A Further Note about Unexpected Dislodgers of the Sword from the Stone; or, But What about Bob?
By Kevin J. Harty
In the inaugural issue of The So What, Brenna Duperron draws our attention to the unexpected use of the sword-in-the stone trope in the print and cinematic adventures of two non-Arthurian heroes: Aquaman and Thor. The former must needs retrieve the Trident of Atlan to establish his rightful royal lineage.[1] The latter must prove his mettle by retrieving the mythical hammer of Mjolnir. Both are, of course, obviously successful in their quests and in establishing their heroic bona fides.
But a trident and a hammer do not an actual sword in the stone make. Happily, there is yet another hero in present day London who actually dislodges the real sword from the real stone in which it has been wedged, sitting unnoticed, presumably for a very long time, in an obscure urban churchyard. Upon doing so, this hero is quickly acclaimed the rightful monarch of Britain. Elizabeth II abdicates in his favor. In the real world, such an abdication would precipitate a constitutional crisis, as it did in 1936 when Edward VIII abdicated to marry the divorced woman he loved, but not in this case. So Liz is out, and our hero is in—no questions asked. Adoring crowds line up the hundreds, if not by the thousands, deep, surrounding Buckingham Palace to hear King Bob’s inaugural address. These crowds first express some bafflement over the speech their new monarch gives, but soon enough bafflement gives way to unbridled enthusiasm as the adoring crowds burst into cheers that echo across the city—if not the whole of England.
So, just who is this hero who lacks any obvious royal pedigree, who nonetheless ends the Windsor dynasty, and who ascends the throne with instantaneous and universal acclaim and adulation from his subjects because he pulls the sword from the stone? Why, he’s Bob! Bob?, you ask! Who’s Bob? On the answer to that question hangs a highly successful continuing film franchise, already consisting of five films (2010, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2022) with two additional films set for release (2026 and 2027). Bob’s moments of royal Arthurian glory occur in the 2015 film. Which 2015 film you might ask—why Minions, of course! Talk about looking for or finding Arthur in all the wrong places![2]
In case you are not an actual youngster or at least a youngster at heart, a Minion is a diminutive capsule shaped creature—Minions come in several sizes of diminution, but all have blue denim bottoms, yellow upper bodies, and bulging eyes—they also come in single and double eyed varieties. They speak what, at first, appears to be gibberish, but their language turns out to be a Creole made up from dozens (and dozens) of languages. Listen carefully enough, and you can (almost) understand what Minions are saying, especially when they speak and gesture at the same time.[3]
It turns out that Minions have been around since before even pre-historic times—who knew!? And Minions have but one mission—to serve, but not to serve just anyone. They want to serve only the most despicable of masters. Their adventures throughout history, seeking a suitable despicable master to serve, all turn into a series of misadventures, which sometimes leave their would-be masters rather dead and the Minions themselves always disappointed, yet determined to soldier on in their search for the Minion Holy Grail, a truly despicable master to serve. (Another nice Arthurian link there!) Frustrated and bored, but safe, in their Arctic lair, the Minions decide that they must become more proactive, so they deputize three of their number—Kevin (love the moniker), Stuart, and the most diminutive of the three, Bob—to travel (like knights—in shining denim—on a quest—another Arthurian nod?) far and wide in search of a leader worthy (despicable) enough of their obedience and service.
The trio of Minion knights-errant ends up first in New York City and then in Florida to attend Villain Con (think Comic Con for baddies), where they meet and fall under the spell of Scarlet Overkill, the world’s first female supervillain. Scarlet’s quest (yet another quest, yet another Arthurian nod?) is to get her hands, by hook or by crook, on Queen Elizabeth’s crown so she can proclaim herself queen—a backstory tells us that, as a child, Scarlett never got to be a princess, so, as an adult, she has set her eyes on an even more impressive role.
Because misadventure is a given wherever Minions try to serve a despicable master, Kevin, Stuart and Bob’s quest in London for Elizabeth’s crown as Scarlet’s hench-Minions goes horribly and totally wrong. The questing Minions find themselves on the run, and our three heroes become separated from each other—in a separate plot development all the remaining Minions have managed to make it to London aboard airplane flights whose loose security would drive TSA crazy! It is then that Bob, desperate to save his life (and to retrieve his teddy bear), stumbles on the sword lodged in a stone tucked away behind an otherwise unremarkable church. No sooner does Bob dislodge the sword then he is immediately proclaimed ‘rightwise king born of all England,’ like anyone else in the history of the Arthurian legend ‘whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil.’ And then, as in Malory, all the people marveled, Elizabeth abdicates, and Bob appears on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to greet his new subjects.
King Bob’s reign is short-lived, as Scarlet intervenes once again, having transformed herself into a giant—don’t giants sometimes seek to unseat the traditional Arthur?—before she is finally defeated as London, and all England, settle back into a form of normalcy. The Minions reunite—Bob even retrieves his teddy bear—but they are still no closer, at least in this film in the franchise, to fulfilling their quest to find a truly despicable master to serve. I’ll allow Duperron and other readers of this site their Aquamen and Thors, but not at the price of overlooking a true hero, who, not unlike the boy Arthur, actually pulls the actual sword from the actual stone in his and England’s hour of need. All hail King Bob![4]
Author Bio:
Kevin J. Harty is Professor of English at La Salle University in Philadelphia. For more than 40 years, he has been writing about Arthurian cinema in “bits and bobs”!
1 Aquaman and the Trident’s links to the legend of Arthur are discussed in more detail by Kevin J. Harty in “James Bond, A Grifter, a Video Avatar, and a Shark Walk into King Arthur’s Court: The Ever-expanding Canon of Cinema Arthuriana,” Arthuriana 30.2 (2020): 103-105 [89-121].
2 This comment nods to the title of an essay by Kevin J. Harty, “Looking for Arthur in All the Wrong Places: A Note on M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense.” Arthuriana 10.4 (2000): 57-62.
3 For a brief discussion of “Minionese,” see Lauren Collins, “Minionese,” The New Yorker 102.20 (20 July 2026): 10-11.
4 This note is dedicated to my longtime good friend and Arthurian colleague Marty Shichtman, who isn’t an actual Minion, but who would make a really good one—blue is definitely his color!
And in a note to a note, it seems that everyone wants to pull the sword from the stone to prove their mettle. In a post-World Cup Finals television advertisement for Skechers trainers, Harry Kane, the world-famous English footballer, proves he can do anything by wearing those shoes, including pulling the sword from the stone: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/g97B/skechers-do-anything-featuring-harry-kane.
