| rdfs:comment
| - An institution from Westeros, the Kingsguard exists to... guard the king, and anyone close to him. They consists of seven knights who swear themselves to bachelorhood, celibacy and duty, serve for life, and wear pure white when on-duty. Members of the Kingsguard, by virtue of being members, are considered the de facto finest knights in the realm, and all of them are at least excellent fighters; whether they are Pillars of Moral Character is another question. Daenerys has gone to the effort of constituting a new Queensguard, which confers some legitimacy on her claim, but due to various circumstances it has never had more than one knight in it at a time.
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| abstract
| - An institution from Westeros, the Kingsguard exists to... guard the king, and anyone close to him. They consists of seven knights who swear themselves to bachelorhood, celibacy and duty, serve for life, and wear pure white when on-duty. Members of the Kingsguard, by virtue of being members, are considered the de facto finest knights in the realm, and all of them are at least excellent fighters; whether they are Pillars of Moral Character is another question. Daenerys has gone to the effort of constituting a new Queensguard, which confers some legitimacy on her claim, but due to various circumstances it has never had more than one knight in it at a time.
* Captain Ersatz: There are (at least) two of them in-universe. The first is Daenerys's Queensguard, while the second was Renly Baratheon's Rainbow Guard. Both orders were modeled after the original Kingsguard and fulfill a similar role to it.
* Celibate Hero: Or, at least, they're supposed to be. Characters in the series know All Men Are Perverts, and there are knights who got away with it because it didn't get in the way of their duty.
* The only member of the Kingsguard that expresses any kind of regret at breaking this vow is Arys Oakheart, who is having an affair with Arianne Martell.
* Honor Before Reason
* Inadequate Inheritor: The current Kingsguard, according to Barristan Selmy. He makes his contempt known when Joffrey dismisses him:
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* Hell, even the Kingslayer himself acknowledges this as true (and after Selmy is dismissed the appointees only get worse and worse with one exception), telling Loras Tyrell:
* Knight in Shining Armor: Played with. Many members are deconstructions, but some (Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, Barristan Selmy, and Lord Commander Duncan the Tall) run it straight.
* Master Swordsman: Has featured several, such as Arthur Dayne, Barristan Selmy, and Jaimie Lannister.
* My Master, Right or Wrong: The Kingsguard are sworn to live this trope, no matter how terrible their monarch might be. This is seen in full effect under Joffrey, and horror stories of what the Kingsguard either participated in or enabled under Aerys Targaryen have become the stuff of legend. Jaime Lannister, Barristan Selmy, and Sandor Clegane are notable for being the only three members of the order in recent history to say "fuck that noise" to this trope.
* Subverted with Arys Oakheart, who's commanded by Joffrey to beat Sansa (like the rest of his brothers who do it without question and are pretty terrible about it). He objects to hitting her but gives in... and only hits her as lightly as possible.
* Obstructive Bureaucrat: Under terrible rulers, the Kingsguard sometimes act like this.
* Old Master: Inevitably, as they age. At the start of the series, Ser Barristan Selmy qualifies.
* Jaime gets promoted after a previous member died in his sleep of old age. (The series gets a pun from it by mentioning he was a member of House Grandison, whose sigil is a sleeping lion. Wouldn't Aerys prefer a roaring one instead?)
* Praetorian Guard
* Replacement Mooks: Thanks to the War of the Five Kings, the Kingsguard has been bled of its most competent knights. When Jaime finally returns to Kings Landing near the end of A Storm of Swords to assume his new role as Lord Commander of the order, he's shocked beyond words to discover it's now comprised of second- and third-string knights, Lannister cronies and up-jumped commoners of dubious backgrounds. The only members that Jaime approves of are Loras Tyrell and Balon Swann.
* Sibling Yin-Yang: With the Brotherhood of the Night's Watch. Members of both forswear lands, titles and family, and consider themselves to be brothers in a family. Their respective sigils are pure white and pure black. One wears white and guards the king; the other wears black and guards the kingdom. (This parallel has not yet been drawn by the text.)
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)