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Stupid Neutral: Difference between revisions
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prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.StupidNeutral 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.StupidNeutral, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
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{{quote| '''''"[[Omnicidal Neutral|Good, they're both dead. The Balance has been preserved.]]"'''''<br />
'''Or...'''<br />
'''''"[[
Some [[True Neutral]] people are devoted to the [[Balance Between Good and Evil]] - They fight only because the forces of darkness grow too strong. The problem comes when they become [[Omnicidal Neutral|''militantly'' neutral]]; so devoted to not taking sides that they lash out against both Good and Evil without distinguishing between [[Friend or Foe]]. This usually takes the form of always siding with the underdog; the moment one side gains the upper hand, they'll pull a [[Face Heel Turn]] (or a [[Heel Face Turn]]) to make sure both sides are 'equal'. This can lead to a very [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder|unreliable fellow]] and a [[Wild Card]] whose misguided morals lead his former allies to cut him down despite his [[What Is Evil?|protests that he was only following his heart]].
Stupid Neutral people tend to think of morality as balancing a metaphysical checkbook; any evil deed can be 'cancelled out' by committing an equally good deed. No remorse or [[The Atoner|atonement]] is needed; to these people, there is no [[Moral Event Horizon]] past which their actions cannot be [[Buy Them Off|forgiven by good works]] (or evil works, as the case may be). In short, these people are the types who will build an orphanage and then "balance it out" by burning down the orphanage across the street. This pattern of [[Kick the Dog|kicking the dog]] and then stopping to [[Pet the Dog|pet it]] immediately afterwards just results in a very neurotic dog... and a very confused audience.
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** Mordenkainen the Mage is the original incarnation of this trope. He believed that the forces of good, evil, law and chaos would ''all'' screw the world up if they were unquestioned, so he ensures that no side is ever vastly more powerful than its counterpart.
** Versions 3.0 and 3.5 explicitly point out that PCs playing "true neutral" shouldn't fit this trope. Even though they usually don't care about greater causes, true neutrals still prefer neighbors who aren't going to betray, kill, or enslave them.
** [[Depending On the Writer|According to some sources]], the concept of a "constantly flip-flopping character" trying to maintain [[True Neutral]] is either a case of an [[Rules Lawyer|overly strict DM]] or an [[Viewers
*** This type of argument is also one of the specific reasons they streamlined the alignment system for 4e, and came up with "unaligned", which basically boils down to "works for themselves rather than any particular ideal", and the only way to change alignment is DM-contrivance, permanent mind control, or player's choice, rather than simply "you did too many good deeds in a row, now you're not allowed to pickpocket random strangers."
* Nix from ''~Queen's Blade~'' isn't the stupid one; rather her stave, the Funikura, is essentially an unstable piece of work that can either destroy a village or kill the evil leader of said village. Needless to say, she sticks with it.
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