http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackKnight

— How to Be a Villain, Neil Zawacki "...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."

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An enigmatic warrior, clad head to toe in armor black as night, which he is never seen without. Usually ridiculously powerful, he is feared by all who know of him. Wielding a sword, speaking in a low monotone or sinister growl, and looking totally badass while doing it, he is almost always a major antagonist. Commonly filling the role of The Dragon in fantasy stories. The Hero 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 The Tourney without betraying it. Sometimes there's nothing but the suit of armor. Sometimes, they're even a girl.

A Black Knight is usually found in settings in which a Knight in Shining Armor is also present. Frequently, they revel in combat. A common subversion is that they're not actually evil, but merely a Self-Proclaimed Knight.

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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 Ronin Samurai. The black paint prevented the armor from rusting, which made life moderately easier for knights without a squire.note Having no squire may also explain why such knights are portrayed as never taking off their armor: it's really hard to get all that on and off without help! 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 someone in full armour and a helmet. This is Older Than Print, going back at least to Arthurian legend. Note that, in its original usage, a Black Knight was not necessarily villainous, though he was dishonorable, which in The Dung Ages was barely a step up.

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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 Dark Is Not Evil, or at least a sympathetic form of villainy. While that can take a variety of forms, they rarely are the Knight in Shining Armor. More likely, they can be anything from a Knight in Sour Armor to a Noble Demon. This character very rarely is a total villain, but also only rarely The Hero. If they are villainous and end up fighting another bad guy, the chances that they are A Lighter Shade of Black in that situation are extremely high. They might also be the holy, chosen guardians of The Sacred Darkness or a Magic Knight who uses that power alongside their sword.

A Sub-Trope of Evil Wears Black. A Monster Knight 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 Dark Lady and Black Knight. See also Darth Vader Clone, because Darth Vader himself is both an example of this trope and a popular inspiration for enough Black Knight characters that his Fountain of Expies status makes him a modern Trope Codifier. Compare Tin Tyrant, which applies this trope to an Evil Overlord character by giving them a Scary Impractical Armor (though the armor itself may not be literally black). Contrast The Paladin.

Not to be confused with that Sonic the Hedgehog game, although it's also part of this trope. For the pinball tables by Steve Ritchie, click here. Or the hit single by Deep Purple (this one is called "Black Night"). And not necessarily The Dark Knight.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Card Games

Comic Books

Fan Works

Films — Animation

Subverted in Disney's The Sword in the Stone. Sir Bart, the knight wearing all black was shown to be scary, but when it was spread and challenged that Wart (Arthur) had pulled the sword out and put it back; 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 Animated Adaptation of The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, but he's simply Johan's jousting opponent, and after he's defeated he says that he should've taken up dancing.

In Polish animated series Dreadfully Titled Movie, Marbas and his soldiers wear black suits of armor.

Films — Live-Action

Literature

Live-Action TV

Mythology and Religion

Arthurian Legend: Older Than Print Ur-Example: The Black Knight(s). 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 him with a sword too; 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 Pellinore joins the Round Table. In his day, Pellinore may have been the greatest knight at the Round Table; 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 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 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 want to be recognized; 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, Depending on the Writer (usually in modern version, to emphasize the fact that he was a traitor; modern depictions tend to make him look evil for dramatic effect more than anything else).

Actually averted in various medieval chivalry tales from middle Europe. Back then, Black was not necessarily the colour of evil, rather than (as mentioned above for Lancelot) the colour of mystery. In many-a-story, a Black knight was one who tried to hide his identity but was oftentimes good, a White knight was an elder, more experienced knight, who could provide his knowledge and wisdom, and a Green knight was a young and inexperienced knight, prone to make errors, and trying to prove his worth. The bad, slimy, backstabbing felon would be the Red one.

Pinballs

Williams Electronics' Black Knight and Black Knight 2000, of course. Also its continuation by Stern, Black Knight: Sword of Rage.

In Medieval Madness, the player must defeat five of them during multiball.

This is one of the enemies in the "Knight of the Roses" table of Last Gladiators

In Golden Logres, he is one of the three Evil Knights that must be defeated.

Roleplay

In The Gamer's Alliance, Wulgar and his successor Ulrik both wear black armor and act as foes of various heroes.

Tabletop Games

Toys

Video Games

Visual Novels

Dra+Koi: The dragonslayer 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.

War: 13th Day: Onyx. At least, we think that's his armor and not his skin. He also serves as a silent stalker. Ambrosia: He was always there — either a step behind me or just within my line of vision. He never spoke. He simply observed and, sometimes, more than that.

Fate/stay night: In the "Heaven's Feel" route, Saber is consumed by the Shadow and corrupted by Angra Mainyu into Saber Alter, a nihilistic, nigh-emotionless black knight who sees it as her duty to cut down her enemies without mercy and with the full extent of her power .

Web Comics

In Questof Camelittle, 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.

Sam The Black Knight has a college student from Earth perform a Body Swap with an armored dark overlord in a Medieval European Fantasy world. Tales of the Questor: One arc 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 Powered Armor , who is guiding Q to a dragon to clear his name. And he comes back to help.

Western Animation

Family Guy parodies this 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.

Arthur! and the Square Knights of the Round Table: The Black Knight is a lackey to the witch Morgana le Fay, and always manages to ruin her evil schemes through his incompetent bungling. Classic Disney Shorts: "Knight for a Day", which stars Goofy, Goofy, and more Goofy, has the good Goofy jousting with a Black Knight named Sir Cumfrence.

Looney Tunes In "Knighty Knight Bugs", Bugs Bunny fights a Black Knight who turns out to be Yosemite Sam in armor. Another short, Knights Must Fall has him go up against another Black Knight named "Sir Pantsalot of Drop Seat Manor". In fact, at the start of the short we see several black knights lined up along with him.

Generator Rex has a character called 'Black Knight', who did not wear armor until the final where she gains a dark armored look .

. The Simpsons: In one episode, Bart plays an MMORPG and his absurdly powerful, evil character is called the Shadow Knight.

plays an MMORPG and his absurdly powerful, evil character is called the Shadow Knight. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Black Knight Ghost holds the honor of being the first villain in the entire series.

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