Duplicate Trope: The Paladin

I believe that the page needs a major rewrite. There are many tropes that overlap with the concept described there and fits many examples better, and the concept itself is rather vagues and evolved over time.

The page describes Paladin by citing qualities that already have their own trope page. The use of the word and concept itself was vastly explored, evolved and expanded over last two decades in the media. Furthermore, most qualities the article uses to describe a paladin have their own trope pages.

The original trope codifier was, probably, D&D rulebooks by TSR. A character class named 'Paladin' was introduced as a very narrow concept of a lawful good character actively trying to promote good in lawful fashion using a big stick and holy prayer. However, putting aside flavor, mechanically it was a fighter/cleric hybrid class [note] 'fighter' is a class defined by physical prowess and mastery with martial weapons and 'cleric' is a class defined by use of magic powered by faith and servitude to some deity[/note]. The concept of fighter/cleric hybrid was later explored in Dark Sun setting with Templars (still fighter/cleric hybrids, but their magic was powered by local substitute semi-deities and the guys were assholes at best) and Dragonlance (Both Good and Evil deities had devoted knight orders, though my knowledge of the setting is very sketchy).

Once Wizards of the coast bough TSR, they decided that the cool concept of holy warrior is unnecessarily narrowed. While the class named paladin still exists in the core book of 3.0/3.5 editions, variant paladins of all extreme alignments (LG, CG, LE, CE) were introduced in Unearthed Arcana rulebook. From here official D&D production became *very* kitchen sinky, and even though I didn't care to keep in touch with newer works and novels, I wouldn't be surprised if the concept was explored even further.

In videogames, following the bare bones of TSR concept, paladin is usually a warrior driven by faith and capable to use magic derived from his faith. While often he is a force of good, it is not an absolute requirement.

Furthermore, we have trope pages, covering many aspects of The Paladin description and arguably most examples on the pages should be moved elsewhere. For example.

The concept of paladin as a warrior type driven by faith is Warrior Monk The concept of paladin as a servant of the people fits Messianic Archetype, The Fettered, Knight in Shining Armor and probably some other tropes The concept of paladin as a warrior backed by divine favor and/or faith as a character class is what paladin is for many RPG players, but the word is unnecessarily overloaded. interestingly, I wasn't able to find another fitting trope page.

Furthermore, The Paladin is often referenced by pages describing common character classes.

My personal opinion is, that we should rewrite the page to make it about common character class: a warrior backed by faith and/or divine power. All the stuff about personality should be moved to other fitting tropes or a new page. The evolution of concept may be described. Analysis of the pages people came from to The Paladin page may provide additional insight.

edited 1st Mar '17 1:04:39 AM by permeakra

It's not particularly clear what the problem is - much of the OP seems to be analysis and proposing solutions rather than to identify a problem. Declining, also because we have other issues to resolve.