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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"By G'Quan, I can't recall the last time I was in a fight like that. No moral ambiguity, no... hopeless battle against ancient and overwhelming forces. They were the bad guys, as you say, we were the good guys. And they made a very satisfying thump when they hit the floor."''
|'''G'kar''', ''[[Babylon 5]] -- A Late Delivery from Avalon''}}
Good versus Evil. [[Color Coded for Your Convenience|White hat versus black hat.]] The [[Knight in Shining Armor|shining knight]] [[The Messiah|of destiny]] with [[The Cape (trope)|flowing cape]] versus the [[Dastardly Whiplash|mustache-twirling]], [[Card-Carrying Villain|card-carrying]] force of [[Obviously Evil|pure malevolence]]. The most basic form of fictional morality, '''Black
This can come in a variety of forms:
* Motivation: The villains ''never'' have a sympathetic motivation for their actions. [[Complete Monster
* Choices: All major choices that the heroes are faced with are either unambiguously right or wrong. There aren't any grey areas, and when a [[Sadistic Choice]] ''is'' presented, there's always a [[Take a Third Option|third option]]. Furthermore, the heroes will ''always'' make the right choice unless they're about to learn [[An Aesop]] or pull a [[Face Heel Turn]].
* Characterization: [[Shaped Like Itself|The good guys are good]], and the [[Obviously Evil|bad guys are bad]]. If there are any morally ambiguous or grey characters around (such as an [[Anti-Hero]] or [[Worthy Opponent]]), they will eventually shift firmly to one side or the other. They'll either [[Face Heel Turn|switch]] to the side that matches their [[Heel Face Turn|actual perceived alignment]], or turn [[Badass Decay|fully good]] or [[Slowly Slipping Into Evil|fully evil]]. Minor characters may maintain some degree of neutrality, but the major characters will all be on one side or the other.
** Occasionally there will be a short scene explaining the neutrality is inherently evil (or, very rarely, good). To avoid an [[Author Tract]] some writers prefer to claim that being neutral is similar to supporting the stronger side.
Stories using this trope usually have a [[Hero Protagonist]] and a [[Villain Antagonist]], though this is not always the case. They're also where you're most likely to find [[Beauty Equals Goodness]], although there are stories with
While it shows up in stories of all kinds, Black
Of course, the prevalence of this moral system may lead to the belief that [[Good Is Boring]]. Thus, the aforementioned grey spots in a setting like this are a common [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]. [[Badass Decay]] occurs when the dark horse is whitewashed to conform to the prevailing system.
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If [[Values Dissonance|general attitudes on issues addressed change and/or the story is introduced to a very different culture]], it may be viewed as [[Grey and Grey Morality]], [[Black and Grey Morality]], or even [[Blue and Orange Morality]].
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==▼
▲== Advertising ==
* Good luck finding any political campaign commercials anywhere which suggest that it is possible to disagree over an issue without being monstrous, or at the very least stupid.
** Campaign commercial? Just about any commercial. Brand loyalty is [[Serious Business]].
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' and its sequels (''[[Great Mazinger]]'' and ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]''). Except Shin Mazinger, where the good guys include various criminals, and the bad guy {{spoiler|is a bad guy, but holding back a bunch of even worse guys.}} Which is still within "black and white", but with a small twist.
** Dr. Hell is also consistently shown to not be the kind of [[Bad Boss]] [[You Have Failed Me...|who punishes his subordinates for being unable to beat the heroes]]. The only reason he locks up Baron Ashura in the Mazinkaiser [[OVAs]] is because he went over the Doctor's authority on a matter, and he still was willing to let him fight when Ashura ''begged'' him to let him.
** Even if the heroes are mostly good guys and the villains tend to be [[Complete Monster|CompleteMonsters]], the morality in these series is more greyish than it seems. [[Mad Scientist|Dr.]] [[Big Bad|Hell]] [[Freudian Excuse|became mad after having endured years of abuse, insults and mockery from everybody -including his parents- since he was a little kid, and even when he made a good action, he usually got beaten and scorned]]. [[Great Mazinger|Great General of Darkness]] wanted taking over the surface world because the Mykene civilization had been forced to live underground for millennia and he wanted his people enjoyed again things humans take for granted -such like seeing sunlight and breathing fresh air-. [[UFO Robo Grendizer|Emperor Vega]] began invading other planets because his own homeworld was dying, and several of his henchmen were [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|WellIntentionedExtremists]] wanted establishing a benevolent dictatorship because they genuinely believed Earth people would be better off. And, frankly, humans in [[Mazinger Z|the]] [[Great Mazinger|Mazinger]] [[UFO Robo Grendizer|trilogy]] often acted like [[Ungrateful Bastard|utter]] [[Humans Are
* ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman]]'': The heroes are (almost) completely good, while the villains are absolutely evil.
* This trope is played straight in ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'': While the kids and their Digimons represent virtues (Courage, Friendship, Love, etc.) their enemies (Such as Devimon, Myotismon and the Dark Masters) are evil incarnate.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
== Comics ==▼
* Most comic books set in the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] (World War II or thereabouts) have this sort of moral code.
* [[Steve Ditko]]'s ''[[Mr. A]]'' comic lives and breathes this trope, being Ditko's interpretation of [[Ayn Rand]]'s Objectivism in vigilante form.
** [[The Question]] under Ditko was essentially a more marketable version of Mr. A.
*** And the aforementioned Rorsarch is basically a [[Captain Ersatz]] of Q and A.
*** 'There is black and there is white, and there is wrong and there is right, and there is
* A common element in [[Chick Tracts]], the Christian protagonists are good while the nonbelievers are evil, or at least a [[Jerkass]].
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fanfics featuring a manipulative [[Chessmaster]] Dumbledore, this is frequently a philosophy the Headmaster is shown embracing -- very often with ''him'' being the sole arbiter of what constitutes black and white. If an individual or family fails to show sufficient slavish adherence to his personal vision of society, these versions of Dumbledore will write them off as "Dark".
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Star Wars]]'': The [[The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified|rebels are good]], [[The Empire]] is [[Good Republic, Evil Empire|evil]].
** Black And White Morality is ''enforced'' by, well, the Force in the case of the Jedi. If Jedi aren't committed 100% to the Light Side, it's only a matter of time before they become insanely evil [[Complete Monster
** The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] adds a bit more moral ambiguity with some of the mundane factions ([[Noble Demon]] imperials and ambitious [[Smug Snake]] rebels show up notably in Timothy Zahn's work, for example). Even the Jedi sometimes produce [[Knight Templar
** ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]] 2'' [[Deconstruction|deconstructs]] the traditional Jedi are good, Sith are evil dichotomy. In addition to the revelation (or [[Retcon]]) that {{spoiler|Revan sacrificed morality to become a Sith and save the galaxy,}} its made clear throughout the game that the Jedi are [[Lawful Stupid]] traditionalists who can't listen to anything outside their teachings, while the Sith are [[Stupid Evil]] morons who would burn the galaxy just because its there, and will inevitably kill each other in the end. The main [[Big Bad|villain of the game]] has been both Jedi and Sith, and is disgusted with both.
*** Kreia shares a great deal in common with Vergere, a Jedi of questionable motives who helped save the galaxy from the Vong.
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** [[Black and Gray Morality|Except for]] ''[[Inglorious Basterds]]''.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and ''[[The Silmarillion]]'': Broadly speaking. The respective villains Sauron, Saruman and Morgoth are evil, and those who oppose them are good. On a closer level this is not so - Sauron, Saruman and Morgoth's Orcs are [[
▲== Literature ==
▲* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' and ''[[The Silmarillion]]'': Broadly speaking. The respective villains Sauron, Saruman and Morgoth are evil, and those who oppose them are good. On a closer level this is not so - Sauron, Saruman and Morgoth's Orcs are [[Always Chaotic Evil]], but their human forces are not, which is lost on many a critic. More than one character notes how they must be manipulated or forced to do their will.
** ''Broadly'' speaking. See the quote at the top of [[Grey and Gray Morality]]. ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' in particular tends to be [[The Good, the Bad, and The Evil|white, grey and black]]. (Surely people like Feanor, his sons, the Noldor in general, Thingol, Turin, etc. cannot be thought of as all black or all white.)
** Outside of the Silmarillion there are many other examples. Gollum, Lobellia and Denethor (in the book, the movie plays him as more of a straight forward villain) are anything but clean cut good or bad guys. Despite its lighter tone The Hobbit averts this a lot more than its darker sequel. Thorin is for the most part noble but also a greedy, proud jerkass who would risk a war to hang onto his gold while Beorn is kind and friendly but kills an Orc who had already surrendered and puts its head on a pike.
** Indeed, it would probably be best to say that Middle-Earth ''has''
** Completely and utterly averted in [[The Children of Hurin]]. Turin is well meaning but also a morally ambigous Jerkass who blows over the [[Moral Event Horizon]] when he murders a lame man in cold blood, his Lancer Androg is a serial rapist and murderer and the group's traitor, Mim the Dwarf is a Woobie [[Anti-Villain]] whose actions are motivated by the relentless persecution his people suffered from the Elves as well as Androg's cruelty. Even after his betrayl he inists that Turin be released unharmed.
* ''[[Inheritance Cycle]]'': [[La Résistance|The Varden]] and Elves are good, [[The Empire]] is evil.
** Eragon tries to give this a significant amount of thought, as a number of characters point out that he's fighting because other people told him to, however right they may be. After a significant amount of angst, Eragon comes to the bizarre and defeatists conclusion that {{spoiler|he has to cross the ocean to train the next generation of riders. He left behind civilization, everything he fought for, the chance to shape the creation of the next major golden age, and the chance to get in Arya's [[Author Tract|tight leather]] pants.}}
* ''[[Harry Potter (novel)|Harry Potter]]'' starts out this way. Dumbledore is the [[Big Good]], Harry and his friends are the heroes, the other students are generally nice except for the Slytherins, and Voldemort is the [[Big Bad]]. As the series goes on, it adds more and more shades of gray with turncoats on both sides, a corrupt government opposing Voldemort, heroes [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|paying evil unto evil]], and Harry discovering that his father and Dumbledore both have [[Feet of Clay]].
* ''[[Redwall]]'': [[Always Lawful Good|If you're a mouse, otter, vole, badger, hedgehog, squirrel, or lapine, you're good]]. [[
** There are Multiple exceptions for some less prominent species. Squire Julian Gingivere is a case of [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]]. Captain Snow does a [[Heel Face Turn]].
** The Sparra, being a [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]], tend toward neutral.
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* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: Almost all the good guys are handsome/beautiful, and the bad guys are either ugly as sin or ordinary-looking. The choices the characters make are unambiguously good or evil. The characterization of the characters is either totally good or totally evil.
* ''[[Power Rangers]] and [[Super Sentai]]'': Rangers and their friends are good; even the shady ones have an excuse: [[Power Rangers SPD|street-level hoods]]? Stealing to survive and help other homeless! [[Power Rangers RPM|Guy working with the mob]]? Screwed them all over to help an orphanage of [[Littlest Cancer Patient
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* ''[[Power Rangers]] and [[Super Sentai]]'': Rangers and their friends are good; even the shady ones have an excuse: [[Power Rangers SPD|street-level hoods]]? Stealing to survive and help other homeless! [[Power Rangers RPM|Guy working with the mob]]? Screwed them all over to help an orphanage of [[Littlest Cancer Patient|Littlest Cancer Patients]]! [[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive|Professional thief]]? ...Okay, that one was just glossed over, but he's probably one of those guys who's legitimately hired by companies to test security.
** Special mention must go to ''[[Power Rangers Dino Thunder]]'s'' Mesogog, who, while still black, was a ''particularly grey shade'' of black, as he is the sole villain of the series to not [[Card-Carrying Villain|carry an evil business card]]. He was a dinosaur hybrid who wanted to wipe out us filthy mammals and restore dinosaurs to their rightful place as the dominant creatures, and so thought what he was doing to be right, although his methods and manner make it dark enough to still be evil. Its grey, but only in comparison to the villains whose goals are ''stated'' to be "to be as evil as possible, nyahaha".
** The grayest [[Power Rangers]] villain is Ransik of ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]''. He wanted to take over the world in the present, because in the future, the mutations that result on rare occasion from the genetic engineering process that normally allows for perfect [[Designer Babies]] for all are shunned to a degree that would make the mutants of X-Men count their blessings. Ransik's entire gang is gathered from the homeless mutants. He cackles as much as any past villain whose title is "Your Evilness" when causing mayhem, but he's got a reason for his hate and his motivation isn't simply greed or [[For the Evulz|the evulz]] like many of the others.
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* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' and its spinoff ''[[Angel]]'' both [[Playing with a Trope|play with this]]. Each starts out as a clear-cut example, but later seems to drift to somewhere between this and [[Black and Gray Morality]], with the protagonists ''usually'' doing the right thing, but not always, and most of the antagonists remaining [[Kick the Dog|dog-kicking]] villains. Also, despite usually being portrayed as good in the sense that they're well-meaning, the heroes of both shows often encounter situations that are portrayed as morally gray, leading them to disagree with each other on what the good course of action is.
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
== Real Life ==▼
* It's a common misconception that [[World War II]] was a case of this. In actually it was closer to [[Black and Gray Morality]] if only due to Joseph Stalin fighting on the Allied side, the Japanese internment camps operated by the United States and Canada(Through their internment camps were far more comfortable and humane, in comparison the hellish treatment received by those unfortunate to be captured by the Japanese.), and continuing moral debates regarding the bombing of Dresden, as well as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ▼
* The American Civil War is often seen as the heroic Union soldiers fighting to free the slaves from the "evil" Confederates. While it is true that Lincoln freed the slaves, the war itself was about much more than just the issue of slavery and there were quite a few Southerners who objected to it (including General Robert E. Lee). Also the typical idea of "freeing" slaves was a lot different from the modern one, in that even the most committed of abolitionists often argued that slavery, as bad as it was, did ultimately benefit the blacks. Racism was also still a huge issue on both sides.▼
* A lot of early 20th century propaganda tried to give this impression towards major conflicts. Britain and Canada both tried to build up the Germans as monsters in World War I, World War II saw numerous propaganda films about destroying the Nazis, and throughout the Cold War there were American propaganda films demonizing the "Reds" (the Soviet Union).▼
* In religion, this idea is often called ([[Trope Maker|Manichean]]) dualism:
** God is good, Satan is evil. (Christianity)
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* [[Everybody Hates Hades|The Hollywood version of many mythologies]] tends to fit this; the real mores of such cases tend to be much more, [[Blue and Orange Morality|subtle]].
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==▼
* Most ''[[Dungeons
▲== Tabletop Games ==
** Playable races (such as humans, elves, dwarves, and such) tend to be good, while orcs, goblins, and other 'monstrous' humanoids tend to be [[
▲* Most ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' settings: People who go "ping!" on Detect Good are good. People who [[Detect Evil|set off the paladin's slaydar]] are evil. (People who don't trigger either are either using Undetectable Alignment or are the resident shade of grey, the neutral alignments).
▲** Playable races (such as humans, elves, dwarves, and such) tend to be good, while orcs, goblins, and other 'monstrous' humanoids tend to be [[Always Chaotic Evil]]. There are plenty of exceptions, though, with a number of villains from PC races showing up from time to time. The occasional good orc or goblin may make an appearance as well (especially in ''[[Eberron]]'', which subverts a lot of the common expectations about alignment and race).
** There is a Succubus Paladin created on the Wizards site a while ago that detects as Lawful, Good, Evil and Chaotic via the sundry detect spells. This is because Demon are [[Made of Evil]] and Chaos, while Paladins are philosophically Good and Lawful.
* In ''Torg'' in the sub-universe of the Nile Empire, based on pulp fiction tropes ''everyone'' is either good or evil...until one of the evil scientists of the Nile Empire accidentally infects himself with a meme virus based on the plays of Anton Chekov and becomes the sub-universe's only Neutral character.
* In ''[[Blue Rose]]'' your [[Character Alignment]] is either [[Light Is Good]], [[Dark Is Evil|Shadow]] or Twilight (neutral). There's a magic artifact used to make sure [[Only the Pure of Heart|only light-aligned people]] get to become nobles in [[The Kingdom]] of Aldis.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* Early [[Video Games]] with [[Excuse Plot]] or plot with little-to-no cutscenes are likely to be this. Even ''[[Bad Dudes]]'' do not seem to be any kind of bad other than [[Badass]].
* Link, Zelda, and their allies are good; Ganon and his followers are evil.
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* ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]'': Mario is good, Bowser is evil.
** Averted in later spin-offs, as Bowser developed over time and he became increasingly [[Affably Evil]] to the point that in most modern games he's less evil then simply misguided and greedy.
** Played brutally straight in the main series, though; in both ''Galaxy'' games Bowser is as one-dimensionally megalomaniacal as ever. Probably because their one attempt at giving him more "complexity" was ''[[Super Mario Sunshine]]'', which included [[
** Also played straight by the one-off villains in the ''[[Paper Mario (franchise)|Paper Mario]]'' and ''[[Mario & Luigi]]'' series. Okay, not quite Count Bleck, but Fawful, Dimentio, the Shadow Queen, Cackletta, and the Shroobs are portrayed very much to the extreme end of the evil scale.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'': Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are good; Robotnik is evil. [[Anti-Hero|Shadow and Rouge]] border on the Grey morality, though.
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** But what about the Gradian government? Before the Northern Cross War that inadvertently killed nearly of the Wreekians, the Gradius government avoided contact with them because they were primitive. After the Northern Cross War, the Gradius government didn't do much at all for the poor Wreekian survivors; they only wanted to use their ESP power. This would put the Gradian government on the grey morality.
* Rather brutally deconstructed in ''[[Grandia II]]''; see the page for more details
* In the first two ''[[Warcraft]]'' games, the [[
* As pictured above, [[Fire Emblem|Queen Elincia]] and the Herons are good, but Mad King Ashnard is evil. {{spoiler|However, his steed isn't evil, just [[Brainwashed]].}}
** But then there's Naesala, who's more morally ambiguous, as well as the few Daein commanders who fight for Ashnard [[Lawful Neutral|more out of a sense of duty for their nation then being outright evil.]]
* It has always been the trait of the ''[[Command
* The first ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (video game)|Knights of the Old Republic]]'' game.
* Subverted in ''[[Golden Sun]]'': seemingly present during the first game, but the second game [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructs]] it by having you play the antagonists of the first game, and having the final boss be the mentor from the first game.
* In ''[[Pokémon Red and Blue]]'' and ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]''. The main character is good, Team Rocket is evil.
** The later core games avert this though, with the evil teams having more reasonable and even sympathetic motivations. The exception is Ghetsis of Team Plasma, whose villainy neighbors ''Cipher'' proportions. And on that note, Cipher from [[Pokémon Colosseum]] is far more evil than anything before them and a sight more evil than just about anything since.
* Played with in ''[[Touhou]]''. On one hand, the series as a whole follows [[White and Grey Morality]] at worse, with copious amounts of [[Dark Is Not Evil]] and [[Good All Along]] preventing the series from having any true villains. On the other hand, the character Shikieiki Yamaxanadu possesses the ability to "distinctly judge anything to be Good or Evil", meaning that she literally sees the world in
* ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series uses this regularly. The heroes are good. [[Dragon Quest I|A giant dragon]] and [[Dragon Quest II|a badly skinned mage]] are evil. [[Complete Monster|Many other villains are even beyond that.]]
** [[Dragon Quest IV|Psaro the Man Slayer]] subverts this partly. He hates humans because they harmed his girlfriend. But going into the arena and beating random fighters to death isn't that nice of a thing to do either. None of his underlings are ever good.
* ''[[Star Fox]]'' and the Cornerian army are good. Andross, Anglar Emperor, and their armies are bad. The Aparoids were created solely to be [[The Virus]], and were nothing but evil and trouble.
== Web Comics ==▼
* ''[[Axe Cop]]''. Very evident as it is written by a six-year old. There are good guys (who can do anything they want), and bad guys (who don't need to do anything bad [[Shaped Like Itself|apart from being bad]] to be such).
* This was mostly avoided in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', but was especially enforced in the ''Golden Age'' campaign, which was set during World War II and featured [[Those Wacky Nazis]] as villains (along with [[Super Villain|supervillains]] who were [[For the Evulz|evil for the sake of being evil]] and [[The Mafia|mobsters]], of course).▼
* In ''[[The Fear Mythos]]'', the character "Achromatic Morality" demonstrates this
==
▲* This was mostly avoided in the [[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]], but was especially enforced in the ''Golden Age'' campaign, which was set during World War II and featured [[Those Wacky Nazis]] as villains (along with [[Super Villain|supervillains]] who were [[For the Evulz|evil for the sake of being evil]] and [[The Mafia|mobsters]], of course).
▲* In [[The Fear Mythos]], the character "Achromatic Morality" demonstrates this perfectly -- the clue's in the name. In her words, "there are two sides. The side that I am on, which is righteous; and the side I am not, which is monstrous."
* Really, about every children's cartoon ever made fits this trope. [[The Smurfs]]? Good ([[Sluggy Freelance|except carnivorous ones]]). Gargamel? Bad. [[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]? Good. Skeletor? Bad. [[G.I. Joe]]? Good. COBRA? Bad. [[Thundercats]]? Good. Mum-Ra? Bad. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
* ''[[Transformers]]'': Autobots are good, Decepticons are evil (except in ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass|Shattered Glass]]'', where it's the other way round).
** Though in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' some of the Autobots are selfish, corrupt, or incompetent, though not in the main cast. [[The Neidermeyer|Sentinel Prime]],we are looking at ''you''. Likewise, while "sympathetic" might be stretching the portrayal of the Decepticons as a whole, they are at least clearly motivated (most of them want to reconquer Cybertron, but some have other motivations).
** And in the IDW comics Continuity, the conflict has its origins in [[Gray and Grey Morality]], as the Decepticons were a group that were rising up against the corrupt government that preceded the Autobots.
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* ''[[Ben 10]]'' is mostly this trope, but the main hero's character flaws can push it into [[Black and Gray Morality]].
* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' and friends are undoubtedly the good guys, but it's her foes that really exemplify this trope. Every one of them [[Card-Carrying Villain|describes themselves as an evil villain]], sometimes worrying if they're [[Slave to PR|being evil enough]]. Evil [[Super Villain|supervillainy]] appears to be a whole subculture in their world.
* Surprisingly subverted in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. At first, the set-up seems to make the Black and the White quite clear: the Fire Nation is the [[
** And even some of the main characters, {{spoiler|primarily Katara,}} come close to [[He Who Fights Monsters|crossing the line]] more than once.
** Zuko [[Incredibly Lame Pun|alone]] is a subversion. It seems like the moral the show's trying to send is that life isn't so straightforward and it's important to remember that. Even Azula, the [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificent bitch]], gets sympathy. {{spoiler|After being betrayed by her friends, abandoned by her father, and given way too much power for her to handle, she has a mental breakdown that all stems from a perceived lack of love from her mother.}}
▲== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* It's a common misconception that [[World War II]] was a case of this. In actually it was closer to [[Black and Gray Morality]] if only due to Joseph Stalin fighting on the Allied side, the Japanese internment camps operated by the United States and Canada(Through their internment camps were far more comfortable and humane, in comparison the hellish treatment received by those unfortunate to be captured by the Japanese.), and continuing moral debates regarding the bombing of Dresden, as well as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
▲* The American Civil War is often seen as the heroic Union soldiers fighting to free the slaves from the "evil" Confederates. While it is true that Lincoln freed the slaves, the war itself was about much more than just the issue of slavery and there were quite a few Southerners who objected to it (including General Robert E. Lee). Also the typical idea of "freeing" slaves was a lot different from the modern one, in that even the most committed of abolitionists often argued that slavery, as bad as it was, did ultimately benefit the blacks. Racism was also still a huge issue on both sides.
▲* A lot of early 20th century propaganda tried to give this impression towards major conflicts. Britain and Canada both tried to build up the Germans as monsters in World War I, World War II saw numerous propaganda films about destroying the Nazis, and throughout the Cold War there were American propaganda films demonizing the "Reds" (the Soviet Union).
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Idealism Tropes]]
[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
[[Category:Black Index, White Index]]
[[Category:
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