@Mr_NutterButter make him autistic. not even joking or trying to make it a meme or something, just imagining an autistic dude whose special interest is knight shit could be interesting. there aren't really many autistic people in media in general and when there are, it's usually kinda poorly done or played for laughs imo. like a lot of people point to drax as being "autistic" or having "autistic traits" but really he's a stupid alien man who is there for comic relief and to be a big fighting dude.

the reluctance could come from maybe not liking the way it feels to slice through someone and that's actually the only reason he doesn't like killing, the sensory aspect of it, being detached from the actual act. maybe he complains about the amount of walking he has to do, or hates being on water, you know, stuff like that. but he's willing to do all of it because he thinks being a knight and helping people is really fucking cool, and he obsesses over his weapons being sharp and trains constantly. like he's not even a morally good character necessarily, or doesn't have some motivation of being your typical hero, but he just thinks it's cool and badass and he wants to be cool and badass.

i don't know, maybe that's a horrible suggestion but if you want to subvert expectations, i don't think something like that has ever been done that i can think of. i'd say just make sure it doesn't become a caricature of an autistic person or become particularly demeaning.