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Black and Gray Morality (view source)

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* ''[[Puppets Who Kill]]'': Everyone is a [[Jerkass]] to some degree and deserves the horrible things that will inevitably happen to them.
* ''[[Trailer Park Boys]]'': The [[Villain Protagonist|heroes]] are criminals, but the law is INSANE and the citizens are apathetic.
* ''[[Chuck]]'': The NSA and, CIA and their agents are shownclearly intended to be clearly on the "right" side, fighting to protect the country and its citizens (and often the world in general) from extremely evil terrorists and corrupt spies. However, they are ready and willing to do some pretty nasty things, for national security - such as killing a completely innocent guy who happens to have all the government secrets in his head, or summarily executing an unarmed, defenseless, and surrendering (albeit very dangerous and evil) enemy agent, for national security.
* ''[[Lawless Lawyer]]'': Bong Sang-pil is a lawyer brought up by his gangster uncle who uses extralegal methods in pursuit of those who murdered his mother and the powerful conspirators who ordered the hit.
 
== Mythology ==
* [[Norse Mythology]] is fittingly this. The head god Odin is demands human sacrifice, practices questionable magic, instigates wars, and is known to turn on his favoritesfavored inworshippers mid -battle, ensuring their deaths. However, all this is necessary to make sure he gets great warriors sofor his army isand ensure they're strong enough to keep the forces of evil from winning at Ragnarok, so that a golden age can emerge afterwords. Oh, and he and his entire army don't get to see that golden age. All of his other gray features tend to be to either delay or prepare for that day.
* Many world mythologiesfolklores were at one time or another this. The gods may be [[Jerkass Gods|jerks]] who screw around with mankind from time to time, but they were almost always far better than the alternative of monsters and demons.
* [[Classical Mythology]] rules this tropes. In contrast to the above, the gods aren't even contrasted with anything particularly terrible, they're just generally dicks who happen to be in charge (Zeus, fittingly, epitomised this, being a violent rapist and [[Magnificent Bastard]] but also powerful enough to defeat all the other gods combined). Well, some were alright - but you never hear about them, because the Greeks generally considered any story that doesn't involve both sides of the conflict being colossal jerks to be one not worth telling.
 
 
== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
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* Today,{{when}} aftershocks of the Attitude Era can still be felt, albeit more in [[TNA]] than in WWE. Perhaps the best examples are "The Viper" [[Randy Orton]], an outright [[Heroic Sociopath]], and "Asshole" Mr. Anderson, basically a modern-day Stone Cold.
 
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'' is nothing but this. Intentionally. It's saying something when the Tau Empire, who have a "join us or die" plan of galactic conquest, is considered a "good faction". Every time it looks like another race, usually the Tau or Eldar, is starting to look more sympathetic than the fascist (among other things) Imperium, they'll start pulling off new atrocities in the next edition. In most games, the scale starts at [[Knight in Shining Armour]] and ends up at [[Complete Monster]]. In 40K, about the ''best'' you can hope for is a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] or [[Knight Templar]] who won't kill you too painfully.
** On a general scale, you can't find any faction that is good by our standards, but some sub-factions and characters, like several [[Space Marine]] chapters, a few Imperial Guard regiments, the occasional Craftworld Eldar protagonist, [[Ravenor]] and [[Ciaphas Cain]] '''(HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!)''' or the Tau count as good. Unfortunately, they are far outnumbered by less moral groups, [[Bad Boss]]es, [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|people who go]] [[Knight Templar|too far]] for their cause, and the Dark Eldar, Necrons, Tyranids and the forces of Chaos.
* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy'' is almost as bad as [[''Warhammer 40,000]]''. The main "good" races are arrogant elves, isolationist elves, power-hungry humans, grim feudalistic humans, [[Mayincatec]] lizards who practice human sacrifice, and [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|dwarves that are all the same, only with fatalism and grudges against everyone under the sun]]. You get the occasional hero; you also get regular sociopaths. Fantasy does, however, have good people like [[Reasonable Authority Figure|Emperor Karl Franz]], [[The Wise Prince|Prince Tyrion]], [[The Atoner|Alith Anar]], and [[An Ice Person|Tsarina Katerin]], so it's not nearly as dark as 40k.▼
** It is saying something about the setting when the "good" faction, the Tau Empire have a "join us or die" plan of galactic conquest.
▲* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] Fantasy'' is almost as bad as [[Warhammer 40,000]]. The main "good" races are arrogant elves, isolationist elves, power-hungry humans, grim feudalistic humans, [[Mayincatec]] lizards who practice human sacrifice, and [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|dwarves that are all the same, only with fatalism and grudges against everyone under the sun]]. You get the occasional hero; you also get regular sociopaths. Fantasy does, however, have good people like [[Reasonable Authority Figure|Emperor Karl Franz]], [[The Wise Prince|Prince Tyrion]], [[The Atoner|Alith Anar]], and [[An Ice Person|Tsarina Katerin]], so it's not nearly as dark as 40k.
* Most of the gamelines in [[Old World of Darkness|both]] [[New World of Darkness|incarnations]] of the World of Darkness present a system where the playable factions are some shade of Grey and are opposed by a faction who is Black. The majority of [[Vampire: The Requiem|vampires]] vs [[Exclusively Evil|Belial's Brood]], the Pentacle Orders vs the [[Ancient Conspiracy|Seers of the Throne]], the [[Changeling: The Lost|regular Changelings]] vs [[The Quisling|Loyalists]] to the [[The Fair Folk|True Fae]], and [[Artificial Human|Prometheans]] vs [[Body Horror|Pandorans and (most) Centimani]]. The exception would be the werewolves, with the main factions being the Tribes of the Moon vs the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|Pure]], who are both Gray. The Black faction in that gameline (the Bale Hounds, worshipers of [[Cosmic Horror|the Maeljin Incarna]]) mostly sit on the sidelines. They are also one of the only things the other two can agree on [[Enemy Mine|fighting against]].
** In ''[[Genius: The Transgression]]'', the Peerage deliberately chose to be Grey because if you have a Genius go off on his own he'll often become [[Complete Monster|Illum]][[The Unfettered|inated]], and if the choice is between accepting jerks or have them wander off and turn into Mengele, you'd better get used to putting up with jerks. The Storyteller is advised to keep the players wondering whether the [[Ancient Conspiracy]] Lemuria is really that bad compared to the barely human nutbars in high-up positions in the Peerage. (The "black" role here is played not so much by modern Lemuria, which is just going through the motions, but by [[Empty Shell|Clockstoppers]], the Illuminated, and the occasional Hollow Earth Nazi or Phantom Slaver Yeti.)
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