39,327
edits
Dark Is Not Evil/Video Games: Difference between revisions
update links
mNo edit summary |
(update links) |
||
Line 5:
* {{spoiler|Artix}} from ''[[Adventure Quest Worlds]]'' is The Champion of Darkness and he is on the side of good
* ''[[Deus Ex]]''. JC Denton is always dressed in a black overcoat with shades. Of course, you ''can'' play JC as an amoral killer, but [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|that's your choice.]]
** Similarly [[Deus Ex: Human Revolution|Adam Jensen]], while pretending to be an assassin it is noted he "certainly looks the part"
* The Necromancer from ''[[Diablo]] II'', who sees raising undead as a necessary evil for the greater good. He may be on to something, as the years he's spent in the crypt studying the dark arts make him much more likely to resist being corrupted by diablo's evil like the heroes of the first game. {{spoiler|You even find his apprentice in a random event in [[Diablo III]], carrying on his master's legacy of using necromancy for the greater good, and he comes across as being rather noble.}}
* Similairly, the Witch Doctor from ''[[Diablo III]]'' uses zombies and voodoo as part of a mutual pact with the spirits, it's not treated as a twisted abomination or desire for power, but sheer reverence for the spirits of the departed. The witch doctor himself is also a very kind and mellow (if somewhat backwards) person.
Line 13:
* Dante of ''[[Devil May Cry]]'', although he's mostly an exception as nearly all demons in the series are evil. Sparda, Dante's father, was an extremely powerful devil and nicknamed "The Legendary Dark Knight"; he was also a very nice guy who saved humanity from extinction. Trish and Lucia from the same series are also demons who fight for the good of mankind.
** Nero from ''4'' is another example: His arm [[Evil Hand|looks like living lava]], and he's implied to be possesed by the ghost of [[Aloof Big Brother]] Vergil. Despite this, he's a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] who, despite what you may think from the word "possessed", does ''not'' have a [[Super-Powered Evil Side]] (aside from the intial awakening of his brand of [[Super Mode]], and even then, he just seemed like a fairly calm [[Blood Knight]]. Sort of like Dante.
* Dark type ''[[Pokémon]]''. Dark types also aren't emo, despite what the good people of [[Deviant ART]] tell you. Though they aren't perfect, they're no worse than any other type of Pokémon. A good example is Absol, who can sense disasters and tries to warn people of them, but gets [[
** Despite this, the original Japanese name for Dark type is "aku" or "evil" type. This could be because of the nasty effects dark-type attacks often have, however - most of them involve [[The Combat Pragmatist|"fighting dirty"]], like pretending to cry (Fake Tears), ganging up on one opponent (Beat Up), biting (Bite, Crunch), thievery (Thief), and throwing foreign objects (Fling).
*** Additionally, in ''[[Pokémon Colosseum]]'', the original Japanese name for Shadow Pokémon is Dark Pokémon. They, for the most part, were used by an evil organization, inverting this trope. This trope was also ironically played straight, as not every Dark Pokémon was an "evil" type.
Line 25:
** Igor from the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' spin-off ''[[Persona]]'' game series is a very sinister-looking character, with a hunched back, bulging eyes, an enormously long nose, and pointed ears. He's actually a steadfast ally to the main characters throughout the series, giving advice and his services of Persona fusion. And he's the only character to appear in all ''Persona''-related media to date, including the anime.
*** Though whether he's ''good'' isn't entirely clear, since he may or may not take orders from [[Complete Monster|Nyarlathotep]] as well as [[All Powerful Bystander|Philemon]].
** ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' in general has a very literal example of Dark Is Not Evil. The series uses a two-axis alignment system, with the axes being Law/Neutral/Chaos and Light/Neutral/Dark. However, despite what you might expect due to its similarities to ''[[Dungeons
* The Dark Warriors of ''[[Final Fantasy III]]''. They helped save the world in the past of the game world when the Light got too powerful and threatened to destroy the earth in the Flood of Light.
** Most Black Mages in ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' aren't evil at all.
Line 69:
** The Gerudo in ''Ocarina of Time'' at first come across as a dangerous race who kidnap and lock up men, attack Link, and hail Ganondorf as their king. They are perfectly willing to accept Link into their tribe when they see his strength and skill though, and Nabooru is introduced as doing her best to prevent Ganondorf's evil plans.
** Koume and Kotake from ''Majora's Mask''. Both are shriveled hags who appeared in the previous game as villains. In this game, they're pretty nice (if a little grumpy) and will provide Link with some useful items and help him move forward in the game.
* Soma Cruz, the resident [[White-Haired Pretty Boy|white haired pretty boy]] in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series of games wields the dark power to absorb his enemies' souls and use them as weapons, a result of {{spoiler|either inheriting the power of Lord Dracula or [[Back
** Lampshaded by Alucard (you already know it's him!). When Soma freaks because he's told his powers are dark, Alucard tells him it is just that, and not evil.
** Other examples from the series include [[Dhampyr|Dracula's son Alucard]], [[Our Werewolves Are Different|the peaceful beastman Cornell]], the traitorous devil forgemaster Hector, and a [[Golem]] who was temporarily given a soul.
Line 81:
** Lucia from ''Covenant'' is also a Dark-elemental character...who's also a [[The Ditz|ditzy]] and nice fortune-teller, barring the whole attempted murder by giant, pink pussy on the cat (she has a good reason for that).
** Also in ''Covenant'', you get a vampire in your party. The fact that he's a vampire kinda takes the back seat to the fact that he's a [[Camp Gay|gay pro wrestler]], though.
* The Protoss Dark Templar of ''[[
** In fact, Zeratul, the Dark Templar hero of the series has been described by Gamespot's [http://uk.gamespot.com/features/tenspot_heroes/hero10.html Top 10 Heroes in Gaming] as a [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]] who fights for the rebellion.
* Nina of ''[[Breath of Fire]] 2'' fame is a pure-hearted maiden, but her feathery black wings make her an [[All of the Other Reindeer|outcast and scapegoat for disaster]] in her hometown. Also a [[Black Magician Girl]].
Line 121:
** There's also the Nictus: Scientifically modified energy beings that feed off their unmodified bretheren, work with The Council and 5th Column, and want to make earth their new homeworld. Reformed Nicti/human unions are a Hero exclusive archetype, called Warshades. If you want a Villainous Warshade, you have to side switch it. No Praetorian Nictus for you.
** Masterminds are slated to receive "Demon Summoning" in Issue 17. Currently, Masterminds are an exclusively Villainous Archetype, but when Going Rogue is released one can easily play a demon summoning hero.
** Hell, Going Rogue ''is'' this trope, (mixed heavily with [[Light Is Not Good]]). Even Arachnos Mooks can be heroes now.
* ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]] V'' plays with this. The Dark Elves are not generally evil, although some of their clans are. The Necromancers are initially presented as evil, but in the ''Tribes of the East'' stand-alone expansion they are allied with the good factions against the Demons. The Orcs from the same expansion are also not evil and part of the alliance. Of the 8 factions, the only one that's [[Exclusively Evil]] is the Demons.
** That said, the game still considers the Dark Elves, Necromancers, Orcs, and Demons to be "evil" factions when calculating morale.
Line 143:
** Shadow Kirby is actually just the {{spoiler|Kirby of the Mirror world, meaning he was supposed to be the hero, but he just helps you out by having you attack him and dropping power-ups if you do so.}}
* ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' really likes this one. Your party alone can include Fall-From-Grace, a [[Chaste Hero|chaste]] [[Horny Devils|succubus]] uninterested in consuming mortal men's souls, and Morte, the sarcastic foul-mouthed disembodied talking skull {{spoiler|who went to Hell when he died}}... who is also the only Good recruitable NPC and the only true friend you start the game with.
* In ''[[Jak 3]]'' one of the reasons Jak is banished is because he is tainted with [[Psycho Serum|Dark Eco]]. While he's [[Anti-Hero|rather darker than he used to be]], Jak still has his heart in the right place.
** However, Dark Eco is still pretty nasty stuff that [[The Corruption|turns benevolent gods into monsters]], makes nice heroes [[Super-Powered Evil Side|go bat-shit insane]], or else just kills things in a horrifically painful way. Not to mention that most of the major baddies ''thrive'' off the stuff, some more literally than others.
* The true ending of ''[[Eversion]]:'' {{spoiler|The princess was a monster all along! But wait... [[Tomato in the Mirror|your character was also a monster all along!]]}}
Line 170:
* ''[[Soul Reaver]]'' features a [[Crapsack World]] and a number of fearsome-looking characters who could not exactly be called blameless, but their appearance is no guarantee of their moral alignment. The protagonist Raziel is former vampire, twisted by cruel execution into a ghoul who must feed on the souls of humans and monsters alike. However he rejects the brutality of his former brethren and acts with honor and is genuinely searching for the truth. The vampires are revealed to be the victims of a curse by their enemies, and were once a race of winged celestial beings. The vampire Vorador is a green scaly monstrosity but is basically decent. Even Kain, the [[Big Bad]], is partially justified in his actions in the end. Contrast this with the supposedly righteous human characters, who are xenophobic, religiously fanatical exterminators of anything not human, including {{spoiler|Raziel in his pre-vampire days as a member of the ruthless Sarafan order.}}
* ''Noctropolis'' features a post-cataclysmic city in perpetual night under a cloud of volcanic ash. The city's main hero restores his health, powers and equipment by immersing himself in a pool of [[Applied Phlebotinum]] called Liquidark, the distilled liquid essence of darkness, created by the Brotherhood of the Night as research into the extradimensional Elementals particularly the Patronage of Darkness, none of whom seem malevolent. The protagonist takes up the hero's mantle to fight the [[Big Bad]] {{spoiler|revealed to be his predecessor switched over to [[Light Is Not Good|Light]] in a [[Face Heel Turn]] to take over the world.}}
* [[Badass|Ragna]] [[One-Man Army|the]] [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Bloodedge]], the main character of ''[[
** There's also [[Token Mini-Moe|Rachel]] [[Our Vampires Are Different|Alucard]] and her butler, [[Battle Butler|Valkenhayn]] [[Our Werewolves Are Different|R. Hellsing]]. Rachel may be a vampire who acts quite bitchily and condescending towards almost everyone around her, but that doesn't change the fact that she also genuinely cares about the cast, and wishes to devote as much she can to defeating [[Complete Monster|Terumi Yuuki]], the man who has caused pretty much ''all'' of the suffering which takes place in the game's universe. Her faithful butler, Valkenhayn, is a werewolf, was one of the Six Heroes who saved the world from the Black Beast, an abomination which destroyed most of the world.
* Shadow from ''[[Twisted Metal]]''. A ghostly black hearse that's had several drivers (including an undead mortician, a goth girl, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|a nerdy kid with a pet frog]]), all with fairly sympathetic motives.
Line 178:
** Ammon Jerro, the second game's resident [[Knight Templar]], is a demon-summoner with grey skin and glowing spiderweb tattoos that the game tries to convince you is the [[Big Bad]] for the first two chapters. If you have enough Influence with him by the scene at Shandra's farm, he will not be quite as evil as he was before.
* ''[[Dragon Age]]: Origins - Awakening'' has one in the form of The Spirit of Justice, who in the Fade is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. However in the real world he ends up becoming stuck in the corpse of a Grey Warden named Kristoff and joins your party as a [[Lawful Good]] Zombie.
** And in the original, blood mages. Blood magic is a terrifying power that lets you [[Cast
** Also from the original, the werewolves. {{spoiler|They're actually the descendants of humans that killed Zathrian's son and raped his daughter centuries ago. [[Pay Evil Unto Evil|Zathrian cursed the humans so that they and all of their descendants would be werewolves.]] The werewolves were just desperate to be cured, so they attacked and infected the Dalish hoping that Zathrian will lift the curse once he saw the curse affecting his own people. They're not purely good, but then neither are the Dalish. This is [[Gray and Grey Morality|Dragon Age: Origins]], remember.}}
** Near the end of ''Awakening'', during the defense of the City of Amaranthine you encounter a Disciple (sentient Darkspawn) sent by The Architect that fights alongside you if you let it. If you choose to let it go afterwards, the epilogue states that it becomes a hooded traveller that helps those it encounters (though it accidentally spreads the taint where it follows).
| |||