Black Knight - TV Tropes

"...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

• In Aura Battler Dunbine, 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 Paper-Thin Disguise for the audience, though.
• The Skull Knight of Berserk, is a wandering knight of unknown identity, wearing all-covering armor, sporting a dark-colored horse and cape, whose appearance and reputation strike fear into both humans and monsters. Also an example of the Dark Is Not Evil subtype, as he opposes the God Hand and has rescued the good guys from certain death several times.
  • Guts himself is called "The Black Swordsman" and gains black armor later on in the series. Despite his time as "The Black Swordsman" when he was murdering every Apostle he saw and anyone in his way, 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. He also fits the example of the wandering Rōnin due to not having a leader anymore (due to said leader betraying him in horrifically heinous fashion during the Eclipse).
• The Black Knights of Code Geass. They're color coded to contrast with The Empire, which frequently uses Light Colors in their mecha and uniforms.
  • Also deconstructed and subverted at the same time by Suzaku, since he turns into both the Big Bad's The Dragon (more than once) and he is more of the bruiser than Lelouch is.
  • And the Gawain and again after it's rebuilt as the Shinkiro is a Black Knight(mare).
• 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 biker clothing than Satan or Beelzebub. Its profile describes him as "cruel and merciless, yet exceedingly prideful" and that he never attacks the weak. The Fusion version has a more knight-like appearance.
  • Koichi's Human spirit form, Löwemon, 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 The Sacred Darkness.
  • DarkKnightmon from Digimon Fusion combines this trope with Magnificent Bastard and awesome theme music.
  • 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.
• Fairy Tail: Erza Scarlet becomes one of these whenever she puts on her Black Wing or Purgatory Armors. While Erza is always the pinnacle of a Knight in Shining Armor in personality, she uses these armors in particular when she gets serious and more brutal about combat. The Purgatory Armor in particular stands out, as it's a full-suit of black and gray armor covered in Spikes of Villainy and she's hefting around a mace covered in spikes and blades.
  • Her Edolas doppelganger Erza Knightwalker fits as well, as a Captain of the Edolas Military which controls the remaining magic of the world. She is determined to keep the magic of Edolas from dying, whether by stealing magic from Earthland or wiping out their former "gods" to gain infinite magic.
• Fate/Apocrypha has several as well. There's Saber of Black, the legendary Siegfried who visibly embodies the trope in his all-black armor that renders him totally invulnerable. In keeping with the Dark Is Not Evil elements of this trope, he is among the kindest members of his faction, and sacrifices his life by transplanting his heart into the body of a dying, sentient, homonculus
  • There's also Rider of Black, an androgynous bishounen who wears all black armor with a white coat and accents to symbolize his heart of gold. Fitting, given his status as a paladin, specifically Astolfo, the twelfth paladin of Charlemagne.
  • Rider of Red fills a similar role, acting as the counterpart to both Rider of Black and Saber of Black, in that he is Achilles, the invulnerable hero of legend. Like Rider of Black he is a Rider, possessing his chariot from life as a Noble Phantasm. Like Saber of Black, he is clad in all black armor and almost totally invulnerable, able to ignore any attacks from opponents who lack Divinity, and able to shrug off the attacks of those who do. He is also among the kindest of his faction, though like Saber of Black he has Blood Knight tendencies and something of a Heel Realization.
  • Finally the Ur Example appears as Saber of Red, Mordred, bastard offspring of Artoria and Morgana Le Fey. In addition to Spikes of Villainy and the appearance of a Tin Tyrant, her armor's helmet makes her identity undecipherable to anyone, including her own master. Like the Mordred of legend she is obsessed with becoming king and being legitimized in the eyes of Artoria, with any talk of her gender, her father, or even the Round Table being a massive Berserk Button for her. Despite this she's also revealed to be something of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and a "Well Done, Son" Guy, who bonds with her Master in a father/daughter relationship she never had with Artoria, and manages to Go Out with a Smile after dealing a fatal blow to Assassin of Red.
• In Fate/Zero, Berserker, AKA Lancelot, the Knight of the Lake, epitomizes this trope; he is over 6 feet tall, clad with heavy black armor from head to toe, has a black Battle Aura, 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, no-longer-holy blood red sword, 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.
• In The Five Star Stories, there's only one Black Knight at any one time & he's a sort of Legacy Character. The Black Knight is the person Artificial Human Est sees as the ideal pilot for the Humongous Mecha she's bonded to, Vatshu. When the current Black Knight dies, Est goes Walking the Earth looking for a new one. Most are free agents, though they usually seem to have an affinity for the kingdom of Colus.
• Four Knights of the Apocalypse: Pellegarde a member of the Four Evil known as "The Black Knight" because of his black armor with a Badass Cape and a helmet that hides his face.
• Macross Delta brings some of the trope's feudal roots into giant robots. The Windermere Aerial Knights initially attack in dark Valkyries with no identifying visuals. Once they reveal themselves, the machines light up in recognizable colors and symbols, complete with a coat of arms also adorning their shields.
• In Maoyu, the Black Knight is The Hero 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.
• My-Otome has a Black Knight among the Aswad, and he goes by the name of Rad (a.k.a. Reito).
• Ainz from Overlord (2012) disguises himself as one when acting as an adventurer to learn about the world he was put into. An interesting example, in that he is acting as a typical "good" knight, but he is closer to gray morality-wise. He is also actually a mage rather than a knight, but Ainz is powerful enough that even faking being a knight, he is on the level of the highest-ranking adventurers, if not stronger.
• One of the characters Princess Tutu rescued was a Black Knight.
• Ashram in Record of Lodoss War is a rare case of a Pretty Boy Black Knight.
• Sorta invoked and then subverted in The Rose of Versailles. There is a character that refers to himself as the "Black Knight", but said character mixes Just Like Robin Hood with 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 Eye Scream and being confronted by his pissed-off partner Ocar) and becomes an Intrepid Reporter instead.
• Racer X in Speed Racer, a feared and brooding international spy often seen thwarting evil schemes.
• The Black Knight (and/or Crimsom Knight) from the first episode of The Tower of Druaga is a parody of this kind of character.
  • Played straight by Shadow Gilgamesh in the second season.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX gives us the Supreme King.

• Magic: The Gathering:
  • The Black Knight card, a standby of Black decks for years. According to the flavor text, he's also a Blood Knight.

    Battle doesn’t need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don’t ask why a plague spreads or a field burns. Don’t ask why I fight.

  • The Hand of Cruelty, a Black Samurai.
  • The Knight of Infamy, a riff on the Black Knight.

    "Your laws, like your bones, were made to be broken."

  • The Knight of Malice from Dominaria is another riff on the Black Knight, with Red and Black and Evil All Over armour. Ironically enough he actually works really well fighting alongside the White Knight riff from the same set, Knight of Grace, because they buff each other's attack — and two 3/2 first strikers by turn three is a tricky proposition for many decks.
  • The knights of Lochthwain from the Throne Of Eldraine set are an entire court of Black Knights, as they're the member of the five courts aligned with Black Mana, but they're a Dark Is Not Evil version: while knights of Lochthwain are known to be vain, haughty, and prone to holding grudges, their defining trait is that they're Determinators who never give up on a quest once begun until it's completed, or they die trying - and sometimes not even then.

• Midnighter from The Authority is like a more kill-happy Batman; he's one of the most feared fighters in the WildStorm 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 evil sorcerer holding her hostage, and rewards him in true fairytale fashion when he completes his quest. He even gets to slay a dragon!
  • He later comes up against Captain Atom in Captain Atom: Armageddon, who's designed after the Knight In Shining Armour archetype and referred to as such — and definitely comes off as one in the Darker and Edgier Wildstorm universe. It does not end well for Midnighter.
• Batman's armor may be a lot less bulky than most, but he still fits (hence "the Dark Knight"). His Tangent Comics incarnation is a literal "dark knight", a cursed suit of armor that stands stalwart against evil.
• The Black Knight: Don Rosa drew a pair of Scrooge McDuck 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 Gentleman Thief trope. He ends up creating a suit of armor coated with the Omnisolve (originally introduced in The Universal Solvent), a black, oil-like substance that dissolves anything it touches except diamond (which is why Lusene adds the diamond dust he stole from Scrooge to the armor first), not only making him a dead ringer for his chosen title, but also lets him simply walk right through any sort of wall or defenses. The Duck family has to get very creative both times they fight him.
• Black Moon Chronicles: The Lords of Negation are Haahzeel's most elite knights clad in black armor and controlled by him through their rings. Wismerhill eventually becomes their leader, and has to go through a lengthy ritual that leaves him as some sort of half-human half-ascended being.
• Garulfo first parodies, then lightly deconstructs the trope with a Black Knight who entered a tournament simply to satisfy his lust for combat, brutally curb-stomped all of his opponents, but gets sick of all of this violence when Garulfo treats him with respect and kindness regardless of his fighting exploits. The Knight then goes on to explain to the crowd how devastating it is to a personality to be stuck in such an archetype, and eventually decides to stop fighting and start Walking the Earth peacefully. He even reveals his face, which the reader never sees.
• Marvel Comics: More than one character is named "The Black Knight". Some are heroes, some villains, and some vacillate between the two — it doesn't help that the Ebony Blade, their sword, is cursed.
• Mickey Mouse Comic Universe:
  • The Phantom Blot, Mickey Mouse's murderous, sometimes megalomaniac supervillain foe covered completely in an inky black cloak.
  • In the second part of Mickey Mouse and the Sword of Ice, Mickey and Goofy take part in a jousting tournament where the prize is a large chunk of magic rock they desperately 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 it's revealed he's actually a robot.
• Captain Rochnan, commander of the Warrior Monks, in The Scorpion: Captain Rochnan, commander of the Warrior Monks.
• Spawn: Lord Covenant, from the spin-off Spawn: The Dark Ages. An undead knight who's fiercely dedicated to protect his fief, he later use his powers to atone for his sins committed in life while also fights against the curse of the Hellspawn. The Medieval Spawn (a different character) may count too, although he is mostly a Knight in Shining Armor that just happens to be undead and have powers of darkness.
• Spider-Man 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 adamantium skin and a retractable sword coming out of his wrist. Like the characteristic black knight, he was simply a Punch-Clock Villain Professional Killer who gained no pleasure from killing, and followed his agreements to the letter.
• Superman: In The Three Ages of Superboy, the titular hero travels to 516 AD England, and finds out that a mysterious, ambitious Black Knight is trying to beat Sir Arthur and become the next king.
• Wonder Woman: While able to take on a number of forms, Ares is typically seen decked out in black and blue Greek style armor, complete with horns and Spikes of Villainy.

• Monster X fills this role decently in The Bridge, working for the Big Bad but being a Noble Demon with chivalry styled honor code. Visually he's a bit of an inverse, having an inky black body, but ivory colored armor.
• Child of the Storm has Dane Whitman as heir to the Black Knight legacy. While a good (if somewhat cocky) guy, his sword is an Evil Weapon that inspires Blood Knight tendencies and it's implied that the main reason he's on the Excalibur squad is that Peter Wisdom wants to keep an eye on him.
• Parodied with Darkern Edgier from The (Edit) War for Ash's Freedom to not be Betrayed. Rather than being an imposing badass, he's a pretentious edgelord who's far too fixated on "fixing" Ash Ketchum.
• Fairy Without Wings brings Dark Blade. In more than just simply wearing the armor and Casting a Shadow, about the only thing this character doesn't bring to the table is that the liege they are working for is the only emperor in charge.
• The Lamenters in For Those We Cherish sport black Powered Armor, so painted in penance for their role in the Badab War.
• Matsuda in the Death Note Fanfic Low Light after becoming Kira's bodyguard and taking several levels in Badass.
• The Night Unfurls has Sir Kyril Sutherland. Strong, enigmatic, clad in dark grey, feared by many, and is knighted. What else?

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

• Although Black Knight (2001) is actually about Martin Lawrence traveling back in time to the Middle Ages where he's mistaken for a knight, he ends up playing the trope straight when he hears of a legendary Black Knight and decides to take on the role to provide a symbol for those rebelling against The Usurper.
• The Black Knight 1954 has both versions, with Alan Ladd's character taking on the role as a Secret Identity to stymie the villains, who in turn try to frame the Black Knight as the evil kind.
• Braveheart has William Wallace duel a character like this at one point, complete with a Dramatic Unmask.
• Highlander. Connor MacLeod's first sight of The Kurgan is when he rides up clad in dark, bone-like armour on a black horse which rears before Connor, who can only gasp "Mother of God!" at the sight of this terrifying figure.
• The Incredible Army of Brancaleone has a German knight dressed in black cloak and clothing that gets robbed by the protagonists in the opening. While he is a non-malevolent example, since he fights against bandits and pillagers that are raiding a village in his scene, he is pretty ruthless and sinister, returning during the climax to save the heroes when they are about to be executed by Saracen pirates... Only for him to exact their revenge on them for robbing his rightful inheritance.
• Ivanhoe, where the eponymous knight participates to The Tourney anonymously as a knight clad in all black armor.
• A Kid in King Arthur's Court reveals its master jouster Black Knight to be not just a good guy, but a girl!
• King Arthur: Legend of the Sword has a particularly creepy looking example in Vortigern's One-Winged Angel form. An eight foot tall shadowy warrior with a skull-faced helmet complete with horns and a flaming cape, wielding a double-bladed scythe as a weapon. His voice is a demonic growl and his eyes are shown glowing like burning embers. When taking this form Vortigern is shown as powerful enough to even go toe-to-toe with a warrior wielding Excalibur.
• Kingdom of Heaven features an enigmatic, nameless Knight Hospitaller who always wears the black robes and chainmail of his order.
• A Knight's Tale: Two of these end up coming into the story. One's the classic trope villain, and the other is the original King Incognito use.
• Navarre in Ladyhawke, a disgraced fugitive knight with black armour, a BFS, and a billowing black cape with scarlet lining, played by Rutger Hauer no less! He's actually the hero.
• The Lord of the Rings:
  • Sauron, 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 more of a shadowy being; here, he is modeled after his former master Morgoth from The Silmarillion, who was described wearing dark armour.
  • His Dragon the Witch-King of Angmar similarly wears spiky armor, although before The Return of the King he wears a simple black cloak like all the other Ringwraiths.
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail famously features a Black Knight, who ends up with all of his limbs chopped off, yet still lusting for bloodshed.
• The huge black-armoured warrior in the film adaptation of Solomon Kane is silent, mysterious and nigh on unstoppable. True to the trope, it turns out to be Solomon's horribly disfigured brother inside the armour.
• Star Wars:
  • Darth Vader is a black knight In Space! who duels with a Laser Blade and proved popular enough to inspire a whole wave of emulators.
  • His "successor" Kylo Ren, introduced The Force Awakens, is identified as the leader of the "Knights of Ren", wears mostly black, and carries a lightsaber with a crossguard for additional Black Knight cred. He even has his "steed": the custom-made and experimental TIE Silencer.
• Rinzler in TRON: Legacy 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 Dual Wielding discs. He is extremely fast, agile, and durable. This makes sense, as he used to be Tron, the security program, before Clu enslaved him.

• A famous joke famously narrated by the late Italian comic actor Gigi Proietti has him having to narrate a story with an aesop at the end: he tells of a black knight who's challenged by a white knight in combat. The white knight is butchered, but his three sons come looking for the black knight to avenge their father and are slain. Each of the three sons has three sons, and the nine sons go looking for the black knight to avenge their fathers but the black knight easily dispatch them. Each of those sons has three sons, and all twenty-seven of them come looking for revenge but are slain, and so on. The Aesop? You don't fuck with the black knight!

• In The Black Company novels by Glen Cook, Croaker temporarily becomes a black knight by donning his Widowmaker armor to damage enemy morale.
• In R.S Belcher's The Brotherhood of the Wheel, there's a cult of serial killers known as the Zodiac Lodge. While trying to rescue a family from a branch of them, the Lodge discovers that Jimmie Aussapile is a "Templar". This leads to the Lodge Master coming out. Jimmie describes the hulking man as a "black knight" as the Lodge Master wears a black hood, black shirt and polarized shades as well as a black tabard with the "crosshairs" symbol which is the coat of arms for the Zodiac Lodge. The Lodge Master is also armoured with a hidden bullet-proof vest and was the only asshole to escape when the rest of these serial killers later got gunned down and grenaded.
• Dark Heart High has Craig Maimsworth, Black Knight! ...in training. He's not very good at it. He does wear heavy black armor though.
• The Warrior in Jet and Gold from The History of the Runestaff 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 Michael Moorcock series (although his armour is not black but constantly changing in colour, due to the influence of Chaos).
• Several of the sullanciri from The Dragon Crown War have this vibe, most obviously Nefrai-kesh and a Rare Female Example with Malarkex.
• Lord Soth from the Dragonlance 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 Ravenloft.
  • Later stories introduce the Knights of Takhisis, a military order of Black Knights (living, for the most part).
• In The Drifting Lands novels by Joseph Brassey, there's Lord Azrael and the other Black Knight members of the Eternal Order, which is an evil mercenary cult whose elites are Magic Knight warriors in enchanted black armor. Each one is a Master Swordsman and are masters in channeling magic — they won't ever be as powerful as a normal sorcerer, but they have a huge advantage. The Eternal Order's magic doesn't use Magical Gesture or E = MC Hammer that a sorcerer must. Long-term use of this type of magic for augmenting themselves will eventually lead to the user becoming a Humanoid Abomination.
• The Elenium:
  • Sparhawk's enemies essentially see him as this, due partially to the black Pandion Knight armor, partially to the Pandion order's reputation for casual violence, and partially to being Anakha. Sparhawk, however, is an extremely heroic example of the trope.
  • Martel fits the archetype better, being a dishonored former knight-turned mercenary.
• Eurico the Presbyter features a heroic example that still fits like a glove with the title character taking up a secret identity as a warrior clad in completely dark armor who strikes fear into the hearts of his enemies who regard him as a demon in human form (which is amusing considering he is a Catholic priest).
• Berserker in Fate/Zero, 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.
• "Le Noir Faineant" (The Black Sluggard) of Ivanhoe. In this case it's not The Dragon but rather a Large Ham, 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.
• In The Once and Future King, 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.
• In A Practical Guide to Evil, Black Knight is one of the central Roles of the Dread Empire of Praes. The current Black Knight, Amadeus, transformed the Legions of Terror from an undisciplined barbarian horde to a well-oiled and equal-opportunity war machine, orchestrated the complete conquest of the Dread Empire's age-old enemy of Callow, kills heroes as easily as he takes out the trash, has a fearsome reputation as a Combat Pragmatist, and commands the personal loyalty of a group that even other Named refer to as The Calamities.
• 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.
• The notorious bounty hunter Aloysius Knight in the Matthew Reilly novel Scarecrow goes by the call sign "Black Knight", and dresses appropriately. In accordance with the trope, his origin, identity and allegiances are unclear.
• A black knight appears fairly early in The Silver Chair as a mysterious woman's companion. The woman turns out to be the main villain (and is implied to be connected to the earlier villain Jadis the White Witch), while the knight turns out to be King Caspian's long-missing son Rilian.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire we get to hear of several Black Knights, called Mystery Knights, who remain masked until they are defeated; it is apparently all but law that whoever defeats a mystery knight in 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 three knights whose squires had bullied a young crannogman, 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 to imply that the Knight was Lyanna Stark, Lord Eddard's late sister; the crannogman was almost certainly Howland Reed, a bannerman to the Starks.
  • In what is probably 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 viewpoint character; 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 most notorious enforcer. He wears dark, unornamented armour, is absolutely gigantic, plays the role of The Dreaded/The Brute, and is a violent psychopath with a Hair-Trigger Temper. Whenever the Lannisters need to have some Rape, Pillage, and Burn done either on or off the record, he's their go-to man. Although, even "off the record" is rather more "but, we all know who this uniquely huge, 'mysterious' man mountain is and that he's here because you annoyed Tywin Lannister, right?" than strictly clandestine, however sigil-free and unidentifiable he and his troops may officially be.
  • For the more honorable version of this trope, there's Gregor's younger brother Sandor Clegane, who ironically refuses to properly become a knight because his hateful brother is one, vehemently does not self-identify as one, and ditches the pageantry of it whenever possible; and when he can't get away without it, he deliberately subverts it (his snarling dog helm isn't just to own his identity as "the Hound" aka "the mad dog of the Cleganes" or to intimidate: it's also an insult to anybody who thinks pageantry is inherently a thing of noble beauty). He is one of the continent's most skilled swordsmen, wears plain, often blackened/ dulled/ treated armor (rust-protection as well as reflection-reducing "camo"), and can come off as a cold-hearted jerk to some/ most. However, he actively behaves as rather more honest and honorable than many of the actual knights in the series, as he commits to his duty as a bodyguard to Prince Joffrey to the best of his ability (until his PTSD gets the best of him), treats Sansa Stark with more respect than anyone else at King's Landing does, and intends to bring Arya Stark to safety, albeit not without some money for the trouble. By comparison to e.g. Ser Meryn Trant or Ser Loras Tyrell, this is almost shining knight territory.
• Time Warp Trio: The very first antagonist in the series, when the boys are sent back to King Arthur's court in "Knights of the Dinner Table".
• Averted in Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, which uses white and red chess set symbolism and characters. (As well as subverted.)
• Vermis I: The world of Vermis has no shortage of these, from enemies (Lost Paladin, the bridge knight), to friendly NPCs (Lonely Knight), to playable characters (Lost Old Glory, Miner Knight, Cursed Fool). Though, the grainy monochromatic illustrations often make it difficult to tell what color a given knight's armor actually is.
• In The Traitor Son Cycle, Hartmut Li Orguelleus the "Black Knight", a mercenary knight hired by the king of Galle to wage a guerilla war against Alba, is a towering man clad in pitch-black armor. The Black Knight is a religious fanatic who was a prominent slaver in Ifriqu'ya and despite his religion, he'll use any method to win including resorting to hermeticism from others (he's not a Magic Knight, he has no talent in sorcery though he does have a mighty fiery magic sword) and allying with dark powers. Hartmut is an amazing warrior who in Book 2 defeats Bad Tom, the best warrior in the Red Knight's company, and then almost kills an intervening Ranald Lachlan who's one of the King of Alba's elite bodyguard.
• Villains by Necessity: Blackmail. He rescues the protagonists from a dragon, and they nickname him this due to his armor. Unlike most examples, he never even speaks. By the end of the book he's been revealed to be a legendary paladin who was part of the team of heroes responsible for tipping the Balance Between Good and Evil to the light, and proves his Dark Is Not Evil 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 A Wizard in Rhyme series, who serves as an ally to the protagonist in most of the books. The reason he is a black knight is due to being the legitimate heir of the world's alternate Charlemagne. Should all of the Christian kingdoms fall to darkness, it is his duty to re-establish the empire; as such he serves no lord.
• Wraith Knight: Jacob Riverson and the other Wraith Knights were this by nature. They were all undead Magic Knight warriors who served as the King Below's generals. Jacob is a rare heroic version of this and a Dark Is Not Evil (theoretically) example. He is still a man in ice-covered black hooded armor, a being referred to as "Dark Lord", and a superhuman killing machine capable of taking on small armies.

• Game of Thrones:
  • Sandor Clegane, in both appearance and effect. His armor is uniformly ominous black, and like the black knights of historical Europe, he no longer serves a master. Granted, he was never officially a knight, but still. It's particularly noticeable after Arya gets a White Stallion, while Sandor rides his dark courser.
  • Despite not technically being a knight, Brienne is this in both appearance and effect, quite ironically like Sandor Clegane. Jaime has a suit of black armor forged for her in Season 4, and strictly speaking she no longer follows a master.
  • Gregor Clegane wears a heavy suit of coal-black armour. A bit subverted in Season 2 when he drops the Shoulders of Doom and wears a Lannister cloak and helmet, but he goes back to full black armor when he appears in Season 4. After two seasons of wearing gold Kingsguard armor, Cersei does a dark redress and he goes back to black plate.
• The Goodies are contracted by the descendant 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. Hilarity Ensues.
• Kamen Rider Saber has Kamen Rider Calibur as a major villain. While the heroes are an order of knights with Elemental Powers, Calibur wields the powers of darkness and betrayed the order 15 years prior to the start of the series. There are actually three Caliburs over the course of the series, all of whom betrayed the order in succession but are revealed to be sympathetic Anti Villains; as their sword gives them visions of Bad Futures but they all carry the flaw of Poor Communication Kills and not trusting their fellow knights to help avert those futures: The first Calibur, seen in the backstory, foresaw a threat within the order and used underhanded methods to draw it out, making himself look like the villain in the process. The second one defeated the first, saw the same visions of corruption, and didn't know who he could trust; so he became the new Calibur and started attacking the order from the outside. Then after he's defeated, a third knight takes up the identity and deals with the visions by trying to De-power the other knights before their powers are misused.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Sauron wears a spiked armor with a black cape, similar to the one he wears in the cinematic trilogy.
• One turns up in Merlin. It turns out to be none other than Arthur's uncle, summoned as a wraith by Nimueh.
• Parodied in the Pearl Bailey episode of The Muppet Show, with a Camelot-themed final number featuring a "mysterious" Black Knight.. played by Gonzo, enormous hooked nose and all.
• A few have shown up in Super Sentai and Power Rangers:
  • The first instance would be the aptly named "Dark Knight" in Kagaku Sentai Dynaman, 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 Big Bad position.
  • From Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, the Yamato Tribe's black knight. He's a flashback-only character, but he is important. He's the father of the Red and Green Rangers who 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 Backstab Backfire. 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 Breaking Speech 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 Shut Up, Hannibal! and defeats him... only to reveal that it's Goushi, who's trying to wake Geki up from his Heroic BSoD, just as planned.
  • Zhang Liao from Gosei Sentai Dairanger. Clad in black armor too, and he is a member of the Dai tribe, one of the original five warriors, who turned traitor. He repents out of love for his son -- Ryou, the Red Ranger, but perishes after the spirits of his companions forgive him.
  • Bull Black the Black Knight in Seijuu Sentai Gingaman/the Magna Defender in Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, an Aloof Ally 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 Sixth Ranger.
  • An episode of Power Rangers Time Force had a black knight trying to open a small case containing the Battle Fire to gain its powers, but couldn't do so as it would only open to someone with a heart of justice, so he left it inside a cave to be watched by a fire-breathing dragon. Wes gains access to the Battle Fire after killing the dragon and then uses its powers to defeat the Black Knight.
  • In Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, anyone who wears the Armor of Darkness becomes a Black Knight bent on destroying anything around them — and whoever defeats the wearer becomes the new wearer. (Power Rangers: Dino Thunder adapts its multiple wearers into a single character, Zeltrax.)
  • Wolzard in Mahou Sentai Magiranger/Koragg the Knight Wolf in Power Rangers Mystic Force, The Dragon with a Hellish Horse but also has an honorable streak a mile wide, often rationalizing that the Rangers are Not Worth Killing. Really the Brainwashed and Crazy father of the entire team in Magiranger and of the Red Ranger in Mystic Force. Incidentally, his armor isn't black but purple.
  • Gosei/Robo Knight in Tensou Sentai Goseiger/Power Rangers Megaforce, another Aloof Ally and a Knight Templar — like the Rangers, he wants to protect the Earth; unlike the Rangers he doesn't particularly care for its people. His armor is actually silver, but his attitude qualifies him for this trope.
  • Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger/Power Rangers Dino Fury, featuring an order of knights, naturally has a Black Knight villain. Ryusoulger's version Gaisoulg, like in Abaranger, is a set of malevolent Animated Armor that possesses its hosts and continually seeks out fights for the sake of fighting (and like in Magiranger, it's purple). Void Knight in Dino Fury, however, is more noble; trying to revive a loved one but going to extreme measures to do so.

• 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.

• 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.

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

• In Chronopia, with its heavy influence from Warhammer Fantasy and how prevalent heavy, spiky plate armor is in the artwork and miniatures, almost everyone in Chronopia looks and acts like a black knight. But perhaps the most fitting are the Repulsar Knights and Nightwalkers of the Kingdom of the Firstborn and the Obsidian Guard of the elven noble house, House of the Obsidian Serpent. The Repulsar Knights are Individuals who are the most heavily armoured unit in the game and hit almost as hard with their Maiming Polearm, meanwhile the Nightwalkers are knife-throwing assassins and expert swordsmen in armor onky a shade weaker than that of a Repulsar Knight. While not necessarily evil, they are fanatically loyal to the One King and both will gladly carry out wetwork missions in his name. Meanwhile the Obsidian Guard are the personal enforcers of the sinister Duke Valimyr and wear enchanted black armor equal to that of a Nightwalker's and wield devastating two-handed runeswords.
• Dungeons & Dragons features the playable Blackguard prestige class, which is a kind of always-evil fighter with some divine magic spells. A possible (and often-used and recommended) background for a Blackguard is to be a fallen Paladin, as a fallen Paladin-Blackguard gets extra goodies in the form of empowered abilities.
  • 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, not so much.
  • Fifth edition has "Oathbreakers" instead of Blackguards, and has the Oath of Vengeance and Oath of Conquest for less heroic standard paladins. The Oath of Conquest in particular has a strongly Lawful Evil code, including charming decrees like "Douse the flame of hope".
• Exalted:
  • First and Forsaken Lion, who is somewhere between Darth Vader and Megatron. He can't dismantle his armor because his terrible Neverborn masters welded it to his very soul.
  • A number of Abyssals would also qualify, mainly the ones who take the title "deathknight" literally.
• Godforsaken: Blackguards are evil knights who serve dark entities or their own corrupt agendas and use high-quality equipment usually decorated with symbols depicting death, demons or evil gods. They are sometimes granted dark magic by their patrons.
• Pathfinder: Typical Hellknights are clad from head to toe in heavy plate armor painted entirely black, and typically adorned with spikes, horns, chains and other fearsome protrusions. Their harsh, entirely unsympathetic personalities and brutal, merciless enforcement of the law more than match their sense of fashion.
• Warhammer 40,000 has no shortage of soldiers in black Power Armor, from the genocidally zealous Black Templars to the heroic but shadowy warriors of the Raven Guard, but the ones who fit this trope best are the Chaos Space Marines of the Black Legion. Many are former Sons of Horus who had their colors and name deliberately changed to distance them from their defeat at the end of the Horus Heresy, while the rest are Chaos Marines from other legions who repainted their armor to show allegiance to their new master, Abaddon the Despoiler.
  • Among the loyalists, those Space Marines who are sent to join the Death Watch 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 as a point of pride and so not to anger their armor's machine spirit. The exception are the so-called Black Shields who have chosen to completely sever themselves from their previous chapter, either because they are the last surviving member, or for darker reasons...
  • Points to the Dark Angel's Ravenwing company, not just for their jetblack armor, but for their elite members actually being called Black Knights. For that matter, the entire Dark Angels during their legion era could count. Their colours were originally black rather than the current olive-green and after discovering their lost primarch Lion el' Johnson on Caliban, their culture shifted from Earth standard special operations forces to becoming a mystery cult and knight brotherhood due to Lion bringing large numbers of his brethren from Caliban's monster-hunting knightly orders.
    • Not to mention that the setting literally has knights, the Imperial Knights who are the noble family rulers of Feudal Worlds. Of course, being the exaggerated world of Warhammer 40,000, the concept of knights having more fancy and elaborate armor and weapons than any mere peasant could dream of having translates to giant robot suits provided by the Adeptus Mechanicus. Some individual Imperial Knights leave their Houses to quest and fight as Freeblades but they remove any House heraldry from their suits and many fight anonymously under a pseudonym. One such knight, his Questoris-pattern Knight Paladin suit painted black, is "The Obsidian Knight". And then for the villainous example, there are the fallen Knights who have joined the forces of Chaos and get the usual spikes on their suits.
• Warhammer: 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). Beyond that, there are:
  • Archaon, Lord of the End Times, 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 demonic Norse warrior society. 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.
  • Chaos Knights are elite Chaos Warriors mounted on huge Hellish Horses. They're the mounted heavy cavalry of the forces of Chaos and, with their fanatical devotion to their god or gods, also serve as templars of the Chaos armies.
  • There are also the Blood Dragons, a sect of honourable vampire warriors who wear blood-red armor and spend their free time traveling around challenging mighty beasts and warriors to battles and drinking their blood. Some are even known to park themselves on bridges or in narrow passes and challenge anyone who tries to pass.
  • Dark Elf Cold One Knights are 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.
• Zweihänder is heavily influenced by Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. So there are the Fell Knights, these evil knights are the elite warriors that worship the Abyssal Princes and other gods of Chaos. Above the Fell Knights are the Dread Count which are the Magic Knight results from a Black Magic ritual that fuses a Fell Knight and a Havoc Conjurer into one massive armored sorcerous warrior.

• Virtuvian H.A.C.K.S.: The Knights of Asperity are a band of menacing knights with jet black steel armor, a skull for their heads, evil red eyes, and a notorious habit of mass slaughter and village burning. Their background story implies that they used to be the heroic Knights of Accord until they got defeated and corrupted into this current state.
• LEGO
  • LEGO Space: The Blacktrons were the first faction to be officially designated as villains, with all-black spacesuits and face-concealing black visors.
  • LEGO Castle have also had multiple waves of these, including at least one faction actually called Black Knights, although the Fright Knights and Vladek's Shadow Knights from the LEGO Knights' Kingdom (2004) line are no slouches in this department (although usually there's some red in there for contrast).
  • Robin with his Black Knight Mech from Nexo Knights is a heroic example. They even reference the Trope Codifier a few times.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

• Nixvir has the Black Knight, who briefly appears as the main antagonist of chapter XIV and appears to be a strange quadrupedal creature. He knows the stories about snowmen and comes out of the forest armed with a burning brand, fire being the only thing in the world which can permanently kill a snowman. It turns out Ragnar was employing him all along and kills him when he feels he's no longer useful.
• In Quest of 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.

• In the Adventures of the Gummi Bears episode "Girl's Knight Out", King Gregor himself dresses up as a Black Knight as the final challenge for the Squire's Competition. The only one to not run away screaming from him is his own daughter, Princess Calla herself.
• 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.
• 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.
• Generator Rex has a character called 'Black Knight', who did not wear armor until the final where she gains a dark armored look.
• 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.
• Miraculous Ladybug: Armand D'Argencourt, Adrien's fencing instructor, became the villainous Darkblade after being akumatized by Hawk Moth. He had the ability to turn anyone who he knighted into mindless knight underlings. In the French dub of the show the super villain is called "Chevalier Noir" wich literally means "Black Knight" in french.
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Black Knight Ghost holds the honor of being the first villain in the entire series.
• The Simpsons: In one episode, Bart plays an MMORPG and his absurdly powerful, evil character is called the Shadow Knight.
• Shredder in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) fits the bill better than any other incarnation, being an armor-clad foe with a secret identity.

• Blackening the armour by varnishing it with linseed oil varnish and then burning the varnish is a good way of protecting it from rust. This trope is obviously very much Truth in Television.
• If a knight wanted to partake a tournament incognito, he would wear a black shield instead of his coat-of-arms.
• 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", James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn who was more of a Sleazy Politician of sorts than this trope's more combat-focused role and Zawisza Czarny, 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 The Black Prince and was renowned in life for his martial skills. It's thought that he earned this name by wearing black armor, but no one knows for sure; the name only appears well after his death.
• The Knights Hospitallers typically wore black or very dark armour on their campaigns. Given their rampant badassery, they were true Black Knights.
• 16th century reiters 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 gained a reputation for being high quality and merciless warriors, being nicknamed "black riders" and "devil riders".
• The US Military Academy's football team is nicknamed the Black Knights. They have a long-standing Interservice Rivalry with the Naval Academy's Midshipmen, but - perhaps in keeping with the tendency for a black knight to be a villain and for the villain to lose - as of 2023 they trail the series 62–55.