White-Knighting

"[Chris] blocked me too. We defend her, buy from her and encourage her. A truly repulsive person."

- Former white knight David90637947.

"White knights [during the Miscreants era] were subverted. Their messages blocked, deleted before Chris could see them. If they got through, trolls would leak their conversations with Chris and accuse the helper of being the culprit."

- Marvin, one of Chris's former trolls.



White-Knighting is a term used to describe the act of going on the Internet to help or defend someone else against other people, out of pity or compassion, or for ulterior motives. People who do this are often referred to as White-Knights. White knighting of Chris is especially prevalent because of the sheer volume of abuse he's taken ever since he found his Encyclopedia Dramatica page in 2007.

Thanks to events following from the Idea Guys, most white knights now fall into a sub-group referred to as Anti-Trolls, those who try to ward other trolls and Quintet members away from Chris to have him for themselves, rather than for noble purposes. These are not to be confused with the other sub-group of White Knights, counter-trolls, who primarily fight against trolls to protect Chris, rather to troll him themselves.

Counter-trolls are those who take Chris's side to spite his trolls. Some do this because trolling one gullible idiot is less satisfying than trolling trolls, who actually have the ability to understand what is going on. Others have decided that Chris has jumped the shark and are trying to make everyone else leave him alone to put a stop to an old meme, which is effectively gatekeeping.

In the broader internet trolling community, a wide range of people, from neutral observers to even his greatest trolls, are accused of being white knights. This is mostly due to Chris's "fans" discouraging Weening, Enabling and A-Logging, acts which, to outside observers, could be misinterpreted as an attempt to reduce trolling. Many of these outside observers are also confused by the tendency of Chris's trolls, including his most prolific ones, trying to get him to improve his life, as they don't know Chris well enough to know it's nigh impossible to get him to improve using the "soft touch". So when the label "white knight" gets thrown around, take it with a grain of salt.

A meta-topic within the broader Chris saga has been the merits of attempting to help Chris stop being a lolcow, and whether he is deserving of such assistance, or even beyond help. Opinion on the matter is somewhat divided on whether Chris is capable of improvement, although most agree that if Chris is going to improve, it will not be in any large part due to the efforts of third parties who only interact with him over the Internet.

Some believed that Chris was improving on his own, albeit slowly and in small increments, as seen in his gradual abandonment of his homophobia, which began with him declaring tolerance for lesbians, which he eventually extended to gay men. Others believed that Chris had not tangibly improved and that he has merely moved sideways, rather than forward. Chris showed signs of "improving" from mid-2015, having found a new hangout where it seemed he was finally making friends and improving his social skills. Moreover, he finally found a way to cash in on his e-fame, delighted his fanbase by resuming the comics and made his dreams of a Sonichu media empire a reality, albeit probably on a much smaller scale than he once envisaged.

Since Chris's arrest for incest in 2021, many of his white knights abandoned him, and he is now at the mercy of A-logs and weens.

Pity/Remorse
Following the release of Chris's first nudes and the video in which he reacted to the loss of his medallions and Blanca, many people, including trolls, felt sorry for him. They had not expected it to be possible for him to be trolled so hard or for him to appear so shattered.

Empathy
The internet is full of autistic people, manchildren, and self-absorbed morons. Many of them are right here, fascinated with Chris. All of them see something of themselves in him, whether it's his obesity, his all-consuming need for female companionship, or his fervent belief that his homemade comics matter. A lot of white knights have made at least some of the mistakes Chris has made and have since wised up. They think they can help improve Chris by offering the benefit of their experience.

Circumstances beyond Chris's control
Chris fails to identify people, a possible sign of. Julie and her brother Max used the same voice, and yet Chris couldn't recognize that they were the same person. Emily played numerous real-life characters, and yet Chris fell for every one of them. Pictures of different women were used to depict Blanca, and yet Chris thought they were the same person. Chris believed that pictures of were of Vanessa Hudgens. In high school, Chris memorized his appearance in the mirror because he had trouble recognizing himself. Since he's never "updated" his self-image, this is a possible explanation regarding why he denies being overweight.

Chris' autism also means that he thinks, and sees the world, in simplistic, binary terms; he cannot easily "read between the lines" or detect sarcasm, or practically any kind of nuance or subtlety. He interprets Family Guy as actually being against homosexuality. When two male acquaintances at the GAMe PLACe exchanged sarcastic homosexual remarks, Chris concluded that they were gay. It is also thought that his decision to go tomgirl was at least partially due to him taking advice to "get in touch with his feminine side" literally.

The trolls are even worse people than Chris
Another frequently heard line of reasoning is that the trolls have gone way too far, and have demonstrated that they're even worse than Chris, or at least equally pathetic. For example, BlueSpike's sadistic abuse of his control over Chris outraged even trolls. The less sophisticated bulk of the trolling was the work of A-Logs and weens, who are frowned upon even by trolls, and rightfully so. And, of course, who really has no life here: Chris, or the people who obsessively document and debate everything he does?

Attention Whores
Some of these white-knights, the aforementioned anti-trolls, desperately seek attention from the community that surrounds Chris, sometimes faking their protecting of Chris. A lot like enablers, these people cannot contribute anything to society and therefore will never get a Wikipedia page of their own, so the CWCki or Geno's Documentary series is the next best alternative. White Knights with attention on their mind often pretend that they are protecting Chris for noble purposes, when in actuality are trying to gain confirmation from the community through morally questionable techniques.

Chris is beyond your ability to help at this point
The trolls that allegedly wanted to teach Chris some unpleasant truths about life, along with previous White Knights who wanted to shield Chris from criticism while genuinely wanting to prepare him for the real world, have consistently come to the conclusion that Chris is simply incorrigible – nothing helpful that anyone says or does has actually stuck with Chris in a long-term capacity, while he is more than willing to pick up more harmful habits. Even Null, the closest person who Chris had to a friend since the trolling began, and was the only advisor that Chris would actually listen to, came to the conclusion that Chris not only refuses to learn anything if it even slightly inconveniences him, but that he is actively malicious and will ignore you or betray your trust if it benefits him. Even medical professionals are believed to have a hard time helping Chris, particularly when considering that Chris was just as delusional after three months of time in a psychiatric hospital as he was going in. While Chris is a victim of circumstance, he can only get help if he actually seeks it, and that feels like extremely wishful thinking at this point.

White-Knighting Chris now takes on a completely different connotation
An unfortunate shift in the character of Chris's Internet adversaries has developed in the Idea Guys' wake. Having caused Chris to believe himself married and a a goddess, traditional methods of reaching to Chris, as pretending to be a boyfriend-free girl, have become obsolete. And in recent times, there have been an overwhelming number of people who are confident that playing make-believe with Chris will either help him in the long run, or will turn them into trolling legends. Because of this newfound confidence built by playing make-believe with Chris, it has been abused several times, and likewise became the means of weeding them out, regardless of their intentions. White-Knighting as a whole has taken a much more negative connotation in the Chris Chan community than it ever has before.

Protecting Chris from specific trolls does not automatically make you a "hero" in the Chris Chan saga
It goes without saying, but just because you divert trolls away from Chris, doesn't exclude you from being a subject of critique, as you have involved yourself in the drama in the first place. No matter the intention, interacting with Chris has always been discouraged by the community surrounding him. Chris's story doesn't really have heroes in it, anyways – it can basically be described as a sad tale of villains, victims, victims who become villains, villains who become victims, and those who watch the whole sorry story play out.

The stresses of white-knighting
In order to get close to Chris, white knights have to spend at least as much time and effort as trolls to keep up-to-date on his activities. Most have to lie and pretend to be a goddess of another dimension, or a random OC, to even capture his attention. This, combined with Chris's habit of pushing away anyone who tries to connect with him, is enough to make any sane non-psychologist crash into slumber. A key example of this is the enabler MKR, who frequently came into conflicts with Jacob Sockness and his other enabling ilk while trying to warn Chris of the danger of letting Sockness get close – though for narcissistic reasons, as to some extent MKR simply wanted to keep Chris to herself. Regardless of whether they're white knighting for their own gain, or out of some misguided effort to help Chris, White knights will find themselves experiencing unprecedented levels of stress; this is one of the reasons why many simply give up.

Chris will not even read your message
Trolls had control over his e-mails. Messages sent to him by white knights were often deleted before he could read them. Even back in the days of the Mailbag, any emails submitted to it, if they even got published, would've been given one-word replies and ignored.

Chris won't ever learn his lesson, no matter what you tell him
Due in no small part to the fact that Chris had been mollycoddled by his parents from the very beginning and had his hand held through school by teachers who were sympathetic to a fault, he is flat out resistant to any harsh truths pointing out his countless shortcomings and the objective fact that the general public by and large isn't going to absolve him of responsibility for his antics.

He will not take a moment to reflect on his actions (let alone use memories of these experiences to avoid repeating the same mistakes ever again) because he is thoroughly convinced that he is a righteous victim of an unfair society that horribly mistreats autistics, thus anyone who goes against his ideals (i.e. denies him what he feels entitled to have) is an irredeemable villain in his eyes. As such, he won't accept any words that don't match what he believes in and/or wants to hear, so even simply trying to be nice and reasoning with Chris won't convince him you're not a dang dirty troll.

Even ignoring the numerous altercations Chris got into during his Love Quest (resulting in portraying authorities doing their jobs as one-dimensional villains for him and his league of OCs to triumph over) and the brutally honest tongue-lashing he received during the Father Call, a particularly notable example of a white knight unable to make Chris wake up and smell the coffee was none other than Vivian Gee. After three hours of trying to do just that, she eventually gave up, understandably equating the experience with "fighting a wall".

In short, as long as your words are not 100% in line with his childlike and egocentric point of view, it's utterly futile to try and help Chris.

Being overly nice to Chris might have molded him badly and still does
Tempting as it is to feel sympathetic for Chris (at least until mid-2021), doing so would only benefit him for all the wrong reasons. Chris's youth wasn't one without acts of kindness from others, albeit mainly people who were well-meaning yet misguided at best or flat-out spoiled him at worst. As a result of others generally opting to shield Chris from even the slightest negativity (with a few attempts at genuine advice going in one ear and out the other), he has grown accustomed to receiving, or expecting to receive, nothing but complete satisfaction with no strings attached from anyone who gives him the time of day.

Not only has it led to Chris's tendency to become hostile to anyone trying to show him the error of his ways (and of course doesn't give him everything he wants), but it has also allowed opportunities for enablers to entertain his bizarre delusions, only making him worse than he was before his online infamy. To make matters worse, it has even effectively created a paradox where benefitting Chris prevents him from getting what would actually benefit him (i.e. therapeutic aid he needs but refuses), so even the best of intentions will ultimately yield no positive results whatsoever.

White Knights on YouTube
Among the most notable of Chris's white knights was a YouTube counter-troll who claimed to be a 21 year-old Russian model named Svenka. Via her YouTube account, hottiee96, she released an inordinate number of screencaps from troll conversations on Sonichu IRC, including private conversations between Chris and Panda. She also released an image of the Man in the Pickle Suit who would later steal Chris's first date, Emily. Were Chris less thick-skulled and even slightly willing to accept irrefutable evidence, Svenka may have made somewhat of a negative impact on the organized trolling effort against Chris, but ultimately she was ineffectual. Svenka also had a unhealthy obsession with the CWCville Library's original curator, Arjen Van Dierten.

On 6 May 2009, YouTube user xThexPinchx/NorthxStar7/ThePinchisDaBomb tried to blackmail major trolls, claiming to have information on them. He was easily called on his bluff by someone who had not trolled Chris at all. The Pinch has also threatened BlueSpike saying he has information from his friends, forgetting the fact that BlueSpike has no friends.

White Knights on Facebook
In recent times (since 2012), Chris has taken to using Facebook as his main means of expressing himself. Inevitably, this has not only attracted the attention of trolls, but, in 2013, a slew of White Knights as well, in particular, a William Elliott Waterman, who taunted the trolls to come after him instead of Chris (Spoiler: Nobody did, because nobody actually cared what he had to say). Anna and Kim are two of the most notable ones on his friends list, both of whom try to offer constructive advice whenever Chris nosedives into a rant...when they're not busy kissing his ass, especially in the case of Anna.

However, as we've come to expect of Chris, anybody who tells him something he doesn't want to hear are people that needed to be brushed off until they stop saying those mean, awful things to him. A good case in point is his anger-laced tirade in September 2013, when he got thrown out of Walmart and started calling names. The white knights typically chimed in with their support...until he revealed that he vandalized an Xbox One display in the store. Several of them then told Chris that this was not right of him to do, and that the manager had every right to throw him out. His response to that?

"They do not. And if they do, they are most in the wrong, because they are most abusive and overzealous of their "authoritative power" that never has existed ever."

- – Chris's response to Chris Rhodes

TV Tropes
The TV Tropes article on Sonichu used to have a white knight message as the first text of the article, with a link back to this very page. It was eventually removed due to TV Tropes' website policy changing later on – in other words, said message would no longer be allowed on the website. The message is reproduced below:

"Hey Chris! If you're reading this: you seriously need to get help from licensed professionals, before the stuff you do gets you thrown in prison or forcibly committed. And we're sorry, but you have no real fans – the people you think are your fans are really either trolls or laughing at you behind your back. Every. Last. One. Please listen to us – for once."

- – Concerned tropers.

Unfortunately, the editor in question fails to realize that their message, while well intentioned, will do absolutely nothing and Chris will simply ignore it even if he does fully read and input it for better development. Thank you for your time.

In another move that was appeared to be White Knight-ish to onlookers, the page was also locked in order to prevent Weens and A-Logs from derailing a page about Chris's stupid webcomic to instead flood it with a trope list covering his entire life, with entries on Chris and the effort to troll him taking up about two-thirds of the page as a result of overzealous editors piling on an easy target instead of talking about the comic itself. However, the mods took action not out of a desire to protect Chris, but because troping a creator in such a fashion was strictly prohibited, and going into Chris's life in such detail constituted an invasion of privacy that was in direct violation of the site's rules. The subsequent cleanup led to several Sonichu-related pages being locked, with the main page covering the work getting a milquetoast and somewhat insincere message explaining that the article was being locked over excessive negativity, rather than the page flagrantly being warped by its editors to serve a different purpose than what the site was actually made for. Some Sonichu pages were eventually unlocked and the message was eventually removed, with the goal of actually providing examples of tropes in Sonichu being realized. Following the incest reveal, the pages were locked once more, and all discussion of Chris's personal life was prohibited on the threat of suspension.

A recreation of what that page looked like before being overhauled by the mods of TV Tropes can be seen here.

Chris as a White Knight
In 2017, Chris himself began (attempting) to white knight the crew of Planet Dolan, particularly DoopieDoOver, after he misinterpreted one of Doopie's tweets about being tired of harassment from Chris himself as referring to trolls harassing her. To this end, he started the #HarassCWCdirectly campaign in which he exhorted the supposed trolls to take aim at him and leave Doopie and friends alone. This may well be a misguided effort to win Doopie's affections after she emphasized that she considers him nothing more than a customer, not even a friend.

He also bizarrely white knighted himself in May 2020 while LARPing as Mewtwo, his second husband. Note that he did so as a brief interruption of his marathon session of LARPing as Sonichu.