# Knights of the Round, with no table **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828 "2016-10-27T04:02:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/1 "2016-10-27T04:02:48Z")
There are (at least) 3 sources that have something called “Knights of the Round” and a table is never mentioned: [ul] [li]A summon in Final Fantasy VII, known for its ridiculously long animation[/li][li][A Final Fight-esque beat 'em up video game](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_of_the_Round_(video_game))[/li][li]An organization in the anime/manga Code Geass[/li][/ul] The first two give no context about why the table is omitted from what I remember, I don’t know much about the anime to say if it’s addressed. All are Japanese sources but beyond that I have nothing. I looked, and the katakana does not help. Is there a reason why? Any other examples? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/2 "2016-10-27T13:13:54Z")
I’m going to guess that it’s just for brevity. It might also be influenced by the fact that Arthur’s knights are sometimes referred to with French adjective order, “Knights of the Table Round”. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/3 "2016-10-27T13:56:46Z")
But why did at least 3 sources come to the same solution seemingly independently, with no link beyond all being Japanese? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/4 "2016-10-27T14:21:22Z")
You do know that the whole story of Arthur and his round table is a myth, don’t you. It’s probably a combination of folk stories about a Dark Ages Celtic warrior, or warriors. The ‘round table’ is a metaphor. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/5 "2016-10-27T14:30:32Z")
Well, sure, but it’s a well-established myth, which is all that’s needed for the OP’s question to make sense. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/6 "2016-10-27T15:25:02Z")
Officially, the table was rectilinear … as we can see from the only known [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ghXxXyAuw) video from that time … ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/7 "2016-10-27T16:22:31Z")
I’ve never watched the FFVII summon but it’d be pretty ridiculous to summon a table along with the knights. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/8 "2016-10-27T17:56:03Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Officially, the table was rectilinear … as we can see from the only known [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ghXxXyAuw) video from that time … But the knights are a-_round_ it, aren’t they? Hmmm? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/9 "2016-10-27T22:59:18Z")
Sometimes Western mythology passes through into Asian cultures with some weird tweaks. The differences that occur when some Western things get used in Japanese entertainment can be VERY weird. Some examples I can think of offhand is the way the Norse Norns are treated in the anime series “Ah, My Goddess” (the Norns as individuals isn’t even something most Western people would consider as common knowledge). The various ways the Final Fantasy series rifles through Western mythology for spare entities is another. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/10 "2016-10-28T00:00:43Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > But the knights are a-_round_ it, aren’t they? Hmmm? More like a-_top_ it I should say … ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/11 "2016-10-28T12:05:02Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I’ve never watched the FFVII summon but it’d be pretty ridiculous to summon a table along with the knights. YMMV. The summon is ridiculously long. If you junction it with W-Summon and Mime it twice, you have enough time to get up and make a sandwich while fighting one of the Wepaons or Sephiroth. Of course, the time needed to breed a gold chocobo to actually go get the materia and the time needed to win the W-Summon materia are also ridiculously long. As is the time needed to clone the Mime materia to get two of them. The attack can hit for a max of 129,987 damage each time it runs. (I think one of the longest possible sequences in the game is to junction Quadra-Magic with Bahamut ZERO and Mime twice. That’s probably 12 minutes worth of animation.) Here’s the [summon from the remaster](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv9aI5RkoeQ). When it comes to something like the OP, my general response is “It’s Japanese” and leave it at that. In other words, something hasn’t quite crossed the cultures properly. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/12 "2016-10-28T12:07:44Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Officially, the table was rectilinear … as we can see from the only known [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ghXxXyAuw) video from that time … I prefer this [recently discovered video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJtKZjDp2aE). ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/13 "2016-10-28T16:42:37Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > The summon is ridiculously long. If you junction it with W-Summon and Mime it twice, you have enough time to get up and make a sandwich while fighting one of the Wepaons or Sephiroth. Of course, the time needed to breed a gold chocobo to actually go get the materia and the time needed to win the W-Summon materia are also ridiculously long. As is the time needed to clone the Mime materia to get two of them. The attack can hit for a max of 129,987 damage each time it runs. > > (I think one of the longest possible sequences in the game is to junction Quadra-Magic with Bahamut ZERO and Mime twice. That’s probably 12 minutes worth of animation.) > > Here’s the [summon from the remaster](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv9aI5RkoeQ). > > When it comes to something like the OP, my general response is “It’s Japanese” and leave it at that. In other words, something hasn’t quite crossed the cultures properly. Your link doesn’t work. Here’s a video from the original game. That is one bad ass summon. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/sv9aI5RkoeQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Final Fantasy VII 7: Knights of the round summon HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sv9aI5RkoeQ) ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/14 "2016-10-28T16:58:53Z")
[quote=“furryman, post:13, topic:769828”] Your link doesn’t work. Here’s a video from the original game. That is one bad ass summon. [/QUOTE] Never mind, the link worked the second time I clicked on it.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/15 "2016-10-28T18:30:23Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > I prefer this [recently discovered video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJtKZjDp2aE). This video doesn’t look contemporaneous … pretty obvious reenactment from the Plantagenet Era … the lion rampant and fleur-de-lis are trappings of the Angevin Empire. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/16 "2016-10-29T08:34:53Z")
ナイトオブラウンズ Naito Obu Raunzu. The japanese is the sounds spelt out. Ergo They dont know what it means, its just a bunch of sounds which sounds a bit like english “knights of round”. When it got to table they gave up, perhaps on the basis that they don’t want to mislead someone into thinking the table is the actor - its a table with a sword and armour… Rolls down the street and takes on the enemy… ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/17 "2016-10-29T17:51:00Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > ナイトオブラウンズ Naito Obu Raunzu. > The japanese is the sounds spelt out. Ergo They dont know what it means, its just a bunch of sounds which sounds a bit like english “knights of round”. > > When it got to table they gave up, perhaps on the basis that they don’t want to mislead someone into thinking the table is the actor - its a table with a sword and armour… Rolls down the street and takes on the enemy… Reminds me of a couple of animes where one of the characters uses the Rashomon summons. Giant gates appear out of nowhere and do something bad ass. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/knights-of-the-round-with-no-table/769828/18 "2016-10-29T18:16:09Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > they don’t want to mislead someone into thinking the table is the actor - its a table with a sword and armour… Rolls down the street and takes on the enemy… Why not? They already have a [house](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abnkwyKRqWo).