Neutral No Longer: Difference between revisions

** Not entirely, as he did express his hatred for the Empire from the very beginning and wanted to join the Rebellion as many of his friends had done. Obligation toward his family kept him on Tattooine. Han Solo better fits the trope, as his only interest in assisting the Rebellion at first was to get up enough money to pay off Jabba the Hutt. Attachment to Luke and ''especially'' Leia, seeing what the Empire was up to first-hand, {{spoiler|Chewbacca talking him into it, and Darth Vader freezing him in carbonite and shipping him to Jabba}} probably sealed the deal. {{spoiler|Given that Chewbacca was [[Good All Along]], having assisted the Old Republic and the Jedi as a high-level decision-maker in ''Revenge of the Sith'', it's possible Chewie exercised a [[Batman Gambit]] to enlist the galaxy's best smuggler into the Rebellion.}}

** Lando Calrissian is also an example. All he wanted was for the Empire to leave him alone to run Cloud City in peace, and was willing to sell out his old friend Han to get that. When [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|Vader broke the deal]] they had made, though, Lando joined the Rebellion, this time for good.

* Benjamin Martin of [[The Patriot]].

{{quote| You've done nothing to be ashamed of.<br />

** Then the Yuuzhan Vong go and make exactly the same mistake by breaking a mercenary contract. With the [[Proud Warrior Race|Mandalorians]]. Yeah, [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|that'll work]].

* At the end of [[Adrian Tchaikovsky]]'s ''[[Empire in Black And Gold]]'', {{spoiler|the Moth-kinden and the militia of Helleron}} finally come to aid the heroes against the [[The Empire|evil Wasp Empire]].

* In ''Children of [[Dune]]'', Duncan Idaho has to pull a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] in order to convince Stilgar to lead a [[La Résistance|rebellion]] against [[Regent for Life|Alia]] [[God Save Us From the Queen|Atreides]].

** He does more in the book than in the miniseries. In the latter, all he does is kill his wife's lover, although, by Fremen custom, he should've challenged him to a duel first. Stilgar, who has promised neutrality, kills him in retaliation. In the book, this is not enough. Duncan proceeds to taunt and insult Stilgar until the latter is furious. Only later does Stilgar realize that this was what Duncan wanted all along. The book also specifies that Alia took the guy as a lover only because she knew he was a traitor and wanted to flush out the conspiracy.

* [[Word of God]] tells us that {{spoiler|the Slytherins who didn't side with Voldemort}} became this at the end of ''[[Harry Potter|Deathly Hallows.]]''

* In ''[[The Dresden Files]]'', the Faerie Courts of Winter and Summer are neutral to the war between the White Council of Wizards and the Red Court of vampires. They offered the Council access through their territory (letting the wizards take advantage of the [[Alien Geometries]] of Faerie) but were otherwise neutral. Then in ''Dead Beat'', the Red Court {{spoiler|invaded Faerie in an effort to wipe out the senior leadership of the Council after an already-devastating victory}}, and Summer immediately fell all over the Reds, with Summer declaring war on the Red Court for the transgression. However, the Summer forces could not go on the offensive because Winter refused to move against the vampires and made to threaten Summer's borders, which only allowed the Summer fae to provide limited support to the wizards.

== Live Action TV ==

 

** In a [[Star Trek Expanded Universe]] novel, the entire plot is revealed to have been a ploy by Starfleet Intelligence to bring the Klingons out of their neutral state in regards to Federation-Romulan negotiations on the side of the Federation by making the Romulans appear to be dishonorable and underhanded (not a difficult task, mind you). This results in the Treaty of Algeron, when the Romulans close their borders for several decades in exchange for the Federation banning all cloaking research.

* The Archangel Gabriel on ''[[Supernatural]]'' pulls off one of these in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

 

* The more diplomatic types will be disappointed, as this is forced onto the player in the third act of ''[[Dragon Age 2]]''. After {{spoiler|Anders destroys the chantry}}, there is no middle ground left, and no way to resolve the situation peacefully.

* In ''[[Mega Man Zero]] 4'', the human refugees of [[New Eden|Area Zero]], known as Caravan, prefer to stay out of the war between the [[La Résistance]] (who they only see as terrorists with petty goals) and [[The Empire|Neo Arcadia]] (which has fallen into dictatorial rule under a [[Complete Monster]]). However, over the course of the game, upon seeing that the Resistance's goals were no different from their own, the Caravan finally welcomes their help in fighting off and finally defeating the Neo Arcadian army. At the end of the game, in fact, [[Tear Jerker|they all mourn for]] {{spoiler|Zero's [[Heroic Sacrifice]], knowing that all of it would never have been possible without his efforts.}}

* In ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]'', [[Broken Hero]] Deego Aegis could care less about the Morarty family taking over Vedan. He would like nothing more than to [[Drowning My Sorrows|spend the rest of his life drinking away at his friend Angela's bar.]] However, once the Morarty Family burns down her bar, Deego is more than willing to make a stand against them.

 

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' Bun-Bun is frequently the subject of this trope. As a [[Heroic Sociopath]], he's frequently disinterested in whatever life and death struggle everyone else may be involved in, but more often than not the [[Big Bad]] ''du jour'' will do something that irritates Bun-Bun in some way (or the heroes will ''tell'' Bun-Bun the [[Big Bad]] did something irritating). Cue the [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|Revenge of the]] [[Killer Rabbit]].

* [[Breakfast of the Gods]]: [[It Makes Sense in Context|Toucan Sam]] throws his lot in with Tony and the rest of the kingdom's defenders, after witnessing Count Chocula {{spoiler|set Cap'n Crunch up to be murdered.}}

* [[Pibgorn]] [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2004/01/14/ There's no way to be neutral with demons].

 

* Happened with the Constructicons in the ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' cartoon. Initially they were neutral hedonists and were even friendly to Bulkhead, but after Optimus Prime was a bit of a [[Jerkass]] to them they threw in their lot with the far more seemingly benevolent (and generous with his [[G-Rated Drug|oil]]) Megatron.

* The Flutter Ponies in ''[[My Little Pony]]: The Movie'' are the only creatures which can drive off the overwhelming purple glop known as Smooze, but they insist it's "not their fight." It takes a [[Rousing Speech]] by the Ponies' human ally, Meagan, to convince them to help.