Knight in Shining Tropes

This is the set of tropes that cluster around Knight Templar: the forces of light in hardcore mode, excessively or otherwise. This mentality is all the way over on the Idealistic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism -- but it has nothing in common with modern idealism of the Granola Girl and Cloudcuckoolander variety.

The Trope Codifiers are the medieval Matters of Arthur and, especially, Charlemagne (especially the innumberable fantasy novels and verse epics of the 15th through 17th centuries which were based on, set in, or vaguely inspired by the older Carolingian myths). The Arthurian myths have a less militantly idealistic style than the Carolingian ones; the Arthurian work most completely of this style is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

This pattern is rarer outside of Europe (and before the Middle Ages) than within it. The closest analogue to European chivalry was bushido, the code of the Japanese Samurai, but the Japanese code emphasized loyalty to one's lord, even to the point of doing evil, while the European one emphasized loyalty to one's conscience, even to the point of treachery.

Of course, that doesn't mean that non-European heroes can't act like this -- and it doesn't mean that European heroes always do, either. The Roman-derived tradition of "My Country, Right or Wrong" was always present in Europe...

See also Hero Tropes, to an extent. A particular variety of Idealism Tropes. A civilization that embraces this is a variety of Martyrdom Culture.

Tropes

 * A Father to His Men
 * All a Part of the Job
 * Attack! Attack! Attack!
 * Black Knight
 * The Cape
 * The Champion
 * Church Militant
 * The Extremist Was Right
 * The Fettered
 * Good Is Boring (but it beats the alternative)
 * Good Is Not Dumb
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Harmony Versus Discipline (Discipline)
 * Hero Antagonist
 * Heroic Sacrifice
 * Taking the Bullet
 * Jumping on a Grenade
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * Honor Before Reason
 * Ideal Hero
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness
 * Inspector Javert
 * I Will Protect Her
 * Keep the Reward
 * The Kindnapper: both the Heroic variant and the Obviously Misguided type
 * Knight Errant
 * Knight in Shining Armor
 * Knight in Sour Armor
 * The Lady's Favour
 * Lawful Good (although not interested in secular law)
 * Lawful Stupid (more or less common depending on the work)
 * Light'Em Up
 * Light Is Good
 * Lord Error-Prone
 * Machiavelli Was Wrong
 * Magic Knight
 * Martyrdom Culture
 * Martyr Without a Cause
 * More Hero Than Thou
 * Noble Demon
 * Order Versus Chaos (Order)
 * The Paladin
 * The Paragon
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy
 * Saintly Church
 * Scary Dogmatic Aliens
 * Screw the Money, I Have Rules
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right
 * Self-Proclaimed Knight
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism (Idealistic)
 * The Stoic
 * Think Nothing of It
 * To Be Lawful or Good
 * Villainous Valor
 * Warrior Monk
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist (what often happens when characters like this go wrong)
 * Knight Templar (and what happens when they get fully blinded by their zeal)
 * What You Are in the Dark
 * Worthy Opponent