Finding the Right White Knight

For better or for worst (whether it's sexist or not) there are basic archetypes for the love interest that are mostly available to males. Mind you, this just makes it all the more fun to apply it to a girl instead… but for now, I'll stick to "he" except in a few cases, and leave it to you to mess around with the order of things.

The White Knight - AKA the Boring One. Seriously, no one needs the classic pure and chase knights from fairy tales. They suck. They stink. They have absolutely nothing of interest to them, except for repeated mockability.

Now, stick that same knight in a world where everything is dark and impure, and you MIGHT get a good story. Or you might just get everyone mad as the knight tries to make other characters feel guilty for the same things your readers go about doing. So… um… be careful, 'kay?

Either type sorta sucks as the permanent love interest, but if you want your protagonist to start off liking someone two dimension, this one's fine.

The Knight in Shining Armor - this knight isn't necessarily poor - but they can be just as boring, so be careful. Basically put, these guys go about rescuing damsels in distress, and having said damsels fall in love with them. Besides the inherent problem of casting your protagonist as a fragile damsel, it's pretty easy to get sick of them. They're rather cliché. You're much better off with the Part Time Knight.

Part Time Knight - these guys are the ones who come out once in a while, trying to help out the girl they love. It's often more suited for a protagonist than a love interest, but if you want to cast the role of a guy who's just trying to get a girl's attention… this is actually a pretty good way to do it. Maybe sitting in the background, always trying to come to her aid and make her like him - works for either gender, and many personality types. Also funny if you make them fail, a bit, but once more… that's better for the protagonist.

Or the comedy relief. (They often fail to the white knight, or shining armor, I fear.)

The Helping Knight - this one is my personal fave. Like the part time knight, they're only occasional heroes - but there are two major differences. One, they come to help and not to rescue. Two - they aren't necessarily trying to draw the girl's eye, though they might. These "knights" recognize full well that your protagonist is perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. However, they also recognize what the archetypical strong-willed female character doesn't - sometimes you can't do things by yourself.

They help to remind the character that she doesn't always need to prove themselves, sometimes. Other times, it's just breaking them out of a tight situation - however, the first part is almost always a facet of this relationship.

The Failing Knight -This is the knight that frankly… sucks. Badly. We're talking full on failure, and probably more than once. They probably can't even offer to help without getting smacked by something - up to and including the protagonist herself.

Comedy relief central, basically. Can be either jerks or decent guys, and they actually have as much chance of getting the girl as almost anyone. I'd guess fifty/fifty, since there are generally two  types that drive this one - perverts, and those who actually care enough about the person to try time and time again.

The Girl In Concealing Armor - basically, this is the knight that isn't the gender they pretend. Now, keep in mind that knight is just a metaphor in this case - it could be the boy who cross dressed to sneak into an all girl's school as easily as the girl who pretended to be male and scared off a bunch of guys to save you.

This one probably has the highest chance of leading to a love interest, for at least one character, even if it won't pan out - sometimes for the fun when they realized they mistook the gender. Other times for the hidden secret between them which allows them to draw closer.

Sometimes, as seen in Strawberry Eggs, a girl will start to fall for the disguised one without knowing why, thinking they're the same gender.

Oh, and it doesn't HAVE to be the gender that's hidden, by the way. But even in Shrek, hiding the fact that you're an ogre rarely lasts for long.

The Inferior Knights - this is different from the failures because they AREN'T necessarily failures. They're just inferior to the one they're protecting. It might be that they're doing it out of some ill conceived notion the person needs protecting. It might be because they love the person, and don't want them to get hurt - it happens most often with villains, honestly. The way you always have to fight through the henchmen to go up against the much stronger boss.

I've seen it mostly in a relatively old anime, by the name of A Cheeky Angel. It can be sweet, it can be annoying, or it can be a combination of both… if it goes on long enough, though, it'll almost invariably fall into the last category.

Knight in Pink Armor - sometimes, your protector is girly. Might be a boy, might be a girl, but… they're girly. (This is not to say feminine, which is entirely different in this case - I'm referring to the stereotypical girly girl, this time.) This actually makes a more powerful statement when they try to protect you, even with their weaknesses. It's even stronger than the failure knight, who might only be unlucky or weak - they are doing something completely outside of their nature.

It's worth noting!

The unwanted Knight - sometimes, whether right or wrong, the protagonist just doesn't WANT a protector. She tries to lose them. She tries to get rid of them. She tries to run screaming from them.

It rarely works.


The Knight in Dirty Armor: Sometimes, the knight wasn't always so decent... Sometimes, the character switches sides. Might be for love, might be for money, might be just 'cause they can... Either way, the knight who comes to rescue his damsel doesn't always have to shine. (You should also keep this in mind when talking about knights that were always on the good side, but aren't quite perfect despite that - they could have problems with gambling, or drinking, for example, even though they're decent enough people for the most part. More Dingy, than Dirty, but still.)

I might add more if anyone has further ideas - I highly encourage you to switch around gender roles, however. It's more fun that way, really. Oh, and rescue doesn't necessarily have to do with fighting, just so you know.

Rescuing your protagonist from a giant pile of homework is just as important, and can have a lasting effect.