Knight Errant

The White Knight by Walter Crane

"While evil flourishes and wrongs grow rank, while men are persecuted and women wronged, while weak things, human or animal, are maltreated, there is no rest for me beneath the skies, nor peace at any board or bed. Farewell!"

— Solomon Kane, The Blue Flame of Vengeance

The medieval Knight Errant stems from the Chivalric Romance, where individual Knights in Shining Armor would wander the land, searching for evil to slay and ladies to rescue, most often guided by the Damsel Errant. Since then, knights have declined in popularity, but the Knight Errant is still around in full force — instead of knights, they are now often Samurai, Cowboys, or Samurai Cowboys.

Historically, a knight errant would refer to a landless knight who would travel in the service of his lord and hoping to earn his own land. If he is traveling because he was sent by someone it might be a case of My Master, Right or Wrong. They are basically the feudal equivalent of The Stateless.

Knights Errant have some or all of the following traits:

1. They, by definition, have Chronic Hero Syndrome. They may or may not request compensation, but will always try to do the right thing.
2. They have no fixed home, and spend their lives Walking the Earth ("errant" means "wandering"). When they're finished smiting the local evil, they'll up and leave.
3. They have a code of honor. If they are heroes, they can be a Knight in Sour Armor, but will always have some degree of idealism inside. On the rare occasion they're a villain, they're usually a Noble Demon or He Who Fights Monsters.
4. They seek out wrongs to right, generally on a small scale — a town beset by bandits, a dragon preying on the locals, etc. Only occasionally will they be pitted against an Evil Overlord with earth-conquering ambitions. They often have one specific quest they are on, but you can count on them running into unrelated trouble along the way.
5. They are loners. They do not have any True Companions and are not part of a team. They may travel with a squire or two, but not with peers; they leave allies behind when they leave town. Their love interests, if any, are left behind or bumped off by the bad guys. A general exception to this is they may have a loyal steed.
6. Sometimes, they are The Stoic, almost to the point of being less a character and more a physical incarnation of justice. They are very prone to having a Mysterious Past. This type generally overlaps with The Drifter.
7. The classic Knight Errant of Chivalric Romance is often accompanied by his Distaff Counterpart and complement the Damsel Errant. He is seeking adventure and she knows where adventures are to be found.

There are many variations on the Knight Errant outside of Knights In Shining Armor. The Western very often stars a Knight Errant in the form of a wandering gunslinger or cowboy. Samurai are often, and Rōnin are almost always, Knights Errant. Wuxia heroes are Knights Errant. Because of the shared archetype, stories about one type of Knight Errant can easily be Recycled IN SPACE — New Old West and Space Western are examples of this. Some people regard Superheroes as the modern-day version of knights errant.

Wuxia novels, films, plays, etc. are full of such figures, and the term even translates to something like "wandering knight". This derives from Chinese knighthood, which isn't a widely-known subject in the West.

Adventuring parties from tabletop RPGs aren't normally an example of this; a key part of this trope is that the knight is solitary. "Solo" campaigns, with a single player and a DM, are however not uncommon. Many open-world RPG video games are basically built around being a Knight Errant. The player is given a Wide-Open Sandbox populated by people who need help, and they wander around finding those people and solving their problems.

Compare The Drifter, an accidental Knight Errant. The wizardly equivelant of this trope is Wandering Wizard, though those are not necesarrily noble.

See Knights Errant for the Webcomic.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Digimon: Gankoomon of the Royal Knights, according to supplemental materials, wanders the Digital World putting a stop to anything unusual, in-between mentoring the younger Hackmon. This makes it different from every other Royal Knight, who only ever show up when the Digital World's experiencing disaster, and as a result Gankoomon has a lot of friends all over. Gankoomon is working hard to pass on his title of knight to Hackman, for whatever reason.
• Dragon Ball: Goku in his earlier years, but especially during the Pilaf Arc, the Red Ribbon Army arc, and the anime's "Worldly Training" filler. Goku would travel the world searching for his grandfather's Four-Star Dragon Ball (or just to train and experience the world), but would often get caught up in local trouble and sort out their issues along the way. Dragon Ball's wuxia influence persists even when Goku stops wandering the world in that while he never goes around looking for trouble, he'll always step in if he encounters injustice on his pursuit to his own goals.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Elric brothers seem like this at the beginning, before the wider-reaching plot arcs start up—they travel from place to place, righting wrongs and searching for leads on how to get their bodies back. Especially true in Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), which had a few extra filler episodes near the beginning that consisted almost entirely of the Elrics going somewhere, righting some wrong, and going along their merry way, with the episode tying in minimally or not at all to the long-term plot.
• K: Kuroh Yatogami was this after his master's death, until he finds a new master in the first series. Then, when his immortal new master apparently dies, he spends a year searching for him, sometimes with Neko as his companion. The prequel manga Stray Dog Story covers the first time, and a midquel manga covers the second.
• Mushishi: Having the skills to deal with mushi usually comes because they're a Weirdness Magnet for them; as such, once mushisi finish off a foe, they usually leave before more of them are drawn in.
• Pokémon: The Series: Ash Ketchum, by nature of the local Pokémon League's Badge requirements. He'll travel the length and breadth of a region to collect the badges by defeating the Gym Leaders, but since they're all far apart he spends the majority of his time on the road. This means he'll frequently often encounter new friends along the way and help them sort out their woes, usually caused by Team Rocket.
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica: This initially seems to be the life of Magical Girls — wander around on your own, saving people from monstrous "witches" whenever you find them. But this is subverted in various ways; Mami eventually reveals she's Not So Stoic, and would much rather fight on a team instead of solo. Sayaka takes the hero concept too seriously, and becomes a Knight Templar. Kyouko was originally more knight-esque than Mami, but became a Knight in Sour Armor masquerading as a Blood Knight after a disastrous event broke her faith in goodness and justice. Homura seems to be the antagonist, but she's really attempting to save Madoka from Kyubey; this, too, gets turned around when Homura fails and Madoka tricks Kyubey, giving herself the ability to wander all of time and space on her own heroic quest.
• Parn in Record of Lodoss War. He's known as the Free Knight because he officially holds loyalty to no kingdom and helps anyone in need, no matter their allegiance or nationality.
• In The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, Tougo went to both ends of the world while trying to find a way home before realizing that this fantasy world has many of the same struggles as his own world. Because of this, he started travelling from place to place, helping everyone he could while raising his adventurer rank to figure out why he was sent here.
• Rurouni Kenshin: Kenshin did this for ten years prior to the series, which starts with him temporarily suspending his Walking the Earth to stay in a dojo in Tokyo. His variation is that unless he's actively kicking butt, his looks, natural personality, and Obfuscating Stupidity work together to make sure nobody takes him seriously.
• Samurai Champloo: Jin, prior to the series. After objecting to his master's choices, he was forced to kill him in self-defense and flee. Rejecting bushido as a code that binds people to mindlessly follow villains and idiots (best shown in his Establishing Character Moment in the very first episode; he didn't mince his demeaning words towards three samurai guards and the lord they served), he wanders around Japan searching for a purpose until Fuu makes him her bodyguard.
• Trigun: Vash the Stampede does this with a lot of Obfuscating Stupidity. He's a little less formal about it than Kenshin, because he hasn't got a vow, this is just his lifestyle, and he only learned to fight out of necessity, so he doesn't have quite the same type of warrior ethos as a proper knight or samurai.

Card Games

• Magic: The Gathering:
  • Elspeth Tirel, who actually bears the title of Knight-Errant. Elspeth's defining trait is that she doesn't want to planeswalk; she just wants to find paradise and stay there. Of course, this is Magic. Her first home was destroyed by Phyrexia, and her adopted home of Bant became culturally contaminated when the shards of Alara merged. After that, she joined the rebellion against New Phyrexia on Mirrodin, only to watch that slowly crumble. She was then chosen by the sun god Heliod to be his champion, which she succeeded at... only for him to immediately murder her because he considers Planeswalker a threat. As of Theros: Beyond Death she is now Back from the Dead, and has seemingly resumed this status.

Comic Books

• Judge Dredd has this as a retirement option for Judges who don't want to take an academy teaching post or a desk job. They can either head out into the Cursed Earth, or down into the Undercity, to take the law to the lawless.
• Lucky Luke: The titular character embodies this, to the point where the last panel of every album is him riding off into the sunset, singing I'm a lonesome cowboy.
• The Sandman (1989): Invoked by Gilbert, who insists upon being Rose Walker's "Knight Errant" in her search for her brother.
• Star Wars:
  • Star Wars: Knight Errant focuses on the adventures of Kerra Holt, a lone Jedi Knight during the dark time before the final Battle of Ruusan, where the Sith outnumber the Jedi and the Republic has been whittled down to just the areas around the core, as she travels around planets in the Sith zone and fights the good fight.
  • Star Wars: Republic: In Issue 53: Blast Radius, Obi-Wan meets up with a group of Jedi who, rather than being part of the central, Coruscant-based Order, wander through the lawless areas of the galaxy helping strangers and righting wrongs, following their instincts and the guidance of the Force — Knol Ven'nari, a Bothan bandit-hunter; Jon Antilles, who infiltrated the bounty hunters' guild to bring murderers to justice; Nico Diath, who plagued the Hutts' slaver cartels and freed hundreds of slaves over his lifetime; and Fay, a profoundly pacifist wanderer whose diplomacy had ended entire wars.
  • Zao maintains little contact with the Jedi hierarchy and lets the Force guide him across the Galaxy to provide help wherever he's needed. He even maintains this lifestyle after Order 66.
• The Warlord seems to be based on this trope. Travis Morgan, a.k.a. "the Warlord", was a USAF lieutenant colonel who crash-landed in Skartaris, a world inside the hollow Earth. A modern man injected into a world of sword and sorcery, he falls in love with and marries Tara, the warrior-queen of Shambhala. The character avoids a bad cliché by not becoming Skartaris' leader and attempting to impose his values on it, but neither can he sit idly by at the royal court whilst knowing how much is "wrong" in the rest of the world. As a result, he is constantly absent, journeying around Skartaris as a knight errant, enjoying the role of an adventurer far more than that of a king.

Fan Works

• Chapter 20 of The Good Hunter introduces Sir Henry Watson who refers himself as such, with the armour and mannerisms to match. Upon noticing the Hunter, he recognizes him as an arch-heretic and proceeds to challenge the Hunter to a Duel to the Death in hopes of claiming his head. Henry ends up getting shot for his troubles, dying an Undignified Death.
• Vow of Nudity: While Haara is a monk (a naked one, no less), behaviorally she hits every bullet point on the list. Most stories involve her Walking the Earth, getting involved in local conflicts to help the underprivileged, and sending any money she earns to a group dedicating to freeing slaves from the tyrannical empire that once enslaved her.

Film — Live-Action

• Dollars Trilogy: The Man With No Name might be the ultimate Western example. His Japanese counterpart in Yojimbo even moreso. He just stumbles on the town the film takes place in while wandering aimlessly and gets involved in the Mob War for both justice and profit.
• Star Wars: Jedi often act as Knights Errant. A New Hope itself was adapted from The Hidden Fortress, a samurai movie. By the book Obi-Wan is a good specific example because he is an ideal Jedi Knight.
• William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet has Romeo symbolically dressing up as a knight errant at the Capulet's party as he calls himself a pilgrim who has traveled to the shrine of Juliet.

Literature

• Bolo has the titular Bolo's, self-aware ultratanks with enough firepower to wipe a planet clean of life. They are openly stated as being Knight Errants, and in many cases are more "Human," than those they protect. Many Bolo stories involve a Bolo sacrificing itself to save the lives of innocents, or about them trying to understand their human companions. One story ends with the Bolo literally getting knighted.
• A Certain Magical Index: Before he became a member of God's Right Seat, Acqua of the Back used to do this, serving as a mercenary unaligned with any official power who would travel to battlefield after battlefield helping people no matter where he went and never asked for anything in exchange. In addition, he would teach people how to better themselves, causing the people to call him a sage and ultimately would have earned him a knighthood from the United Kingdom if he didn't abandon it. Even becoming a member of God's Right Seat was because he believed he could serve his personal cause better in such a position. Quite fitting given he is a Saint.
• The Dark Tower: Roland Deschain is a Gunslinger from another dimension who is descended from Arthur Eld and wields guns that were forged from Excalibur. He's on an epic quest to reach the Dark Tower and fight the forces of evil. The story is very loosely based on the poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," which is itself based on The Song of Roland.
• Daughter of the Sun: Orsina is this with her duty as a paladin. She rides around in Vesolda on her quest to seek out an unknown great evil, helping anyone in need from other evils that she's encountered, asking nothing in return while usually all alone on the road. The main difference is she starts traveling with Aelia, whom Orsina believes is just another person in need, and Aelia's soon become her Love Interest. Orsina is very grateful for having company even before they fall in love.
• The Dresden Files: The Knights of the Cross fit this archetype; even Michael, who has a home, a wife, and a small army of children spends much of his time traveling the globe, righting wrongs and fighting evil. Their main job, as it turns out, is somewhat different — they're actually supposed to get the Denarians' hosts to repent and give up the Denarians. The doing random good seems to only be their secondary function.
• Greyhawk: The Justicar, hero of Paul Kidd's trilogy of White Plume Mountain, Descent Into The Depths Of The Earth, and Queen Of The Demonweb Pits does everything but travel alone. Much to his discomfort, he accumulates ever more companions through the series. He starts with just a sentient hellhound skin, and collects a faerie princess who is also an accomplished mage, a drunken human teamster (who later becomes a drunken badger), a female sphynx, a young male human soldier, a talking sword, and a non-evil demon (who just wants a nice clean, calm, safe place to settle down with her boyfriend).
• Arthurian Legend: The Knights of the Round Table were a squadron of Knights Errant. Even though they were a team, they typically adventured alone. The Trope Namer is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which Gawain is referred to as a "knygt erraunt".
• J. R. R. Tolkien:
  • "Errantry": A very tiny knight errant is the subject of the aptly titled poem. The poem includes descriptions of his marvellously shiny armour, his attempts to woo and marry a butterfly, and his epic battles with dragonflies and bumblebees. Also, perhaps coincidentally, you can sing it to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General".
  • The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn starts out as one of the Rangers, the ragged survivors of the fallen Kingdom of Arnor, who now live as solitary wanderers in the northern wilderness, hunting monsters and keeping the roads safe.
• Knight and Rogue Series: The protagonist is a knight errant who lives about 200 years after errantry has gone out of fashion. His squire is a former con man who at first comes along mostly because it keeps him out of jail, and later to look after his employer, who's prone to Honor Before Reason.
• Loyal Enemies has an entire group of those, who decided to band together to be more effective. They are now called the Order of White Raven and their life mission is to defend people, whatever race they might belong to.
• MechWarrior: The first novel in the Dark Age series centers around a Knight Errant. He is essentially a Mech Warrior who had the job of traveling to trouble spots around the galaxy and basically lying low to gather information and take action in case something came up, although this was not apparent for the first several chapters.
• Moth and Cobweb: In Green Knight's Squire, Gil explicitly tells Ruff he's this when they are searching for a job.
• Patricia A. McKillip: In "The Kelpie", Nice Guy Ned is suggested for this in a painting; he wishes he could be evil for once, and is asked if he can settle for triumphant.
• Madou Monogatari: Shin Madou Monogatari Gaiden, a connected light novel series , depicts Ragnus Bisashi as one. He has the knightly, heroic disposition, but because of his monster slaying reputation, the people he saves end up fearing his might, causing a disconnect between him and the town folk he helps out. As a result, he comes in, does his heroics, then books it as quietly as possible.
• The Saint: Simon Templar, more commonly known as the titular Saint, is this in many of creator Leslie Charteris's stories (one story collection was even titled Saint Errant) and in some episodes of the TV series that starred Roger Moore. Not so much in the Val Kilmer movie.
• Saint George: In the popular medieval legend of St. George and the Dragon, St. George liberates a town and saves a princess by killing a fearsome dragon. There is no explanation on what business brought St. George to the town, making St. George the Trope Maker of a travelling knight that helps out people he meets by accident along the road.
• Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, an adaptation of a part of The Faerie Queene, begins with the Red Cross Knight riding across a plain, bound on a great adventure, sent by the Queen of the Fairies to fight the dragon.
• Sharpe: A rare anti-heroic version appears in the form of Richard Sharpe. Lampshaded by Major Hogan in Sharpe's Havoc. Given Sharpe's fairly strong Chivalrous Pervert tendencies, there's usually something in it for him...
  Hogan: King Arthur, God rest his soul, would have loved you. He'd have had you rescuing every maiden in the land.
• Sir Nigel very much wants to be one, and even refuses to ask for his beloved's hand in marriage until he's accomplished three heroic feats. Unfortunately, as they're in the middle of a war with France, his commanders have to tell him to knock of the knight-errantry (which also involves things like picking a fight with every knight you encounter, righting every wrong you see, and allying with a Frenchman to take out a Chaotic Evil Feudal Overlord). Of course, he still ends up winning the day thanks to his romanticism, by beating an armed man in single combat, taking a castle with barely a dozen men, and capturing the King of France in battle.
• A Song of Ice and Fire typically subverts or deconstructs the entire concept. Sure, Westeros actually does have some songs and tales of the Knight in Shining Armor ideal that follow the romantic view of the wandering do-gooder, but these are usually set well, well back in prehistory, during the Dawn Age and/or the Age of Legend, well before anointed knights of the Faith were even a thing, and are as iffy as all get-out as a result — including the slaying of dragons.
  • Current masterless knights are called "hedge knights" and are generally seen as either one step above common mercenaries and/or bounty hunters or more as something akin to wandering sports stars (these are basically tourney knights who move from competition to competition to make both a living and a retirement fund primarily out of their winnings from the jousting and/or the melee contests, rather than through seeking political favour, battle promotions or rent incomes). Further, then there are the knights who become rudderless thanks to losing their political position and/or sponsors thanks to the game of thrones shifting from under them, even if they prefer not to think of themselves as hedge knights, but as temporary exiles somewhat between masters at the moment, rather. Many of those will generally make it to Essos to find "honest", well-paying work with the mercenary companies over there. All Westerosi knights will at least have sufficient horsemanship that it makes it worthwhile to glance at the resume a second time, however humble their current circumstances and equipment may make them look.
  • Tales of Dunk and Egg, a Prequel series to A Song of Ice and Fire, plays with this concept. Ser Duncan appears to embody a classic knight errant. He's (relatively) young and quite idealistic, believing in the code of honor that knights are supposed to follow. Indeed, he believes that "The Hedge Knight", i.e., the wanderer who sleeps in meadows and beneath trees, is closer to a "true knight" than the more political, class-conscious, power-playing knights he witnesses. After the first story, the pattern is established that he'll wander into a new area, encounter a problem, help solve it (though not in the way he originally intended) and then move on.
• Star Wars Legends: This is sometimes (ostensibly) the Jedi ideal, although they often act more or less as a branch of the Republic. In the New Jedi Order in particular, a few Jedi are known for avoiding the sometimes highly political Jedi Order and making their own way, such as Master Eelysa (and the Wild Knights, a band of Jedi she trained more or less on her own), Tyria Sarkin and her children, and, for a time, Corran Horn. Jolee Bindo from Knights of the Old Republic did much the same thousands of years before. In the earlier period, "Gray Jedi" were those who voluntarily separated from the Order, often over philosophical issues, yet were acknowledged not to have fallen to the Dark Side. Additionally there were the Jedi Sentinels, who sought to serve the galactic citizenry directly by living among them as opposed to cloistering themselves in the Temple.
• Stones of Power: John Shannow, the Jerusalem Man, starts by wandering a post-Apocalyptic Earth in a vague search for Jerusalem, but is repeatedly distracted by evil.
• Thursday Next: Colonel Next is consistently described as a "time-travelling Knight Errant", usually turning up in the nick of time to save the world.
• Tortall Universe: Alanna of Trebond starts out in The Woman Who Rides Like a Man to escape court and find adventure. She is extremely successful. Lampshaded by Raoul of Goldenlake when training his Badass Normal squire, Keladry of Mindelan, who is highly gifted as a commander; while Alanna's achievements are deservedly legendary, a solid commander is often of more use to King and realm than a questing hero. (Alanna does do the realm plenty of good as the King's Champion, however.)

Live-Action TV

• The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: Brisco and Lord Bowler fit this perfectly. They are bounty hunters travelling the West looking for bad guys, and usually finding them.
• Doctor Who: The Doctor often fits this trope, even if he's not actively seeking wrongs to right, he seldom hesitates to get involved when he runs into one. He's had many companions, but they act more like "squires" than true partners and none of them stay with him forever.^*Three of these "squires" have been officially knighted, each by a different sovereign of England: Ian by King Richard Lionheart, Rose by Queen Victoria, and the Brigadier by Queen Elizabeth II. His sixth incarnation outright calls himself a Knight Errant at least once.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Brienne is heading progressively into Black Knight territory (as in the Real Life masterless, landless black knights) after the deaths of Renly Baratheon and Catelyn Stark.
  • Robert admits that he'd prefer the life of a travelling sellsword to being King, any day of the week.
• Highway to Heaven: Jonathan Smith seeks out troubled people through the direction of God, expressed as intuition.
• Kaamelott: Lancelot is supposed to be this, but as Arthur's prime minister hasn't getten around to any errantry lately. He ends up going back to the lifestyle in later seasons (yet another thing for him and Arthur to disagree over), until he ends up rebelling in full.
• The Master is a show about an aging ninja master and his apprentice, traveling in a van and righting wrongs.
• Quantum Leap: Dr. Sam Beckett grows into a time-traveling one of these who "strives to put right what once went wrong" one life at a time. The series begins with Beckett more properly a Drifter whose wish is to return home; he gradually asumes the role of a Knight Errant as he decides that Leaping is how he wants to live out his existence.
• Supernatural
  • Most Hunters in general are Knights Errant. They tend not to stay in fixed locations, since their work tends to leave suspicious messes behind and there are only so many monsters in one location. They work mainly on the small scale, tracking down individual monsters, and work out of concern for the mission rather than for compensation, since few of the people they help even know what they do much less are willing or able to pay for it. Finally, most work alone and have few friends except other scattered Hunters—many of them became Hunters because they lost their loved ones to monsters, and they are consequently wary of getting too attached to people who might be endangered by their work or used against them by their enemies.
  • Sam and Dean are the main examples, especially the former. While they have other overarching goals each season, they always stop by in whatever wayward towns are being haunted, even if they don't have personal reasons to, and deal with the supernatural threats there. Although they are involved in criminal activity such as false credit cards and fake IDs, this is done for sustenance and to further their mission.
  • Sam and Dean's father, John Winchester, was another notable example, who trained his sons to follow in his footsteps. His journal detailing the monsters he hunted in various locations around the USA has played a major role in the series.

Music

• Electric Light Orchestra: "Wild West Hero" is very much an ode to The Western version of this hero.

Tabletop Games

• Anima: Beyond Fantasy has a twist on this in Khaine D'elacreu, a young female paladin who after the death of her father, member of a knight order, in unknown circumstances took her lance and her shield to walk Gaïa as in her country women were not expected to become that.
• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • In second edition, the Errant was a kit for the Paladin introduced in Complete Paladin's Handbook, based around this. A roaming hero who goes where he's needed and picks up whatever cause he believes in as he comes across them. The main advantage of the kit was that it was not subject to the, at the time, every strict fealty restrictions normal Paladins had, at the cost of not having a real patron to turn towards.
  • As later editions toned down the fealty aspect to a ruler or church of the Paladin class, one could argue that Knight Errant tend to be the default version of good aligned player characters Paladins in later editions (At least until they join a party where they tend to lose the loner status). Following the adventurer lifestyle, they easily slot into this trope: tend to still have some code, they often lack a proper base of operation, etc...
• Ironclaw: Knight Errant is one of the possible careers , though not all of the traits are necessary, many are essentially mercenaries of noble birth.
• Warhammer: Bretonnia has a unit called Knights Errant, representing the young, impetuous knights whose courage sometimes outpaces their skill. Their special rules reflect these details. A better example of this trope, Questing Knights, are knights who have given up their feudal responsibilities to quest for the Grail and the Lady of the Lake; their oaths command them never to stay in one place for too long, and they keep righting wrongs until they die or drink from the Grail.
• In Warhammer 40,000, the Legion of the Damned fit this trope to a T. Trapped in hyperspace for about a hundred years and cursed with some Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane warp disease/curse, the last one hundred survivors wander the galaxy searching for other marines, coming to their aid in their hour of need, vanishing as mysteriously and silently as they came, never straying from their dedication to the Emperor even as their bodies and minds slowly break down.
  • The fleet-based Marines Errant were founded specifically to constantly travel the galaxy in small groups of companies, looking to assist other Imperial forces and attaching themselves to whatever Imperial crusade is going on at any given time.
  • "The Knights Errant" is also the official name for the eight founding members of the Grey Knights.
  • In-Universe, the term Knight Errant also refers to a specific type of Humongous Mecha used by the noble houses of the Imperium, equipped with a Thermal Cannon and either a Reaper Chainsword or Thunderstrike Gauntlet. And due to the existence of Freeblades, there is nothing stopping them from being used by an actual knight errant.

Video Games

• Ace Attorney: The second case of the fangame Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Conflict of Interest features Sir Gallante, a vigilante who fancies himself one of these crossed with a Black Knight. He even has a simple "Slay the evil, protect the innocent" Code of Honor. In reality, he's more of a vicious serial murderer, the only justification for his gruesome attacks being that all his victims were involved with the local organized crime syndicate. Most of the case revolves around figuring out and proving his true identity. The aforementioned code is ultimately what allows for his defeat. There's not enough evidence to convict him, but by reminding him of his principles, he realizes that evading the law any longer will result in someone else being convicted for his crimes, after which he confesses to everything.
• Dragon Age:
  • The Warden, who goes where they must and where they are most needed.
  • The Witch Hunt DLC for Dragon Age: Origins can end with the Warden (the Knight Errant) and Morrigan (the Damsel Errant) stepping through the Eluvian, beyond the Fade and into the unknown.
  • Warden Blackwall in Dragon Age: Inquisition. He has spent years wandering Thedas protecting the innocent, "conscripting" villagers to train them to fight bandits, and of course fighting random darkspawn. He's actually a wanted criminal impersonating the deceased Blackwall throwing himself into the Grey Wardens' ideal of heroism to atone for his past.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • From the series' backstory, the ancient Yokudan (Precursors of the Redguards) hero Frandar Hunding was one in his youth. One of the legendary Ansei, or "Sword Saints", he traveled Yokuda slaying all manner of men and monsters, while testing his skills in 90 duels. He was never once defeated, leading him to believe that he was invincible, so he retired to Mount Hattu and wrote the Book of Circles to pass along his insights. (He would later be called back into service, proving to be an extremely competent Frontline General.)
  • In Oblivion, after performing a service for the city of Leyawiin, you and a jovial NPC receive this title.
• Final Fantasy XIV: Solkzagyl used to be a member of the order in Ul'dah, a group of Paladins dedicated to the Sultana. He broke away from the order to wander throughout Eorzea and help people in need.
• Like many Jedi Knights throughout the ages, Jolee Bindo in Knights of the Old Republic acts this way, having left the Jedi Order following the Exar Kun War and spent the last 20 years on Kashyyyk helping the Wookiees before joining up with the Player Character.
  • A Light Side Player Character in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords can be this, as they visit various planets righting wrongs after being exiled from the Order following the Mandalorian Wars.
• Kingdom Hearts gave us Sora, who constantly travels from world to world, never stopping or staying very long, righting whatever wrongs he happens to come across along the way, from finding lost dogs to toppling local tyrants. He might have a few too many friends to count as a truly classical example, but 90% of them are the "leave them behind when you leave town" variety. By Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], it's earned him an official knighting by then-Princess Minnie.
• Langrisser: Erwin's personal theme is the titular Knight Errant, traveling through El Sallia in his quest (which depends on which story path he is following).
• Mass Effect 2:
  • Samara, an asari party member, is a Justicar, a sort of vigilante warrior monk. According to her "the closest human equivalent would be a knight errant, with perhaps a bit of samurai".
  • Paragon Shepard can spend most of their time travelling the galaxy and selflessly going out of the way to put right any wrong they encounter.
• In the interactive romance novel Moonrise, Ishara fulfills this trope to indulge her Chronic Hero Syndrome and her enjoyment of Walking the Earth.
• Overwatch: The supplementary comic "Dragon Slayer" states that, after the fall of Overwatch, Reinhardt became this, wandering Europe with his "squire" Brigette to fight evil and help the suffering.
• Super Robot Wars: Sanger Zonvolt, the Sword That Smites Evil who will show up whenever evil arises. And will do anything to protect his girl, namely Sophia Nate.
• Unicorn Overlord has Laurent, who introduces himself as a knight errant and helps the party out with a few liberation missions throughout Cornia. He's actually Renault, having taken on a secret identity to atone for the awful things he did for Zenoira while under Mind Control. He eventually gives up the act and joins the party as himself.
• Warframe: The Tenno themselves have many shades of this, as well as related tropes such as Rōnin. They were originally the elite warrior caste of the Orokin Empire, but they often had no immediate masters and instead did whatever their honor demanded of them. By the time of the game, the Orokin Empire is long dead (because the Tenno killed them all for being evil bastards), so the Tenno and the Lotus spend most of their time wandering the Origin System helping out the little people caught between the warring factions.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: The Blood And Wine expansion features Knights-Errant in Toussaint, who wander the duchy taking on bandits and monsters for the duchess. Geralt himself can technically be considered one as well, especially if the player completes the "Knight For Hire" questline.
• In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Perceval, an optional rare Blade, takes it upon himself to render justice unto those who abuse the innocent. His Driver and the rest of the party try to reign him in from working alone to this end, to limited success. It's revealed in his personal sidequest that, under his previous Driver, he was a remorseless assassin known as the Heartless Judge. Of course, given that Blades lose all memories of any of their previous incarnations upon resonating with a new Driver, this isn't an indictment on who Perceval is now.
  Perceval: ...There is evil in this world which the law is not equipped to deal with. Many shed tears and even blood suffering in its shadow. When a new lease on life was given to me... I felt a duty to use my power to help uplift the downtrodden. As if it were the reason for my existence: to punish all evil that lurks in this world.
• Ys: Adol Christin certainly fits the bill. He's a Master Swordsman who wanders the globe, helping out the locals of the regions he visits and defeating ancient demons, monsters, and death machines along the way. Numerous women have Ship Tease with him, but he usually doesn't seem to return their feelings, with each game ending with him setting off for a new adventure alongside Dogi, his only constant traveling companion. He also wore knightly armor in the earlier games, though later installments moved away from the armored look.

Web Animation

• Knights of All Realms: Although it breaks the "loner" rule, this trope is the premise the story, which follows a band of knights who serve no lord and help all peoples.

Webcomics

• The Green Knight: Richard fits every characteristic of the trope, wandering from village to village and helping people with their fairy problem, with his chivalrous code often gets him into trouble.
• Nwain: Nwain rides her trusty wolf-antelope into Darmok and solves the town's monster problem. She leaves town and moves on to defeat a giant owl by blinding it with her pants.
• Roza refers to the concept as sparrow knights. They are knights without masters who travel around small villages solving disputes and dealing with bandits, named for their former custom of feeding themselves with grain left in the fields after harvest.

Western Animation

• Adventure Time: Finn and Jake are a rather absurdist take on this trope. Although they do have a home base that they return to frequently, they are otherwise traveling warriors who beat up baddies and save innocent villagers. Finn even for the first few seasons treats Princess Bubblegum like his designated lady, as though he was a knight in a courtly romance.
• Samurai Jack: The titular hero is an homage to this trope, as throughout his journey to prevent the Bad Future from happening again, he helps the weak and the innocent, brings justice against evil-doers, and battles the nefarious Aku. Also, The Hero is technically a Rōnin, having no master while still following the samurai's honorable code.

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