Morality Kitchen Sink: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Among the Alps and Pyrenees, perhaps, there were no mixed characters. There, such as were not [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness|as spotless as an angel]] might have [[Complete Monster|the dispositions of a fiend]]. But in England it was not so; among the English, she believed, in their hearts and habits, there was a general though unequal mixture of good and bad. Upon this conviction, she would not be surprised if even in Henry and Eleanor Tilney, some slight imperfection might hereafter appear; and upon this conviction she need not fear to acknowledge some actual specks in the character of their father, who, though cleared from the grossly injurious suspicions which she must ever blush to have entertained, she did believe, upon serious consideration, to be not perfectly amiable."''|'''[[Jane Austen]]''', ''[[Northanger Abbey]]''}}

See also [[Shades of Conflict]], [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes]] and [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains]]. When you've got a specific group to which this trope applies, you've got a [[Four -Philosophy Ensemble]]. Compare [[The Good, the Bad, and The Evil]] along with [[White and Grey Morality]]. Contrast [[Black and Black Morality]], where nothing is good or morally ambiguous about the characters. Also contrast [[White and White Morality]] where nobody is truly evil.

* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' where many of the protagonists are former villains [[Heel Face Turn|who change sides]] after meeting [[The Messiah|Goku]].

* The manga version of ''[[Chrono Crusade]]''. Azmaria, Mary Magdalene and most of the members of the Magdalene Order are clearly heroes. Rosette's very heroic, but [[Nun-Too-Holy|has a number of vices and character flaws that get the best of her]]; Chrono is kind and gentle but has a dark past (including [[Heel Face Turn|formerly being one of the villains]]); and Satella is mostly concerned with her own goals but still shows empathy towards others. The Sinners, although being the main villains, are mostly in the gray, from Joshua (who is devoted to Aion because the demon horns on his head are [[Comes Great Insanity|making him lose his mind]], but who has understandable and occasionally noble motives) to Shader (who hates violence and expresses remorse for her actions but goes along with Aion because she believes in his ideals) to Aion himself, who is a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]. The closest to the actual "villain" scale are the other demons, who are either beasts who take pleasure in attacking humans or soldiers sent to kill the Sinners and whoever gets in their way--butway—but some of ''these'' are somewhat sympathetic, since many of them are simply {{spoiler|aliens stranded on a strange planet who are struggling to survive and believe in a lie perpetuated for generations}}. The morality structure is explained by the mangaka as being inspired by the idea that people aren't ''born'' evil, but ''become'' evil through their selfishness.

* ''[[Code Geass]]''. There is ''one'' genuinely, unquestionably good person, [[Rebellious Princess|Euphemia]], ([[Naive Everygirl|Shirley]] is debatable, because while she is certainly kind-hearted and sweet, she is only concerned about her own feelings and school life while all hell is breaking loose outside, so she can come across as somewhat self-centred). There is ''one'' genuinely, unquestionably evil person, [[Complete Monster|Luciano]] [[Blood Knight|Bradley]]. Every other character's alignment can be debated. The main character himself can be convincingly argued to fall under [http://alsosprachodin.deviantart.com/art/Lelouch-s-Alignment-Chart-148296568 any morality alignment].

* [[One Piece]] is a HUGE example of this. The protagonists are [[Chaotic Neutral|morally ambiguous]] pirates that are motivated by self-interest and [[To Be a Master|personal goals]] rather than any abstract moral considerations, but tend to do good anyway by defeating more evil pirates (or marines) that happened to [[It's Personal|do something to offend them.]] Other pirates can be anything from [[Chaotic Good]] adventurers to [[Selfish Evil]] [[Jerkass|jerkassesjerkass]]es to [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s. Likewise Marines can be anything from [[Hero Antagonist|legitimate heroes]] to [[Punch Clock Villain|guys who just want a check]] to [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|well-meaning extremists]] to [[Knight Templar|Knight Templars]]s. One Piece characters have all kinds of varying motivations and alignments - it very much depends on the individual person rather than what group they belong to, which is quite realistic.

* One of the best examples of this trope is ''[[The Dresden Files]]''. At the furthest extreme of the Hero end we have Michael Carpenter, [[Red Baron|the Fist of God]], who only fights monsters, has a grand total of one recorded instance of swearing in the series proper, and is all around about as wholesome as a person can be. Slightly away from the good extreme would be the majority of the series other heroes e.g. [[The Hero|Harry Dresden]], he's a generally upstanding guy with a MASSIVE case of [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]], but isn't above a bit of pragmatism if it's necessary. More towards the middle of the scale is [[Magical Society|The White Council]] which is made up of plenty of [[Knight Templar]] [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]]es but has methods which are shown to oftentimes be necessary. The main representative of dark gray is John Marcone, who is a ruthless crime boss, but ends up [[Enemy Mine|joining forces]] with Dresden more often than opposing him and [[Berserk Button|WILL NOT]] [[Even Evil Has Standards|tolerate any violence against children]]. As for the [[Complete Monster|CompleteMonsters]] of the setting we have pretty much any one the supernatural villains, e.g. the skinwalker whose [[You Cannot Grasp the True Form|true form's]] mere sight is enough to send harry into a [[Heroic BSOD]]. To Top it of we even have [[Blue and Orange Morality]] in the form of [[The Fair Folk|the fae]].

* Given that ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] and no clear heroes or villains, it's no surprise that the morality spectrum comes in about a thousand shades of gray. You've got extremely honorable, well-meaning people like Ned Stark and Brienne of Tarth, [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s like Gregor Clegane and Ramsay Bolton, and more [[Anti-Hero|Anti-Heroes]]es and [[Anti-Villain|Anti-Villains]]s than can be listed. Among the "anti-"s, fans can't even agree which ones of them are anti-''heroes'' and which are anti-''villains''. It's largely a matter of perspective.

* [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] and spin-off [[Pathfinder]] in most of its settings has this. There may be a necromancer who is repeating Mengele's work on his victims, a paladin who spends all his days feeding the poor and treating the sick when not rushing off to battle nasties like the necromancer, amoral thieves who just look to make a quick coin clipping purses in the market, well-meaning but ruthless knights who seek to put down the aforementioned thieves without realizing their oppressive lords have beggared the people, and a cult to a god of chaos and magic whose followers [[Blue and Orange Morality]] pushes them to do things no one understands. Really, the limitation is the player's and GM's imagination and their willingness (or not) to have certain things in their game. They may even be in the same [[Adventure Town]]. Newer, more "mature" games often aim at the more limiting Gray and Gray or Gray and Black morality.

** [[Planescape]] may most exemplify this. You could literally be a divine servant from a fantasy version of Dante's Purgatorio, a [[Snark Knight]] anti-hero out of fantasy Charles Dickens, or a [[Complete Monster]] from a Milton-like hell. The various groups in the game are all over the map on their ethical stance.

* While most of the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' has [[Black and Gray Morality]], ''[[Changeling: The Dreaming]]'' and ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' follow this trope.

** Most Changelings are Seelie dominant and generally good, but not necessarily supremely virtuous. Most Unseelie fae are still decent folks. Some Seelie and a few Unseelie are so old-school knightly they might as well be D&D paladins. Seelie and Unseelie villains alike range from operatic [[Harmless Villain]] to ruthless [[Pragmatic Villainy]] to cannibalistic [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]]s to [[Eldritch Abomination]]-worshiping [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]]s.

* ''[[Star Wars: The Old Republic]]'' is shaping up to be an example of this. From what we know so far, it's just as possible to play a Light sided Sith as it is to play a dark sided Jedi, and a number of characters on both sides are morally grey.

* ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue: Continuum Shift]]'' has changed the tone of the ''[[Blaz BlueBlazBlue]]'' series so now it's shaping up to be this rather than [[Black and Gray Morality]].

* Comes with the the territory of being based on the [[Dungeons and& Dragons]] alignment system in the ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''. You have good characters doing good things because it's the right thing to do, bad people doing bad things for a greater good, and bad people doing bad things for amusement.

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' fits. Most of Team Aang is unequivocally good and the most powerful members of the Fire Nation are power-hungry sociopaths, but almost everyone else falls somewhere in between. {{spoiler|Ba Sing Se}} turns out to be a [[Crap Saccharine World]], and the Northern Water Tribe has some pretty sexist moments. The rank-and-file and civilians of the Fire Nation are more often misguided patriots than outright evil. You could make a decent argument that the whole series is a subversion of the [[Always ChaoticExclusively Evil]] trope.