Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Difference between revisions
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While the people around them can be tempted by power, fame, sex, [[Greed|money]], or [[Love Makes You Evil|love]], this character is immune to succumbing to temptations. More [[Rounded Character|rounded characters]] may feel the temptation and still resist. They will always do the [[Chronic Hero Syndrome|right thing]] for the greater good, if not necessarily the [[Good Is Not Nice|nice thing]].
Even if they're in a [[Crapsack World]], they'll never lose their moral compass or idealism. Even having to engage in morally ambiguous acts, such as deceiving someone for a good cause, appears as [[Dirty Business]] to them. They greet fame with [[Think Nothing of It]], and often tell people to [[Keep the Reward]]; working for the [[Glory Hound]] causes, at most, mild annoyance. [[What You Are in the Dark]] poses no difficulties to them. If they are [[Being Tortured Makes You Evil|tortured]], they will endure. They will
Moral conflict in such a character, or between two such characters, is possible, but is [[Good Versus Good|driven by a conflict between two moral principles]]. One argues for
This is basically the polar opposite of [[Complete Monster]].
Often, this is a key element of an [[Idiot Hero]], [[The Ace]], [[The Cape (trope)]], [[The Messiah]] and [[The Pollyanna]] played straight. Heroes like these are often [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|sneered]] at as being [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|unrealistic]] or [[Good Is Old-Fashioned|old-fashioned]], when compared to [[Anti-Hero|Anti Heroes]]
In fantasy stories, this might allow the hero access to weapons (often made of [[Silver Has Mystic Powers]]) or magic for [[Only the Pure of Heart]]. Might lead to a [[100% Adoration Rating|Hundred Percent Adoration]] or [[100% Heroism Rating|Heroism Rating]]. Be wary that they might be [[Too Good for This Sinful Earth]]. Also very likely to be a [[Celibate Hero]]
This is what the [[Knight Templar]] and the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] tend to think they are.
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'''Galactus:''' Yet you serve Galactus once more.
'''Silver Surfer:''' ''I'' will not kill. }}
** A ''[[What If]]'' story predating the DC "Underworld" storyline above, but with a similar premise; arch-demon Mephisto finally [[Be Careful What You Wish For|gets his wish]] and wins the soul of the Silver Surfer, and drags him into Hell, only to find that the Surfer's soul is so pure that its goodness burns
* [[Dick Tracy]], especially in [[The Movie]].
* [[ROM Spaceknight]] is portrayed this way. Although most humans fear him upon first seeing him, pretty much anyone who gets to know him at all will end up marveling at his nobility and self-sacrifice. Even Namor, [[Jerkass|who tends to dis everyone he encounters]], thought Rom was the most honorable man he'd ever met. Galactus claimed Rom was the only being he'd ever encountered who was as pure of heart as the Silver Surfer.
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== Fairy Tales ==
* [[The Little Mermaid]] in the older versions of the story represented purity. She gave up her underwater kingdom, her wealth, and her fins all for love. At the end of the story she is unable to kill the Prince, even though he has fallen in love with a another woman. Refusing to murder him out of revenge she instead commits suicide, jumping into the sea and becoming sea foam.
** Also from [[Hans Christian Andersen]], Eliza in ''The Wild Swans''. When her stepmother uses [[
{{quote|Had not the creatures been venomous or been kissed by the witch, they would have been changed into red roses. At all events they became flowers, because they had rested on Eliza's head, and on her heart. She was too good and too innocent for witchcraft to have any power over her.}}
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*** A short list of things Vimes has resisted: The Gonne (which corrupted everyone else who held it except its creator and Carrot), The Summoning Dark (a quasi-demonic entity of pure revenge which managed some control before {{spoiler|being kicked out by said construct}}), and, several times, the urge to ignore the law, including one time when his boss was secretly standing behind him.
*** Even criminals know him as incorruptible, and consider him so even if he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He suspects privately that he's a spoon.
** Brutha from ''[[Discworld/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'' as well. He's the [[Moral Orel]] of ''Discworld''. He is also essentially the [[The Messiah|Jesus-equivalent]] of his
* Aziraphale from ''[[Good Omens]]'' is ''supposed'' to be like this (well, he's an angel, after all) but Crowley manages to tempt him slightly away from the path of righteousness with classical composers and decent films (the only movie you can watch in Heaven, apparently, is ''[[The Sound of Music]]'').
* Tom and Eva from ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''. This type of character was common when the book was written, but has fallen out of favor since.
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** ''[[Eisenhorn]]'', the trilogy from which ''Ravenor'' originally spun off, subverts this trope. It features Godwyn Fischig, a member of the Arbites, as one of Eisenhorn's team. Fischig was so "straight up and down", as Eisenhorn said, that he {{spoiler|betrays Eisenhorn to more puritanical members of the Inquisition when he realises - or thinks he realises - the full extent of Eisenhorn's radicalism. Although even there, he was clearly motivated by his desire to save Eisenhorn.}}
** In the ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' novel ''Horus Rising'', Loken's distaste for lodges and the [[Conflicting Loyalty|Conflicting Loyalties]] and secrecy they bring is so pure that even a lodge member admires it, even as he is amused by it. In ''False Gods'', when Loken is distressed by going up against rebels, their own people, rather than outsiders and worries about other rebellions, his friends intimidate they might report him for treason, and laugh at his reactions because he's so straight up and down.
*** In ''The Flight of the Eisenstein'', Tarvitz's honor is what brings the great shock at [[The Reveal]]
{{quote|''"Saul Tarvitz", whispered Sendek. "First Captain of the Emperor's Children. Impossible! He's a man of honour! If he's turned traitor, then the galaxy has gone insane!"
Decius found he couldn't look away from Garro's shocked expression. "Perhaps it has." It was a long moment before Decius realized that the words has been his''. }}
*** Nathaniel 'Straight Arrow' Garro fits well, too. There's a pattern to the protagonists of the ''[[Horus Heresy]]''
** In the ''[[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]]'' novel ''The Killing Ground'', Uriel and Pasanius fall into the hands of the Grey Knights, who find it hard to believe that they escaped from the Eye of Terror untainted by Chaos, and test them with ordeals. They pass. Indeed, before the first, a mind probe, Leodegarius, the Grey Knight testing them, disbelieves protests of innocence and is even willing to [[Cold-Blooded Torture|torture]] to secure compliance, but after, he obviously wants them to pass the next two. After the second, when their wounds have healed as those of the innocent do, Leodegarius comments that he has never seen it happen so quickly. After the third, {{spoiler|Leodegarius explains it was a [[Secret Test of Character]] --by defeating them he proved that they had no warp-based powers -- and he had been confident that they could pass.}}
** In the novel ''[[Blood Angels|Deus Sanguinius]]'', when Rafen emerges from his brother Arkio's schismatic forces and demands that Mephiston let him [[Combat by Champion|fight Arkio in single combat]], Mephiston probes his mind and finds him made of duty and honour, having long outgrown a youthful arrogance. He steps aside for the much junior Blood Angel because no better champion could be found.
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* [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] loves this trope. It fits characters from no less than ''three'' of his major books: Sofia Marmaledova from ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'', Prince Myshkin from ''[[The Idiot]]'', and Alyosha Karamazov from ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]''. Such a character tends to be paired alongside a [[Nietzsche Wannabe]], with subtle hints given that the types are [[Not So Different]]. (Hi, [[Mind Screw]]!) The outcome for such a character tends to vary highly.
** Sofia Marmaledova is also unusual for being the rare overlap between Incorruptible Pure Pureness and [[Hooker with a Heart of Gold]].
* In ''[[How I Live Now]]'' by Meg Rosoff, the American teenage heroine is sent to live with her English cousins on the eve of World War Three. Nearly all her newfound relatives are full of
{{quote|"''If anyone feels like arresting me for corrupting an innocent kid then all I can say is '''Edmond was not corruptible.''' Some people are just like that and if you don't believe me it just means you've never met one of them for yourself. Which is your loss.''"}}
* Enjolras, the [[Rebel Leader]] from ''[[Les Misérables]]''.
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** At one point Sam has the Ring all to himself, and the Ring gives him visions of becoming a mighty lord, overthrowing Sauron and transforming Mordor from a wasteland to a gigantic garden. But Sam rejects this because he only wants to tend a garden on his own, not to lord it over others (and have them do the gardening).
*** And Sam Gamgee doesn't even think that his resisting the Ring is a big deal. As far as he's concerned, it's just plain hobbit common sense. His main reaction is to pity Frodo for having to endure such temptations for months on end.
** And Tom Bombadil is not tempted by the ring at all, and is probably the truest example of
* Deconstructed by Galad in ''[[The Wheel of Time]]'' after he inadvertantly sparks a city destroying riot (with a side helping of war) to help his sister.
* Unless you count her brief foray into normality (or, at least, her own brand of normality), Jerry Spinelli's ''Stargirl'' could be considered incorruptible.
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Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;'' }}
* Arthur, from ''[[Keys to the Kingdom]]'', spends a great deal of time trying to be this, both physically & mentally. He does have some moments where he
* Ten Ox from ''[[Bridge of Birds]]''. Master Li says that he suffers from "an incurable case of purity of heart". It's also the reason for him {{spoiler|subconsciously recognizing and worshipping Lotus Cloud as a goddess in disguise, whereas Master Li, the one with a "slight flaw in his character", did not for a long time}}.
* The titular heroine of the [[Honor Harrington]] universe is pretty much this. Many characters in-universe have commented on her parents' apparent precognition at having named her Honor.
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== Tabletop Games ==
* In the 1st through 3rd Editions of ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', members of the Paladin class were required to maintain their Incorruptible Pure Pureness or lose their class abilities. Unfortunately, many problems arose when people played them as merciless, smite-happy, [[Lawful Stupid]] [[Knight Templar
** 3.5 has a series of feats for monks that grant absurd bonuses if they follow incredibly strict disciplines. The feat Vow of Poverty is the most extreme one, which grants the character a few bonuses in exchange for them never owning any material possessions save for the very basic essentials. The result is a character who will never break his chosen vow ''no matter what''.
*** That's not a monk-only feat. Vow of Poverty, along with Vow of Peace (a feat requiring you to ''never deal lethal injury to a living thing'', in exchange for ''tremendous'' numerical bonuses) appear in the Book of Exalted Deeds, and anybody can take them. Enforcing 'fluff' rules (like non-mechanical penalties for starvation) is the only thing that limits them (other than the whole "can't lethally injure something or own shinies" things).
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* While ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' tends to subvert these kinds of characters whenever they can, the High Elf Everqueen seems relatively immune. Helps being [[Friend to All Living Things]], and she's so pure her very presence dissolves demons and dark magics. Naturally she tends to be a [[Damsel in Distress]].
* Outside of ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' literature mentioned above, there [[Retcon|were]] the Sensei, descendants of the Emperor who can't even have negative feelings like hate and envy, and the Star Child, the incorruptible innocence of the Emperor that he had to discard in order to {{spoiler|kill his favourite son after purging him of all the evils that led to the fighting.}}
** The Grey Knights Chapter subjects its recruits to the equivalent of 666 [[Mind Rape
*** The 5th edition codex adds another layer of pureness, the Purifiers, who are considered even more incorruptible than their fellow brethren. And then there's their champion, Castellan Crowe, who's so pure that he carries around a ''[[Evil Weapon|daemon sword]]'' with no ill effect.
** The [[Amazon Brigade|Sisters]] [[Church Militant|of Battle]], despite what the majority of fan-fiction [[Fetish Fuel|seems to want]], have had only a single Sister fall after many thousands of years of constantly battling Chaos.
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== Theater ==
* Sarah Brown from ''[[Guys and Dolls]]'' is an example of this, and this trope is parodied by her mission band's inability to "save" any souls until Sky makes the other gamblers come to the testimonial
* The protagonist Violane in the play ''L'Annonce faite à Marie'' (''[http://www.archive.org/stream/tidingsbroughtto00clau/tidingsbroughtto00clau_djvu.txt The Tidings Brought to Mary]'') by Paul Claudel. Violane is moved by pity to kiss a leper, and gives him her engagement ring to help finance the church. This of course does not sit well with her fiancée
* Daesdaemona in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Othello]]'' is the embodiment of rational virtue. As such, she is as incorruptible as it gets.
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* Amberle in the [[Backstory|Elder Wars]] of ''[[Lusternia]]''. Sadly, she [[Wrong Genre Savvy|didn't realize]] she was in a [[Cosmic Horror Story]] - while attempting to reach out to a [[Eldritch Abomination|Soulless God]], she was murdered and devoured whole, providing Elder War protagonist Meridian with a [[Dead Little Sister]].
* Jun Kazama from the ''[[Tekken]]'' series. It ''may'' be such an incredible level of purity that even {{spoiler|becoming Unknown}} hasn't eliminated it.
* Even if she was manipulated by {{spoiler|Iris}} and later {{spoiler|ends up being [[Right for the Wrong Reasons]] and gets her own [[Heroic BSOD]] upon being attacked and badly wounded by Iris}}, Tia of ''[[Rosenkreuzstilette]]'' is shown to be this, seeing how she not only refuses to take part in RKS's rebellion but also condemns it, and is willing to protect the people of RKS as much as she's willing to protect the people from RKS, that without letting anybody be sacrificed. She seems not to have a slight inch of hatred in her heart, {{spoiler|despite refusing to forgive Iris for using everybody to attack one another [[For the Evulz|for her own amusement]]}}. It's later revealed that {{spoiler|Tia was reincarnated from another form of
* While he does tend to be quite an [[Idiot Hero]] of a [[Cloudcuckoolander]], [[Kirby]] is revealed to be this in ''[[Kirby Mass Attack]]''. Reason? He has the Heroic Heart, which resembles a star, that got separated from his main body when Kirby was split into ten and almost wiped out of existence by [[Complete Monster]] Necrodeus. Even after he was split, his heroic heart remains, and offers for itself and the ten Kirbys to fight Necrodeus together.
* Pit and {{spoiler|Dark Pit}} from [[Kid Icarus: Uprising]] have shown to be this. The best example is the Mirror of Truth, which is supposed to reflect the dark side of someone who looks into it. Pandora tricked Pit into breaking it and creating Dark Pit, but Dark Pit ends up being neutral at worse. However the game implies that {{spoiler|Dark Pit is just as pure or more pure hearted than Pit as shown in the Chaos Kin arc. Viridi says that the Chaos Kin only feeds on the purest of souls and the Chaos Kin ash idol states that Dark Pit was needed to be revived. Hades also says that Pittoo's soul is different from the rest of the souls he could eat.}} In other words, {{spoiler|Pit's darkness is also pure}} which says something about his character.
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== Western Animation ==
* [[Transformers|Optimus Prime]]. There's a reason no other leader of the Autobots has gone uncontested.
* ''[[Moral Orel]]'', as stated in the above quote. Orel lives in a [[Crapsack World]] of [[Stepford Smiler
** Even when demonstrated to not be fully immune to corruption it is never his fault, due to some adult giving him terrible advice.
* Butters Stotch. ''[[South Park]]'' keeps on using him as [[The Chew Toy]], but he remains relatively well-adjusted despite almost hitting the breaking point a couple of times. Even when he [[Poke the Poodle|tries to be evil]], he fails miserably.
** This trope is the reason the position of [[The Pope]] in the ''[[South Park]]'' universe was not intended for a human, but a rabbit (St. Peter, the first Pope, was in fact Peter Rabbit). Rabbits embody
* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'', to the point where he was able to resist being ''stabbed through the chest'' by his own weapon because of his purity.
** There ''was'' a notable instance of Aku manifesting Jack's evils (anger and battle-lust - basically the sin of Wrath - which culminates in a frustrated Jack attacking his shoe) as Dark Jack. The episode turns into a [[Double Subversion]] when Jack defeats the Dark clone by simply calming down and purging himself of those thoughts. Not completely incorruptible, but very close.
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