What is a White Knight?

[Zojha]

This would be a white knight. You can clearly see him being surrounded by the angry mob. But he'll be able to escape easily by jumping two fields to conclusions.

[SilverObi]

As others have already said, it used to be an insult deriding someone who blindly defends anything they feel needs protection. Very subjective and usually applied when protecting other people.

Now it's an insult used to undermine anyone who may disagree with your own personal views. Even if they share similar opinions to yours, they don't agree completely and will bring up facts that may conflict with your stance, so you call them a White Knight to take away their credibility. If people think they're just blind defenders then they will not give attention to that person's opinion and instead side more with the original view. It's just a tactic now to remove someone from a discussion by claiming they just want to be the good guy and defend poor poor <Topic> so let's ignore them. Very similar to other online tactics to silence others.

[KisaiTenshi]

Seriously, what even is the right definition of a White Knight? I've seen that word thrown around so much that it's meaning, to me, has been devalued to little more than a childish insult. I feel like this does warrant a discussion within the community. Much like toxic and elitist, I feel like the words are thrown around way too easily. Is it White Knighting for simple defending an aspect of a policy, system, or other thing that the devs introduce into FFXIV? Or is White Knighting much more than just a simple defense of one or two things, as opposed to defending SE, no matter what.

I'd like to keep this exclusive to FFXIV, and since I know this could potentially lead to heated discussions, I ask that you do not resort to personal attacks and be mindful of fellow members.

"White Knight" is used pejoratively against people who they objectively know are right, but think they're brown-nosing/butt-kissing/astroturfing rather than sincerely believe it. In a similar context "SJW" is used pejoratively against people who "white knight" social causes (hence "social justice warrior") without much understanding of the issue. Both are terms typically used pejoratively by people who don't want the status-quo to change, even if it would benefit them.

"Toxic" is used to describe people who present ideas, good or bad, but only the most disruptive part of it spreads without any validation. Such as many of the "meta" derp that happens around here. There is no one-true-way to play a job in the game, but a Toxic person will tell you that you to play a certain way because that gets them to THEIR short-term goal, but the damage is long lasting.

"Elitist" is used to describe people who advocate that everyone should be like them, because they are under the mistaken belief that they are better than everyone.

The only actual difference between the White Knight and the Toxic Elitist is that the White Knight believes they are being altruistic, where as the Toxic Elitist is only thinking about their own goals. The "White Knight" is "Lawful Good" where the Toxic Elitist is essentially Chaotic Neutral.

[Avatre]

In the case of these forums, White Knight(ing) is used as an insult for someone who sees what SE is doing, and looks at it from an optimistic view rather than the pessimistic one some, very, vocal people do.

Then there are the realists who look at it, see what it is, criticise it, hope it changes for the better, and are still called white knights.

[Sinh119]

Well, to put it in a technical sense, the term "White Knight," at least nowadays, is essentially a derogatory term used to accuse someone of defending something solely because of their own emotions, rather than logic or reason. The term itself is based off of a type of medieval romantic literature, where knight-errants, typically dressed in white armor, would wander the land searching for maidens to perform heroic deeds for. The values that made knight-errants so noble in those forms of literature are considered selfish and sexist in the eyes of some in today's culture, so "White Knight" is also used to imply that a person possesses those negative aspects.

[KaldeaSahaline]

Well, to put it in a technical sense, the term "White Knight," at least nowadays, is essentially a derogatory term used to accuse someone of defending something solely because of their own emotions, rather than logic or reason. The term itself is based off of a type of medieval romantic literature, where knight-errants, typically dressed in white armor, would wander the land searching for maidens to perform heroic deeds for. The values that made knight-errants so noble in those forms of literature are considered selfish and sexist in the eyes of some in today's culture, so "White Knight" is also used to imply that a person possesses those negative aspects.

This is probably one of the better definitions I've seen.

I'll echo it for visibility - a White Knight is someone who defends something irrationally and emotionally; rather than through examples, critical thinking, insight, logic/reason.

[ManuelBravo]

Based on FFXIV Vault Dungeon the white knight is a mob / Machine type. The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight (armored cavalry). Like a chest board that is why you see a white and black one.

In reference to a player sense of values is referred to their sense of alignment in terms of arts. White is normally represents emotions or faith based, while Dark is more of a logical sense, hence explanation of some classes.

Example;

PLD ; Light based, sense of justice, loyalty. SE does a great job with their story witch helps explain this value. It shows two different perspectives to PLD.

DRK; Are seen more as Dark Arts, though they have their own perspective most see them as the counter part of Justice. As per it's explained in their story, which is one of my favorites in this game, it shows you a complete different sense of justice.

The point of both however is misunderstood being that their is no real good or evil, it's how humans represent certain actions or beliefs based on the perspective of group in majority.

Note: In forums it seems that White Knight refers to someone protecting SE business model or reasoning trough logic rather than emotional non-sense on why life is not fair, clashing with ideals, example Extra OPTIONAL services. -.-;

[CaptainLagbeard]

"White Knight" is used pejoratively against people who they objectively know are right, but think they're brown-nosing/butt-kissing/astroturfing rather than sincerely believe it. In a similar context "SJW" is used pejoratively against people who "white knight" social causes (hence "social justice warrior") without much understanding of the issue. Both are terms typically used pejoratively by people who don't want the status-quo to change, even if it would benefit them.

I would rather say that "SJW" is more someone who wants the so called status quo changed to benefit them, at the expense of others.
And they try justify it because the people at who's expense the change would happen to be "privileged"... While they themselves usually are better off to begin with...

And also people who keep labeling other people, with certain things, that those people really aren't...

And complain about things that very much aren't issues...

[KaivaC]

It's not often that the original meaning of one of my threads gets changed, and I find myself more curious about what changed it in the first place haha. Seriously, the comments made me chuckle quite a bit. Thanks for brightening up my Friday

[Aylis]

Much like toxic and elitist, I feel like the words are thrown around way too easily.

Entitlement too, I see that word thrown around so much to the point of getting sick when its mentioned.

Since we became a society of labels, so many words have been bent, twisted and their original meanings have been lost and forgotten and definitions made up on the fly for them to whatever suits whatever's purpose. These words basically mean now "Hey I see you doing something differently then me or like something I don't or disagree with me so I'm gonna throw labels at you to try and shame you into thinking and acting like how I do. BE MAH CLONE!!"