A Lighter Shade of Grey: Difference between revisions

 

[[A Lighter Shade of Black]] is this trope's [[Evil Counterpart]].

 

== Anime & Manga ==

** It flips once you get into R2, where Suzaku does his own share of dog-kicking, Lelouch gets turned into even more of a [[The Woobie|Woobie]]/[[The Chew Toy|Chew Toy]], and everybody betrays someone (especially [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|Suzaku]]).

** The other shades of grey are Emperor Charles and Schniezel. Charles clearly believed that his {{spoiler|[[Assimilation Plot]]}} was for the good of mankind. Schniezel had the same world peace goal as the Lelouch and Suzaku {{spoiler|but he was going [[Moral Event Horizon|way too far with his plan of nuking major cities from orbit]] and thus came out darker}}.

** Also very prevalent in the ''[[Nightmare of Nunnally]]'' manga [[Spin Off]], where ''everybody'' is flinging around the same phrase: "create a kind and gentle world". A lot of them also come off a lighter shade than in the anime.

* The protagonists of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' almost all have a dark past - including genocide, in one case. And yet, they are a lighter shade of grey because they are now trying to do something to atone for that. But placing a character like Scar into clear black or white categories would be nearly impossible.

** Celestial Being in ''[[Gundam 00]]'' is definitely in the moral grey area: they are attempting world peace and unification, but their methods are essentially killing anyone who tries to start a war (or even ''promotes'' or ''prepares'' for war) in order to frighten people into non-violence. Their enemies are... well, the leading nations of the world, who are portrayed fairly realistically: a bit corrupt and doing a couple heinous things behind the scenes, but not openly malicious or oppressive. They become less gray and more white once Ribbons steps up his game as [[Big Bad]], though.

* ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' has a slight tendency towards this on a governmental level, insofar that for every corrupt and inefficient noble and inter-house spats shown in [[The Empire|the Galactic Empire]], [[The Federation|the Free Planets' Alliance]] has three corrupt and inefficient politicians/military commanders breathing down Yang's neck and a civil war/complete breakdown of law and order every ten episodes. The first FPA politician who has both actual power and is presented at least partially sympathetically is {{spoiler|the man who is forced to take over after the Empire besieges Heinessen and forces the former cabinet to surrender.}}

** However, he seems to have absolutely no trouble with indirectly sacrificing as many people as he can legally get away with if it will help him catch Kira, which arguably makes him ''worse''. Luckily, laws are pretty strict about that sort of thing.

*** True, but Light is more willing to outright murder good people just for getting in his way, and sometimes in ''really'' dickish ways without a need to - remember how he {{spoiler|made Naomi Misora, an FBI Agent whose fiancee he'd killed, commit suicide in such a way that ''nobody would ever find her body''? Or what he did to Kiyomi Takada?}} Contrast this to L, who sacrificed Lind L. Taylor in his first 'appearance' - except that Taylor was a convicted murderer sentenced to be executed the same day. On the other hand, during the period where Light {{spoiler|had no memory of the Death Note}}, he proved much less morally compromising that L did. It's all a matter of perspective, and deciding for oneself who, if anyone, is more in the right.

== Comic Books ==

* Marvel's ''[[Marvel Civil War|Civil War]]'' was intended to feature [[Grey and Gray Morality|ambiguous morals]] and sides that were not really more right than the other. In practice, the authors seemed to have missed the memo and increasingly portrayed the Pro-Registration side as the bad guys, made especially bad by the fact that Stark (the figurehead and commander of the Pro-Registration forces) [[Moral Event Horizon|commissioned the manufacture of an extradimensional KZ]] in addition to the fact that the Anti-Registration side got almost no [[Shoot the Dog]] moments (and had [[Captain America (comics)]]).

* ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' is something like this. On one hand, it's a struggle between a repressive fascist government which may nevertheless be humanity's last hope in a nuclear-holocaust blighted world, and a fanatical anarchist terrorist who has absolutely no qualms about blowing up buildings and killing people to get his way, and whose efforts may ultimately doom humanity. On the other, however, the government is genocidal (having wiped out racial minorities and the LGBT population, amongst others) and composed pretty much entirely of hateful, dysfunctional and irredeemable bastards, while V is an incredibly charismatic guy who only lost his sanity after said regime used him for experimentation fodder, and who we first see rescuing a young girl from government hired rapists, and who comes to happily admit that he's got no place in the better world he's trying to create. It's certainly not a black and white situation, but it's hard to argue that V doesn't come across as a hell of a lot more sympathetic than the Norsefire government.

 

== Fan Fiction ==

* In ''[[Tiberium Wars]]'', even though the story is supposed to be about both sides equally, the author has admitted that he favors GDI over the Brotherhood of Nod, and the portrayal does reflect this; GDI characters have a few more scenes than the Nod side, and the GDI troops are portrayed as more sympathetic than their Nod counterparts, who generally come off as religious fanatics.

 

 

== Film ==

 

 

 

== Live-Action TV ==

 

 

* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', one side of the Lion War rallies behind Prince Goltana, the other behind Prince Larg, the church has got its fingers in the conflict, {{spoiler|not to mention the Lucavi,}} and then there's your player group. Out of the two main sides involved in the war, those siding with Prince Larg come out looking more like good guys, in general, by virtue of not having [[Magnificent Bastard|Delita]] on their side. Out of all groups, though, the player's party comes out looking like the best good guys of all, but whether that's due to the main character's [[Unwitting Pawn|being played]] or being honestly virtuous is a matter of debate.

** If you just focus on Goltana and Larg, it is straight [[Gray and Gray Morality]].

** In Fallout 3's DLC The Pitt, the main conflict you must invariably choose a side in is a conflict between an [[Anti-Villain]] and an [[Anti-Hero]]. On the one hand there's Lord Ashur, who uses slave labor guarded by raiders to revive the steel mills in the ruins of old world Pittsburg, but who plans to free the slaves once The Pitt is its own superpower, as well as finding a cure for the sickness that turns the inhabitants of The Pitt into troglodytes. On the other hand, there's Werner, Ashur's former lieutenant who wants to free the slaves of Ashur's rule (and has the support of the people), but does it primarily so that he can rule The Pitt in Ashur's stead. Werner is in fact the one who brings in outside help (read: you) to tip the scales in his favor, and he conveniently fails to mention the whole "controlling The Pitt" thing, not to mention the {{spoiler|cure for the trog disease is within Ashur's own infant daughter.}}

* One notable situation is ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', where it is scientifically proven that the debate over which faction (Alliance or Horde) is this will never end. Both factions have had their good and bad moments.

* Toyed with in [[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]. While by the end of The Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation was clearly in the wrong. However, at the beginning of the war, [[Big Bad|Sozin]] was supposedly trying to spread the Fire Nation's wealth to the other nations. However, [[Big Bad|Sozin]] was by no means the good guy. So, while both sides of the war at the beginning was really grey, Roku was the lighter shade of grey.

* Played with in ''[[Justice League]]''. In the show's earlier run, when it was simply known as ''Justice League,'' the show's heroes and villains were [[Black and White Morality|pretty unambiguous]]. Fast forward to the second part, entitled ''Justice League Unlimited.'' The heroes make some [[Shoot the Dog|morally questionable choices]], and the "villains" arrayed against them (Project Cadmus) are suddenly cast [[Grey and Gray Morality|in a whole new light]]. In the end, though, Cadmus ends up disbanding due to its long streak of mistakes while the League sticks around, so they ultimately remain the "good guys" of the story.

 

{{reflist}}