Heartwarming / A Knight's Tale

• Will going to the banquet and dance with Jocelyn is very cute. When the dancing begins, Adhemar tries to humiliate him by asking Will to demonstrate a dance from his homeland. Since Will only just learned how to dance, he stumbles through a few steps before Jocelyn joins him and has the rest of the guests start dancing. The two then can be seen dancing together, laughing and having a wonderful time, while Adhemar silently seethes.
• Kate makes new armour for Will, which is far lighter, but just as strong(with the team testing it and Will not feeling a thing). When approaching the joust, the assembled knights all laugh at the armour...until Will vaults into the saddle of his horse with no difficulty, while his opponent struggles to mount his horse, even with the help of his squires.
• Will's friends helping him write his love letter to Jocelyn ("I miss you like the sun misses the flower").
  • It's made even more emotional by the fact that all of the words were inspired by past loves that Will's friends had. Wat and Roland draw theirs from girls they were in love with and Kate ends the letter with words her dead husband always told her about having hope.
  • Wat talking about his love, mentions that she cooked for the Duke of York and he just beams when he does. Given how much he likes food, this is obviously a huge compliment from him.
• After Will has been beaten and battered loosing the first half of a tournament, then coming from behind spectacularly to win it, all at Jocelyn's request, Chaucer sees her entering Will's tent. He smiles softly and says "Bed him well, my lady. Bed him well."
• In a flashback showing how Will became a squire, Sir Ector at first appears to a rather gruff man, chastising a young Roland when he fumbles carrying a piece of his equipment. But he nevertheless proves himself a good-hearted knight beyond that first impression. He takes William on, for all that he's a 'half-starved little scarecrow', because he sees the boy's spirit. He promises the young boy 'a wide world, full of adventure' and finally lets him say goodbye to his father before they hit the road. He then exchanges a meaningful look with John Thatcher, as if promising to take care of young Will. It makes his rather Undignified Death a bit of a tear-jerker, in the end. He deserved better.
• When Will is riding in the parade of knights at the World Championship in London, he looks over and sees a young boy sitting on stocks waving at his heroes, and remembers how he was once in that boy's position. He gets a look on his face where it's just sinking in — he made it. His dream. He changed his stars. A similar thing happens in the moment when he is actually knighted.
  • In the same parade, Roland is carrying William's standard in front of him. He takes a look back at William on his horse, and puffs up in pride.
• Will's reunion with his blind father, which doubles as a Tear Jerker.
  William: Aye, he lives. He is very well. He wanted you to know... that he changed his stars after all.
  John: (Tearfully hopeful) And... has he followed his feet? Has he found his way home at last?
  William: Yes.
• Will has a sweet conversation with a little peasant girl in Cheapside. He smiles and sits with her, and tells her the secret that he was born in Cheapside, the same as her, and she tells him he's her favorite knight, and then helps him find his father.
• "Yes William, with the pigs."
  • This one really stands out, because on the page, it's narmy as all get out. But Shannyn Sossamon sells the hell out of it.
• William's friends standing by him while he is arrested and put in the pillory, protecting him from being beaten and having vegetables thrown at him. William even tells them to leave and let the crowd have him. Roland's response?.
  Roland: God love you, William. So do I.
  • Doubly so as it's a Call-Back to their earlier exchange, when Will was first convincing them to go along with his mad "pretend I'm a knight" scheme:
    Roland: God love you, William.
    William: (grinning ear to ear) I know, I know, "no one else will."
• "Your men love you. If I knew nothing else about you, that would be enough." The Black Prince, freeing William from the pillory.
  • And he goes on to say "But you also tilt when you should withdraw, and this is knightly too." William truly is a knight in his heart, far more so than his rival.
• Chaucer's introduction of William at the final tourney, with Jocelyn and John Thatcher listening from the stands:
  Wat: That's your name, Will. Sir William Thatcher. Your father heard that.
• Prince Edward openly roaring his approval of Will's victory and kissing his Lady out of happiness.
• Heck, every interaction between William and Prince Edward. It starts out when Will spares his opponent "Coleville" the dishonor of withdrawing and mercifully draws with him rather than finishing him off. He looks moved by the plea of his obviously pained opponent and just nods respectfully. Later, it is clear that despite their vast difference in social standing, they soon discover how similar they are to each other; both wanting to escape their positions in life, try to hide who they are, and end up unable to do so. Because of that, they end up developing a huge amount of respect for one another, to the point where William chooses to joust him knowing that he is the Black Prince in disguise, and Prince Edward returns William's kindness for respecting his wishes by releasing him from the stocks and knighting him.
  Prince Edward: What a pair we make, huh? Both trying to hide who we are, both unable to do so.
• And of course, the final shot of the film, Will and Jocelyn's Big Damn Kiss.
• "Sir Thomas" grows increasingly disappointed as knight after knight withdraws from the tournament rather than ride against him. It looks like Will's team is going to withdraw too, but then Will tilts anyway. The smile on Thomas's face as Will comes charging toward him really sells the scene.
• Wat is furious when Adhemar wins a round against Will, and he starts to express this in his typical, angry, loud Wat way. Chaucer literally knocks him to the ground, loudly says the appropriate congratulations towards Adhemar, and when Wat gets back up, Chaucer repeatedly insists he go check on Will rather than stay and stupidly vent his anger. Part of it is Chaucer's own self-preservation, but he does share Wat's loyalty and fondness towards Will, and he did protect Wat by doing this.
  • Up to this point (and throughout the rest of the film), Wat beating up Chaucer at the slightest provocation is a running gag. When Chaucer knocks him to the ground to stop him from picking a fight with Adhemar, however, and firmly tells him "go and see to Ulrich", Wat does actually back down. Although he's still furious, he clearly understands on some level that Chaucer did him a favour by not letting him fight Adhemar (and probably get killed) and so he doesn't get violent in response. It's probably the first somewhat friendly interaction that we see between the two of them.
    • At the end of the film, Chaucer says that he will have to write about William's story someday, commenting that "all of human activity lies within the artist's scope", before looking at Wat and adding, "well maybe not yours." For a moment Wat looks like he's going to hit him again, but instead he playfully pulls him into a hug, showing that they've finally become friends.
• When Will and his friends are discussing Will's choice to lose the Paris tournament to prove his love to Jocelyn, Roland sounds near to tears and begs him to just withdraw, so he doesn't have to take any more punishment and pain on the field. He just can't bear to see Will go through so much pain.
• After Geoff is revealed to have gambled away everything again and promised his creditors that Sir Ulrich will pay them, the gang is rightfully miffed. Wat starts to beat him up. But Will only regretfully says "I don't have the money," and then immediately promises the creditors that they'll get it as soon as he has it if they release Chaucer and return his things. It just shows how decent and compassionate Will is, and the reason he inspires loyalty in his men, as Chaucer is 100% his friend and supporter for the rest of the film, and quite enjoys giving hammy speeches about how awesome Will is.
• The deleted scene that depicts Chaucer's wife Philippa shows how head-over-heels in love they are with each other.
• An understated part of the whole movie is Kate eventually becoming part of the group. Mainly how seamlessly and subtly she ultimately does it. She initially starts out as nothing more than a blacksmith looking to prove herself through helping Will out, then continues to help a bit in order to gain both travel and notoriety. By the halfway point in the movie she's completely incorporated into the group, even knowing Will's secret to no fanfare and it's kind of beautiful for that. She became one of their True Companions not with some grand gesture or misunderstanding leading to a heartfelt understanding. She just grew closer to the group over time until she just became one of them, lending to how most real life friendships are formed.
• After Adhemar is finally unhorsed, even after using underhanded tactics to try to beat Will, Adhemar's herald applauds William's victory with the rest of the audience, sparing only a glance to the fallen knight and making no move to help the man to his feet.

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