The author subtly undermines the brilliance of the court by omitting mention of great adventures or any actual deed at all performed by the knights and instead focusing on the "softer"" aspects of courtly life. Yet the court itself still considers itself chivalric and conducts itself with an air of high importance primarily because of its chivalric fame. When it comes time for one of the knights to live up to this fame, however, all initially fail to rise to the challenge, sitting "stiller"" and "keeping their counsel" as to fail to be nominated, thus suggesting that their version of chivalry does not in fact involve real risk. .
With this in mind, it is not surprising that when Gawain does in fact take a real risk by accepting the Green Knight's challenge, he is held in extremely high regard. Simply by accepting and following through on the challenge, he outdoes every so-called brave knight who stays at court, and, when he returns, Gawain must be made a hero. Any negative light cast on Gawain would cast a much darker light not only on the court since he is its representative, but even more so on the individual knights who were too cowardly to go themselves.
In short, those who have never fought a battle cannot criticize one who has. Gawain's tale is assimilated into the court culture: the girdle that was to be the "badge of false faith " is trivialized as a trinket signifying the "worth "of one of the courtly knights and his story is likely passed on as one of Arthur's pre-dinner fables" (2509). The court's judgment is so soft because they themselves are soft; they have no basis for judging merit in the "battlefield " when they themselves have never been there.
At the beginning of the story, Gawain is himself part of Camelot and assumedly adheres to the same ideals. After saving the honor of the court by begging Arthur that "the melee may be [his] " he differentiates himself and sets off on his journey to the Green Chapel (342).