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A boy who grows, with knife in hand, to fend for her, becomes a man. |
—The Dear Hunter - The Inquiry of Miss Terri | |
Parker le Gallois, who goes by Parker Valiant at Ever After High, [he/him] is the son of Sir Percival, an iconic knight in the Arthurian Legends associated with retrieving the Holy Grail.
A new arrival to Ever After High, Parker had been homeschooled for his whole life by his mother, and had never ventured outside the Welsh forest in which he called home. Because of this, he's very excited about the prospect of destiny and looks up to his fellow Knights very highly.
Character[]
Personality[]
- fresh off
the boatwelsh woods - embodies the principles of perceval well
- book-smart more than people/street-smart
- thinks people are cool and interesting though
- easily led astray due to naviete, hence reliant on a social network
- determined
- adaptable
Appearance[]
Parker is a black youth, with deep brown skin and dark poofy brown hair, which he often weaves flowers into. His eyes are a soft green. He is tall and well-built, after years of tending to his mother’s forest home and farm, and being an adept gardener.
Interests, Hobbies & Skills[]
Gardening[]
Back home, Parker would always tend to his garden, being adept with spades and the seasons and loved it when his mother would bring home almanacs for him to read and study. To him, it was very satisfying to see the fruits of his labours, and he regards gardening as another means of respecting the earth. At Ever After High, he volunteers at local community gardens, wanting to carry his hobby over.
Parks, Rangering, Hiking, Etc[]
Not wishing to be too homesick, Parker takes frequent hikes in the Enchanted Forest, and wants to be registered as a proper ranger. The species at Ever After High are so different to the ones he knows, and he's working intently on learning them.
Environmental Action[]
As he was not hexposed to modern civilisation much, seeing environmental destruction first hand hit Parker hard. He knew of it happening -- from whatever material his mother brought home, but didn't realise it could be so bad, with poison magic toxins leaking into water ways, or the destruction of fae homes... Parker feels lost and small and doesn't know what to do, but he helps out in whatever ways he can.
Knights!!![]
Parker loves his story! He loves the people in it that he's met! And he has had no clue of what and who knights are or were before coming to Ever After High, so it's all new to him and he's doing whatever he can to catch up.
Other[]
- Parker holds a part-time job at Green & Things. It was this place that fitted him with the green armor that he wears now, though he is thinking of getting an upgrade soon to the classic vermillion armor associated with Percival.
- He is an adept birder, and can recognise birds from calls alone.
Mythology: Arthurian Legend[]
Sir Percival[]
To keep it short and sweet, because there's a lot to go through in Arthurian Legend, Parker will be following Mallory's Morte D'Arthur, and its interpretation Sir Perceval.
How does Parker come into this?[]
- To distinguish between the Arthurian character Perceval and the Percival of the previous generation, I’ll use the ‘e’ spelling for the former and the ‘i’ spelling for the latter in this case.
The Sir Percival of the previous generation had initially resolved to follow an earlier variant of his tale, where he married his sweetheart, the Blanchefleur is his generation. He did so, and sired several kids - three sons and a daughter.
He hexpected happiness. He hexpected peace. But despite following what seemed like a more stable, happy path, Sir Percival felt like something was off. This was not the peace he wanted. Because of this, he had a bit of a religious revelation, and recalled the later legends - the ones people thought he would follow. In those legends, Sir Perceval maintained his virginity and went into monk-hood.
Despite having strayed from that path, Sir Percival wished to return to it. He sent his older two sons off to some academy to study knighthood, and his only daughter off to a convert or a nunnery. His youngest son, however, he left behind with his wife, with the desire that this son would be raised as the next Perceval.
His two elder sons went on to serve as knights. One was killed by the then-Lancelot, while he was defending the execution of the then-Guinevere, and the other perished in a war against the Romans. Neither of them attended Ever After High, studying in a specialised school for (more minor) Arthurian knights. Both of them died not long after their graduation.
Meanwhile, his daughter made her escape from the nunnery, running off to live with her uncle, a hermit. She briefly toyed with the idea of attending Ever After High, but wanted to get to her role as the next grail maiden (also known as Dindrane, in some legends), and applied as soon as possible for a position at the Castle of Maidens. She lives there now.
Percival stayed in the monastery all his following days, writing and recounting his past days of glory. He found peace with himself, even if he did have to lose his family.
As for his youngest son?
Well, that would be Parker.
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Hence, as the last hope of his family, his mother retired with him into a solitary region, where he was brought up in total ignorance of arms and chivalry. |
—Bulfinch’s Mythology | |
Parker's mother realised exactly what happened when she was left alone with Parker. He was to be raised in the same way every Perceval before was raised. Alone, in the woods, by his single mother, clueless to chivalry and knightship, oblivious to what a sword or a horse was.
That was precisely what she did. It would be her only legacy to the man who she once loved.
Except, with the Storybook dissolved and fairytales still persisting, albeit earlier (as seen by Darling’s kiss and Daring’s curse), destiny pushes on.
Knights pass by the woods that Parker lives, and he mistakes them, as Percevals do, for angels. And they realise that they must take him, not to King Arthur, but to the land of Ever After.
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By my faith, I will go and become an angel with them. |
Sir Percevals don’t generally attend Ever After High. The destiny itself is built on being utterly clueless and separate from anything knightly, and they are expected to be trained in all that is necessary by their mother, and rush into their destiny requirements only slightly prepared. Parker is an exception to this rule, and would not have been an exception had Raven not dissolved the Storybook’s power.
Opinions on Destiny[]
Parker is near obsessed with his destiny, and yearns for it more than anything.
He's slowly in the process of learning about the rest of his family - the father he never knew, the brothers that were gone before his time, and the sister that's abroad -, and wants to honour them and their deaths, and make sure whatever life they lived, it was "worth it, and for a greater cause".
As a very Godly and pious person, he strives to attain the classic purity of the traditional Sir Perceval. He thinks of his destiny as his God-given duty and must follow it in the most seeming way possible, and after aimless years of hunting in the woods, is glad to have a life purpose.
The Rebel Movement, therefore, is something that is a little upsetting for him, but not too much of a bother. Whatever happens, Parker believes, will happen. Everything will fall in place, and as long as he is doing his best in whatever situation he has been thrown in, it is enough.
Interpretation[]
- i ended up playing the role straight. percival is the innocent knight who has to learn very quickly to grow up, without losing his wholesomeness
- right now i don't have a lot of interesting things to say about parker but he was my first proper arthurian character and i cherish him
Parallels[]
- Parker was raised in the same way, with the same backstory as Sir Perceval was.
- He sometimes snacks on Mass wafers.
- A reference to the Fisher King part of the story, in which the Grail Perceval observes contains what looks like Mass wafers.
- Perceval proves his worth to King Arthur by killing a troubling, rogue knight and taking that knight's vermillion armour. Parker wears vermillion.
Relationships[]
Family[]
Parker has pretty much zero clue what his family is actually like, having been raised in the woods by his single mother all his life before Ever After High. This family backstory is pretty much all laid out in the "How does Parker come into this?" section on his main page, so hop over there.
Mother: Lady Bronwen of Galles (nee Fleur)[]
To Parker, his mother is the most important figure in his life. She was the beloved Blanchefleur of Sir Perceval in de Troyes' Perceval, le Conte du Graal, but currently, she's the next Perceval's mother, and the one destined to shield him from everything knightly and harmful in this world.
Before Ever After High, she was pretty much the only human contact he has, and he's not quite sure how to manage without her now that he's at boarding school. Parker makes the effort to write snail mail to her often, for there is no WiFairy in the woods.
One thing though: there's so much that she hasn't told him yet. Parker just wishes he wasn't so ill-equipped for the modern world.
Father[]
Parker's father, the last one to serve the Perceval destiny, is a monk now, and working at some nondescript monastery. That's all Parker knows about his father, and he really wants to find stories as to how he was like back in his youth. But his father never attended Ever After High, and he doesn't get to talk to the actual Knights of the Round Table (not his generation, the one before) often. It's a bit of an empty hole in his heart, which he makes up for (in copious amounts of reading).
Siblings[]
His two older brothers are dead -- nondescript knights who died for the sake of generic destiny. They didn't attend EAH either, but were at a boarding school specific to knights. In age, they're a good amount of years older than Parker and died only a few years ago. (Parker's mother had to take some leave to attend their funeral -- and she didn't take Parker along.)
He also has one young sister, Diana Dransfield. When she's not at Camelot High, she's studying with her uncle, in preparation for her role as Dindrane.
Friends[]
Knights of the Rotund Table[]
George-Michael Bernard Pendragon: soft!
Bertha de Hautdesert: A very cool person with a very cool aesthetic. Parker thinks the Green Knight is fantastic, and what a great colour scheme she has! He strongly appreciates how noble she is, and her gentle giant nature, and is always thrilled when she takes him out shopping for amour (usually green in colour!).
Galvin Gwyar: mood!
Other Arthurians[]
Gwendolyne "Gwen" E. Vere: friend! he thinks!
Eleanor Shalott: hobbies!
Pets[]
Back home, in the Woods, Parker and his mum had a pet cat named Fisher.
As Parker was raised "ignorant of knights and horses", ever since coming to Ever After High, Parker has been earnest to get himself a horse. Although he's had a bunch of great fun learning how to ride horses from EAH's own stables, he's yet to get a steed of his own.
And since he came to EAH late, he missed Animal Calling completely. Though, Parker is a bit nervous on the idea of potentially getting a pet -- he's still new, and does he really have that sort of responsibility for another living thing?
Romance[]
Being raised far from everyone else, Parker Valiant hasn't had any experience in the field of romance. He regards Sir Ywain (who delivered him from his mother's house to Ever After High) as "one of the most handsome of men", but that's been the only hextent of any of his crushes.
Outfits[]
Parker's theme colours are vermillion, accented with yellow on purple. His associated pattern is the Percival coat of arms. He generally has a relaxed style, as if he's going out for a hike. While there are some elements of knighthood and armour, these are not full-blown to indicate his youth. Common motifs are the Holy Grail, Welsh forests and rings.
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
- Parker Valiant was a play on the name Perceval.
- P-Val, if it weren’t obvious.
- Parker is an Old English name meaning park keeper. A nod to his upbringing and his hobby of rangering.
- Valiant is also an adjective frequently associated with knights.
- The name on Parker’s birth certificate is Parker le Gallois, or “Parker the Welshman”. However, he uses the Valiant surname in the context of Ever After High.
- Zena alternates between spelling Percival as “Percival” and “Perceval”. Although Percival is the most common anglicisation, both spellings are commonly used.
Gallery[]
| old art |
 first ever doodle of parker  anime AND god  hehe squish squish  he's a blanket burrito  fullbody official art |
Further Reading[]
Fanfiction Appearances[]
- Parker Valiant's diary: Parker meets five knights in the woods - the catalyst for his destiny.
| A page was written for his sister, Diana Dransfield. Here are excerpts from the page. |
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