This is the set of tropes that cluster around Knight Templar: the forces of light in hardcore mode, excessively or otherwise. This mentality is all the way over on the Idealistic side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism — but it has nothing in common with modern idealism of the Granola Girl and Cloud Cuckoo Lander variety.
The Trope Codifiers are the Chivalric Romances of the medieval Matters of Britain (Arthurian Legend) and of France (Charlemagne) — especially the innumberable fantasy novels and verse epics of the 15th through 17th centuries which were based on, set in, or vaguely inspired by
the older Carolingian myths. The Arthurian myths have a less militantly idealistic style than the Carolingian ones; the Arthurian work most completely of this style is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
This pattern is rarer outside of Europe (and before the Middle Ages) than within it. The closest analogue to European chivalry was bushido, the code of the Japanese samurai, but the Japanese code emphasized loyalty to one's lord, even to the point of doing evil, while the European one emphasized loyalty to one's conscience, even to the point of treachery.
Of course, that doesn't mean that non-European heroes can't act like this—and it doesn't mean that European heroes always do, either. The Roman-derived tradition of "My Country, Right or Wrong" was always present in Europe...
See also Hero Tropes, to an extent. A particular variety of Idealism Tropes. A civilization that embraces this is a variety of Martyrdom Culture.
Tropes
- All a Part of the Job
- Aristocrat Team
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: A character's strategy consists of nothing but attacking the target mindlessly.
- Black Knight
- The Cape
- The Champion
- Church Militant
- Declaration of Protection
- Dragons Versus Knights
- The Extremist Was Right
- A Father to His Men
- The Fettered
- Good Is Boring (but it beats the alternative)
- Good Is Not Dumb: Being the good guy does not mean you are stupid.
- Good is Not Nice: Being the good guy does not mean you are not a jerk.
- Harmony Versus Discipline (Discipline)
- Hero Antagonist: The antagonist of the work is a good guy.
- Heroic Sacrifice: A hero lets themselves get killed for the greater good.
- Holy Hand Grenade
- Honor Before Reason: Doing the honorable thing even if it's not the sensible action to take in the current situation.
- Humongous-Headed Hammer: War hammers tend to be associated with knights and especially paladins.
- Ideal Hero
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: A character who is so honest and good that it is impossible for them to go bad.
- Inspector Javert: A law enforcer is obsessed with turning in a wanted criminal, regardless of whether the person is truly guilty or not.
- Jumping on a Grenade: Jumping onto a grenade about to detonate so that only you get killed by it.
- Keep the Reward
- The Kindnapper: both the Heroic variant and the Obviously Misguided type
- Knight Errant: The hero wanders the earth helping anyone they come across.
- Knight in Shining Armor: The classic original recipe.
- Knight in Sour Armor: A Crapsack World (or their own Jade-Colored Glasses) may have rusted their armor, but their Heroic Spirit still shines.
- Knightly Sword and Shield
- Knight, Knave, and Squire
- Knight Templar (what happens when they get fully blinded by their zeal)
- The Lady's Favour
- Lawful Good (although not interested in secular law)
- Lawful Stupid (more or less common, depending on the work)
- Light 'em Up
- Light Is Good: Positive alignment = brighter atmosphere
- Light Is Not Good
- Lord Error-Prone
- Machiavelli Was Wrong
- Magic Knight
- Martyrdom Culture
- Martyr Without a Cause
- More Hero than Thou
- Noble Demon: They might be acting toward an evil goal, but at least they're chivalrous about it.
- Order Versus Chaos (Order)
- The Paladin
- The Paragon
- Pragmatic Hero
- Proud Warrior Race Guy
- Saintly Church
- Scary Dogmatic Aliens
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: Showing your integrity by refusing to accept a bribe.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!
- Self-Proclaimed Knight
- Sir Verb-a-Lot
- Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism (Idealistic)
- Small Steps Hero
- The Soft-Hearted Warrior
- The Stoic
- Taking the Bullet: Jumping in front of a firing gun so that you get shot instead of the intended target.
- Think Nothing of It
- To Be Lawful or Good
- Villainous Valor
- Warrior Monk
- What You Are in the Dark: A character shows their true colors in private.
- Worthy Opponent: Someone respects the person they do battle with as an honorable adversary.
