comes to terms with what he must do. In understanding just how far Merlin will go for what he believes in, Lancelot comes to understand just how far he too would go for someone important to him. For Guinevere, who he made a promise to. Merlin's complete conviction in what he must do builds conviction in Lancelot and allows him to be at peace with his own decision and his own priorities, to accept that he would give his life happily to allow Merlin and Arthur to keep their own.
Link to Samples: Link to Sample 1;
Link to Sample 2;
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