Knighthood and Arthurian Lit

After reading tales and stories from the Middle Ages relating to knighthood and Arthurian tales (such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) I had a hankering to go back and reread my old childhood favorites of the Squire's Tales series. This series was a big part of my life when I was younger. It introduced me to Arthurian literature because the entire point was that the author retold Arthurian tales for a much younger audience, and also in doing so he made them better. He made the tales better because he instilled a much better morality and "moral" to the story than the original tales did. For instance, when he retold the story of Tristam and Iseult, he made sure to cast them in a negative and not at all romanticized light. He was comparing reality with romanticized stories, casting a more in depth narrator that had morals and an interesting personality.
While rereading these I was able to see more of the details from the original stories that he left in, and then the places where he took more creative liberties. This got me thinking about the role of the narrator and author. In the original tales the narrator was more than likely glorifying and validating the stupid "heroic" actions taken by the hero, who more than likely is a depiction of courtly ideals rather than reality. And even those courtly ideals are shallow and silly. In The Squire's Tales however, the narrator (or principle character) is almost always different than the original tales. He puts the squire, a lady, or a lesser known knight in perspective, giving them a voice and letting them be critical of their surroundings and the ideals portrayed by those around them. In these stories the knightly virtues and ideals are seen for what they really are, superfluous and pointless. There are some that are upheld, like defending the weak, but even that is challenged by the idea of "who is weak." The strength of the women in the stories, as well as the added realism of the weakness and character flaws of some of the knights, adds a whole new dimension to the idea of Arthurian literature.