Monty Python and The Holy Grail/Characters

Knights of the Round Table

King Arthur

The main character. He is the king of the Britons. God sent him and his knights on a quest to find the Holy Grail. Acts very stoic considering the amount of strangeness happening around him.

• Authority in Name Only: Absolutely no one, who knows that he exists, regards him as King. After all, supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
• Badass Beard
• Deadpan Snarker
• Cool Helmet: It looks like a crown.
• Cool Sword: Excalibur of course.
• Only Sane Man
• The Smart Guy: Much wiser than Sir Bedivere.
• The Stoic: Compared to other characters, who have very eccentric personalities, Arthur always acts like people would expect from a king.
• Verbal Tic: Skips 3 and 4 when counting.

Sir Bedivere the Wise

The wisest of the knights. This does not mean anything, since he thinks that the Earth is banana-shaped and proclaims earthquakes can be stopped by sheep bladders.

• Badass Moustache
• Character Tics: He always holds his visor up, despite being able to look perfectly through it
• Cool Helmet
• The Fool: Though he survives.
• Informed Attribute: Played for Laughs. He is supposed to be wise, but makes very big mistakes and acts like a fool.
• Insane Troll Logic: Employs this to help villagers expose a witch. It went like this: Witches burn. Wood also burns. Wood floats. Ducks also float. So if someone weighs the same as a duck, she is made of wood and is therefore a witch.

Sir Lancelot the Brave

An Axe Crazy knight. He always tries to solve his problems through violence. Is also very dramatic in his way of acting.

• Affably Evil: A very polite man when not indiscriminately murdering everyone around him.
• Axe Crazy: When something provokes him to fight, there is nothing stopping him from slaughtering everyone on sight. Even wedding guests had to die.
• The Berserker
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: He IS John Cleese, you know.
• Easily Forgiven: Says that he's "terribly sorry" and the King of Swamp Castle forgives him. Once Prince Herbert is shown to be alive, everyone else forgives him.
• Evil Laugh
• Lantern Jaw of Justice
• Large Ham: Again, it's John Cleese.
• Leeroy Jenkins
• One-Man Army: Hacked his way through an entire castle.
• Only Sane Man: Until he has to rescue someone...
• Unstoppable Rage

Sir Galahad the Pure/Chaste

This knight does not do much in the film. Like his title says, he is a chaste knight.

• Adorkable
• Deadpan Snarker: "What a strange person."
• Epic Fail: How do you screw up picking a favorite colour?
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: He tries to be this, but after being in Castle Anthrax, which is filled with hyper-sexual blonds and brunettes of 16 to 19 and a half years old, for around 10 minutes, he gives up.
• Messy Hair

Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot

Sir Robin claims to be very brave. He also has a band of minstrels singing about his bravery...but is an enormous coward.

• Accidental Hero: Stumbled upon the Achilles Heel of The Knights Who Say Ni. The word "it."
• Adorkable
• Badass Moustache: His moustache is much more badass than him.
• Bring My Brown Pants: He is known of personally wetting himself at the battle for Badon Hill. He also did it when the Killer Rabbit made his first victim.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Informed Attribute: An in universe example. He is claimed to be the brave sir Robin, but runs away from every sign of danger. But this does not stop his minstrels from singing how bravely he ran away.
• Lovable Coward
• Miles Gloriosus

Sir Not Appearing In This Film

This is not a real character, but more of a gag when the narrator introduces the Knights of the round table. When his picture is shown, he appears as a baby wearing a chainmail helmet thats too large. This is actually Michael Palin's son, William Palin. He is the Trope Namer to Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer and Lady Not-Appearing-In-This-Game.

• Adapted Out: A parody of this.

Brother Maynard

A monk and scholar. He gives the Holy Hand Grenade to the Knights when they need a way to defeat the Killer Rabbit. He also translates the runes inside the Cave of Caerbannog, but is eaten by the Black Beast of Aaargh.

• Mr. Exposition: Translates the writings relating to the Castle Aaargh.
• Remember the New Guy?: Just randomly shows up.

The villains

The Black Knight

A black knight that won't let Arthur pass. He loses his limbs in the following battle and still wants to fight. Tropenamer for Only a Flesh Wound.

• Awesome but Impractical: His heavy fighting style. Against a more seasoned opponent like Arthur, who has a Boring but Practical fighting style, he's taken apart in short order.
• Butt Monkey
• The Determinator: He has it in his cylindrically-helmeted head that "the Black Knight always triumphs!" and only considers calling the fight "a draw" when he's lost all four of his limbs. Arthur seems to accept this and leaves, but as he goes, the Black Knight is last heard screaming, "I'LL BITE YOUR LEGS OFF!"
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain
• Large Ham
• Major Injury Underreaction: After all, 'tis but a flesh wound.
• Only a Flesh Wound: The Trope Namer.
• Sorry, Billy, But You Just Don't Have Legs
• Too Dumb to Live: The main reason why he loses all of his limbs.
• You Shall Not Pass: He tries this at any rate.

The French

A bunch of French soldiers that like to insult 'English types' with random insults. Reappear in the end where they claimed the Castle Aaargh as their own.

• Abnormal Ammo: Subverted. The French try to scare the Knights of the Round Table away by throwing living animals at them. While the scene looks strange, the DVD commentary reveals it has really been done in history, but not with the kinds of animals used in the movie.
  • Played straight when they fire a large wooden rabbit at the knights.
• Blowing a Raspberry: The leader of the French soldiers does this every encounter.
• Cool Helmet
• Flowery Insults: It almost seems they live for this trope.
• French Jerk
• I Shall Taunt You: The Trope Namers.
• Jerkass
• Just a Stupid Accent: One of them does not seem capable of speaking French.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Taking over Castle Aaargh.
• Riddle for the Ages: What is a French castle doing in England?
• Troll
• Verbal Tic: They cannot pronounce the word 'knights' correctly. Instead, it sounds like 'knnniggets'.

The Three Headed Knight

A large three headed knight who seems to be a formidable fighter, where it not that the heads first must agree before an action can be taken.

• Multiple Head Case: This gave the brave Sir Robin the chance to bravely run away.

The Residents of Castle Anthrax

160 blonds and brunettes, between 16 and 19 and a half years old. They light a grail-shaped beacon to lure knights to them in order to tempt them.

• The Vamp: Sort of. While not inherently evil, they do try to tempt the chaste sir Galahad into sexual activities.

The Knights Who Say Ni!

An order of knights based on protecting the sacred words of Ni, Peng and Nee-wom. Like it says on the tin, they frequently say 'NI!' as a Brown Note of sorts. Their leader is a very tall man who wears a large helmet with antlers. He is the one who speaks in behalf of the whole order. The rest of the knights only say 'NI!' and mostly repeat what the head knight is saying. They live in a spooky forest and coerce every traveler into buying a Shrubbery for them.

• Badass Beard
• Brown Note: It's what they are known for.
• Cool Helmet: The Head Knight wears a bucket-shaped helmet with antlers on it and the other knights wear horned helmets that cover their faces.
• Dark Is Evil: They are dressed in black/dark brown and their leader looks like a typical Evil Overlord.
• Impossible Task: After Arthur brings them a shrubbery, they decide he'll have to bring them another shrubbery, and then cut down "the mightiest tree in the forest" with a herring.
• The Dreaded: The Knights who say Ni! appear to have a terrifying reputation, considering the fact they inspire fear within nearby villages, maybe even the whole country, cause the shrubbery-economy to collapse and make a fearful king Arthur do their bidding. Anyone who terrifies King Arthur like that is worthy of being called 'the Dreaded'.
• Trope Namer: for The Knights Who Say Squee and With This Herring
• With This Herring
• Weaksauce Weakness: Despite being so powerful in that they can even force the great King Arthur to do as they command, the Knights of Ni can be defeated by saying the word 'it'.

The King of Swamp Castle

A corrupt king that tries to use an arranged marriage to gain more huge tracts of land. He hates it when his son attempts to sing and rudely interrupts him when he does.

• Bald of Evil
• The Determinator: He built a castle in a swamp just to show the other kings it's possible to do so. It sank into the swamp. The same happened to the second castle. Guess what? He built a third castle in the swamp... which burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth and current one stayed up.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father

The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog

A cute white rabbit who guards a cave. Trope Namer to Killer Rabbit... if it wasn't obvious already.

• Badass Adorable
• Hair-Raising Hare
• Killer Rabbit: He is this trope incarnate.
• Lightning Bruiser: Moves at insane speeds.

The Black Beast of Aaargh!

A cartoon Monster that appears out of nowhere. It quickly devours Brother Maynard.

• Cartoon Creature: It is a cartoon.
• Deus Ex Machina: It is killed because its animator died.
• Eldritch Abomination: A low rent one at that.

The Bridgekeeper

He guards the Bridge of Death and asks each traveler 3 questions. If they answer correctly, they may pass. When answering a question wrong, an invisible force grabs the victim and throws him into the Gorge of Eternal Peril.

• Hoist by His Own Petard: He is defeated when King Arthur answers a question with another question. The Bridgekeeper admits he does not know the answer and is thrown away himself.
• These Questions Three: The Trope Namer.
• What Could Have Been: In an earlier script, the bridgekeeper was stated to return as the boatkeeper, guarding the boat that sails to Castle Aaargh. He would greet any traveler with; "Who wants to cross the Sea of Fate must answer me questions twenty-eight." Arthur and Bedevere would have defeated him by simply throwing him into the lake.

Neutral Characters and other annoyances.

Guards of Swallow Castle

These guards refuse to believe Arthur is king and instead focus on how Patsy is banging coconuts together in the stead of a real horse, then eventually get sidetracked by the question of how coconuts could make it to medieval England to begin with.

• Chekhov's Gun: Their discussion provides Arthur with a means to defeat the bridgekeeper when he asks a question about swallows.
• Comically Missing the Point: More interested in how Arthur got coconuts than anything else he might have to say.

Dennis

A 37-year-old peasant, whose community is based on a political system thats too modern for the dark ages. It certainly has no place for a mythical king like Arthur, which Dennis openly shows. This starts another digression in which Dennis wants to prove that just wielding Excalibur is not a reason to boss people around. Dennis is Trope Namer to Inherent in the System.

• Deadpan Snarker
• Motor Mouth

God

God appears to the Knights of the Round Table and gives them the task to find the Holy Grail. He finds it annoying that people constantly consider themselves unworthy of His presence. His face is based on the cricket player W.G. Grace.

• Dispense with the Pleasantries: Can't stand people groveling when He tries to tell something.
• King of All Cosmos
• Large Ham
• Stop Worshipping Me!: See "Pleasantries". He actually seems to have developed a bit of a short fuse about people being too busy demeaning themselves to hold a conversation with Him.

• Talking to Himself: He is actually voiced by Graham Chapman, the actor who plays Arthur himself.

The Historian

This Historian tells the audience about Arthur's defeat at the hands of the French. He also explains that the knights continued their search separately. He is killed by a knight riding on a real horse. His death sets up the events happening in the end of the film.

• Chekhov's Gunman: His murder leads to the police anti-climatically arresting everyone at the end.

Prince Herbert

The son of the king of Swamp Castle. He is very girly and does not like the fact he is used in an arranged marriage. When he wants to express his feelings, he starts singing, complete with cheesy music in the background, but this is always interrupted by his father, who hates singing. Being fed up with his life, he shoots a message out of the window, which is found by Lancelot. Lancelot thinks the message is from a princess and sets out to rescue Herbert.

• Ambiguously Gay
• Improbable Aiming Skills: He nonchalantly shoots an arrow out of the window, which hits Lancelot's 'horse' Concorde from probably miles away, judging from the change in scenery.
• Unexplained Recovery: Fell from the highest room of the tallest tower and turned up no worse for wear.

Roger The Shrubber

Catches Arthur and Bedivere coercing an old woman by saying Ni to her. After expressing his disappointment in them, he reveals he is a shrubber. This gives Arthur an opportunity to bring a shrubbery to the Knights of Ni.

• Badass Beard
• Badass Long Hair
• Deus Ex Machina: Its very convenient that a shrubber appears when Arthur needs a shrubbery.
• Simple Staff

Tim the Enchanter

A powerful and eccentric wizard Playing with Fire. He tells the knights about the cave of Caerbannog and the Killer Rabbit. Naturally, he is called a liar when the knights see the rabbit, but has the last laugh when some of the knights get killed by the rabbit. Trope Namer to Some Call Me... Tim, but is no user of the trope.

• Badass Beard
• Cassandra Truth: Tells the truth about the Killer Rabbit, in that it is a terribly dangerous creature, but gets ridiculed by the Knights of the Round Table. Guess what happens next...
• Cloudcuckoolander
• Dark Is Not Evil: He comes over as a very intimidating and evil looking wizard, complete with a black robe and horns on his hat, but does not appear to be malevolent. He honestly warns the knights about the rabbit and only laughs at them when they stop taking him seriously.
• Large Ham: He even starts to spit drops of saliva when warning the knights about the Rabbit.
• Nice Hat
• Playing with Fire: Taken literally with the 'playing' part, since he does not anything useful with his gift. Like roasting a certain rabbit for instance.
• Trrrilling Rrrs