History Main / ALighterShadeOfGrey

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Despite the series' overwhelming BlackAndGrayMorality, characters like the Starks, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen are portrayed sympathetically despite their more heinous actions.

* Both ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' revolve around this conflict. It's less obvious in 3 as the Brotherhood act mostly as white knights, but are capable of doing very unpleasant things, such as murdering Ghouls on sight and killing civilians outside of Megaton. But not on the same scale as the Enclave who plan on killing anyone with even the slightest form of mutation.
** Aside from the Legion, which is outright evil, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has gray factions in the form of the New California Republic, Mr. House, and potentially a Good Karma Courier in the Wild Card Route. So choosing which is the lightest gray usually depends on the player.
*** The New California Republic are a diverse, wealthy, democratic, powerful, prosperous, and expansionist federation that greatly improve standards of living in any given region, but they are often greedy and corrupt.
*** While Mr.House by no means is a nice man, he has no interest in actively persecuting the people of the Mojave and provided that they simply follow his rules and not remain a threat he runs a prosperous resort town open to anyone for the right price. If one takes a harsh enough view of the NCR's problems with corruption and imperialism and believes Mr. House genuinely wants to help humanity and has the means to do so. So choosing which is the lightest gray usually depends on the player.
*** A Wild Card Courier with good karma (or at least neutral) is someone who is willing to betray both factions to seize power, but often does so out of a genuine desire to liberate the Mojave, even when that may end up sparking anarchy.

* The two "villanous" factions in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' (Gendo and SEELE) are split like this. The plans of both involve TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt and an AssimilationPlot. SEELE's plan is the more ambiguous one, but it involves forcing the Assimilation Plot on all of mankind and use it to ascend to godhood. Gendo's plans, on the other hand, are more personal, and mostly revolve around being reunited with his wife. Notably, he outright compares SEELE's goal to "death" and utterly rejects it on those grounds.

* ''TabletopGames/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': The Grand Alliance Of Order, the de-facto heroes of the setting, are mostly this. While there are no shortage of genuinely good, heroic, and noble (as much as one can be in a ''Warhammer'' setting) heroes, there's also no shortage of violent, blood-thirsty, zealous, or just plain mercenary members. What unites them isn't compassion, goodness, or even a desire to save lives; it's a shared desire for civilization and law, and a common opposition to [[TheLegionsOfHell Chaos]].

* Very much the case on ''Series/TrueBlood''. [[AntiVillain Vampires]] [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire publicly try to fit in with human society]], while [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers utterly ignoring human law and morality every chance they get]]. They frequently commit murder, mind control people, imprison them, perform torture and engage in a wide range of other criminal behaviors. The main romantic leads of the series are not exceptions, but are not only hugely attractive to the heroine, but to the [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys female fanbase at large]]. To keep this from becoming a ALighterShadeOfBlack situation, efforts are usually made to make the vampire protagonists at least [[AffablyEvil superficially]] [[EvilIsSexy appealing]], while introducing enemies that seem to be [[BigBad much worse]] which they will help save the day from.

* Joss Whedon's ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' is all about this trope. In season one, you have Paul Ballard, dangerously obsessed FBI agent who is projecting his own fantasy onto Caroline, and on the other side you have the Rossum Corporation, admittedly involved in human trafficking, and in the middle, playing one against the other, a madman and AxCrazy whose insanity was, at least partially, inflicted upon him by the Dollhouse. In season two, the enemy is the Rossum Corporation's upper management, versus Adelle [=DeWitt=] and the rapidly self-aware Actives. Adelle crosses some {{Moral Event Horizon}}s, but ends up being more [[SympatheticPOV sympathetic]] than her fellow co-workers simply by being less evil than the rest of the Rossum Corporation.

* Within the protagonist group in ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' Shane is definitely the darker, pure survival-oriented SociopathicHero to Rick who thinks not only of the group but even of others outside the group and makes a conscious effort to cling to his morality.

* Both ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' revolve around this conflict. It's less obvious in 3 as the Brotherhood act mostly as white knights, but are capable of doing very unpleasant things, such as murdering Ghouls on sight and killing civilians outside of Megaton. But not on the same scale as the Enclave who plan on killing anyone with even the slightest form of mutation.
** Aside from the legion which is outright evil, ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has gray factions in the form of the New California Republic, Mr. House, and potentially a Good Karma Courier in the Wild Card Route. So choosing which is the lightest gray usually depends on the player.

** In ''Fallout 3''[='=]s DLC The Pitt, the main conflict you must invariably choose a side in is a conflict between an AntiVillain and an AntiHero. On the one hand there's Lord Ashur, who uses slave labor guarded by raiders to revive the steel mills in the ruins of old world Pittsburg, but who plans to free the slaves once The Pitt is its own superpower, as well as finding a cure for the sickness that turns the inhabitants of The Pitt into troglodytes. On the other hand, there's Werner, Ashur's former lieutenant who wants to free the slaves of Ashur's rule (and has the support of the people), but does it primarily so that he can rule The Pitt in Ashur's stead. Werner is in fact the one who brings in outside help (read: you) to tip the scales in his favor, and he conveniently fails to mention the whole "controlling The Pitt" thing, not to mention the [[spoiler: cure for the trog disease is within Ashur's own infant daughter.]]

* Both ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' revolve around this conflict. It's less obvious in 3 as the Brotherhood act mostly as white knights, but are capable of doing very unpleasant things, such as murdering Ghouls on sight and killing civilians outside of Megaton. But not on the same scale as the Enclave who plan on killing anyone with even the slightest form of mutation. The New California Republic are a diverse, wealthy, democratic, powerful, prosperous, and expansionist federation that greatly improve standards of living in any given region, but they are often greedy and corrupt. In contrast to Caesar's Legion, an evil empire that endorses slavery, child soldiers, rape, paedophelia and torture, and Mr. House, a greedy, despotic, egotistical, dictator who is not above destroying factions that he considers a potential threat, they seem like saints.
** Of course, Mr. House is himself a Lighter Shade of Grey compared to the Legion. While by no means a nice man, he has no interest in actively persecuting the people of the Mojave and provided that they simply follow his rules and not remain a threat he runs a prosperous resort town open to anyone for the right price. If one takes a harsh enough view of the NCR's problems with corruption and imperialism and believes Mr. House genuinely wants to help humanity and has the means to do so the player can even view him as a lighter shade of grey to the NCR, especially since under [[GeneralRipper Colonel Moore]] the NCR is ''also'' willing to wipe out rival factions and commit political assassinations against potential threats.

* ''{{LightNovel/Slayers}}TRY'', which gets really confusing 2/3 of the way through when it seems like everyone wants the same thing but are on different sides.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The Alliance and the Horde, being both examples of TheAlliance, start out as equally gray in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' -- both of them sport prejudice and self-righteousness and have committed their fair share of war crimes (such as creating concentration camps). However, both were born from the desire to protect Azeroth from the LegionsOfHell and other powerful menaces and are a source of comfort for the races that comprise them. Up until ''Cataclysm'', that is -- then, the Horde's War Chief is replaced with a more ruthless, racist, and war-mongering war who orders the Horde to commit genocide. If you add to it that one of the Horde's more reviled factions, the Forsaken, get used as cannon fodder, get fed up, and start creating more of them (raising more Undead is always seen in a bad light)... It all culminates when the Forsaken's leader is crowned as the new War Chief and keeps doing more villainous acts. The Horde is only saved from falling into full black by the fact that both War Chiefs gradually lose the faction's approval and are fired.

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' was intended to feature [[GreyAndGrayMorality ambiguous morals]] and sides that were not really more right than the other. In practice, the authors seemed to have missed the memo and increasingly portrayed the Pro-Registration side as the bad guys, made especially bad by the fact that [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] (the figurehead and commander of the Pro-Registration forces) [[MoralEventHorizon commissioned the manufacture of an extradimensional KZ]] in a dimension referred to as ''worse than {{Hell}}'' and employed largely unrepentant supervillains to hunt down Anti-Registration heroes, in addition to the fact that the Anti-Registration side got almost no ShootTheDog moments (and had ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, the BigGood of the Marvel Universe, as their own figurehead).And it really did not help that ComicBook/SpiderMan decide to quit the Pro-reg side to join Captain America. Let me repeat: one of the most unambiguous superhero of the marvel universe, who was on the Pro-reg side, decide to join Cap because of how awful the pro-reg side was. Any kind of pretention the story Had GreyAndGreyMorality disapears at this moment

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' was intended to feature [[GreyAndGrayMorality ambiguous morals]] and sides that were not really more right than the other. In practice, the authors seemed to have missed the memo and increasingly portrayed the Pro-Registration side as the bad guys, made especially bad by the fact that [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] (the figurehead and commander of the Pro-Registration forces) [[MoralEventHorizon commissioned the manufacture of an extradimensional KZ]] in a dimension referred to as ''worse than {{Hell}}'' and employed largely unrepentant supervillains to hunt down Anti-Registration heroes, in addition to the fact that the Anti-Registration side got almost no ShootTheDog moments (and had ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, the BigGood of the Marvel Universe, as their own figurehead).And it really did not help that ComicBook/SpiderMan decide to quit the Pro-reg side to join Captain America. Let me repeat: one of the most unambiguous superhero of the marvel universe, who was on the Pro-reg side, decide to join Cap because of how awful the pro-reg side was. Any kind of pretention the story Had GreyAndGreyMorality disapears at this moment\\
\\
It also didn't help that every previous "superhuman registration" storyline (of which Marvel has done many) portrayed the idea as unambiguously wrong, often with thinly-veiled (or not veiled at all) references to Nazi concentration camps. Nor did they make more than a token attempt to explain how this registration act was different than the previous attempts, and perhaps worst of all, [[ContinuitySnarl failed to even consistently describe the]] ''[[ContinuitySnarl terms]]'' [[ContinuitySnarl of the act]].

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'' was intended to feature [[GreyAndGrayMorality ambiguous morals]] and sides that were not really more right than the other. In practice, the authors seemed to have missed the memo and increasingly portrayed the Pro-Registration side as the bad guys, made especially bad by the fact that [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] (the figurehead and commander of the Pro-Registration forces) [[MoralEventHorizon commissioned the manufacture of an extradimensional KZ]] in a dimension referred to as ''worse than {{Hell}}'' and employed largely unrepentant supervillains to hunt down Anti-Registration heroes, in addition to the fact that the Anti-Registration side got almost no ShootTheDog moments (and had ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, the BigGood of the Marvel Universe, as their own figurehead).\\

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' has Hoshido come off as more sympathetic than Nohr in their conflict. While the playable characters on both sides are basically sympathetic, Nohr is the unquestioned aggressor, the true villains are hiding in Nohr's shadows, and all three of the legitimately evil characters ([[TheBrute Hans]], [[EvilGenius Iago]], and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder Kotaro]]) are all aligned directly against Hoshido.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' usually comes across as this compared to other morally grey Groups of Interest. While it's hardly a good organization, and somewhat frequently delves deep into Black morality, the Foundation's generally better than the Global Occult Coalition because they seek to contain anomalies rather than blindly destroy anything that's anomalous (Regardless of all the good/neutral or outright beneficial anomalies, there's a great number of Keters that would only be made more dangerous by any attempts to destroy them, and plenty of others that might be neutralized by attempted destruction, or you're just destroying the real-world items anchoring the anomalies to one area). And with the sheer number of extremely dangerous [=SCPs=], the Foundation can usually come across as more sympathetic to human life than groups that are interested in more commonplace use of anomalies, such as the Serpent's Hand or the Church of the Broken God (both of which also have many points at which they are no worse than the Foundation in terms of morality.)

* In ''Fanfic/TiberiumWars'', even though the story is supposed to be about both sides equally, the author has admitted that he favors GDI over the Brotherhood of Nod, and the portrayal does reflect this; GDI characters have a few more scenes than the Nod side, and the GDI troops are portrayed as more sympathetic than their Nod counterparts, who generally come off as religious fanatics.

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' has a slight tendency towards this on a governmental level, insofar that for every corrupt and inefficient noble and inter-house spats shown in [[TheEmpire the Galactic Empire]], [[TheFederation the Free Planets' Alliance]] has three corrupt and inefficient politicians/military commanders breathing down Yang's neck and a civil war/complete breakdown of law and order every ten episodes. The first FPA politician who has both actual power and is presented at least partially sympathetically is [[spoiler:the man who is forced to take over after the Empire besieges Heinessen and forces the former cabinet to surrender.]]

* Marvel's ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' was intended to feature [[GreyAndGrayMorality ambiguous morals]] and sides that were not really more right than the other. In practice, the authors seemed to have missed the memo and increasingly portrayed the Pro-Registration side as the bad guys, made especially bad by the fact that [[ComicBook/IronMan Tony Stark]] (the figurehead and commander of the Pro-Registration forces) [[MoralEventHorizon commissioned the manufacture of an extradimensional KZ]] in a dimension referred to as ''worse than {{Hell}}'' and employed largely unrepentant supervillains to hunt down Anti-Registration heroes, in addition to the fact that the Anti-Registration side got almost no ShootTheDog moments (and had ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, the BigGood of the Marvel Universe, as their own figurehead).
** It also didn't help that every previous "superhuman registration" storyline (of which Marvel has done many) portrayed the idea as unambiguously wrong, often with thinly-veiled (or not veiled at all) references to Nazi concentration camps. Nor did they make more than a token attempt to explain how this registration act was different than the previous attempts, and perhaps worst of all, [[ContinuitySnarl failed to even consistently describe the]] ''[[ContinuitySnarl terms]]'' [[ContinuitySnarl of the act]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' usually comes across as this compared to other morally grey Groups of Interest. While it's hardly a good organization, and somewhat frequently delves deep into Black morality, the Foundation's generally better than the Global Occult Coalition because they seek to contain anomalies rather than blindly destroy anything that's anomalous (Regardless of all the good/neutral or outright beneficial anomalies, there's a great number of Keters that would only be made more dangerous by any attempts to destroy them, and plenty of others that might be neutralized by attempted destruction, or you're just destroying the real-world items anchoring the anomalies to one area). And with the sheer number of extremely dangerous SCPs, the Foundation can usually come across as more sympathetic to human life than groups that are interested in more commonplace use of anomalies, such as the Serpent's Hand or the Church of the Broken God (both of which also have many points at which they are no worse than the Foundation in terms of morality.)

** In Fallout 3's DLC The Pitt, the main conflict you must invariably choose a side in is a conflict between an AntiVillain and an AntiHero. On the one hand there's Lord Ashur, who uses slave labor guarded by raiders to revive the steel mills in the ruins of old world Pittsburg, but who plans to free the slaves once The Pitt is its own superpower, as well as finding a cure for the sickness that turns the inhabitants of The Pitt into troglodytes. On the other hand, there's Werner, Ashur's former lieutenant who wants to free the slaves of Ashur's rule (and has the support of the people), but does it primarily so that he can rule The Pitt in Ashur's stead. Werner is in fact the one who brings in outside help (read: you) to tip the scales in his favor, and he conveniently fails to mention the whole "controlling The Pitt" thing, not to mention the [[spoiler: cure for the trog disease is within Ashur's own infant daughter.]]

* In the conflict between [[spoiler: Akane and Delta]] in the ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'' trilogy both sides have [[WellIntentionedExtremist noble goals]] and a small graveyard of [[ShootTheDog dogs shot]] on the path to these goals. However while the former tries to minimise casualties and collateral damage whenever possible, the latter tends to be excessively cruel and some actions like [[spoiler: killing everyone except Diana]] in one of the endings of ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' seem like [[KickTheDog pointless cruelty]], making [[spoiler: Akane]] a clearly lighter gray.

* King Foltest in ''Franchise/TheWitcher'' is regarded as an arrogant, sister-humping warmonger, but he ends up being one of the least morally repugnant leaders in the series as well as the most moral monarchs in the Northern Kingdoms compared to others such as King Henselt of Kaedwin, who is your standard FatBastard, as well as King Radovid of Temeria, who is practically [[ANaziByAnyOtherName an Adolf Hitler stand-in]] by performing ethnic cleansing against undesirables (in this case magic users). Nilfgaard is ruled by Emperor Emhyr var Emreis, who is basically Fantasy UsefulNotes/JosephStalin by launching expansionist campaigns against any kingdoms that refuse to be forcibly absorbed into his empire, and [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness happily executing his own courtiers and military high command]] [[YouHaveFailedMe if they fail him in the slightest.]]

** Lampshaded in ''Lair of the Shadow Broker'', where Shepard berates Tela Vasir for betraying the Spectres by working with the Shadow Broker. Vasir throws it right back at them, that ''Shepard'' is working with Cerberus, so how are they ''[[NotSoDifferentRemark different]]''?

* The Poor Man's Fight series by Elliott Kay is this in spades. While you are overall sympathetic to our hero Tanner, the books make very clear that many of the mooks he kills are not evil, perhaps just another young person trapped into military service by unfair debt like him. At the same time, many of his allies have noble goals, such as protecting their nation from foreign invaders who would ruthlessly exploit its people... but also gladly employ psychopathic killers and war criminals if they can help get the job done. Tanner is also a through and through [[CombatPragmatist Combat Pragmatist]], and the foreign media portrays him a ruthless killer for doing such things [[spoiler:as not giving a group of assassins that outnumber him 4-to-1 a chance to surrender before he gives them all brutal, and mostly lethal, take-downs, or blowing up an entire ship full of thousands of invasion troops before they realize the threat]].

* ''Franchise/TheFlash'': The Rogues, [[TookALevelInJerkAss at least until]] ''ComicBook/DCRebirth'', anyway, were typically this next to other villains. They've outright been described in these terms, and frequently writers would have either ComicBook/WallyWest or Barry Allen discuss with them and/or others where the Rogues stand exactly. Captain Cold once helped fight Blacksmith and also took on the Keystone City mob by himself, and both times he was portrayed as more-or-less an AntiHero who happened to be a career thief and a colossal JerkAss. However, the people he was opposing were serious organised crime types who were more or less serious monsters, or at least employing monsters.