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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Many different values mix together, and the world becomes gray... That is unforgivable! I will separate Pokémon and people, and black and white will be clearly distinct!"''|'''N''', ''[[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|Pokémon Black and White]]''}}
 
In [[Real Life]], seeing the world in absolute [[Black and White Morality]] is considered normal for small children, but seen as a far less healthy trait in adults. A person who regards the people around him as [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|entirely good]] or [[Always Chaotic Evil|entirely evil]], as if they were part of some really simplistic narrative, is very likely to have a mental disorder.
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== Anime and Manga ==
 
* This tends to come up in ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' a lot. Light starts to shift into this as the series goes on, and the fourth Kira is this through and through (he essentially had this as a child, but couldn't quite grow out of it).
* Sensui from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]''. Emphasis on "insanity".
* The [[Shaman King|X-Laws]] are all this. Especially in the anime.
* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' has this in the form of {{spoiler|the Jovians}}.
* {{spoiler|Sayaka}} in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica (Anime)|Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''.
* {{spoiler|Flit Asuno}} winds up with this after {{spoiler|Yurin's}} death in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Age (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam Age]]''.
* Shinn's greatest problem is ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (Anime)|Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' is his inability to see or accept shades of grey. He's not exactly insane, but he's certainly highly unstable. By the finale though, he has definitely gone off the deep end, being willing to defend a [[Kill Sat]] about to destroy an entire country because he believes that country to be pure evil (that he was until recently a native citizen of said country ''actually fuels this belief'').
* In ''[[Zetman]]'' Kouga idolises Alphas, a [[Superhero]] from a cartoon with [[Black and White Morality]], and tries to emulate him even into adulthood. [[Heroic Wannabe|This does not turn out well.]]
 
== Comic Books ==
 
* An early version of the Heterodyne Boys (the basis of the characters of the same name in ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]'', but specifically not the same guys, according to [[Word of God|Studio Foglio]]) has the titular characters traveling to an alternate universe with [[Grey and Grey Morality]], where they end up killing the first guy they meet in a bar. They then proceed to conclude that he ''must'' have been evil, because where they come from, only evil people ever die. In their own universe, that is assumed to be true, but in the universe they ended up in, that combined with their abilities essentially makes them a pair of [[Omnicidal Maniac|Omnicidal Maniacs]].
* Rorschach in ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'', meant deliberately as a comment on [[Steve Ditko]]'s [[With Us or Against Us|more fanatically Objectivist]] characters.
* [[Batman|Two-Face]] is sometimes portrayed as having this as the root of his multiple personality disorder.
** This is particularly obvious in his post-''Year One'' characterisations, where the "good" persona believes in fairness and the hope of goodness in people, while the "evil" side sees unfairness and cheating everywhere. To quote his revised origin:
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== Literature ==
 
* In ''[[Les Misérables (Literaturenovel)|Les Misérables]]'', [[Inspector Javert]] is a [[By-The-Book Cop]] who believes that "criminals are evil, period". He dedicates his life to pursuing the protagonist, eventually [[Troubled Sympathetic Bigot|realizing]] his mistake... something that makes him [[Driven to Suicide|very depressed]].
* Holden Caulfield from ''[[The Catcher in The Rye (Literature)|The Catcher in The Rye]]'' suffers from this trope, and the consequences are apparent.
* Melisandre of Asshai in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' who is convinced that everything she does is all in the name of the greater good. This is probably best exemplified when she speaks to Davos Seaworth:
{{quote| If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good or he is evil.}}
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* Virgilia in the ''[[North and South US]]'' miniseries is against slavery. Fine. Believing that everyone from the southern USA is [[Always Chaotic Evil]]? Not so fine. And it keeps going downhill from there, with her ruining her own life and arguably becoming more of a liability to her cause rather then an asset.
* [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|The Watchers Council]] says all demons are evil. Of course, this is first disproved by the [[Friendly Neighborhood Vampire|vampire with a soul]] Angel, and then the soulless vampire Spike, who actually goes and [[Love Redeems|gets a soul for love]]. Not to mention Clem, a demon so non-evil that not only does Buffy trust him with Dawn, but Dawn is able to push him around (and he comes to Buffy's birthday party).
** But he still eats kittens.
** Not to mention that the Slayers themselves have powers that are demonic in origin.
** ''[[Angel (TV)|Angel]]'' showed the Council's position to be nonsense, with scores of non-evil demons appearing. Even many of the demons they fight are "evil" not in a [[Legions of Hell]] apocalyptic way, but in a career criminal, thug-for-hire way.
 
== Music ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
 
* The [[Big Bad|Oracles]] from ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' have this as their defining character flaw.
* In ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'', this is [[Light Is Not Good|White]]'s main flaw, which is why [[Knight Templar]]'s are fairly easy to create. A specific example were the Loxodons from Mirrodin (metal covered anthropomorphic elephants), which were mentally incapable of accepting the concept of moral shades of grey. The white [[Always Chaotic Evil|phyrexians]] that took over Mirrodin were even worse in that regard.
* In [[Warhammer 40000]], pretty much every single sentient being is afflicted by this, due to [[Fantastic Racism]]. Except the [[Always Chaotic Evil]] ones.
 
== Video Games ==
 
* N and Team Plasma from ''[[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|Pokemon ]][[Meaningful Name|Black And White]]'' has this. If you're not in support of their insane [[Cartoonish Supervillainy]], then you're a cruel and abusive Lilipup-kicking Pokemon trainer! {{spoiler|It turns out that Team Plasma's claim to having this is merely a cover-up for their true motives -- to [[Take Over the World]]. N turns to be the true Plasma King. The only one who wants to [[Take Over the World]] is [[Complete Monster|Ghetsis]].}}
* In ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', as Anders becomes more and more obsessed with the Mage/Templar issue of Kirkwall and as [[Fighting From the Inside|he's starting to lose the battle against Vengeance]], he becomes more and more hostile to those he perceives as pro-Templar or just generally an enemy of the mages, including those in Hawke's party, and including other mages. At the nadir of his madness, one isn't even allowed to abstain from the debate; choose a side or he'll choose it for you and designate you an enemy.
** Fenris, too, in the other direction, to a slightly lesser extent. Fenris believes that all mages are evil, period. Interestingly, he's actually ''aware'' that it's generally a bad idea to overgeneralize the innocent many based on the actions of a guilty few. But reminding him of that will cause him to rationalize that bad magic is so tempting that all innocent mages, with the possible exception of Mage!Hawke, will eventually become guilty. The "lesser extent" part comes in because Fenris never quite ''acts'' on his belief that all mages are the same beyond insulting the mages in the party, and Fenris will sometimes apologize for being rude if it's pointed out to him, where Anders...well, play the end of the game for details.
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== Web Comics ==
 
* Miko in ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'' is built on this trope, growing increasingly delusional over the course of the story arc. As her insanity increases, it changes her from a mere [[Knight Templar]] into a total [[Windmill Crusader]] - handwaving even the fact that the Gods have stripped her of her paladin powers.
* [[NARC|Max Force]] has become this in ''[[Captain SNES]]'', wherein he labels people who disagree with him about just about anything as "[[Drugs Are Bad|druggies]]" and attempts to shoot them down. Once he is convinced someone is a druggie, no force in the world can convince him otherwise. And when he fails to shoot [[Mario|his target]], he comes up with [[Insane Troll Logic|insane excuses]] as to why he didn't actually miss; he was just aiming at something else.
* The partisan climate of the US devolving into this on both sides was the driving force behind the [[Dystopia|less-than-stellar]] state of affairs in ''[[Remus (Webcomic)|Remus]]''
 
== Western Animation ==
 
* Near the end of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', especially in the finale, Azula [[Sanity Slippage|begins to adopt this mindset]], seeing everyone as being either completely for her or a complete traitor to her. Most notably, the end of the two-part episode "The Boiling Rock" {{spoiler|after Mai and Ty Lee turn on her.}}
** Parodied when she banishes one of her twin handmaidens, convinced one is loyal and the other is treacherous, despite the fact that she can't tell them apart.
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'''s first episode has Sam and Tucker on the opposing sides of a Meat vs. Veggies, and put Danny in the middle:
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