King Arthur/Characters

Multiple Character Tropes

 * Badass: Several knights warrant this one, doing things such as fighting in single combat for hours at a time.
 * Badass Family
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Not always, but pretty frequently.
 * Depending on the Writer: Who appears,who has major and minor roles, who is related to whom, how characters act... and pretty much everything else.
 * Odd Name Out: The children of King Lot and Morgause are Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Agravaine. Guess which one is evil.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted. There are several women named Elaine, and there are several different women who occassionally share the title "Lady of the Lake". There are also two Ectors, Arthur's foster-father Ector and Lancelot's half-brother Ector de Maris, and two men named Bors, King Bors and his son Bors of the Round Table.
 * Sir Not Appearing In This Book: Merlin's liege, Master Blaise is mentioned once in passing but never appears nor does anything to affect the plot.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Variant spellings of names abound.

King Arthur

 * Authority Equals Asskicking
 * Big Good
 * Brother-Sister Incest: His tryst with his half-sister Morgause produces Mordred, who eventually betrays him.
 * The Captain
 * Character Title
 * Characterization Marches On: Although he was always a warrior hero, early traditions depict him as less of a clean-cut good guy than later interpretations, being quite lustful, jealous, prideful and greedy. He quarrels with churchmen, tries to steal Tristan's pigs, kills a rival over a woman, and fathers several sons, none of whom is linked to his wife Guinevere.
 * The Chosen One
 * Cool Sword: Excalibur
 * The Good King
 * Gray Eyes: according to Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur.
 * Happily Adopted: Arthur actually had quite a happy life with Sir Ector and was extremely upset to learn that he wasn't actually his son.
 * The Hero: Trope Codifier.
 * Heroes Prefer Swords
 * Historical Hero Upgrade / Historical Badass Upgrade: Historians have debated for generations whether Arthur was truly historical at all. But if we accept that the "original Arthur" was a British leader who temporarily stopped the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain, he has been greatly transformed and magnified into the Arthur of legend.
 * The original Arthur may not have even been a king himself, since he is called dux bellorum or "leader of battles", who fought "together with the kings of the Britons" in twelve great battles against the Anglo-Saxons. He is also called "Arthur the Soldier" in early material. In later works he is called the High King of all Britain and even Emperor, and he even conquers Rome.
 * King in the Mountain
 * The Messiah: His eventual return during Britain's greatest need.
 * Mutual Kill: With Mordred.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: Arthur decides to round up all of the babies born on May Day and send them out on a rickety boat because Merlin prophesied that a child born on this day would destroy him. One baby (Mordred) survived.
 * Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Spouts off several in the "Lucius" section of Le Morte Darthur.
 * To Be Lawful or Good: Modern writers tend to make him quite conflicted over his decision to burn Guinevere at the stake in order to show that the queen isn't above the law, with some even depicting him as secretly hoping Lancelot will save her. Originally, this was very much not the case.

Merlin

 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Medieval romancers occasionally note that, though an ally to Arthur, Merlin is actually evil, treacherous and disloyal by nature. He does take several questionable actions over the course of the story.
 * Composite Character: Originally based on the wandering mystic Myrddin Wyllt, he became merged with Romano-British warlord Ambrosius Aurelianus by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Remnants of this remain today with some modern fiction referring to him as "Merlin Ambrosius."
 * Dirty Old Man: Depending on the Writer, this was his behavior toward Nimue.
 * Eccentric Mentor
 * Half-Human Hybrid: In most versions he is the son of a nun who was raped by a demon. This explains why he has magical powers but can only use them for good.
 * Historical Hero Upgrade: From manipulative jerk and Trickster Archetype to wise and caring advisor.
 * Merlin and Nimue: Trope Namer
 * Merlin Sickness: The Trope Namer. Merlyn from T.H. White's The Once and Future King is afflicted with this.
 * The Obi-Wan
 * Omniscient Morality License: Merlin gives Uther the appearance of Gorlois so he can father Arthur upon Igraine, then has Arthur snatched away at birth and given to Ector, arranging the "sword in the stone" test as well, presumably so that events would happen as he prophesied. Not revealing Arthur's true parentage led to many rebellions during the early years of his reign, as well as the conception of Mordred and the May Day massacre.
 * Robe and Wizard Hat: Probably the Trope Codifier
 * Sealed Good in a Can: After Nimue seals him away in the cave. That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis features his un-sealing as a plot point.
 * The Smart Guy: Trope Codifier.
 * Trickster Mentor
 * Woolseyism: Originally spelled "Myrddin," but changed to "Merlin" by Geoffrey of Monmouth because Myrddin sounded too much like the French "merde" and he wanted to avoid the Unfortunate Implications of naming his prophetic wizard after the French word for poop. It's worth noting that his audience was French-speaking Normans.
 * You Are Too Late: For all his power, Merlin has a tendency to arrive just a skosh too late to be useful.
 * You Can't Fight Fate: He's perfectly aware of what his relationship with Nimue will lead to, because he knows the future.

Guinevere

 * The Chick: Trope Codifier.
 * Distressed Damsel
 * Evil Identical Half-Sister: On the same night Leodegrance fathered Guinevere, he also begat another girl on the wife of his seneschal. This "False Guinevere" was born on the same day, looked exactly like her half-sister and even had the same name (Leodegrance had strong genes, but it looks like he wasn't very imaginative). She managed to trick Arthur into thinking the was the real deal, and tried to have Guinevere mutilated and banished (with Lancelot's help, she escaped). "False Guinevere" kept the charade up for years until the Pope himself stepped in and demanded Arthur take the real Guinevere back. He refused, and the Pope interdicted Britain for twenty-one months. After ten, "False Guinevere" had a stroke, lost every sense but sight and hearing, then began to rot alive, until she finally confessed and perished.
 * Gray Eyes: according to Sir Gawaine And The Green Knight.
 * The High Queen
 * Smart People Play Chess: Apparently one of the most skilled players in the court.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Too many alternate spellings to mention here. Gwynyvere, Guenevere, etc.
 * Tsundere
 * World's Most Beautiful Woman
 * Your Cheating Heart: Her affair with Lancelot is usually kind of a "bad move" for the round table's morale.

Lancelot

 * The Ace
 * Aesop Amnesia: After the Grail Quest, he forgets everything he learned about purity and all that and starts sleeping with Guinevere again.
 * The Atoner: Most of his quest for the Holy Grail is him atoning for his sins.
 * The Berserker: Something Monty Python and The Holy Grail definitely got right is that Lancelot tended to leave high body counts behind him, often of relatively innocent people.
 * Blood Knight
 * Disproportionate Retribution: More than once, Lancelot, while he was out wandering, would wander into other knights' pavilions and make himself at home. When confronted by the understandably upset owners, well, he's Lancelot and they're generally nameless.
 * Fatal Flaw: His illicit affair with Guinevere proves to be the undoing of the Round Table itself.
 * Good Is Not Nice
 * Hot-Blooded
 * The Lancer: Trope Codifier.
 * Sailor Earth: He wasn't introduced into the myths until the twelfth century, with Chretien De Troyes's Lancelot, Knight of the Cart.
 * Sixth Ranger: He doesn't show up at the Round Table until long after it's assembled.
 * Spell My Name With A U: Sometimes spelled "Launcelot".

Gawain

 * Alternate Character Interpretation: In some stories he's Arthur's best knight and the ideal of chivalry. In others he's a flawed but principled hero. In other ones he's a boorish, impulsive Ax Crazy Antihero
 * Anti-Hero
 * The Big Guy: Trope Codifier.
 * Clear My Name: One of his adventures in Parzival has him doing this.
 * Family Honor: Gawain's main motivation, at least in Le Morte Darthur.
 * Henpecked Husband: he plays this role to Lady Orgeleuse in Parzival.
 * Indy Ploy: One episode in Chretien De Troyes's Perceval and Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival has him holding off an angry horde of townspeople while using a chess board as a shield.
 * Of course, the chess pieces are described as being ten times as large as normal ones, and are also used as impromptu missile weapons at one point, so (assuming a board of equivalent size) that's actually not too impractical.
 * The Power of the Sun: Some versions of the legends have him gain strength as the sun rises in the sky and lose it when it sets.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Alternatively spelled Gawan, Gauvain, Gavan, etc.
 * You Killed My Brothers: The cause of his feud with Lancelot that brings down the Round Table.

Gareth

 * Bishonen
 * Gawain, I Am Your Brother
 * Sailor Earth: Possibly as late as 1470, as there's speculation that he was Malory's original creation.

Percival

 * Bishounen: He is the youngest of the knights, and the most feminine looking, as he was raised by his mother and never knew of men.
 * Chaste Hero: In later versions.
 * Good Is Dumb
 * Idiot Hero
 * Kid Appeal Character
 * No Social Skills: After the death of his father, Percival's mother takes him to the Welsh forests where she raises him ignorant to the ways of men until the age of 15.
 * Power Trio: With Galahad and Bors.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Alternatively spelled Perceval, Percivale, Parzival, or Parsifal.

Galahad

 * The Ace
 * Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence
 * Chaste Hero
 * Gary Stu
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness
 * The Messiah
 * Power Trio: With Percival and Bors
 * Purity Sue

Bors

 * Overshadowed by Awesome: Percival and Galahad are the most-remembered Grail Knights. Bors, if he's remembered at all, is that guy who the Killer Rabbit got to first.
 * Power Trio: With Percival and Galahad
 * The Smart Guy
 * Undead Author: He serves to avert this problem. After the Grail quest is complete, Galahad ascended to heaven and Percival went off to be a monk. Bors was the only one to return to Arthur's court to tell the tale.

Kay

 * Alternate Character Interpretation: His furious, hot-tempered personality is explained away in Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach as a function of his job as Arthur's bouncer. Tons of people showed up to the castle every day claiming to be worthy knights when they really weren't, and it was Kay's job to sort out the bad ones from the good. This explains his really jerkish behavior when Percival arrives at Camelot.
 * Blood Brothers: With Arthur. They were raised as brothers before Arthur found out his true heritage.
 * Boisterous Bruiser
 * Butt Monkey: In later versions where he merely exists to get beaten up.
 * Demoted to Extra: His role in later stories is severely reduced.
 * Hot-Blooded
 * Magic Knight: In his earliest incarnations.
 * Never Live It Down: When Percival first showed up to Camelot, a woman who had previously sworn never to laugh unless she saw the man who would be the best knight in the world. When Percival arrives, she laughs. Kay is so insulted that he slaps her. Throughout the rest of the story, Percival's defeated foes keep coming back to Camelot to tell of how Percival was still trying to avenge her honor (basically to rub in how much of a douche Kay was).
 * The Nicknamer: An example being Sir Gareth, who he dubs 'Beaumains' after the former refuses to reveal his name.
 * The Worf Effect: He seems to have a habit of getting the crap beat out of him to show how much better the new knight du jour is.

Bedivere

 * Bash Brothers: Often paired with Kay in the oldest Welsh material.
 * Battle Butler: Arthur's cup-bearer in later versions. Sometimes has a brother, Lucan, who is Arthur's designated butler.
 * Composite Character / Expy: In several modern Arthurian retellings favoring the older traditions as opposed to Malory et al, Lancelot does not appear. Instead, Bedivere is often made Guinevere's lover. It helps that many of Lancelot's usual traits apply to Bedivere also. This was first done in Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset (1963) and a number of other works have followed suit.
 * Demoted to Extra: Just like Kay, his role was much reduced as the mythos grew and developed.
 * Handicapped Badass: In the oldest Welsh material, he is one-handed.
 * Hunk: In Welsh material, said to be one of the most handsome men in Britain.
 * Number Two: Together with Kay, until supplanted by Lancelot.
 * Power Trio: With Arthur and Kay in early versions.
 * Sole Survivor: May be best known today as the one knight of the Round Table who survives Arthur's last battle, and who throws Excalibur back into a lake.

Mordred

 * Alternate Character Interpretation: Rebellious and treacherous son or victim of fate?
 * Antagonistic Offspring: To Arthur, in the versions where he's his son and not just his nephew. One of the alternate names for the trope is Arthur and Mordred.
 * Bastard Bastard
 * Child by Rape: Medieval versions of the tale have Morgause using magic to get Arthur to sleep with her. Some modern versions have Arthur raping her.
 * Evil Uncle: Inverted. In the early versions of the story, Arthur is his uncle and he's the Evil Nephew.
 * Face Heel Turn: Actually seemed quite promising during the first two years of his knighthood, earning praise from Lancelot himself.
 * Fake King: Yes and no. Arthur leaves him in charge of the kingdom when he goes to fight Lancelot in France, and he does officially have himself declared king, but he isn't the rightful ruler.
 * Genocide Backfire: Survived the May Day massacre.
 * Heroic BSOD: Being told that you're the bastard son of the king and his half-sister, prophesied to destroy the kingdom and do more harm in your lifetime than all your ancestors did good kind of does that to you. He came out of it...uh, pretty badly, actually.
 * Mutual Kill: He and Arthur.
 * Shoot the Messenger: Murdered the prophetic priest who revealed the truth about his life to him. Lancelot was pissed...because the priest was going to reveal his future next.
 * Tragic Villain: Particularly in modern interpretations. Still, it's not as if he asked Morgause and Arthur to sleep together.

Palomides

 * Green-Eyed Monster: Most of the reason he alternates between seeing Tristram as a brother-in-arms and wanting to gut him is because they are both in love with La Beale Isoud. Er, Isolde? Yseult? Whatever.
 * Humans Are White: Not the only ex-Saracen knight, but certainly the most prominent.
 * Kick the Dog: On the receiving end of one. After she convinces Tristram to spare his life following on of their clashes, Isolde makes Palomides deliver a message to Guinevere stating that there were but four true lovers within the land: Guinevere and Lancelot and Tristram and Isolde. Ouch.
 * The Quest: Took over Pellinore's hunt of the Questing Beast.
 * Tsundere: A friendly version toward Tristram.

Marrok

 * Wolf Man: Yes, seriously! He automatically changes into a wolf for a few days every month and if he can't change back into his clothes after that, he stays that way indefinitely.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Not his, but his wife's. She hid his clothes so she could run off with her lover. Wolf-Marrok tore off her nose, and King Arthur tortured a confession out of her. She then got exiled with the lover and had a bunch of noseless kids.

Morgause

 * Brother-Sister Incest: Though neither she nor Arthur were aware of it at the time.
 * Composite Character: Possibly inverted. Some scholars suggest that she and Morgan Le Fay were the same character until some scribe made a translation error and accidentally split them into two separate characters.
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: After five sons and a number of daughters, she still had enough of it goin' on to bed Sir Lamorak, who was at least twenty years younger than her.
 * Historical Villain Upgrade: Modern writers tend to make her a scheming villainess, often by making her aware of her relationship with Arthur when she sleeps with him, or by combining her with Morgan Le Fay. Originally, she seems to have been a generous and friendly person. Very friendly.
 * Honey Trap: Malory states that Lot sent her over to Arthur's court in this capacity.
 * Out Shortly After A Bang: Her son Gaheris, incensed at seeing her in bed with the son of Pellinore (who killed Lot, the Orkney brothers' father), lopped her head off.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Margawse, Morgawse, Margause, Bellicent...
 * Your Cheating Heart

Morgan Le Fay

 * Arch Enemy: Guinevere's, actually. After a few unsuccessful attacks on Arthur, Morgan mostly devoted herself to trying to reveal Lancelot and Guinevere's affair.
 * Composite Character: Many adaptations fuse her with Morgause.
 * Evil Matriarch: Many versions make her this to Mordred.
 * Evil Sorceress/Wicked Witch: Depending on the version she can lean more towards one or the other stereotype.
 * Green-Eyed Monster: Apart from the incident in Your Cheating Heart below, part of Morgan's hatred for Guinevere may have stemmed from the fact that she herself wanted to sleep with Lancelot.
 * Heel Face Turn: In time she seems to have mellowed out and gotten along well with Arthur, to the point of letting him visit her castle for a week. Of course she still tried to convince him of Guinevere's unfaithfulness, but he didn't believe her.
 * Hot Witch
 * Legion of Doom: At one point King Mark appeals to her to get a bunch of evil sorcerers and known evil knights together in order to ravage Arthur's kingdom.
 * Murder Is the Best Solution: Tried to kill her husband King Uriens, but was stopped by their son Ywain.
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Morgan, Morganna, Morgaine, etc.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Cheated on Uriens with Guinevere's cousin Guiomar. When Guinevere found out she had Guiomar banished. (Understandably, Morgan was rather peeved when Guinevere started her affair with Lancelot.) She then proceeded to take on several lovers without actually getting a divorce.

Nyneve

 * Hot Witch
 * Merlin and Nimue: Trope Namer
 * Spell My Name with an "S": Nyneve, Nimue, Nimueh, Vivian
 * Trickster

Uther Pendragon

 * Death By Origin Story: Arthur becomes king because of his death, being his son and all, but he is plucked from a life of obscurity with a foster-family and thrust onto the throne at a young age. Details vary though.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Pendragon is a Welsh epithet (sometimes treated as a surname or dynastic name by later authors) which translates to "Chief Dragon" in English, "dragon" being a figurative term for warrior. "Uther" itself may come from a Welsh word meaning "awesome" and/or "horrible/terrible" (in the original sense of "fearsome" rather than "bad").