History Main / GrayingMorality

** ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' and ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' both take cracks at making a more morally grey story, the first by revealing that the Robot Masters you're fighting are expired robots slated for demolition and given a new lease on life by Wily (albiet as his pawns for yet another world domination attempt), and the latter by revealing that [[spoiler: Wily used to want to make heroes out of robots, until his ideas were callously shot down by Light and he was passed over for a research grant, causing him to become consumed with jealousy and hatred for Light and for Light to spend the rest of his life regretting that his callousness helped turned Wily into the revenge-driven MadScientist he is now.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'' began as an episodic good versus evil plot, but season 3 introduces a ContrastingSequelMainCharacter in the form of ShellShockedVeteran JerkWithAHeartOfGold [[spoiler:Matrix]] and while Megabyte goes from a suave ManipulativeBastard into a CompleteMonster, his sister Hexadecimal [[spoiler:is able to be redeemed and even cured of her viral nature.]] Season 4's ''Daemon Rising'' arc also brings up the difficult question of whether it's ethical to kill brainwashed soldiers not acting of their own free will for the sake of the good of the universe, with different characters have varying opinions on the issue.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'' began as an episodic good versus evil plot, but season 3 introduces a ContrastingSequelMainCharacter in the form of ShellShockedVeteran JerkWithAHeartOfGold [[spoiler:Matrix]] and while Megabyte goes from a suave ManipulativeBastard into a CompleteMonster, his sister Hexadecimal [[spoiler:is able to be redeemed and even cured of her viral nature.]] Season 4's ''Daemon Rising'' arc also brings up the difficult question of whether it's ethical to kill brainwashed soldiers not acting of their own free will for the sake of the good of the universe.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' starts out looking like a typical battle of good versus evil, with the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom being good and the Fire Nation evil, and by extension, their respective elements as well. As the series goes on, this initial picture is peeled away as flaws of the [[StayInTheKitchen Water Tribe]], and [[BigBrotherIsWatching especially the draconian Earth Kingdom]] are revealed and the series introduces [[PunchClockVillain normal and kind Fire Nation citizens]], including children. Meanwhile [[BloodMagic darker aspects]] of Waterbending are revealed, while Firebending is shown to be far more than the destructive art that it was initially cast as. The heroes remain good and the Fire Lord and his daughter remain evil and the Fire Nation's war of conquest must be ended, but the latter half of the series paints a far more complex outlook of the conflict, and [[WarIsHell war in general]], than the beginning.

** The expanded universe runs the whole gamut. The first few novels are fairly light, only for subsequent ones to get darker. Then every couple of series there'll be a conscious effort to be lighter again, which in turn get darker etc etc. Franchise/StarWarsLegends is even ''more'' gray, sometimes veering straight into BlackAndGreyMorality (most clearly with StarWarsTheOldRepublic and the Darth Bane Trilogy/Jedi Versus Sith comics) as the Sith are deranged, murderous lunatics with an OmnicidalManiac as their GodEmperor and the Jedi are KnightTemplar types who see no issue with ChildSoldiers, slavery, conquest of and despotic rule over entire star systems to "save" them from the Sith and genocide against species they view as AlwaysChaoticEvil - with the muggles caught in the crossfire of their theological conflicts.

** The expanded universe runs the whole gamut. The first few novels are fairly light, only for subsequent ones to get darker. Then every couple of series there'll be a conscious effort to be lighter again, which in turn get darker etc etc.

* Inverted in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}''. The film starts out with FantasticRacism between predator and prey being widespread among all the characters, but as the story progresses, the heroes learn to overcome their prejudices, while the villains aim to escalate racial tensions for their own purposes.

[[folder:Film]]

** The sequel, ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' treads a similar path. Originally, 2B and 9S are [=YorHa=] androids fighting against machines that invading aliens had left in their wake, trying to reclaim earth for the humans that had retreated to the moon. Shortly into the story, it's shown the machines aren't as basic as they seem. Some acting weirdly emotional, and others having broken off the main antagonistic force to live in peace, becoming uneasy allies with the protagonists. Then [[spoiler:you learn all the invading aliens on earth were killed when their machines turned against them.]] "Adam" and "Eve" turn out to be entirely sentient machines, largely indistinguishable from the [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot YorHa androids]] physically. But they lack any actual moral compass, still threaten humanity (mostly out of curiosity) and you [[spoiler:kill Adam to save 9S, and kill Eve to save the continent after he freaks out due to Adam's death.]] Subsequent playthroughs get considerably more gray from every direction [[spoiler:except for maybe the entity controlling the hostile machines, which is entirely malevolent.]] When rebooting from YorHa's mainframe after having his physical body destroyed fighting Eve [[spoiler:9S stumbles upon classified information revealing humanity isn't living on the moon. It's extinct (likely due to the events of the first game), and what's on the moon is just a server with humanity's genetic information. In short, it turns out even the Commander didn't know exactly who was pulling the strings, it turned out [=YorHa=] was actually being puppeteered by the entity controlling the machines in what was essentially a wacky sociology experiment. 9S ends up on the fringes of sanity, barely able to tell the difference between friend and foe, and simply fighting whatever is in his way, and 2A largely continues to fight just because that's all she can do, but is now haunted by 2B's memories, that she gained when she took 2B's weapons.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' showcase a more hypocritical and darker side to the Federation [[spoiler:as both plots are ultimately driven by its desire to use Metroids as potential weapons and power sources not unlike what the Space Pirates have been doing all this time.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' starts out looking like a typical battle of good versus evil, with the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom being good and the Fire Nation evil, and by extension, their respective elements as well. As the series goes on, this initial picture is peeled away as flaws of the Water Tribe, and [[BigBrotherIsWatching especially the draconian Earth Kingdom]] are revealed and the series introduces [[PunchClockVillain normal and kind Fire Nation citizens]], including children. Meanwhile [[BloodMagic darker aspects]] of Waterbending are revealed, while Firebending is shown to be far more than the destructive art that it was initially cast as. The heroes remain good and the Fire Lord and his daughter remain evil and the Fire Nation's war of conquest must be ended, but the latter half of the series paints a far more complex outlook of the conflict, and [[WarIsHell war in general]], than the beginning.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' starts out looking like a typical battle of good versus evil, with the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom being good and the Fire Nation evil, and by extension, their respective elements as well. As the series goes on, this initial picture is peeled away as flaws of the Water Tribe, and [[BigBrotherIsWatching especially the draconian Earth Kingdom]] are revealed and the series introduces [[PunchClockVillain normal and kind Fire Nation citizens]], including children. Meanwhile [[BloodMagic darker aspects]] of Waterbending are revealed, while Firebending is shown to be far more than the destructive art that it was initially cast as. The heroes remain good and the Fire Lord and his daughter remain evil, but the latter half of the series paints a far more complex outlook of the conflict than the beginning.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' had much more black and white moral system in the first, with the heroes hunting and killing monsters in order to preserve life. Then, the main characters started to fight demons, which required them to murder innocent human hosts, the supernatural creatures stopped always being evil due to their race, and they started to make deals with demons in order to survive. After a few series, the brothers wouldn't even bat an eye when forced to kill a room full of demons with human hosts, made moral decisions which trod the line between dangerously irresponsible and wilfully evil, and constantly traded away the safety and wellbeing of huge numbers of people. At this point, it's hard to say whether or not the Winchesters still count as good or even chaotic neutral.

* ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' starts out with Skynet being clearly evil and the Connors being clearly good, but the Connors' efforts to stop Judgment Day quickly make them NotSoDifferent from the robots they're fighting, to the point that they [[AntiHero openly admit to being terrorists]]. Their Graying Morality is really driven home in "Dungeons and Dragons", when Sarah [[IronicEcho repeats]] Kyle Reese's warning about the Terminators from [[Film/TheTerminator the first movie]]... but this time it applies to Derek murdering [[spoiler:Andy Goode]] in cold blood.

* In a unusual way ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10143440/118/Just-a-Note Just a Note]]'' does it to canon through AlternateCharacterInterpretation. One of canon cases involved the death of an Interpol agent who was tracing smuggling of a cocoon which can be used as medicine or poison, and whose taking out of its origin country is illegal. The culprit wanted to sell the cocoon to a buyer whose son needed said medicine to survive. The fic presents the culprit as a WellIntentionedExtremist who never wanted any deaths and wanted to get the cocoon to a buyer not for money but to save the kid's life, and the victim as someone whose sticking to the rules resulted in a child's death.

* In the World Wrestling League the feud between La Rabia and Los Rabiosos initially appeared to be socially active, charitable, sacrificing TrueCompanions vs whiny, greedy GangBangers. This was by [[NobleDemon Los Rabiosos' design]]. As [[HiddenHeartOfGold it turned out]], Los Rabiosos were as socially active and charitable as La Rabia. What this feud was, was a splinter in a large PowerStable over one side(Los Rabiosos) feeling the other had become [[PretenderDiss posers]]. That and the fact there were only three tercias belts; everyone couldn't be hold one and Los Rabiosos refused to be overshadowed(yeah, WWL had plenty of other belts but Los Rabiosos weren't patient enough to wait on La Rabia to help them get those). La Rabia were still the better group but Los Rabiosos ended up being {{face}}s against anyone who wasn't La Rabia.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* The ''Series/JohnFinnemoresDoubleActs'' episode "Wysinnwyg" pulls this off within a single 28-minute radio play.

* ''Series/CobraKai'': The series aims for something much closer to GreyAndGrayMorality than the BlackAndWhiteMorality from the original ''Film/TheKarateKid''. Johnny retains some of his {{Jerkass}} traits and gives his students the same Cobra Kai training he had, but he's doing it so that they'll become more confident, assertive, and able to fight back against anyone who bullies them. Daniel is understandably wary of the rebirth of Cobra Kai, but he grabs the JerkassBall and goes out of his way to antagonize Johnny even though Johnny's plan doesn't involve getting back at Daniel at all and he couldn't care less about his former rival. [[spoiler: By the end of the first season, the series {{Reconstruction}} the black and white morality from the first film. While Daniel's teachings turn Robby into a better person who's willing to let go of his anger towards his father, Johnny's only end up leading his students into the very path that ruined his life. However, he does realize what he has done. A large sign of this is the return of the morally black Kreese.]]

* ''Manga/OnePiece'' started out as a story about a cheerful crew of good-natured pirates who fight other, more hostile pirates and a corrupt government. A little before halfway through the story, however, we start seeing absolutely ruthless fellow pirates who demonstrate why normal people fear that word, as well as government people who genuinely have the best intentions for the populace at large. The backstory of Luffy, the protagonist, comes up around this point in the series and strongly hints that [[spoiler:he fights the government not out of a sense of justice, but for personal revenge,]] totally unbeknownst to his crewmates. Meanwhile, some key people from the military have defected while some notable pirates seen before have allied with the government, each for their own reasons. Finally, there is a growing notion that this government only appears to do evil actions to prevent superweapons with [[EarthShatteringKaboom the ability to destroy the entire planet]] from falling into the hands of those who actually want to use it, most of whom are pirates, many of them acquaintances of Luffy. At this point, there are good and bad people on both sides and plenty of hard decisions people with power and/or fame must make.

** ''VideoGame/MegaMan9'' and ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' both take cracks at making a more morally grey story, the first by revealing that the Robot Masters you're fighting are expired robots slated for demolition and given a new lease on life by Wily (albiet as his pawns for yet another world domination attempt,) and the latter by revealing that [[spoiler: Wily used to want to make heroes out of robots, until his ideas were callously shot down by Light and he was passed over for a research grant, causing him to become consumed with jealousy and hatred for Light and for Light to spend the rest of his life regretting that his callousness helped turned Wily into the revenge-driven MadScientist he is now.]]

* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'' already starts off as BlackAndGrayMorality, but includes distinctly white characters such as Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. These characters gain shades of gray throughout the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest second]] and [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd third]] movies. On the opposite side of the spectrum is [[spoiler:Barbossa]], who was mostly black in the [[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl first film]] but is just as gray as the other protagonists [[spoiler:after his resurrection by Tia Dalma.]]

-->-- '''Diggle''', ''Series/{{Arrow}}''

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} I--II'': The Horde of AlwaysChaoticEvil orcs who naturally destroy everything in their path invades a world of noble humans [[FiveRaces and other nice races]] who form the Alliance to protect themselves. ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' ten years later: The orcs were [[{{Retcon}} actually]] corrupted by demonic influences and escaping a dying homeworld, and now the Warchief of the Horde is the biggest peacemaker around and both the Horde and the Alliance are a mixture of heroes, neutrals and warmongering jerks.

* It's difficult for ''Manga/SoulEater'' fans to believe that the series [[CerebusSyndrome used to be a comedy]]. Inclusions of MindRape, [[RapeAsDrama actual rape]], [[DealWithTheDevil deals with the voice in your head]], etc aside, the most triumphant example of this would have to be the point in the series where the Grim Reaper decides to wipe out a whole town because the Kishin just might be hiding there. [[GodzillaThreshold Eventually the Kishin could wipe out the whole world]], but the situation at just halfway through the story is that dire.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'' started out as a story about a cheerful crew of good-natured pirates who fight other, more hostile pirates and a corrupt government. A little before halfway through the story, however, we start seeing absolutely ruthless fellow pirates who demonstrate why normal people fear that word, as well as government people who genuinely have the best intentions for the populace at large. The backstory of Luffy, the protagonist, comes up around this point in the series and strongly hints that [[spoiler:he fights the government not out of a sense of justice, but for personal revenge]], totally unbeknownst to his crewmates. Meanwhile, some key people from the military have defected while some notable pirates seen before have allied with the government, each for their own reasons. Finally, there is a growing notion that this government only appears to do evil actions to prevent superweapons with [[EarthShatteringKaboom the ability to destroy the entire planet]] from falling into the hands of those who actually want to use it, most of whom are pirates, many of them acquaintances of Luffy. At this point, there are good and bad people on both sides and plenty of hard decisions people with power and/or fame must make.
* The Universal Century continuity of ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' underwent this as more series are written. The original ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' was [[BlackAndGrayMorality light-gray versus black]], with the Earth Federation being a well-intentioned government led by responsible people fighting against [[ANaziByAnyOtherName space Nazis]], even though there were heroes on both sides and a few blemishes on the Federation. As the series became more developed, the Federation became increasingly portrayed as a corrupt and incompetent institution that inevitably becomes a tool of the villains, requiring heroes (who are often rather deeply flawed individuals themselves) to mutiny against the Federation to set it right. The various Zeonic movements remain consistently evil, though their leaders are often more sympathetic than the Hitler-idolizing Gihren Zabi.

* While ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' establishes important gray characters from the start, the more the story is developed, more characters are shown to be surprisingly ambiguous. Major villains thought to be one-note like Hordak and Shadow Weaver are revealed to be much more complex and heroic characters like Glimmer take some morally questionable choices. Characters often switch sides or take extreme measures to win the war for the side they're on, and this is logically explained by the individual development they have.

* While ''WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower'' stablishes important gray characters from the start, the more the story is developed, more characters are shown to be surprisingly ambiguous. Major villains thought to be one-note like Hordak and Shadow Weaver are revealed to be much more complex and heroic characters like Glimmer take some morally questionable choices. Characters often switch sides or take extreme measures to win the war for the side they're on, and this is logically explained by the individual development they have.

* While WesternAnimation/SheRaAndThePrincessesOfPower stablishes important gray characters from the start, the more the story is developed, more characters are shown to be surprisingly ambiguous . Major villains thought to be one-note like Hordak and Shadow Weaver are revealed to be much more complex and heroic characters like Glimmer take some morally questionable choices. Characters often switch sides or take extreme measures to win the war for the side they're on, and this is logically explained by the individual development they have.

* ''Series/CobraKai'': The series aims for something much closer to GreyAndGrayMorality than the BlackAndWhiteMorality from the original ''Film/TheKarateKid''. Johnny retains some of his {{Jerkass}} traits and gives his students the same Cobra Kai training he had, but he's doing it so that they'll become more confident, assertive, and able to fight back against anyone who bullies them. Daniel is understandably wary of the rebirth of Cobra Kai, but he grabs the JerkassBall and goes out of his way to antagonize Johnny even though Johnny's plan doesn't involve getting back at Daniel at all and he couldn't care less about his former rival. [[spoiler: By the end of the first season, the series {{Reconstruction reconstructs}} the black and white morality from the first film. While Daniel's teachings turn Robby into a better person who's willing to let go of his anger towards his father, Johnny's only end up leading his students into the very path that ruined his life. However, he does realize what he has done. A large sign of this is the return of the morally black Kreese.]]

* ''Series/CobraKai'': The series aims for something much closer to GreyAndGrayMorality than the BlackAndWhiteMorality from the original ''Film/TheKarateKid''. Johnny retains some of his {{Jerkass}} traits and gives his students the same Cobra Kai training he had, but he's doing it so that they'll become more confident, assertive, and able to fight back against anyone who bullies them. Daniel is understandably wary of the rebirth of Cobra Kai, but he grabs the JerkassBall and goes out of his way to antagonize Johnny even though Johnny's plan doesn't involve getting back at Daniel at all and he couldn't care less about his former rival. [[spoiler: By the end of the first season, the series [[Reconstruction reconstructs]] the black and white morality from the first film. While Daniel's teachings turn Robby into a better person who's willing to let go of his anger towards his father, Johnny's only end up leading his students into the very path that ruined his life. However, he does realize what he has done. A large sign of this is the return of the morally black Kreese.]]

* ''Series/CobraKai'': The series aims for something much closer to GreyAndGrayMorality than the BlackAndWhiteMorality from the original ''Film/TheKarateKid''. Johnny retains some of his {{Jerkass}} traits and gives his students the same Cobra Kai training he had, but he's doing it so that they'll become more confident, assertive, and able to fight back against anyone who bullies them. Daniel is understandably wary of the rebirth of Cobra Kai, but he grabs the JerkassBall and goes out of his way to antagonize Johnny even though Johnny's plan doesn't involve getting back at Daniel at all and he couldn't care less about his former rival. [[spoiler: By the end of the first season, the series [[ReconstructedTrope reconstructs]] the black and white morality from the first film. While Daniel's teachings turn Robby into a better person who's willing to let go of his anger towards his father, Johnny's only end up leading his students into the very path that ruined his life. However, he does realize what he has done. A large sign of this is the return of the morally black Kreese.]]

This can happen to entire genres: spy stories, war movies, westerns, superhero comics and so forth all incorporate significantly more BlackAndGrayMorality or GreyAndGrayMorality the longer the genres themselves are around. Also sometimes done intentionally as a means of averting or addressing ValuesDissonance in especially long-lived genres or works; the Western, for example, has changed as historical perceptions of the American frontier in popular culture have grown more morally ambivalent.