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King Arthur/Characters: Difference between revisions
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* [[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-Trailer|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.
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* [[The Captain]]
* [[Character Title]]
* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Although he was always a warrior hero, early traditions depict him as less of a [[Big Good|clean-cut]] [[Lawful Good|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
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* [[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 [[Memetic Badass|greatly transformed and magnified]] into the [[The Good King|Arthur]] [[The Chosen One|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.
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* [[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 d'Arthur|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 ===
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* [[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
* [[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, [[Foregone Conclusion|he's Lancelot and they're generally nameless.]]
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=== Bors ===
* [[Overshadowed by Awesome]]: Percival and Galahad are the most-remembered Grail Knights. Bors, if he's remembered at all, is [[Monty Python and
* [[Power Trio]]: With Percival and Galahad
* [[The Smart Guy]]
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=== 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.
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* [[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.
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