Warts and All/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A heroic Knight in Shining Armor is revealed to be a rather churlish, rude person.

  • Straight: Alice and Bob seek out the legendary hero Sir Sanctimonia, considered to be a saintly Knight in Shining Armor. When they actually run into him, they see that he's an ugly, squat balding man who curses at them.
  • Exaggerated: Sir Sanctimonia is made up throughout the land to be a Purity Sue with nary a flaw; when they meet him, Alice and Bob find that he's a hideous, alcoholic pervert who tries to get into Alice's pants at the first opportunity.
  • Justified: It's not Sanctimonia's fault that those who told his story turned him into a paragon of purity.
  • Inverted: Alice and Bob run afoul of Emperor Evulz, who they previously thought to be a hideously ugly monster who spoke in Hulk Speak. Instead, they find that he's a charming, handsome Bishonen who is incredibly well-spoken.
  • Subverted: Sanctimonia saved the land several years ago. Back in the day, he really was a heroic Bishonen who was very pure. He just got bored down the road.
  • Double Subverted: At least, that's what he tells them. It becomes clear that he's an Unreliable Narrator after a while.
    • He got tired of people coming for his help all the time so he masked as an unpleasant man until thing truly need his intervention, where he show his true colors.
  • Parodied: Alice and Bob run into Sir Sanctimonia, who's still very much the man the legends make him out to be - except for one minor flaw. They just can't look past it.
  • Deconstructed: Sir Sanctimonia gets tired of trying to live up to the legend and quits the hero business for good. Which doesn't work well for the people of Troperia when they need him the most.
    • Sir Sanctimonia really did all those heroics feats and is truly an heroic person... but he is only a decent man and react with bemusement and then hostility when the people who ask for "help" keep criticizing him and mocking him for not living to their impossible standards and finally gives a very thorough verbal beating to his fans.
  • Reconstructed: Sanctimonia gets over the comparisons and saves the world again, this time with the stipulations that the scribes tell it as it really is.
    • The people Sanctimonia help realize that because one person is heroic doesn't mean it has to be perfect and not only apologize but keep worshiping him with "warts and all".
  • Zig Zagged: Some aspects of Sanctimonia's story were true - he really was once pure and friendly - but he was never a Bishonen.
  • Averted: The man lives up to the legend.
  • Enforced: "OK, this medieval fantasy thing needs a few changes to jump out at the viewer. For one, we could make the Knight in Shining Armor into an ugly guy to throw off the viewers."
  • Lampshaded: "I suppose you were expecting one of those handsome, tall knights with long, flowing blonde hair?"
  • Invoked: The King, who hasn't seen Sanctimonia in several years, sends Alice and Bob after him, not warning them that something may have changed.
  • Defied: "Oh, hey, by the way, I know you're probably thinking that he's some handsome, tall paragon of purity, but there's some things about that legend that didn't make it past the scribes..."
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

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