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Black Knight
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"...ride forth on a jet black steed, murder your enemies in one fell blow, and bring nightmares to every corner of the land. If this sounds good to you, consider the career of black knight."
— How to Be a Villain, Neil Zawacki
An enigmatic foe, clad head to toe in armor black as night, . Usually ridiculously powerful, he is feared by all who know of him. Wielding a sword, speaking in a
or sinister growl, and looking totally
while doing it, he is almost always a major antagonist.
probably has a score to settle with him. The mystery surrounding his true identity is often a main plot point. Given his armor, he can show up and fight in
without betraying it.
Commonly fills the role of
in fantasy stories, since when done right, Black Knights are absurdly cool. A Black Knight is usually found in settings in which a
is also present. Frequently, they . Sometimes, , but merely a . Sometimes, . Sometimes there's nothing but the .
The trope name comes from the black knights of feudal Europe, men who would paint their armor and shields black for a number of reasons. One reason to do this was because they had no liege, making them analogous to
Samurai. The black paint prevented the armor from rusting, which made life moderately easier for knights without a squirenote&. A more sinister motive for the paint was to disguise who it was they served. A knight could move freely and serve his lord's wishes without bringing him blame by painting over his coat of arms, one of the few ways to reliably identify a man in full platemail. This is , going back at least to
legend. Note that, in its original usage, a Black Knight was not necessarily villainous, though he was , which in
was barely a step up.
Note that, although being a black knight, this character is still a knight. This places them rather high among the list of potential candidates for , or at least a sympathetic form of villainy. While that can take a variety of forms, they rarely are the . More likely, they can be anything from a
to a . This character very rarely is a total villain, but also only rarely . If they are villainous and end up fighting another bad guy, the chances that they are
in that situation are extremely high. They might also be the holy, chosen guardians of
who uses that power alongside their sword.
has a high chance of being a black knight.
If the Black Knight is in service to a female villain, then it may be a case of .
, although it's also part of this trope.
See also , because that black space knight is really influential.
For the pinball tables by ,
&&&&open/close all folders&
&&&& Anime and Manga&
Dark Knight/Prince Kaito from
In , Burn Burning became a black knight in the second half of the show after he failed his lord too many times. The OP turned it into a
for the audience though.
In , Berserker, AKA Lancelot, the Knight of the Lake, e he is over 6 feet tall, clad with heavy black armor from head to toe, has a black , and has two Noble Phantasms that firstly conceal his identity and Servant statistics from everyone, and secondly, allow him to wield ANY object that is conceptually a weapon, (from butter knives, to simple metal poles, to modern firearms and even F-15 Jet fighters) as a weapon, with master-level proficiency, even if he has not actually even held that specific weapon before. If that is not enough for you, he also has a final, third Noble Phantasm which is his fairy-made, , Arondight (the sword of the lake), an anti-unit type weapon that is said to be the counterpart of the legendary anti-fortress sword Excalibur, increases all Berserker's attributes by one rank and has special dragon-slaying properties, with the only downside being that it seals both of the aforementioned Noble Phantasms while it's activated.
Also deconstructed and subverted at the same time by Suzaku, since he turns into both the 's
(more than once) and he is more of the bruiser than Lelouch is.
And the Gawain
is a Black Knight(mare).
The Black Knights are color coded to contrast with , which frequently uses
in their mecha and uniforms.
has a Black Knight among the Aswad, and he goes by the name of Rad (a.k.a. Reito).
The Black Knight (and/or Crimsom Knight) from the first episode of
is a parody of this kind of character.
is a rare case of a
Black Knight.
Racer X in .
In , there's only one Black Knight at any one time & he's a sort of . The Black Knight is the person
Est sees as the ideal pilot for the
she's bonded to, Vatshu. When the current Black Knight dies, Est goes
looking for a new one. Most are free agents,n though they usually seem to have an affinity for
The Skull Knight of , though he doesn't actually wear black. Despite his appearance, he's actually one of the nicest guys in the series. He is really mysterious and doesn't say much aside from cryptic hints though...
Guts himself is called "The Black Swordsman" and gains black armor later on in the series. Despite his time
Guts tends to subvert the standards (especially during the Golden Age) as he just looks scary and brooding: he's actually really socially awkward and just has the misfortune of looking intimidating
DarkKnightmon from
combines this trope with
and awesome .
Digimon LOVES this trope:
The first example was arguably BlackWarGreymon, a dark version of WarGreymon. He was conflicted about his purpose in life which often brought him into conflict with the Digidestined, but it became ultimately clear than he was an honorable being.
Beelzemon of the Seven Great Demon Lords is more of a dark knight decked out in
clothing than Satan or Beelzebub. Its profile describes him as "cruel and merciless, yet exceedingly prideful" and that he .
has a more knight-like appearance.
Koichi's Human spirit form, L?wemon, is an excellent example of this. He wore armor black as midnight and was (at the time at least) by far their strongest warrior, but he was as noble a hero as the rest of them, making him an example of .
Other digimon fit the Black Knight trope that haven't appeared in an anime include: ChaosGallantmon, a demonic version of Gallantmon, and Gaiomon, a samurai version of BlackWarGreymon.
Sorta invoked and then subverted in . There is a character that
as the "Black Knight", but said character mixes
being among the crew of the Duke of Orleans. We also find out
his real name: Bernard Chatelet, and later
he drops the mantle (after subjecting Andre to
and being confronted ) and becomes an
gives us the .
in disguise: He and the Demon Queen (disguised as a human scholar) are secretly playing both sides to find a peaceful political solution to the human-demon war.
One of the characters
rescued was a Black Knight.
&&&&Comic Book&
More than one character in
is named "The Black Knight." Some are heroes, some villains.
's armor may be a lot less bulky than most, but he still fits (hence "The Dark Knight"). His
incarnation is a literal "dark knight", a cursed suit of armor that stands stalwart against evil.
Disney comics have two Black Knights. One is the Phantom Blot, 's murderous, sometimes megalomaniac supervillain foe covered completely in an inky black cloak.
One European
storyline, the second part of a trilogy of stories set in a Medieval Fantasy world, concerns Mickey and Goofy trying to win a tournament where the prize is a magic
they desperatly need to save their friends hometown from a volcanic eruption. One of the contestants is the representative of an off-screen noble named Queen Hela, and is, you guessed it, a Black Knight. He quickly proves unbeatable, and it comes down to him and Goofy in the finals, where the contest, due to outside circumstances, ends up being a kind of game of skill Goofy had been playing with before the story began, which revolves around trying to keep a small metal pebble spinning on a rope as long as possible.
Goofy wins when the jerky motions the game requires causes the Black Knight to break down after about an hour, and its revealed he's actually a robot
drew a pair of
stories featuring a Black Knight actually called that. He was a master thief named Arpin Lusene (better known by his criminal alias, Le Chevalier Noir), modeled after the
trope. He gets even worse when he actually gets a black suit of armour covered with a substance that destroys anything it touches. (He's very careful when putting it on.)
had a one-shot foe called Knight in a super-villain duo called Knight and Fog. He had the power to transform into a large, metal humanoid with admantium skin and a retractable sword coming out of his wrist. Like the characteristic black knight, he was simply a
who gained no pleasure from killing, and followed his agreements to the letter.
Captain Rochnan, commander of the Warrior Monks, in .
Midnighter from
he's one of the most feared fighters in the
universe, and dedicated to making 'a finer world' - even if he needs to kill for it. He's explicitly labelled a knight by Gaia Rothstein, who begs him to rescue her from an , and rewards him in true fairytale fashion when he completes his quest. He even gets to slay a dragon!
&&&&Fan Fiction&
Matsuda in the
Maesterus in .
fills this role decently in , working for the
but being a
with chivalry styled honor code. Visually he's a bit of an inverse, having a inky black body, but ivory colored armor.
brings . In more than just simply wearing the armor and ,
is that the liege they are working for is the only emperor in charge.
&&&&Films — Animated&
Subverted in Disney's . The knight wearing all black was shown to be scary, but when it was spread and challenged that Wart (Arthur) had pulled the sword he was the most reasonable and vocal about giving him a chance to show everyone he could do it again.
Lord Spottlebottom is referred to as "the Black Knight" in the
of , but he's simply Johan's jousting opponent, and after he's defeated he says that he should've taken up dancing.
&&&&Films — Live-Action&
There are two films with Black Knight in the title, one from 1954 (The Black Knight) starring Alan Ladd, and another from 2001 (), starring .
has William Wallace duel a character like this at one point, complete with a dramatic identity reveal.
reveals its master jouster Black Knight to be !
Two of these end up coming into . One's the classic trope villain, and the other is the original
famously features a Black Knight, who ends up with .
in the opening of : The Fellowship of the Ring wears a huge suit of armor, towering over the human and elf soldiers he battles, and sends scores of them flying with with each blow of his giant mace. In the books, he was mor here, he is modeled after his former master Morgoth from , who was described wearing dark armour.
the Witch-King of Angmar similarly wears spiky armor, although before Return of the King he wears a simple black cloak like all the other Ringwraiths.
The huge black-armoured warrior in the
is silent, mysterious and nigh on unstoppable. True to the trope, it turns out to be Solomon's horribly disfigured brother inside the armour.
Darth Vader from
is a black knight .
Rinzler in
is Clu's champion in the games and races. Clad in black, with a smooth black helmet obscuring his face, Rinzler is the only character
discs. He is extremely fast, agile, and durable. This makes sense, as he used to be Tron, the security program, before Clu enslaved him.
Navarre in , a disgraced fugitive knight with black armour, a BFS, and a billowing black cape with scarlet lining, played by
no less! He's actually the hero.
&&&&Literature&
"Le Noir Faineant" (The Black Sluggard) of . In this case it's not
but rather a , and secretly King Richard the Lionhearted in disguise. As the king, Richard has no liege, so he is able to be a Black Knight on a technicality.
Wilfred of Ivanhoe fights as the black knight "Desdichado" ('Unfortunate') in a tournament, and qualifies better as a black knight in a historical sense, being a knight who lost his liege over a matter of honour.
The notorious bounty hunter Aloysius Knight in the Matthew Reilly novel
goes by the call sign "Black Knight", and dresses appropriately. In accordance with the trope, his origin, identity and allegiances are unclear.
The Improfanfic
has Craig Maimsworth, Black Knight!...in training. He's not very good at it. He does wear heavy black armor though.
Lord Soth from the
novels is a very good example of this trope being a fallen hero, undead (a Death Knight), the leader of a small army of undead and the second in command to Takhisis and Kitiara before being exiled to .
Later stories introduce the Knights of Takhisis, a military order of Black Knights (living, for the most part).
we get to hear of several , called Mystery Knights, who remain masked unt it is apparently all but law that whomever defeats a mystery knight is a tournament is the one who removes the helm. Indeed, it seems there was hardly a famous tourney in which there wasn't at least one participating. One of the most famous, never unmasked, was the Knight of the Laughing Tree, who competed at the great tourney at Harrenhal, made it a point to defeat knights who had bullied a young crannogman squire, became champion at the end of the second day, and then vanished before the third day began, leaving behind only the shield, emblazoned with a laughing heart tree. Hints in the story, and reader speculation, tend thinking the Knight was Lyanna Stark, Lord Eddard' the crannogman was almost certainly Howland Reed, a bannerman to the Starks.
In what is
an aversion, while the Night's Watch always wears black, and there are indeed anointed knights serving among them, we have not yet seen one dressed in full plate, complete with face-concealing helm, who for some time is unable to be identified by a given the relatively small size of the organization and that the Night's Watch isn't looked upon highly anymore, it seems we are unlikely to by series end.
Perhaps the ultimate in-series example is Ser Gregor Clegane, Tywin Lannister's psychotic knight and his main killer. He wears black armour, is gigantic, , a Complete Monster and . He's even ordered to harry the Riverlands incognito/ off-the-record. Or, as incognito as the only guy his size can possibly manage, at least.
In Eve Forward's , a Black Knight joins the protagonists, who nickname him Blackmail. By the end of the book he's revealed to be a legendary
who was part of the team of heroes responsible for tipping the
to the light, and proves his
credentials by sacrificing himself to keep the world from being consumed by the light.
Played in its non-villainous incarnation by Sir Guy Losobal, the Black Knight of Christopher Stasheff's
series, who serves as an ally to the protagonist in most of the books.
The titular character of Alexandre Herculano's .
novels by Glen Cook,
Croaker temporarily becomes a black knight by donning his Widowmaker armor to damage enemy morale.
Sparhawk's enemies in /Tamuli essentially see him as this, due partially to the black Pandion Knight armor, partially to the Pandion order's reputation for casual cruelty, and partially to
fits the archetype better, being a dishonoured former knight-turned mercenary.
Averted in , and What Alice Found There, which uses white and red chess set symbolism and characters.
(As well as subverted.)
The Warrior in Jet and Gold from the
trilogy has the appearance of one of these, but is actually fully on the good guys' side (if in an annoyingly enigmatic way).
Gaynor the Damned is a straighter version of the trope who appears in many
series (although his armour is not black but constantly changing in colour, due to the influence of Chaos).
Berserker in , who is only known as "The Black Knight" since he is wearing the typical black armor. He is also clouded by a fog that obscures his identity and status. His identity is revealed later on to be Lancelot of the Lake, who wanted to descend into madness after the mess that he made in his lifetime as a knight.
In Howard Pyle's late-19th/early-20th Century versions of the Arthurian mythos, this is the default appearance of numerous opponents of the Knights of the Round Table during their adventures.
In , King Arthur states that it has always been his dream to dress up as a Black Knight and stand by a bridge, and challenge any knight who comes by to a joust. Later on, in The Ill-Made Knight, he is shown doing just that when Lancelot comes to King Arthur's Court.
A black knight appears fairly early in
as a mysterious woman's companion. She turns out to be the
(a student or associate of Jadis from
and ), and the knight turns out to be King Caspian's long-missing son Rilian.
Several of the
from The Dragon Crown War have this vibe, most obviously
(also a ) and a
&&&&Live Action TV&
One turns up in . It turns out to be none other than Arthur's uncle, summoned as a wraith by .
A few have shown up in
Bull Black the Black Knight in /the Magna Defender in , an
who lost a family member and is out for vengeance against the villains, clashing with the Rangers in the process. Both eventually pass on their powers to the Red Ranger's brother (Hyuuga and Mike, respectively), who becomes a proper .
Wolzard in /Koragg the Knight Wolf in ,
but also , often rationalizing that the Rangers are . Really the
father of the entire team in Magiranger and of the Red Ranger in Mystic Force. Incidentally, his armor isn't black but .
Gosei/Robo Knight in /, another
- like the Rangers, he wants to protect the E unlike the Rangers he doesn't particularly care for its people. His armor is actually , but his attitude qualifies him for this trope.
Zhang Liao from . Clad in black armor too, and
He is a member of the Dai tribe, one of the original five warriors, who turned traitor.
, the Red Ranger, but .
the year before,
and also the father of a Red Ranger, as well as the
the Yamato Tribe's black knight. He's a flashback-only character, but he is important.
He tried to overthrow the Yamato King and failed, but was let off in exchange for giving his baby son Geki to the childless king. Not too long after, he once again attempted a revolt (using the loss of Geki to galvanize others), challenging the king to duel. The king spared him when he lost... but he then immediately got himself killed via . His last words to his older son Burai were "Avenge me". This was what lead to Burai and the other Zyurangers starting as enemies.
There's another black knight, appearing in front of Geki and Dora Narcissus, who starts attacking Geki and delivering a solid
that Geki is too hung up on saving Burai at cost of the welfare of his other friends and the people of Earth, until Geki delivers a
and defeats him... only to reveal that it's Goushi, who's trying to wake Geki up from his , just as planned.
The first instance would be the aptly named "Dark Knight" in , a knight clad in black that alternates between attacking the Dynamen or the Jashinka Empire. In the end, he is revealed to be the exiled Prince Megiddo and assumes the
are contracted by the descendent of King Arthur to defend his castle while his family goes on holiday. A land developer tries to get his hands on the castle, but is stymied by our heroes. However as medieval law still applies in Camelot, he challenges the Goodies to a duel, appearing as Ye Black Knight. .
Parodied in the Pearl Bailey episode of , with a -themed final number featuring a "mysterious" Black Knight.. played by , .
Black Knight: The world shall forever wonder who I am! Kermit:
&&&&Mythology&
: The Black Knight of .
There's actually at least four. Arthur killed one, Sir Gareth got another, a third battled with Percival over a misunderstanding, and a fourth is the illegitimate grandson of King Arthur, who avenged his father after his wife killed him, and then teamed up with his half-brother to go on adventures.
In some versions, the black knight is King Pellinore, whom Arthur fights early in his reign. Pellinore first unhorses Arthur with a lance before dismounting to beat
he actually breaks Arthur's sword in the process. Merlin rescues Arthur with magic and brings him to the Lady of the Lake, who gives him Excalibur and, more importantly, Excalibur's sheath, which has the magic property that no one wearing it may be cut. With it, Arthur is able to beat Pellinore, after which . In his day, Pellinore may have been the greatest knight at the Round T he never fought Lancelot or Galahad, but it is at least suggested that he might have been a match for either.
The Green Knight from
also appears to fit the trope, but with every instance of "black" changed to "green". Except that the Green Knight subverts it by turning out to be an pretty good guy that just wanted to test Gawain's honour.
Lancelot had many aspects of a Black Knight, at least in that he didn't w he often would borrow other people's armor and weapons so that nobody could tell it was him while wandering around and performing heroic deeds/picking fights with random people. Black armor was one of his earliest disguises.
Mordred is sometimes portrayed like this too,
(usually in modern version, to emphasize the fact t modern depictions tend to make him look evil for dramatic effect more than anything else).
&&&&Pinball&
Williams Electronics'
and , of course.
In , the player must defeat five of them during multiball.
This is one of the enemies in the "Knight of the Roses" table of
In , he is one of the three Evil Knights that must be defeated.
&&&&Tabletop Games&
features the playable Blackguard prestige class, which is a kind of always-evil fighter with some divine magic spells. A possible background for a Blackguard is to be a fallen Paladin.
In some French sources, "Blackguard" is translated "Chevalier noir", which is the French for "Black Knight".
The Paladin of Tyranny variant of the base Paladin would also fit here. The Paladin of Slaughter,
card from , a standby of black decks for years. According to the flavor text, he's also a .
The , a Black Samurai.
The , a riff on the Black Knight.
has no shortage of soldiers in black , from the
, but the ones who fit this trope best are the
of the Black Legion. Many are former Sons of Horus who had their colors and
to distance them from their defeat at the end of the , while the rest are Chaos Marines from other legions who repainted their armor to show allegiance to their new master,
Among the loyalists, those Space Marines who are sent to join the
paint their armor black as a gesture of brotherhood with their new chapter - save for their original chapter's markings on their right pauldron, both
and . The exception are the so-called Black Shields who have chosen to completely sever themselves from their previous chapter, either because they are the , or for darker reasons...
: , who is somewhere between
and . He can't dismantle his armor because his
A number of Abyssals would also qualify, mainly the ones who take the title "deathknight" literally.
: There are lots of examples, but the term "Black Knight" itself is used for the undead Wight cavalry of the Vampire Counts army (who probably fitted the classic version of the trope more when they were alive). Also:
, is a particularly destructive example, and he has a retinue of less-powerful but still scary knights known as the Swords of Chaos. When one is leading the other, the only two possible solutions are to shoot the hell out of them from a distance, or feed them a constant stream of weak units so that they don't utterly maul your heavy hitters. In general, Warriors of Chaos from the same setting tend to have this aesthetic. In a clever subversion, they are the exact opposite of Knights. They are in fact human barbarian chieftains and warriors coming from a . Another subversion, they don't even have to be black. The colour of their armour varies according to their religious affiliations, varying from black to red to purple to green to blue. These colours actually symbolize which Chaos God they devote themselves to, with the colour Black suggesting that they worship the Chaos Gods as a pantheon.
There's also the Blood Dragons, a sect of
vampire warriors who wear black scary-ass armour (though more often it's painted blood red) and spent their free time traveling around challenging mighty beasts and warriors to battles and drinking their blood. Their leader, Abhorash, fits this trope to a tee.
Dark Elf Cold One Knights fit here too, being essentially the Elf version (and riding giant velociraptor-esque dinosaurs, rather than horses). The Black Guard of Naggarond are similar, being an order of sinister black-armoured noble warriors in service to a very evil liege-lord.
&&&&Video Games&
The Black Knight from . There's a very good reason why he's the page image: he happens to hit nearly every single characteristic associated with this trope. He looks badass, , wields a , is always
to the two different
of both the game and its sequel, survives having a castle collapse on him and is the catalyst for the hero's quest of vengeance. His identity is heavily implied through battle and text in the sequel Radiant Dawn, and is ultimately revealed a few chapters before his helmet comes off
as General Zelgius.
The Black Knight's compatriot
is also a classic Black Knight. Dressed all in black armor and riding astride a black horse, he speaks only in hisses, has a
that is only hinted at, is armed with the life-draining Runesword, and keeps his face concealed behind his visor. In the sequel he's revealed to be Princess (now Queen) Elincia's Uncle Renning, courtesy of some brainwashing from Izuka.
Before that Black Knight, the first
had Camus, leader of the Sable Ordernote& of the Grustian army. An
who only fights the heroes , he is widely regarded as the most powerful warrior alive — and . There's also Sirius in the next book, a
who is actually Camus, having .
In , the second generation of characters has Ares, the son of the first generation's legendary knight Eldigan. He sports black-ish armor, wields the demon blade Mystletainn, holds a grudge against , and starts out as a mercenary serving the enemy (and ). Their lineage can be traced back to Hezul, one of the Twelve Crusaders and also a heroic Black Knight.
has Zeek the Dark Knight. Formerly a knight of Barge who was captured and enslaved by the Zoans during their conquest and eventually emotionally broken into serving among them, he eventually defects to your side. Except not. In reality he's a
and actually a Zoan himself, albeit a
as he was really enslaved and tortured as a child because he was a Zoan. He's one of the game's best units and is a .
You also recruit Sun and Mintz, two members of the Canaan Black Knights, though Sun doesn't start out in the Black Knight class and has to promote from her mediocre Rook Knight class first.
has Cherche's son Gerome, who gives himself an image of darkness in his black armor and has an aloof, stoic demeanor towards everyone.
(In reality, Gerome is an awkward
who deeply misses his dead parents but emotionally distances from their younger selves.) On another note, this game introduces a class called "Dark Knight", which is a mounted unit that can wield
The special versions of Artix and Sepulchure Figures have black armor. and they show up in Gravelyn's Dream. Later the Doomblade takes control of Sepulchure, changing his armor from red to black. This makes it likely that Artix at some point will gain black armor.
There is also a boss called The Black Knight, whose armor you can get your hands on.
The Death Knight class, and quite a few armors allow a player to be one of these.
Sir Roderick of Clan Grimreaver is the
of the Tournament of Heroes and definitely looks the part. He's not above backstabbing enemies in his bid for Princess Brittany's hand and King Alteon's throne, and ultimately has to be defeated by the Hero.
has a fight against a Black Knight figure (except with gold armor) in the Spirit Temple near the end of the game, as a personal servant to the
of the dungeon, Twinrova. He is revealed upon defeat to be...a girl — and more specifically, Nabooru, who had been kidnapped by Twinrova.
The Darknuts from
probably count as well. They aren't important in the plot, but one does appear as a mini-boss in one dungeon, their difficulty makes them very imposing when you have to . A confrontation with three at once even serves as the game's .
Darknuts in general games for that matter, although not all of them wore black armor. Similar figures can also be found in
(the Mighty Darknuts sent to attack Link when Zelda got captured), and a single black Knight enemy (maybe with that as a name) in .
Sarevok, the
of the first
fits this trope very well. He wields a huge sword, and is clad in spiked black armor with a horned full helm revealing only his glowing eyes. His mysterious connection with the protagonist is that
he is the player's demonic half-brother. In the expansion for the second game
he can join the player's party, though his Black Knight appearance is significantly toned down.
In the Enhanced Edition, the D&D prestige class Blackguard was introduced as a kit (ie modification) of the Paladin class. The new party member Dorn Il-Khan makes use of this class kit.
While his armor isn't technically black, Garland of
fits every other bit of criteria.
starts off with your party
by a group of Black Knights. There's also the Dark Knight,
and who turns out to be Leon, having been
after being captured at the very beginning of the game.
The dark knight classes in
could not fit this trope any better. His theme song is titled "Golbez, Clad in Dark". He doesn't actually ever use a Sword, but prefer his magic instead.
Though he's perfectly capable of picking up a sword in The After Years.
Although , later a , also fits this early in the game.
ExDeath, the antagonist from , although like Golbez above he's presented in-story as a magic user (though he does have a sword and does use it in in-game battles). He also deviates a bit from this trope since his armor is actually
The Dark Lord from . Interestingly, he shares his sprites with 's dark knights.
Black Shadow of the
series. Quite silly for a racing game, but brilliant for an
of western super heroes and or .
One of the most memorable scenes in 1983's
was the duel against The Black Knight, making it the oldest video game example. The Black Knight also appeared in the animated series.
The Black Knight in . His identity is never revealed, strictly speaking, but the player can piece together the fact that he's the father of the boy who eventually kills him, unbeknownst to either of them. He's also
and an amnesiac.
series dresses in full black armour, is hinted to have a major role in the overall story and remains frustratingly enigmatic. He removes his armour for the third game (ironically so players wouldn't recognize him) but remains an enigma.
A rare good example: Pesmerga, Yuber's opposite number, who fights on the heroes side but is no less of a Black Knight.
almost any Death Knight qualifies as a Black Knight, as does the fallen paladin in Stratholme, and almost all blood elf blood knights. The meme is best exemplified by Highlord Darion Mograine however. And.. you know.. the.. um.. Black Knight.
And Arthas in the original
and the expansion.
The World of Warcraft Black Knight deserves special mention for being
Black Knight, only much deadlier. He first shows up as a human member of the
assassinating participants at an Argent Dawn tournament. You unmask him, defeat him and end up having to kill him. Unfortunately,
and serves as a boss in the Trial of the Champion. So you kill him again. Think you got him this time? Nope,
rises back up for another run. Then you destroy that. Think it's finally over? Nope, . Only then are you rid of him for good.
The Darkshine Knight from
fits the trope perfectly, being
of one of the game's three potential , the Dragon Emperor. He even has a literal
moment for bonus points!
has secret agent Frank Horrigan, doing the dirty work for the Enclave. He comes with a suit of custom
too big for a Super Mutant and fully automatic plasma rifle.
The Enclave soldiers as a whole wear black power armor with
and often .
has , whose armor isn't black but serves the same function. Part of his backstory is that he wears his helmet because most of his face was torn off in a fight with his own clan—when they decided that surrender was preferable to dying to a man.
fits this trope almost perfectly, the only exception being that the player never actually faces him, which is explained in the big reveal when his identity is revealed to be the player himself.
The Black Knight in, uhh,
gone evil. Except not really, for he is but an illusion conjured by Merlin, Merlina's grandfather.
Ironically enough, while it seems like he wears black, The Black Knight actually wears gold armor.
Sir Lancelot also counts since he is a knight in black armor
And because he's
's King Arthur expy.
, particularly in his debut , fits this quite well, though the black (or dark blue) comes from his skin.
Gares from the first .
Death's Hand from
Death Knight Cador from
The black,
stealth bomber in .
Prince Neidhart the Black from
plays with this trope. He's
Prince of Rosalia who goes into battle wearing a full suit of ornate armor... and he's one of the good guys, despite his cold demeanor.
However, he can have a
moment by suddenly slaying the Dragon Knight, if you don't .
The Black Knight is the
And he's probably the strangest example on this page. He wear black armor, sure, but he's also .
Oswald the Shadow Knight from
goes without a helmet but otherwise has the "terrifying, pitiless butcher" part down pat- he's probably the most feared warrior in the world. At least at first- after a
and discovering
he lightens up a bit, but still wears the spiky black armour and wields the sword infused with the power of the underworld. As he's a playable character, he could be the poster boy for .
The Black Knight In
is one of the few instances where they actually work for you.
In , Wolfgario the Ravager, leader of the enemy army Valpha-Valaharian. Wearing full armor, and his identity being a mystery that's crucial for the plot? Check. Speaking with an imposing tone and looking and sounding badass and cool? Check. Wielding a sword? Check, and it's a . Ridiculously powerful? Check, he's the strongest enemy in the whole game. Major antagonist
who's not really evil? Check. The only single difference is that he wears red armor instead of black.
has to joist the Black Knight to save Sir Gawain. Well, he doesn't
The Dark Knights in
suits with fire coming out of their heads, but the Executioners are the only ones that actually dress in black.
features the Black Monster, a mysterious shadowy figure in black armor who burned down the protagonist' naturally, said protagonist has sworn revenge. It's later revealed that the Black Monster is in fact
Rose, the woman who taught Dart how to use his Dragoon powers.
In , any character that wears the Armor of the Sentinel will look the part of a Black Knight. The flavor text implies that the armor itself may have somehow been tainted when its original wearer slew the Archdemon Dumat.
The Gatekeeper in , who replaces the Politician of the original.
can find and equip a black suit of armor which gives him this appearance, complete with , , and a face-covering helmet.
Nightmare is an .
...who is actually called the Azure Knight. Funnily enough, he's an evil version of the game's resident paladin Siegfried.
features a few Black Knights ( variety) as enemies in the final few levels. They come complete with a resonant intonation of
To add to the , they even fall to pieces when they're defeated.
A black knight appears early on in . This knight is a soul-eating golem built out of the corpse of a former mute murderer, built to protect his creator's daughter. As such, despite his menacing appearance he's hardly evil,
but you end up having to fight him anyway, after the protagonist kills his ward while under the influence of an evil mask.
It is possible to both fight and dress as a Black Knight in . Wearing the outfit gives you a total boost of +21 to your Muscle.
Black Knight Lord Zain from
serves as the
Noire, and a
to the Hero...powerful enough to blast him and the Time Goddess all the way across the continent after his first defeat.
When you think about it, you are one in , seeing as the Destroyer Armor is all black and red armor covering you from head to toe. The concept art also depicts it with an energy sword that doesn't show up in the actual game. Also, the Mooks can
"You're not my father!
Leon of , although he's not really mysterious. He is also recruitable in its prequel, .
In the original campaign , the female Paladin Aribeth progressivly becomes one after her fiancé's unjust execution and is a boss in the later parts of the game. She appears again, after her death, as a ghost in the expansion pack Hordes of the Underdark, where the player can recruit her and make her shift back to becoming again a Paladin or remain a Blackguard.
Black Knights in
usually serve as a sort of optional minibosses, being fast and very tough, especially at low levels, and being slightly off the main path.
They are also all , their occupants having been burned alive when their lord Gwyn linked the flame.
There is also Black Iron Tarkus, a , who can be summoned to help you fight the Iron Golem at the end of Sen's Fortress. He's a super- who
for being able to solo the fight by himself.
Dirk Gassenarl in . He's , rarely speaks in battle, and serves as
to Baldren Gassenarl. In a true -esque fashion, he's Avan's long lost brother, Leon Hardins— or what's left of his shattered psyche.
The entirety of the
fit this trope in spirit, but their elites are actually clad in very tough armor that are painted black most of the time.
you can actually be a black knight, with some editing of the equipment list. A full set of black armour is on said list, but not marked as "sellable", meaning you won't find it unless you change the relevant flag. The black armour is the strongest and heaviest in the game, and you can wear it while riding the best horse in the game, an armoured charger, which is black.
Black knights themselves used to roam the lands in older patches, but got removed because they kicked everyone's ass, even the kings' themselves. As having a king taken prisoner by a random black knight tended to throw the game seriously off balance, they had to be .
has Mars, a minor villain at the beginning of the game who fits the trope's physical description well, also intent on . He actually belongs to an entire order of knights clad in black, which wasn't all evil.
In the second half of , the party is stalked by a mysterious knight clad in black armor. He eventually catches up to them and challenges them to a duel. Once the battle is over, the knight's identity is revealed as Annie's older brother Percy, who was thought to have been
in an earlier attack. If you
during the battle, he'll (re)join the party. Otherwise, he .
series, a Dark Knight acts as
In the sequel, the protagonist Siris is able to obtain the Vile Armor set, which lets him fulfill this trope in appearance. In his past life as Ausar the Terrible, he also fulfilled this trope in spirit.
alludes to the idea with the Cracha Preto . The name is Portuguese for "black badge", and according to supplementary materials they used to be lawmen who blacked out their unit insignia before going on
The Necromancer from the ,
to the . Rather than the standard
kind of necromancer, this one is a Black . He is clad in menacing black armor and fights much like a player character (whenever not summoning hordes of undead minions, of course). One DLC actually makes him a playable character.
The Dark Templars from
are like this. They're heavy armored warriors who can channel black magic provided by demons or dark gods.
features a character of the trope name as the fourth chapter's villain. A towering machine in the guise of a man armed with technology unseen in his time, he conquered medieval-era England alongside an army of
He's actually controlled by somebody. Exactly whom that is, it's quite the surprise.
Although more purple than black, Abaddon has this look going for him in , complete with spells based around death. Appropriately, Abaddon was a Death Knight in the original
is this and a
- clad in ebon armor, he
via ancient magic for the chance to fight the heroes and his former master, Kazan.
Hakumen of
plays this trope almost completely straight, except without actually having black armor. He's mysterious, imposing, and one hell of a , to the point where most of the cast, who are pretty badass in their own right, do not want to mess with him.
The trope name is also the
of Kagura Mutsuki. He doesn't actually wear armor of any kind and is one of the most unambiguously good characters. He does however dress primarily in black clothing and wields an extremely large blade as well being among the highest ranking officials in the series` resident government. And proving that , his fighting skills are also worth mentioning, so much that he can straight up beat the main character, noted to be a , without too much effort and hold his own against a
known to the masses as a mass murder.
VI has a category of enemy creatures that fits well here, being dark-armoured beings identified as knights in name. Even the weakest variant, the Death Knight, is relatively powerful, and the strongest, the Cuisinart (presumably named for their ability to slice and dice enemies) can be pretty darn scary at the level you're expected to start facing off with them, and not just because they have Fear as a special ability.
These are your final and toughest opponents, along with the undead mages and the fireball-throwing succubi, in the original
as you close in on the title archdemon in Hell. They are what happened to Lachdanan and his knights as a result of the
placed upon them by their mad king Leoric, who Lachdanan himself was forced to slay.
Once upon a time in , Black Knights were the strongest enemy in the days of Classic. Now they are mostly threats to low to mid-level players. Players can choose to become this themselves by wearing Black-grade equipment, complete with , but because it is not very useful equipment for higher-end players and does not scale with levels, the only reason to use it is either due to being a lower-level player or pure . The Malevolent, Torva, and Obsidian armors are considerably more effective and also fit the mold of the Black Knight in regards to power, rarity, and fearsomeness.
's protagonist has a rival aptly-named Black Knight, who wears black armour and, like Shovel Knight, carries a shovel.
Doku from the
reboot series.
series, Straus wears a black bull-themed armor and he works for Sidereal, the antagonists in Tengoku-hen. She explains that the armour was Australis' idea, a symbol of majesty for the soldiers to rally behind. But now that Earth's been defeated, she can just faff off and do whatever.
&&&&Visual Novels&
The dragonslayer in
is clad from head to foot in powerful black armor and never truly speaks because it's just a suit of armor to be wielded by the chosen hero whith this hero being the Protagonist.
The Protagonist later becomes a Black Knight after defeating the armor.
&&&&Webcomics&
In , the main villain is a Black Knight who calls himself "Big Bad." He's also served by four other Black Knights, named as the Sloth Knight, the Blast Knight, the Spike Knight, and the Assault Knight.
The adult-themed fantasy comic
has a college student from Earth perform a
with an armored dark overlord in a
Melleck Xaos from the webcomic .
has Quentyn traveling with a knight dressed in menacing black armor, with the narration stating that he expects his companion to leave him to die in the wilderness soon. Later it turns out that he's
a squire wearing his deceased master's enchanted , who is guiding Q to a dragon to clear his name. And he comes back to help.
&&&&Web Original&
In , Wulgar and his successor Ulrik both wear black armor and act as foes of various heroes.
&&&&Western Animation&
parodied this up the yin-yang in its "Mr. Saturday Knight" episode. Particularly memorable is the scene where The Black Knight shaves his beard while still wearing his helmet and cuts himself shaving like this.
In the cartoon series , the Black Knight was lackey to the witch Morgana le Fay, and always managed to ruin her evil schemes through his incompetent bungling.
The Fright Knight from .
"Knight for a Day", which stars Goofy, Goofy, and more Goofy, has the good Goofy jousting with a Black Knight, .
In "Knighty Knight Bugs",
fights a Black Knight who turns out to be Yosemite Sam in armor.
has a character called 'Black Knight', who did not wear armor until the final where she gains a dark armored look.
In one episode of , Bart plays an MMORPG and his absurdly powerful, evil character is called the Shadow Knight.
The Black Knight in Scooby-Doo holds the honor of being the first villain in the entire series!
&&&&Real Life&
The knights of the Kingdom of France during the hundred years' war had their armor painted black. The english had theirs painted red at the same period.
There were two historical figures actually known as "The Black Knight" with the traditional look of "clad in a dark armor",
who was more of a
of sorts than this trope's more combat-focused role and , a Polish knight who, contrary to this trope's meaning, was (and still is) actually considered one of the finest examples of chivalry conduct.
Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, son of Edward III of England is known as
and is known for his martial skills. It's thought that he earned this name by wearing black armor, but it's not clear, and the name only appears well after his death.
typically wore black or very dark armour on their campaigns. Given their rampant badassery, they were true Black Knights.
16th century
were mercenary cavalrymen, usually of German origin ("reiter" is German for "rider"), wearing a black heavy armour and armed with two pistols, a dagger, and a sword. They gain a reputation of being high quality and merciless warriors, being nicknamed "black riders" and "devil riders".
The US Army academy's college football team is nicknamed the Black Knights. They have a long-standing
with Navy's Midshipmen, but in keeping with the tendency for a black knight to be a villain and for the villain to lose, they rarely come out of their clashes on top.}