Related to the image of the
Knight in Shining Armor on his
White Stallion rushing up to protect the poor
Damsel in Distress, White Knighting is a common accusation on forums, especially those frequented by a multitude of
trolls. In the broadest of terms, it is
any attempt to protect or defend a third party on the internet from another's attacks. However, while the attempt may be genuinely meant, it is often seen as
Internet Tough Guy posturing, with said defender hoping to look better or earn respect/attention from other forum members. There's an obvious connection here to the way some politicians grandstand over various issues to appeal to the votes of
Moral Guardians.
The accusation is most specifically made against male forum-goers who defend female forum-goers, the implication being that they are only doing so because they have a crush on the female in a
Double Standard: the kind of
Nice Guy that so often
mistakes stalking and obsession for love. Though it's most commonly (but not always) a
Troll that uses the terminology, and usually a
misogynist troll at that, like all the most effective insults, it is based on a true observation: forumites do tend to feel a greater need to "protect"
females as opposed to males, and all that implies. The trolls using this terminology may also be hoping that the "White Knight" in question will stop defending others, so more people could get trolled with nobody to stop the jerk. You could say that even if the "White Knight" is hoping to get some respect from others, its better than just letting others be bullied (or even being the bully). Given that showing other parts of your good side is a socially acceptable way to get the same respect on forums, it can make you wonder why this term has such a negative stigma.
This also happens when
someone dares develop their own opinion that differs or even stands contrary to the opinion(s) of the majority on certain issues. When this happen, people immediately
leap to the issue or work's defense to slay that heretic by fire. It can also often occur in forums devoted to video or computer games, where if the company or developers of the game are attacked, another forum member will feel the need to come to their defense.
Another form of
White Knighting is when someone acting from a position of privilege claims to speak for marginalized persons out of ulterior motives or because it's a politically correct thing to do to claim to be an "ally" of racial or sexual minorities - but without asking the marginalized people for their own voice or opinions. A good example of this in action is a heterosexual
Yaoi Fangirl claiming to be a GLBTQ ally, when her acts of being an "ally" only consist of encouraging "hot bishies" at cons to kiss and spamming heavily stereotyped yaoi as the "ideal" relationship.
Please note, however, that a person who is being genuinely kind without expecting to curry favor of any kind is not White Knighting (although they will probably be accused of it anyway). Perhaps they have a dash of
Chronic Hero Syndrome, but there are some nice people on the internet, after all. Accusing someone of being a White Knight is generally a form of
Ad Hominem; the people being criticized cannot attack the argument, so they attack the arguer, whether the accusation is true or not.
Contrast
The Shepherd, who instead protects newbies from making mistakes that would get them
mistaken for trolls and banned, and is generally held in high regard by the other forumites. Compare
Condescending Compassion,
White Man's Burden, and
You Are a Credit to Your Race for a few forms of behavior often demonstrated by the more privileged White Knight.
See also:
The Dulcinea Effect, and
GIFT.
Examples of this trope, include:
Visual Novels
- Hisao is (not quite) guilty of this in Katawa Shoujo, particularly in Hanako's route. He's not trying to curry favor, hence the "not quite" part. Hanako is the sort of person everyone wants to protect and hug. This is promptly deconstructed as the arc goes on — in the bad ending to her arc, Hanako snaps at Hisao, declaring that she hates both him and Lilly for "babying" her and thinking that she needs protecting. In the true ending, Hanako lets Hisao have sex with her in order to change his mind about the way he views her. They both realize the mistakes they've been making and the two of them break down in front of each other in the park.
- The term appears in don't take it personally babe, it just ain't your story; Taylor makes a post about Kendall breaking up with her girlfriend Charlotte, prompting Akira to accuse Taylor of being a "bitch", which results in Kendall telling him not to be a "white knight" on her behalf.
- The story of RE Alistair is kicked off when the eponymous Alistair killsteals a difficult boss out from under Merui in her favorite MMO, then trolls her about it. Depending on the route the player pursues, Alistair may begin complaining that another player, "Oda," has begun white-knighting him over it; it's not likely to come as much of a surprise when Oda turns out to be Travis, during whose route this occurs. Oda's player isn't directly trying to curry favor with Merui (in fact he's a global mod for the MMO, which justifies his involvement to some extent), but it's clear that he's primarily motivated by his romantic feelings for her - in case there was any doubt, the end of the route confirms that Oda's character class is "Guardian."
Web Comics
- Occasionally xkcd is accused of engaging in this kind of behavior
, parodied by chainsawsuit here.
- In Homestuck, after Karkat develops a crush on Jade, he flames his own past self for being rude to her. Jade then accuses him, in so many words, of acting like a knight trying to save her. Adding to this is that Karkat actually IS a Knight.
Web Original
- Entire wikis have been dedicated to how Christian Chandler, creator of Sonichu, attempts to do this in his ever-occurring "Love Quest", and, for that matter, those who try and fail to stop the trolling.
- Captain Hammer from Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Objectively, most of the things he does are morally positive: he fights crime, helps the LAPD stop Dr. Horrible from ruining a bridge dedication, and gets Penny her homeless shelter. However, since he only does it for a combination of personal reputation building and to get in Penny's pants (partly because he likes her, and partly to mess with Doctor Horrible), he is White Knighting incarnate.
- It's not even that he likes her, but rather, he likes the sex.
- Inverted with The Black Knight here.
- The Nostalgia Chick suffers from white knights in her video comment threads and the forums who fail to grasp that her mistreatment of her sidekick and butt monkey Nella is all an act that Nella is completely on board with, and sometimes even writing the script for. Then there are the people on the other side who forget Black Comedy is Lindsay's Author Appeal and try to protect her from the mean guys who are obviously writing everything themselves.
- Ian from Statless And Tactless gets called this for trying to jump in to defend a female group member.
Western Animation
- King of the Hill: Protagonist Hank Hill treating his boss Buck Strickland with the utmost respect despite the fact that the man is a hard-drinking, womanizing slimeball. In one episode Hank's wife Peggy outright calls him Buck's white knight.
- Justice League Unlimited. In the episode that introduces Carter Hall, the first clue that he's obsessed with Shayera "Hawkgirl" Hol is when Batman searches for him online, and finds that Carter has caused numerous Flame Wars by registering on "I Hate Hawkgirl" web forums just to defend her. (While Hawkgirl knew that she had abysmal PR, she was completely unaware at the time that there were web forums devoted to bashing her.)
Real Life
