History Main / GreyAndGrayMorality

* Music/AngelsAndAirwaves have ''Epic Holiday'', from the ''Love'' album.

Contrast with BlackAndWhiteMorality. Compare BothSidesHaveAPoint, BlackAndGrayMorality, WhiteAndGreyMorality, EvilVersusEvil, GoodVersusGood, MoralityKitchenSink, OrderVersusChaos, TheHorseshoeEffect and ALighterShadeOfGrey. FeudingFamilies and CycleOfRevenge stories tend to fall under this, as do many depictions of historical wars. A MobWar may be this, or may fall under BlackAndGrayMorality.

* ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'': Zootopia isn't as unified as it appears on the surface; almost everybody is shown to hold some kind of prejudice and/or stereotype. Everybody is a victim of bias, and everybody is a carrier of it, [[InnocentlyInsensitive even if they don't realize it]] until they get called out. However, there are light and dark ends of the spectrum. Those on the lighter side, like Judy, Nick, or Gideon, who try to move past their biases, acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes are the ones who help Zootopia truly become better. Those, [[spoiler:like Bellwether and the others involved in the anti-predator conspiracy]] who don't care who gets hurt/killed in their campaign, are definitely on the darker end.

* Wrestling/VinceRusso believes pro wrestling ought to work this way where the concept of a heel and a face isn't a line down the middle and characters should act naturally to achieve their objectives rather than abiding by their defined alignment. Unfortunately he isn't very good at making this happen so when it's attempted it just ends up confusing and everyone winds up with weak characterizations across the board.

A result of the above is that Grey and Gray Morality has one potentially great advantage: It can be easier to maintain suspense regarding the ending. In BlackAndWhiteMorality, BlackAndGrayMorality and even WhiteAndGreyMorality situations, the ending is [[TheBadGuyWins almost]] always a [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin foregone conclusion; good wins in the end]], it's just a matter of how. In a Grey-and-Gray situation, either side might conceivably win, or both, or neither. Another great advantage of this kind of moral model is that the experience can end up entirely different between two viewers: one viewer may prefer to side with Faction A over Faction B for any number of different reasons, and another viewer may think the opposite for other reasons. Properly written, this can make for some ''very'' interesting story-telling. {{Video Game}}s in particular are a good medium for this, due to their interactive nature.

Contrast with BlackAndWhiteMorality. Compare BothSidesHaveAPoint, BlackAndGrayMorality, WhiteAndGreyMorality, EvilVersusEvil, MoralityKitchenSink, OrderVersusChaos, TheHorseshoeEffect and ALighterShadeOfGrey. FeudingFamilies and CycleOfRevenge stories tend to fall under this, as do many depictions of historical wars. A MobWar may be this, or may fall under BlackAndGrayMorality.

* Both the humans and terrians ''WesternAnimation/BattleForTerra'' have their own reasons. Terrians may have been PerfectPacifistPeople but [[spoiler: their devastating wars in the past]] acted as a catalyst for their society along with strict approval on any innovations [[spoiler: until they had to use past weaponry when the humans launched a full-scale invasion]]. Humans, at least the faction led by [[GeneralRipper General]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist Hemmer]], are InvadingRefugees who lived their lives on a crumbling GenerationShip ([[spoiler: including dwindling air supplies]]) and Terra was to be colonized quickly before the aging ship fell apart.

->'''Wesley:''' There is a line, Lilah, black and white, good and evil.
->'''Lilah:''' Funny thing about black and white. You mix it together and you get grey. And it doesn't matter how much white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but grey.
-->-- ''Series/{{Angel}}'', "[[Recap/AngelS04E08HabeasCorpses Habeas Corpses]]"

-> ''"Right or wrong is not what separates us and our enemies. It's our different standpoints, our perspectives that set us apart. Both sides blame one another. There is no good or bad side. Just two sides with different views."''
-->-- '''Squall Leonheart''', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''

A result of the above is that Grey and Gray Morality has one potentially great advantage: It can be easier to maintain suspense regarding the ending. In BlackAndWhiteMorality, BlackAndGrayMorality and even WhiteAndGreyMorality situations, the ending is [[TheBadGuyWins almost]] always a [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin foregone conclusion; good wins in the end]], it's just a matter of how. In a Grey-and-Gray situation, either side might conceivably win, or both, or neither. Another great advantage of this kind of moral model is that the experience can end up entirely different between two viewers: one viewer may prefer to side with Faction A over Faction B for any number of different reasons, and another viewer may think the opposite for other reasons. Properly written, this can make for some ''very'' interesting story-telling. {{Video Game}}s in particular are a good medium for this, due to their interactive nature. At the same time, never underestimate the power of FanDumb to turn even the grayest conflict into BlackAndWhiteMorality and [[DracoInLeatherPants make excuses for the protagonists]] and [[RonTheDeathEater villify the antagonists]], look at [[SeriousBusiness how fans handle sports rivalries]], after all.

A result of the above is that Grey and Gray Morality has one potentially great advantage: It can be easier to maintain suspense regarding the ending. In BlackAndWhiteMorality, BlackAndGrayMorality and even WhiteAndGreyMorality situations, the ending is [[TheBadGuyWins almost]] always a [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin foregone conclusion; good wins in the end]], it's just a matter of how. In a Grey-and-Gray situation, either side might conceivably win, or both, or neither. Another great advantage of this kind of moral model is that the experience can end up entirely different between two viewers: one viewer may prefer to side with Faction A over Faction B for any number of different reasons, and another viewer may think the opposite for other reasons. Properly written, this can make for some ''very'' interesting story-telling. {{Video Game}}s in particular are a good medium for this, due to their interactive nature.

* Nobody in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' is outright evil. [[spoiler: The evil witch who's cursed the town and all of its inhabitants is lashing out in anger after [[TragicMonster she was unjustly branded a witch and murdered by a]] KangarooCourt of [[KnightTemplar Puritan extremists.]]]] The zombies, [[spoiler: AKA those same Puritan extremists, [[MoralEventHorizon murdered an innocent child just for claiming she could see ghosts]], but the zombie curse has meant they've spent [[FateWorseThanDeath the last few centuries in ceaseless agony]], have had a lot of time to realize [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone how horribly they screwed up]], and are actively trying to [[TheAtoner help Norman and his friends undo the curse.]] The closest thing to a genuinely evil and dangerous force in the movie [[spoiler: are the ''living'' townspeople, who are [[HumansAreBastards far more violent]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters and dangerous than the zombies]], and like the Puritan zombies [[HistoryRepeats back when they were alive]], try to lynch Norman and his friends for claiming to see ghosts.]]

* ''ThePillowman'' uses it to stunning effect. From the beginning, Tupolski is clearly the hero of the story, Katurian is a MagnificentBastard writer and murderer, and Ariel is the grey between the two, clearly being opposed to Katurian but constantly going against Tupolski. It's turned completely on its head when [[spoiler:Katurian is revealed to be innocent, or at least under extenuating circumstances for the three murders he ''did'' commit. From that point onward, Tupolski is still pushing to execute Katurian and Ariel loses all of his nerve. It ends on a technicality, that Katurian confessed to murders he didn't commit, and the agreement was that they would save his legacy if he confessed truthfully, so they are "entirely within [their] rights to burn all of Mr. Katurian's work".]]

The result of such a conflict depends on where the story lies on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism. At the idealistic end, both sides will eventually realize that fighting is futile and end up putting aside their differences to learn from each other and make a new and better world. At the centre, one side usually ends up crushing the other; this brings about peace, but of a hollow, depressing kind, as a faction with noble ideals has been destroyed. At the cynical end, both sides gradually become more extremist and less sympathetic as the war drags on until eventually [[MightMakesRight the stronger side]] utterly defeats the other, leading to harsh oppression (and/or elimination) of anyone who holds the weaker faction's views, which eventually results in the stronger side [[WrittenByTheWinners writing history books painting them as the noble heroes triumphant against the evil dissidents who threatened their ways]]. That, or both parties simply [[KillEmAll end up destroying each other]], [[DownerEnding so no one wins in the end]].

The most realistic portrayal of a conflict's morality. In an all-grey conflict, neither side is [[BlackAndWhiteMorality totally good nor completely evil]]. [[BothSidesHaveAPoint Both sides have a strong, justifiable reason for fighting]], and contain a mixture of people of all kinds, from admirable, upstanding individuals to vicious, slimy scumbags.

The most realistic portrayal of a person's morality. In an all-grey conflict, neither side is [[BlackAndWhiteMorality totally good nor completely evil]]. [[BothSidesHaveAPoint Both sides have a strong, justifiable reason for fighting]], and contain a mixture of people of all kinds, from admirable, upstanding individuals to vicious, slimy scumbags.

In an all-grey conflict, neither side is [[BlackAndWhiteMorality totally good nor completely evil]]. [[BothSidesHaveAPoint Both sides have a strong, justifiable reason for fighting]], and contain a mixture of people of all kinds, from admirable, upstanding individuals to vicious, slimy scumbags.

-> "Right or wrong is not what separates us and our enemies. It's our different standpoints, our perspectives that set us apart. Both sides blame one another. There is no good or bad side. Just two sides with different views."

->'''Wesley:''' There is a line, Lilah, black and white, good and evil.
->'''Lilah:''' Funny thing about black and white. You mix it together and you get grey. And it doesn't matter how much white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but grey.
-->-- ''Series/{{Angel}}'', "[[Recap/AngelS04E08HabeasCorpses Habeas Corpses]]"

-->-- '''''Series/{{Angel}}''''', "[[Recap/AngelS04E08HabeasCorpses Habeas Corpses]]"

In an all-grey conflict, neither side is [[BlackAndWhiteMorality totally good nor completely evil]]. Both sides have a strong, justifiable reason for fighting, and contain a mixture of people of all kinds, from admirable, upstanding individuals to vicious, slimy scumbags.

A result of the above is that Grey and Gray Morality has one potentially great advantage: It can be easier to maintain suspense regarding the ending. In BlackAndWhiteMorality, BlackAndGrayMorality and even WhiteAndGrayMorality situations, the ending is [[TheBadGuyWins almost]] always a [[TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin foregone conclusion; good wins in the end]], it's just a matter of how. In a Grey-and-Gray situation, either side might conceivably win, or both, or neither. Another great advantage of this kind of moral model is that the experience can end up entirely different between two viewers: one viewer may prefer to side with Faction A over Faction B for any number of different reasons, and another viewer may think the opposite for other reasons. Properly written, this can make for some ''very'' interesting story-telling. {{Video Game}}s in particular are a good medium for this, due to their interactive nature.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* While individual conflicts often have more clearly defined heroes and villains, almost every major faction in the ''TabletopGame/{{BattleTech}}'' universe is ultimately like this, and many characters are simply soldiers and commanders doing their job for their respective cause.
** The only faction that could truly be considered evil was the [[ChurchMilitant Word of Blake]], and they didn't become true villains until ''20 years'' after the setting premiered.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}''. While the various demons, undead, and TheFairFolk are usually portrayed as antagonistic (and even then, there are exceptions), the various human and Exalted factions all have plenty of good people mixed in with the villains, selfish bastards, and crazies.
** The closest things that the setting has as out-and-out villains are the Neverborn and the Ebon Dragon. The first are a number of undead gods, always dying and suffering, who desire that everything be swept into Oblivion to end their torment. The latter is the spirit of opposition, who is -everyone's- antagonist and whom most believe to be evil because they believe themselves to be good.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}''. Factions aren't explicitly good or evil, they just have different motivations and can commit a variety of acts.
* ''TabletopGame/RuneQuest'' is the epitome of this trope, though evil exists in the form of [[BigBad Wakboth the Devil]] and its minions.
* In the TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons ''Wrath of the Immortals'' campaign, the two principal factions of Immortals (D&D's functional equivalent of AD&D's gods), the Ring of Fire and the Fellowship of the Star, both have good reasons for what they do, and both pursue their objectives by morally questionable means. Rad and his followers in the Fellowship of the Star are just pursuing knowledge, and are studying a magical artifact, the Nucleus of the Spheres, that has incredible powers that are unique in the universe, and might possibly be used to make the world a much better place. The problem is that the Nucleus is draining the magical energy from the world, which would, among other things, exterminate every magical race, including elves, dragons, fairies, etc., meaning several counts of genocide. To say nothing of all the other people who would die as the civilizations, most notably Alphatia, that depend on magic would collapse. So Ixion and his followers in the Ring of Fire have sound reasons to want to destroy Rad and stop anyone from using the Nucleus of the Spheres. As things develop, however, the only way to destroy Rad is to kill all his mortal followers, meaning that Ixion and his allies have to provoke a war by Alphatia against Glantri, a war which drags in Thyatis and the Heldann Freeholds as well, and which ultimately spreads to many other countries, killing millions. But neither is side really wrong. The Brotherhood of Shadow, a third group of Entropic Immortals who are just trying to prolong and exacerbate the conflict are straightforwardly evil, except that their scheming is both pretty ineffective ''and'', even more importantly, enables the heroes to figure out the whole plot and save the world. So the good Immortals unleash a war that kills millions of innocent people, while the evil Immortals are relatively ineffective at making things worse and inadvertently save the world. Go figure.
* ''Lesser Shades of Evil''. It's in the title, people.
* The three core factions of ''TabletopGame/MobileFrameZero'' have varying motives but there's no designated Evil faction: the Solar Union is trying to maintain order, the Free Colonies mostly want to get rid of the Union to be free, and the Ijad are trying to protect their (actually reasonably benevolent) religion. Even the PuppeteerParasite side of the Ijad is downplayed to make them more sympathetic, since they're looking for willing symbiotic hosts or unintelligent beasts of burden rather than enslaving humans. The core rulebook also has a FanworkBan that insists all factions be pursuing a reasonably defensible goal that can be achieved with negotiation, authoritarianism and anarcho-capitalism ''cannot'' be shown positively, and absolutely no Nazis or Nazi-inspired mech names ever, to encourage homebrew factions to further this trope.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'': First there is the Damned 33rd, who can only maintain order in a crumbled society through draconian martial law; then there is the Exiled 33rd, rebelling against a leadership they view to be suicidal and insane; tthe Emirati insurgency, defending their people against what they see as murderous invaders; the CIA, who on Riggs' side attempt to prevent a larger war from breaking out at the cost of ending this one, and on Gould's side prioritize rescuing the populace; and of course the player's faction, Delta Squad, who are only trying to "save the day". [[spoiler: Unfortunately, the conflicting interests of all these groups will result in almost everyone getting killed, in no small part due to your own actions.]]
* Welcome to ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'', who would you like to side with? The [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney ultra-capitalist]], [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections power-brokering]] '''[[TheIlluminati Illuminati]]'''? The [[KnightTemplar militant]], [[WellIntentionedExtremist overzealous]] '''[[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar Templars]]'''? Or perhaps the [[BlueAndOrangeMorality chaos-theory-chasing, 'interpretive terrorist']] '''[[TheChessmaster Dragon]]'''? And then there's the [=NPC=] factions, which are arguably better and/or worse, to varying degrees.
* ''VideoGame/{{Brink}}'': The developers said they wanted to avert both LaResistance vs TheEmpire, and good cops versus evil terrorists. And did they do it well! To illustrate, their respective leaders, Chen and Mokoena, are both decent and morally dubious alike in their own way. They both have noble goals: Chen wants to send a scouting party to find land and have equal resources and rights for Guests and Founders, and Mokoena doesn't want the Ark to descend into anarchy and wants them all to work together, and is just trying to keep the ark safe. And its also made clear that the Resistance and Security have their fair share of the "I'm doing what I have to" and "total bastard" mentalities.
* ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' has thiss--every major (and all the minor ones too) have this in droves. The [[PlayerCharacter capsuleers]], on the other hand, have BlueAndOrangeMorality as a result of being immortal spaceship pilots neurally connected into their very ships and being subjected to an unending cycle of being killed and resurrected in a clone.
** The [[TheFederation Gallente Federation]] are all about [[{{Eagleland}} freedom, democracy, and self determination]]. Except when they brutally crack down on dissent in the wake of the Empyrean Wars, turning into a brutal police state. Also, their conflict with the Caldari really only started when they forced them off their homeworld for wanting out. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Also, they're French.]]
** The [[OneNationUnderCopyright Caldari State]] is a ruthless, hypercapitalistic society run by {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s where you are a citizen of your megacorporation, not the state itself. They also have this nasty militaristic tendency. However, all their militarism is motivated by their desire to reclaim their homeworld from the Gallente and they are the one true meritocracy with actual social mobility in New Eden.
** The [[TheEmpire Amarr Empire]] bring order, civilization, and progress to a desolate galaxy. They also bring enslavement, indoctrination, and [[ChurchMilitant religious zealotry]] in their fanatical belief that conquering New Eden is their destiny.
** The [[TheAlliance Minmatar Republic]] are former slaves who overthrew the chains of repression and are fighting to free their brothers and sisters still trapped under Amarrian tyranny. Which would be great, if it weren't for the fact that they are a fractious, bickering group of tribal peoples with a standard of living along the lines of a third world country.
** The Angel Cartel appear to be this, too. They are competent (more so than the Republic) and they are quite popular wherever they rule. A storyline event even involved a group of Minmatar systems voting to be moved to under the control of the Cartel. However, they are still a criminal organization with their fair share of dirty laundry, engaging in slavery, drug-trading, kidnapping, and terrorism in general.
* In the story of ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'', the Tenno first seem like the saviors of a system in terrible need of them, fighting against the corrupt Corpus and the imperious Grineer. Looking closer at their objectives, however, reveals that the factions all have their reasons for wanting to succeed. The Grineer want to control the system with the rules and boundaries that fell apart after the Orokin empire's fall, while the Corpus want to revive the fallen Orokin technology and bring mankind back into prominence. The Tenno even get a case of WhatTheHellHero when it's revealed that they are the ones who destroyed the Orokin empire in the first place and so caused the system to fall into its disrepair.
* ''VideoGame/{{STALKER}}'': The conflict between Freedom and Duty is this, combined with OrderVersusChaos. Duty are a faction of grizzled ex-military types who believe [[EldritchLocation The Zone]] is an abomination that threatens the world and should be destroyed. Freedom are a group of anarchists and thrill-seekers that believe The Zone is a miracle that provides beneficial eldritch artifacts and therefore should be freely accessed by the public. Neither is especially nicer than the other, and they both have their share of [[JerkAss dicks]] and [[NiceGuy nice guys]].
* This is a major theme in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'', which pits the protagonist, Unova Gym Leaders, and other characters (united by their love of battling) against the {{Animal Wrongs|Group}}-leaning Team Plasma. Each side decries the other's morality as misguided and hypocritical, and many fans found themselves siding with Team Plasma - or at least against the "good guys."
* The SuccessionCrisis in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins''. The Dwarf origin stories give you some pretty clear reasons for supporting each. Commoners would want to support Bhelen because he fights to end the oppressive caste system and wants to open the country more to the outside. Nobles would want to support Harrowmont because it's their father's wishes and he's more "Traditional". You also have a personal reason for doing so, Harrowmont is a ''very'' nice guy and a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, as he fights ''hard'' to make sure the dwarf noble is given a fair trial. Bhelen meanwhile fights hard to get to the throne...to near sociopathic levels, as he's [[spoiler:rightfully]] suspected of killing his older brother and getting his other sibling blamed for it. [[note]]The noble even has a chance to call him out on this, during which he has almost ''no remorse'' for it unless you compliment him and say he was better at playing the game[[/note]] To a Commoner, Harrowmount is a classist asshole to you while Bhelen is not only polite and respectful, he's your sister's loving fiance (and later husband). Oh, and to keep things up, Bhelen, if chosen, becomes a [[spoiler:dictator who leads his city into a new era of prosperity]]. Harrowmont meanwhile [[spoiler:dies partly due to the stress of ruling and causes Orzammar to fall into decay while expanding its isolationist practices]].
* Just about all of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' which [[UpToEleven manages to be even grayer than its predecessor.]] The mages, chantry, and qunari are ready to tear each other apart and all of them have good people and bad people or [[BlueAndOrangeMorality have different morals all together]]. All have good reasons to be pissed at the others and all have their own major flaws. It gets very difficult to see anybody as a major villain because there is really no white or black. Though all sides are closer to the black on the gray scale. To fully lay out the rock-paper-scissors of insanity:
** The Chantry and their affiliated Templar Order are simply executing its position of keeping mages in check, given that mages in this game have completely unpredictable degrees of power and are walking demon magnets. They do so by setting up their Circle (barracks for their [[KnightTemplar Templar Order]] and a mage prison in all but name) in the former SLAVE PITS oh so quaintly named "The Gallows". The "alternative", in their opinion, is a fate like the Tevinter Imperium, which is ruled over by Magisters who thoroughly abuse their magic to stay in power.
** The mages are rebelling against the overt cruelty of the Templars, seemingly worse in Kirkwall than anywhere else, up to and including making mages [[FateWorseThanDeath Tranquil]] for such things as ''talking about someone ELSE'S escape attempt''. Of course, halfway through the game you learn about [[spoiler:a significant mage rebellion in the works which, while in response to this abuse, is shown to be willing to sacrifice - sometimes [[BloodMagic literally]] - any number of innocents to achieve its goal.]]
** The Qunari follow the Qun, a set of ideals [[BlueAndOrangeMorality wholly separate from every other nation]]. They are as confused by the way the "bas" (their term for non-Qun-followers, literally "things") run around all willy-nilly without a "purpose" in life: that "purpose" being a singular role assigned at birth with literally no deviation until you die. Even so much as wanting to retire from the life of a soldier is considered equivalent to heresy and treason rolled into one. They won't hesitate to kill if they feel it appropriate, but will also show respect to [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy people with strong personal convictions]]. [[spoiler:Act 2 ends with the Qunari holed up in Kirkwall getting fed up of the "chaos" around them and trying to take over... And very nearly succeeding.]]
* Daein and Crimea engage in this for most of ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn]]'' (taking it so far that you, the player, actually control a party from each country at different points, even when those two parties fight each other) before finally banding together against the unequivocally black morality of Begnion's corrupt senate.
* When it comes to player races, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' is surprisingly nuanced in terms of morality. Not only do all of the races indulge in truly unpleasant spin-off factions that can be killed by both sides, but you'll also find yourself accidentally doing unpleasant things for your allies, who often turn out to be sadists, murderers and major, MAJOR extremists who wipe out villages, torture prisoners and murder the innocent.
** With hindsight, you've probably helped to destroy a few small and insignificant outposts yourself in the name of preventing further expansion.
*** In one example in the Stonetalon Mountains, you join Krom'Gar's army and work your way up through his ranks. He then murders some innocents and drops a nuke (kind of) on the land. He's executed, and you nearly get executed by Garrosh too for all the help you inadvertently gave him while questing eagerly for ranks. Whenever you realise that you've been helping a total psycho, it's something of an OhCrap moment.
** This is actually a result of lore development. In the original RealTimeStrategy games, ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' was a pretty bog-standard BlackAndWhiteMorality setup; you had the orcs, who were battle-crazed monsters who invaded from another world, and you had the humans, who were just trying to defend themselves from a surprise attack. In the second game, the orcs added the DumbMuscle Ogres and the cannibalistic HollywoodVoodoo-practicing trolls to their armies, whilst humans forged a mutual defence pact with the peaceful elves, dwarves and gnomes. It wasn't until the third game that things became more morally complex, with the orcs being revealed as a once-peaceful, shamanistic race corrupted by dark magic and demonic influence into the monsters of prior games, and the Alliance being revealed as having thrown the surviving orcs into brutal internment camps after defeating them.
** Hovever this gets reversed in Mists of Pandaria where the entire orcish race is given the VillainBall, while the Alliance commits no bad actions.
* ''VideoGame/BattleForWesnoth'' has this in the campaign Descent into Darkness. You control a young mage apprentice who takes up dark magic (read: animating corpses) to defend his town, and is exiled. His sister, the town guard, holy knights who show up for no reason but to piss you off in the hardest mission of the campaign all wish to have him killed. He takes revenge on them. In the end, it's mostly black versus black or black versus grey (with you playing the part of a very borderline black) but until they drop an anvil on you and have you fight endlessly repeating (and rather easy) battles against random commanders, you never genuinely know who to root for.
* This is the theme of the ''Franchise/TalesSeries'' series. Ever since ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia Phantasia]]'', the seemingly vilest of antagonists has at minimum a lofty goal in mind, and the most noble of protagonists is either hiding something, misguided, or aiding and abetting someone who is either hiding something or misguided.
** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfPhantasia Phantasia]]'': Dhaos [[WellIntentionedExtremist only wanted to revive his dying world of Derris-Kharlan]] using the mana seed of Aselia, but his brutal methods and refusal to explain his side until it was too late is the only thing keeping Cless and his allies from becoming {{Villain Protagonist}}s.
** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfDestiny2 Destiny 2]]'': [[spoiler: Fortuna]] isn't all that evil. She wants to give eternal happiness to humanity. At worst, she has BlueAndOrangeMorality, being a goddess. She has two saints, one wanting humanity to decide how to best make its own happiness and the other being a WellIntentionedExtremist who thinks BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood is the only answer. They both want to save the world, they just have very different ways of going about it. The heroes aren't all squeaky clean either- While Kyle genuinely wants to be a hero, Judas [[spoiler: was a nasty traitor in his past life]] and Harold is a ComedicSociopath who joined the quest [[RageAgainstTheHeavens for]] [[ItAmusedMe kicks]], while Loni's a NobleBigot. Also, while [[spoiler: Elraine's]] methods are over the top, the people in her cities ''were'' happy with their lives.
** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia Symphonia]]'': [[spoiler:Mithos]] simply wanted to save the world [[KnightTemplar from its own racist self]] by holding back progress and running "human ranches", and everything else he does is either for this for for [[spoiler: Martel's sake]]. [[IdiotHero Lloyd's]] actions lead to much death and destruction as he changes the system, and [[spoiler:Mithos]]'s fears of technological abuse [[AndManGrewProud is proven right]], as the next 4000 years between ''Symphonia'' and ''Phantasia'' can attest to.
** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss Abyss]]'': [[spoiler:Van]] only wanted to ScrewDestiny and destroy the Score, the near-mindless obedience of which has caused the destruction of his native Hod. Mohs is determined to follow it to the letter, believing it to be the Auldrant's ''only'' path to progress. On the heroes' side, [[SpoiledBrat Luke]] is a {{Jerkass}} extraordinaire, [[MysteriousWaif Tear]] keeps to herself all the time, [[TheLancer Guy]] trusts [[spoiler:Van]], [[HotScientist Jade]] was once a morally-ambiguous scientist, [[GoldDigger Anise]] is a gold-digger [[spoiler:with good reason]], and [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Natalia]] is [[spoiler:revealed to be an adopted commoner]]. The only thing that kept Luke and company with ALighterShadeOfGrey is CharacterDevelopment (especially Luke's traumatic transformation from SpoiledBrat to NiceGuy).
** ''[[VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia Vesperia]]'': Alexei wanted to use Zaude to [[spoiler:force the world to stop its reliance on blastia which is slowly killing it -- unaware that it is actually ''the'' seal to an EldritchAbomination]]. Yeager is an amoral mercenary who [[spoiler:gives his earnings to an orphanage and has adopted two girls to be his sidecicks]]. On the heroes' side, [[VigilanteMan Yuri]] is more than willing to [[NecessaryEvil stain his hands with blood in the name of justice]], while [[KnightInShiningArmor Flynn]] believes in the power of law and order [[LawfulStupid to the point of overlooking the basics of morality]]. As for the overarching plot, it comes down to a debate between preservation of nature at humanity's expense versus alteration of nature to suit human needs at expense of other lifeforms.
* The war between the [[OrderVersusChaos Messians and Gaians]] in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII'' works a little like this, if you don't see it as Evil: the former are basically a well-meaning, LawfulGood people ruled by a group of genocidal {{Knight Templar}}s, and the latter are mostly a bunch of ChaoticEvil anarchists ruled over by a few wiser demons that either want to stop the Messians from carrying out their UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans plan or wish to achieve true freedom from the oppressive reign of {{God}}. The closest thing to a compromise that you can achieve is deciding to [[KillEmAll destroy]] both groups.
** In ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'', it gets even more complicated. Agree to serve God, and you bring about world peace and freedom from sin by going KnightTemplar on humanity and eradicating sin. Become the King of Demons, and you lead demonkind against God, but risk the annihilation of humanity should you be defeated. Or you can give the power of Bel to humanity as a whole, leading the world into a technological revolution powered by enslaved demons, or abandon the throne and return the world to normal. So long as you make a choice and don't [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere shirk your responsibilities]], no choice is the wrong one.
* In the first ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', while the BigBad CorruptCorporateExecutive with AGodAmI complex Bob Page is definitely evil, the ending has you choose to follow the advice of one of three opposing factions, each insisting that [[WellIntentionedExtremist their plan is for the best]] and that the other plans have major drawbacks. And they're all, to an extent, right.
** In the sequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExInvisibleWar'', while certain factions may come across as more or less positive, all have philosophies it's possible to sympathize with, while also being somewhat morally dubious. In the end you must pick between them, with no defined "good" or "bad" choice. You can also follow your own path and kill everybody, which backfires horribly (duh).
** The prequel, ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' continues the tradition by asking you to side with one of three competing viewpoints regarding human augmentation and subsequently nudge the public interest in that direction... But you also get a fourth choice where you can refuse all of them and leave the world's to decide it's own fate (of course being a prequel to the first Deus Ex, the results are pretty much foregone no matter what you decide).
* The three player factions (Humans, Mutants, and Biomeks) of ''VideoGame/AutoAssault'' were set up to be like this, but when you really look into it the Humans turn out to be the biggest bastards of the bunch, even if they were originally doing it to ensure their survival.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' started off with GDI as heroic good guys fighting against the evil [[{{Cult}} Nod]]. However, later games revealed that Nod actually has reasons for fighting, and a number of the higher-ups in GDI are rather dodgy.
** There's a major WhatTheHellPlayer moment in C&C 3, as if you're playing as GDI (the ''"good"'' guys), on the last mission you can choose to use a bomb that will kill hundreds of millions and destroy all of Europe. For this, the rational General who seemed like a pretty stand-up guy resigns in disgust, and the slimy politician (whose incompetence was [[AllAccordingToPlan all part of Kane's Plan]]) ''promotes you''.
* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' series:
** ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' features a war between [[{{Eagleland}} Osea]] and [[FakeRussian Yuktobania]]… until it becomes known that the Belkans had been infiltrating high-ranking positions on both sides, essentially setting up a war of mutual destruction as vengeance for losing a previous war. By the end, both superpowers team up and collectively beat the tar out of the interlopers.
** For ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', while the Belkans do not seem to have overt good going for them, Cipher can slide along the scale of greyness depending on how many crippled or civilian targets he goes after. [[spoiler:A World With No Boundaries]] are [[WellIntentionedExtremist Well-Intentioned Extremists]] who seek to bring about a OneWorldOrder and eliminate the political boundaries that lead to fighting... It's a pity they have to use a nuke to do so.
* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' isn't so much about "being neutral" as about "being way too worried about surviving in this DeathWorld of [[MindRape mind raping]] worms and deadly fungi." However, the playable factions in the game run through the entire gamut of CharacterAlignment; according to those pages, the dominant alignment is TrueNeutral (with a total of 4 factions), and frequent references are made to factions being [[ShootTheDog forced to forget morality]] when it comes to survival, despite the character being a good governor and [[PetTheDog caring about their people]].
** Attempting to lump any of those factions into anything resembling an alignment has more to do with the player's agreement with that faction's rhetoric than actual in-game observation. Example: Lady Deirdre Sky and the (supposedly) peace-loving tree huggers actually breeding and using said mind-raping worms as a military, or Chairman Yang really just promoting social harmony. Once you've played a game where Brother Lal (leader of the so-called "Pacifist" faction) or Lady Deirdre are that game's evil empire who starts dropping planet busters on you when you start picking apart their faction (a war which almost invariably occurs because -they- declared war on you for not giving in to their extortion demands), you begin to understand that Alpha Centauri truly does live this trope.
*** Indeed, every faction represents a rather broad philosophy on human kind, and every faction will use evil strategies particularly against a rising faction who's philosophy they see as evil. The Peacekeepers for instance favor diplomacy and democracy, so they're inevitably against you having any government (no matter how effective and moral) except democracy, and if you don't they're willing to massacre your people to change your regime by force. If you're not a police state, the Hive will be against you because they think religious states are stupid and that voting power in the hands of the weak masses leads to decadence, chaos and corruption. If you're not a theocratic state the Believers are against you. If you're not using the capitalist economic model Morgan Industries will think you're stifling economic progress and you need replacing. If you're not using a green economic model then the Gaians will treat you like you're exploiting and destroying the oh so pure environment and are evil. The Spartans will only respect people who value power and the University will only respect those who value knowledge. No matter what, some factions will dislike you and thus insult, harass, threaten, demand, and even attack you. You have to find deal with them one way or another. None of the core factions are necessarily bad, even the Hive can be very good for humanity, it's just a tightly controlled harsh parenting sort of good. Certain factions lend themselves better towards doing particular evil things because they get better bonuses (or less penalties) for those things, the Hive easily can and usually will default to wicked self interested tyranny rather than being some kind of ethical enlightened philosopher king. But even the most noble seeming factions can and will support their leader ordering outrageous and evil things, and they will be an asshole to you if you're not on their side. Even the most evil seeming factions, or the factions most dead set against you can be peacefully negotiated with, appeased and won over through multiple nonmilitary victory conditions.
* The ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' games break away from the typical BlackAndWhiteMorality of the Force, especially in the second game, leading to plenty of AlternativeCharacterInterpretation. On one hand, the Jedi, while trying to do the right thing, have a well-deserved reputation for being manipulative, closed-minded, and paralyzed with indecision in the face of crisis so soon after the previous one where they made a lot of mistakes. On the other, the Sith were led by a man who JumpedAtTheCall to protect the innocent, then (according to one untrustworthy source) "sacrificed himself" to the Dark Side and launched his own invasion as part of a master plan to provoke the Republic into preparing for some of the ''really'' evil things out there.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fable}}'' series plays with this Trope, especially with the character of Theresa. Played straight with Logan in the third game who, like Revan, [[spoiler: became a vicious tyrant merely because he wanted to strengthen his country to fight The Crawler.]]
* Depending on how you count, there have been between 7 and 12 playable factions in the five ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'' games. All except Rawal and the Barzites can make a decent argument for themselves, and all except arguably the Awakened have [[KickTheDog Kicked the Dog]] at least once.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'' explicitly invokes this trope. Both TheFederation and the CorruptChurch have a significant amount of innocent blood on their hands. Shion and her allies are frankly little different than Margulis' crew, all the Testaments believe they are bringing about a perfect universe for humanity, and [[BigBad Wilhelm]] manipulated all of history into a StableTimeLoop in order to keep the universe from dissipating entirely.
* The companies Reliable Excavation and Demolition and Builder's League United in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' are an interesting case - the motives and morality of both sides are [[NotSoDifferent identical]]. It isn't grey-on-grey, though because the motives and morality of both sides seem to be "World Domination", and "In The Gutter", respectively, making it [[CrapsackWorld black-on-black]].
** Considering the Evil Overlady announcer voice is identical for both sides, there is a potential possibility -- later eventually confirmed by official tie-in comics -- that both teams are working for the same boss.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' series, most notably ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', is praised for this trope, presenting the characters as humans in a compromising situation, instead of personifications of good or evil. It is very rare to find a hero who is completely morally sound (except possibly the main characters), yet it is also rare to find a villain who is purely and irredeemably evil (...except Luca Blight). While this keeps the stories from becoming too simple or cliche, it also gives an interesting human perspective to the bizarre and often supernatural happenings that occur.
* In ''VideoGame/YggdraUnion'', every major army is neither wholly good or evil -- even the bandits are just taking advantage of others to survive, the BigBad is a WellIntentionedExtremist and a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds, and the society that broke ''him'' so happens to be a bunch of {{Knight Templar}}s being manipulated by a VillainWithGoodPublicity. The Royal Army, despite being the heroes, are not exempt from this -- they commit several atrocities over the course of the game, just to hammer home the point that WarIsHell. The only unambiguously good character is Yggdra, the heroine, and even then she has severe naivety issues she has to work on.
* ''VideoGame/SigmaStarSaga'' has this in spades: you, the heroic human character, are ordered to do some pretty horrible things by your superior, while the Krill, supposedly aliens hell-bent on Earth's destruction, are actually pretty decent people (with a few glaring exceptions) who harbor no particular ill will towards Earth at all. [[spoiler:Turns out that there's a couple of {{Government Conspirac|y}}ies on ''both'' sides of the conflict who are the truly evil ones, and the vast majority of both humans and Krill are good.]]
* ''VideoGame/ArTonelicoIIMelodyOfMetafalica'' is a great example. Despite the fact that almost every character holds the same moral stance from beginning to end, pretty much every antagonist in the game will be considered a valuable ally at some point and nearly every ally gets a respectable stint as an antagonist. Even TheHero is arguably a WellIntentionedExtremist, and the closest character to true evil is a foreigner trying to save his homeland.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' probably qualifies:
** The [[TheFederation UNSC]] is fundamentally well-intentioned, but somewhat heavy-handed with its colonies, and willing to resort to questionable methods for survival. [[spoiler: Up to and including the abduction, conditioning, and armament of the children of its own citizens, completely ''incognito'' of course.]]
** The [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized Insurrectionists]] had legitimate grievances with the authoritarian facets of the UNSC's administration of the colonies, but an extremist methodology, which includes ''nuking civilians'', puts them squarely in the terrorist camp.
** The [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant's]] highly corrupt (and in some cases, possibly borderline insane) ruling class is conducting a war of extermination against humanity, but the rest of its members are either [[CorruptChurch misguided by religious fervor]], [[SlaveMooks expendable slaves for all intents and purposes]], otherwise coerced into serving the Covenant, or simply [[PunchClockVillain mercenaries with no real grudge against humans]]. Even the [[KillerSpaceMonkey Brutes]], who tend to be relatively [[BloodKnight aggressive and violent by nature]], have been portrayed sympathetically in a number of expanded universe works. Indeed, once the Covenant falls apart at the end of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', a number of its former members go on to happily work with humans.
** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] did mostly genuinely believe in the Mantle, their core ideology that revolved around protecting the galaxy and its inhabitants, but their technological superiority eventually turned them into arrogant, socially-stagnant imperialists who kept their client species weak and subservient, and when [[TheVirus the Flood]] came knocking, they could ultimately only protect the galaxy by wiping out ''all'' unindexed life in the galaxy in a desperate last resort plan -- which could be interpreted as a HeroicSacrifice or the cost of their foolishness, depending on how idealistic/cynical one is.
** The [[ZombieApocalypse Flood]] had killed and infected trillions of people, but their leading hive mind, [[EldritchAbomination Gravemind]], sincerely believes that he simply [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans bring peace and prosperity]] to a galaxy which simply doesn't understand the Flood due to ignorance and fear ...[[spoiler:though ''Literature/TheForerunnerSaga'' muddles this somewhat by directly noting that the Flood were created in part to be a ''revenge'' against the Forerunners by their own Precursors]].
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Langrisser}} Der Langrisser]]'' definitely falls into this trope. No matter what side you choose you'll end up fighting for peace while doing awful things in the way. There's no possible path that spares you the dramatic scene and the guilt of killing someone decent. You kill [[spoiler:Vargas, who's just had a little daughter, and get to watch Leon tell his wife the sad news]] in the Light path, and you slaughter [[spoiler:Scott and his father, in a rather cruel fashion]] in all others.
* In the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series, despite the many changes in the story's overall tone over many games, one theme remains constant: no one faction is exclusively good or evil. Wei appears to be antagonistic, but Cao Cao is a pragmatic, AffablyEvil [[TheChessmaster chessmaster]] backed by warriors of laudable personal qualities. Shu is the nominally more heroic faction, but Liu Bei has done some things worth calling out, such as usurping his relative Liu Zhang BecauseDestinySaysSo as well as his assault on Yi Ling, and ''Dynasty Warriors 7'' in particular plays with AlternativeCharacterInterpretation of his strategist/chancellor Zhuge Liang. Wu is the "''opportunist''" state which takes advantage of the chaos to do as it pleases, but their royal family[[note]]father Sun Jian, sons Ce and Quan, and daughter Shangxiang[[/note]] is depicted as a tight-knit family backed by Sun Ce's sworn brother Zhou Yu and veterans from Sun Jian's days. Flaws aside, each kingdom has their fair share of heroic warriors. Even Zhang Jiao comes off pretty sympathetic, and in his ending he keeps his word in steering his new nation through the "Way of Peace". Even Dong Zhuo, the unambiguously evil FatBastard he is, is shown in his Campaign Mode to be desperately trying to salvage his rightful claim as Han emperor from the usurpers taking advantage of his realm's collapse. The ''Empires'' games take it a step further -- you start out dead-center neutral with whoever you play as, and it's entirely up to you how good or evil your reign is. Of course, part of the reason is that, historically, none of the kingdoms succeeded in unifying China (that would be some last-minute Jin opportunist named Sima Yan), so it's impossible to say who the "hero" or "villain" really was.
* Speaking of ''Dynasty Warriors'', its Sengoku-themed sister franchise ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'', especially the second title, also focuses on this at the battle of Sekigahara. Ishida Mitsunari's side portrays him as a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who [[DeadpanSnarker tends to snark a lot]] but nevertheless believes in the value of [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship]] and {{honor|BeforeReason}}, while showing his opponent Tokugawa Ieyasu as a FatBastard who wants to usurp the shogunate from Toyotomi Hideyori. Conversely, Tokugawa's side portrays him as AFatherToHisMen and a ReasonableAuthorityFigure, while accusing Mitsunari (especially his ally Naoe Kanetsugu) of hypocrisy, using the words "honor" and "justice" for unsavory ends and ultimately stealing people's freedom. In fact, ''Samurai Warriors'' is much grayer than ''Dynasty Warriors''; the only more ObviouslyEvil character is Fuuma Kotarou, and even he's ''still'' grayer than Dong Zhuo.
* [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots MGS4]]. The [[AmazonBrigade Beauty & Beast Corps]] are war-scarred women outfitted with advanced nanotechnology and [[BigBad Liquid Ocelot]] is [[spoiler:GoodAllAlong (relatively), is actually ''the'' Ocelot from [=MGS3=] pretending to have assimilated Liquid Snake's personality, and is stopping the Patriots' plans.]] On the good guys' side, Roy Campbell's marriage to Raiden's wife Rosemary [[spoiler:was a facade meant to protect her and their supposedly-miscarried son Little John from the Patriots while Raiden is out fighting]], and Rat Patrol 01 [[spoiler:is the Patriots' {{Unwitting Pawn}}s -- their acronym ("RAT PT 01") can even be rearranged to spell "[=PATR10T=]" -- who are meant to eliminate Ocelot before he foils their plans -- [[SpannerInTheWorks they simply never expected Old Snake to destroy more than just Ocelot]].]] It also turns out that the black-morality Solid Snake-era Patriots are [[spoiler:nothing more but [[AIIsACrapshoot a faulty AI system]] developed by Zero long after he lost faith in humanity following Big Boss's departure, which deviated from the vision of Big Boss, Zero, SIGINT, Para-Medic, EVA and Ocelot -- the original Patriots -- and built an economy [[WarForFunAndProfit based on warfare]], with Zero blissfully unaware (not to mention conveniently catatonic) of what he had wrought]].
* Ditto for the ''VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'' series. By the time Defiance rolls around, you're never really sure who's supposed to be the good guy and who the bad guy.
** The Hylden have a single redeeming feature? Or are we just talking about freakish abominations not imprisoned in another universe?
*** Easy to believe that they were the victims until you realize that their genocide machine was in development before they got banished.
** [[spoiler:The Elder God]] is a real piece of work too. [[spoiler:He's responsible for ''everything'' Nosgoth has suffered.]]
* In ''VideoGame/WayOfTheSamurai'', the player is often offered a spot on each and every side of whatever conflict happens to be occurring in the area he's found him/herself in.
** In the first game, the choices given are to help the Kurou family, who, while admittedly driving an entire town out of their homes in order to sell the land to the government, are really only doing so to ensure their clan's future stability and who generally care about one another; the Akadama group, who are trying to overthrow the government to restore a caste system they pretty much know nothing about and who have no problem kidnapping and extorting to try and get their way, but who are bound by ties of honor and friendship and really are quite noble; and the remaining townsfolk, who are simply trying to survive, but who are willing to stoop to theft and opposition of government officials to achieve said goal. The only truly evil characters in the game are general Tamagawa, who has ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, and his ninja subordinate Hyuuma, who is pretty much just a jerk because he can be.
** The second has even more moral ambiguity. We're given the choice between the Aotou Gang, who are run by an ObviouslyEvil JerkAss but whose rank and file are shown to be likable fellows who are easily swayed; the town magistrates, who act like the Knights Templar, but truly love their town; and the town militia, who are the working stiffs just trying to live their lives, but who are also involved with prostitution and minor drug dealing. On the other hand, Kyojiro Kagenuma really IS as insane and just plain evil as she appears to be. That she has her own ending (and it's a major KickTheDog one) is telltale.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. To elaborate, on the villain's side we have the machivellian, AffablyEvil [[EvilPrince Prince]] who wants to become the emperor and restore order to the empire, the WellIntentionedExtremist MadScientist who's working with his demigod SpiritAdvisor to overthrow the JerkassGods, the Judges who bar one are well-intentioned tools devoted to protecting to law, and the Emperor himself who is trying to keep the Senate from turning his youngest son into a puppet heir while preventing the empire from collapsing into civil war. On the good guys side we have a vengeful, stubborn princess who will stop at nothing (including ''genocide'') to regain her kingdom and pay back the empire for her dead husband, and who nearly becomes the willing puppet of the aforementioned JerkassGods to achieve this, a pair of sky pirates who are just in it for the treasure (and one of them ''knows'' exactly what the princess is trying to do and where it would lead), an old soldier who's willing to do ''anything'' to protect the princess, and finally two slightly naive teenagers, one of whom is a petty thief. In between this lot we have a Marquis-cum-Resistance leader who plays permanent double agent and who's loyalties depend on who is winning, a Rebel general who's willing to sell out his own princess if it means his country will be restored even if it's in name only, an ex-Judge who destroyed an entire city and now resorts to piracy to make up for his sins, and an imperial prince who is caught between caution and preemptive assault in the protection of his nation. The only good character is really the youngest prince, and he suffers from a bad case of naivety and idealism.
** This is Squall's worldview in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. "There is no good or evil; just two sides with different views." Although, the world this time around turned out to be more BlackAndGrayMorality.
* In ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'', both the Assassins and Templars seek a peaceful world, they just apply different methods, and neither side is the good guys or the bad guys. Supposedly. The success Creator/UbiSoft had in actually implementing this has been...mixed.
** In the first game, the overarching theme (which is echoed by Lucy in the present day) is that while the Templars' goals are honorable, the methods they go about attaining them are unacceptable, and thus it's up to the Assassins to thwart them. The entire game is Altair taking out a series of Templar agents, all nasty at best and murderous at worst, each of whom, in dying, tries to convince Altair that he was in the wrong (unsuccessfully), interspersed with a series of conversations with Al-Mualim which reveal little. In the end, it turns out that Al-Mualim was secretly a double agent who had Altair kill the Templars to prevent them from recovering the Apple of Eden, which he uses to ''enslave the entire population of Masayaf''. (He ''did'' genuinely want to bring an end to the Crusades, but because he wanted the Holy Land for himself, not out of any honorable desire for peace.) In the end, none of the unequivocally evil Templars are vindicated in any way, and Altair not only fully redeems himself but completely patches things up with his rivals eventually succeeds Al-Mualim as grandmaster.
** ''Complete, catastrophic'' subversion in the three Ezio games. Rodrigo is a blood-drenched tyrant, Cesare is an outright ''psychopath'', and every other Templar is a butcher, extortionist, corrupt official, thief, usurper, or shady schemer. Meanwhile, Ezio not only proves his heroism countless times and transforms Rome from a broken-down slum to a beautiful, thriving metropolis pretty much singlehandedly, his Brotherhood becomes a force of good throughout Europe and much of Asia, promoting science and the arts, defending against invaders, and undertaking numerous public works projects.
** They finally got right in [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII the third game]]. UbiSoft carefully crafted a balanced outlook of all four factions in UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution (Assassins, Templars, British, and Patriots) in the face of widespread criticism. The British of course have their share of {{Evil Brit}}s and atrocities, but want to hold their empire together more than anything else, while it's made very clear that the Colonials want freedom, but don't really care for ''[[TheHero Connor]]'s'' freedom, and in fact Connor points out the [[{{Hypocrite}} hypocrisy]] of wanting freedom while owning slaves. Then there's [[spoiler:George Washington destroying several native villages, including Connor's home village, which is TruthInTelevision]].
*** This game introduces a bit of 'Black' into the mix: [[spoiler:Juno, who manipulated Assassins and Templars alike to bring about her own resurrection so she could conquer humanity. It didn't quite work out for her.]]
** Black Flag took a step backward. At first the Templars are seen to be participating in activities that, while unsavory by today's standards, were fairly typical for privileged men of the era. (One even chides an associate who expresses disgust at his dealing in slaves, asking how subjugating black men is morally worse than subjugating all men.) Edward becomes a privateer and later pirate for the sole purpose of getting rich, and he's point-blank about this to everyone he meets. There are a few lines he won't cross...he reacts ''very'' negatively when someone asks if he's thinking of taking of slaving, for instance...but otherwise has no qualms of sacking ships, putting innocent sailors to the sword, and plundering warehouses, like any other good 'n hearty freebooter. When he meets the Assassins (whom he learns absolutely nothing about beforehand), they're portrayed as stubborn, unpleasant, highly territorial recluses. However, through a series of mutual struggles, Edward becomes sympathetic to the Assassins' cause, ultimately adding their symbol to his flag, and learns that the Templars intended to use the Sage as part of a plot to take over the English government. While far less blatant than in [=AC2=], we never get the sense that anyone with a morally sound outlook would want anything to do with the Templars, while the Assassins are at worst no threat to anyone who hasn't earned their enmity.
** Rogue made a huge turn to the point where it almost qualifies as role reversal. Achilles is by far the worst Mentor ever, a thoroughly wrongheaded dunce who makes one disastrous bungle after another and never shows a hint of remorse or self-awareness. The other Master Assassins are either too stupid to see his gross incompetence or too blinded by loyalty to call him out. He makes no attempt to cool off Shay after the highly traumatic destruction of Lisbon, leading to his (completely justified) defection. The lower-level Assassins have degenerated into criminal gangs whose sole purpose is to extort the populace and kill anyone who tries to root them out. Meanwhile, Shay gets won over by a wealthy Templar who seeks to rebuild parts of the Colonies ruined by war or neglect, and he takes on Christopher Gist, a charming, humorous rogue, as his quartermaster. Haytham, while cold-blooded as ever, never harms anyone who isn't already an acknowledged enemy. Not only don't we see the Templars do anything overtly evil, Shay performs some of the same tasks as Edward!
** Unity gets back on track, but largely by making both sides too ineffectual to amount to anything. The Continental Assassins are so wrapped up in arcane rules and hierarchy that they butt heads with Arno on just about everything, despite the fact that he's pretty much the only member getting anything accomplished. (In one revealing scene, he brings Belloq to justice after Belloq murdered their Mentor, for which he's ''punished''.) They completely fail to prevent a bloody revolution, protect their most powerful ally, the King, or stop any of the atrocities that happen after his death. Meanwhile, the Templars have a ludicrously complicated scheme to portray the King as an out-of-touch petty tyrant so that the people will overthrow him, which will lead to chaos and teach them to hate that, but realize that the ''real'' problem was an absolute ruler who ''lacked order'' and that putting the Templars into power was the solution...[[InsaneTrollLogic or something]]. Arno singlehandedly thwarts them at every turn, and despite the fact that he isn't popular at all within the Assassin organization and was never particularly heroic to begin with, making him the ''perfect'' candidate for a Shay-esque turn, they ''never'' even attempt to win him to their side. Ultimately their plan succeeds, ''but they gain nothing from it because Arno killed them all''. As for Arno himself, he starts out as a good-for-nothing young punk a la Ezio and gets drawn into the Assassins out of a desire for revenge, but never truly embraces their way of thinking and is motivated primarily by his love for Elise (which...doesn't end well). In the end, he's been kicked out of the Order, he's all alone in a land ravaged by war and chaos, he has no ambitions or plans for the future, and he pretty much just wants to leave France and never return.
* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' new expansion, ''Going Rogue'', runs on this.
** On one side is Emperor Cole (a.k.a. Tyrant) and his underlings whose philosophy is something like, "Order at any cost." If the player joins the Loyalists, he can then use the power of the Praetorian Empire to either [[LawfulGood protect its citizens]] or [[LawfulEvil advance his personal power]].
** On the other side is the underground [[LaResistance Resistance]] whose creed is "Freedom at any cost." If the player joins them, he can either work to free the people of Praetoria or can act as agent of chaos.
* ''VideoGame/InfiniteSpace'' has several instances of this, although nothing in the game tops the long-running conflict between Kalymnos and Nova Nacio. This is especially apparent during the Irvest Sector War, with the so-called People Committee of Kalymnos [[spoiler:attempts to obliterate ''the residents of an entire planet'' owned by Nova Nacio by crashing its satellite to win the war]], while Nova Nacio [[spoiler:has been secretly developing a very powerful weapon on the same planet under the cover of colonization project]].
* During the stealth tutorial for ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory'', Sam Fisher lampshades this trope:
--> Enemy soldiers? They're not my enemy; they're just doing their jobs. ''Light'' is the real enemy.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics''. In the beginning, two princes are fighting each other for the throne. Since it is basically the [[UsefulNotes/WarsOfTheRoses War of the Roses]] in the form of Final Fantasy, neither side is really good. Later in the game it becomes more like BlackAndGrayMorality once the Church and [[spoiler:Delita]] start playing more significant roles in the war. [[spoiler:Delita, while ultimately a hero that saves the kingdom from falling into utter chaos, still uses any and every Machiavellian method available to him in order to accomplish his goals. The Church is basically controlled by Satan]]. The only white to be found is Ramza and his fate is [[spoiler:[[CrapsackWorld to become a footnote in history]]]].
* Used heavily in the ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' games, though it doesn't quite become apparent until ''The Lost Age'', where all the antagonists of ''The Broken Seal'' are revealed to have been working for good ends, and trying to defy a system that if left in place will result in the decline and ultimate end of the world of Weyard, but whose supporters (rightly) fear the abuse of Alchemy unleashed.
** In ''Dark Dawn'', the effects of releasing Alchemy are starting to take hold, the world is being reshaped, some heroes of the earlier games are [[DudeWheresMyRespect reviled for their efforts]], and the heroes of ''this'' game have to stop and debate whether or not to rescue a known criminal from a CruelAndUnusualDeath. In the last instance, Karis [[LampshadeHanging has to explain this trope]] to Amiti (who [[TheIngenue really is just that naïve]]).
*** Really, there is only one truly evil character in the whole series. Too bad that he's TheChessmaster... And even then, Alex isn't exactly evil, just self serving. He manipulates to his own ends, but he never shows any actual malice towards the characters. The only time he ever struck against a character was when they attacked him, and it was only to stop their attack.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'', you've got the [[KnightTemplar oh-so-devout]] Guardians versus the [[MadScientist innovative and self-reliant]] Defiants, [[TheUsualAdversaries trying to thwart each other at every turn]]. Both sides have skeletons in their closets, both sides are ostensibly trying to hold off TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and it's even difficult to point out either side as [[ALighterShadeOfGrey the darker or lighter gray]].
** The [[StealthPun moment]] that time travel gets involved at the end of the respective factions' intro zones, who's "right" and "wrong" goes out the window. The Guardians are rightly angry at the Defiants for (inadvertently) siding with the Big Bad and using technology that drains the power of the Veil, the only thing holding back a massive invasion of the Elemental Planes and [[TheLegionsOfHell forces of the Dragons]]. After the initial wave is stopped and the PC is thrown forward in time, the Guardians spend the next X years [[BloodKnight throwing everything they have into a genocidal war against the Defiants]], instead of working WITH them to stop the forces of the Dragons. Because of this, any hope they had of using Defiant technology to fix what it broke in the first place is lost, leading to the Defiant intro happening right at the climax of TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, and you get to time-travel back to stop it from happening. Upon returning back and delivering news of what's to come, and the schematics of technology that can stop it, the Defiant leaders [[IgnoredAesop try and figure out how to use the tech to finally defeat the Guardians]], and deal with the planar invasions later.
* ''VideoGame/{{Wings}}'' portrays the Allied perspective on [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI WW1]] if you play as them, or the German perspective if you play as them, but doesn't seem to take sides overall.
* None of the three main factions in ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'' can be considered truly good or bad. The Trade Emergency Coalition appear to be just {{Technical Pacifist}}s trying to fight off the "evil" Vasari and the vengeful Advent, but the reason the Advent are vengeful is because the traders exiled them from their homeworld 1000 years before for having different ideas about social norms. The Advent may have legitimate grievances against the traders, except the ones who actually exiled them died a long time ago, so they're trying to punish people who didn't do anything to them. The Vasari used to be a vast [[TheEmpire empire]] and still follow similar policies in terms of enslavement and locking down colonies, but they're just the remains from a single colony that have been fleeing an unknown enemy that has destroyed the rest of the empire for tens of thousands of years and are conquering trader worlds only to get enough resources to be able to continue their flight.
** All three sides engage in a total war against their enemies, nuking planets from orbit until everyone is dead.
* All of the major organizations in ''VideoGame/{{Lusternia}}''. Despite their underlying themes, they are only as good or evil as the individual characters that dwell there. The city with all the trappings of a LawfulGood [[TheFederation federation]] has [[WitchHunt zealot]] KnightTemplar[=s=] galore: the city with all the trappings of a LawfulEvil [[TheEmpire empire]] has [[TheCorruption mutated, undead]] family men and pacifists among their [[PuttingOnTheReich Nazi-inspired]] troopers.
* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VIII'' is full of this: it features a BigBad whose only reason for being that is that he ''can't'' stop once he has started (no matter how much he wants to)[[note]]He was programmed that way as a security measure, to keep the Kreegans from subverting him[[/note]], a conflict between dragon hunters out for profit and xenophobic dragons that see nothing wrong with eating other sentients, and a war between the Necromancers' Guild of Jadame (who, in the modern day of the game, are a fairly laid-back bunch, mostly wanting to keep to themselves) and the Church of the Sun (who came to Jadame to wage war on Necromancers without provocation, and are somewhat corrupt and self-serving).
* In ''VideoGame/{{Avadon}}'', both [[spoiler:Redbeard]] and [[spoiler:the Duke]] have both positive and negative traits that can make it hard to decide who to side with.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'', the central conflict in the game is extremely lacking in details, but what details we do know ultimately make it an example of this. The conflict between Fire and Dark seems clear-cut at first, but we're shown numerous instances of how LightIsNotGood and DarkIsNotEvil throughout the games. On the other hand we're also shown numerous instances of LightIsGood and DarkIsEvil at the same time. The message of the games seems to be that both sides have their place in the world, and are capable of good things, but both can also be a destructive, corrupting influence if taken too far.
* ''VideoGame/PlanetSide''. Three factions [[ForeverWar endlessly fighting]] over a tiny ball of rock god-know-where chuck full of alien technology, using [[BackFromTheDead respawning technology]] to keep the war going. The Terran Republic established a thousand years of peace on Earth - while sacrificing freedom. The New Conglomerate rebelled for more personal freedom, but they are backed by by large [[MegaCorp corporations]] and [[PrivateMilitaryContractor mercenaries]]). The Vanu Sovereignty wants to uplift humanity to the status of the ancient [[AbsentAliens Vanu]] - but possibly at the cost of your [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul identity and freedom.]]
* ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'': While the leaders of that big corporation are a bunch of greedy assholes, most of the employees are just people doing their work or innocent victims who haven't done anything bad. The marines are usually well-meaning if slightly hardballed with their work. The Xenomorphs are obviously nasty bastards but in the video games, it's their territories that are being invaded and their queen violated, so in all rights they're fighting an war of self-defence against the humans and the yautjas, thought with rules that aren't exactly what the Geneva Conventions would allow. The Yautjas no doubt starts wars and deaths for no actual good reason but they do have standards on which things the hunters are allowed to kill; women, children, sick and old are forbidden to hunt but for the rest, it's a free game with whatever nasty and violent way they want to use.
* ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' features a lot throughout the course of the game. The trailer basically sums the trope in this game: "You either hang onto your morals and die or do whatever it takes to survive."
** The end has a large conflict featuring Ellie. [[spoiler:Marlene planned to use Ellie to create a vaccine to cure the Infected, which would ultimately result in her dying. Joel, because he saw her as another daughter, saves her before the Fireflies perform the surgery, thus wasting the chance to save the human race. If you were in Joel's shoes, would you do the same or would you let Ellie be used for a cure to save humanity?]]
*** [[spoiler:This is thrown into more confusion when it is implied that there have been several other people immune to the virus and that engineering a cure from them has failed. This information is only heard from a lone Firefly talking to himself, so it is unclear how valid this is.]]
* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander''. All sides have sympathetic ideals, if not necessarily ideal means to practice them, and are composed of a mix of fundamentally good people who follow those ideals, and bad people who ignore them. The narrative doesn't seem to really take any sides either. Your choices are a) a human RacialRemnant that wants to rebuild the old Earth empire and reassert humanity as the leaders of the galaxy no matter what, but are depicted as the universe's OnlySaneMan, b) an [[ChurchMilitant aggressive religious movement]] that fights to achieve peace and harmony and is led by a kindly MessianicArchetype, or c) a LaResistance movement for oppressed cyborgs that employs questionable methods but fights for freedom nonetheless.
* At ''Videogame/{{Freelancer}}'' most factions except the Xenos (who are obvious xenophobic omnicidal maniacs) and the Liberty Police (defending the land of freedom and whatnot) are somewhat guilty of this, ranging from farmers turned into terrorists, tree-huggers turned into terrorists and hackers turned into terrorists to tyrannical and corrupt regimes and corporations that would sell their mothers for money -and eventually causing said mothers to go terrorist-. Special mention goes to the Corsairs and Outcasts faction, whose mothership lost contact with the others during travel, forcing them to go outlaw in a way or the other, and the other factions subsequentially shoot upon them. Apparently diplomacy is an unknown concept to this universe.
* Moral ambiguity in ''VideoGame/EmeraldCityConfidential'' is a given, based on its FilmNoir tone. Although Petra is the protagonist, [[GuileHero she isn't always morally upstanding]]. And although Queen Ozma is first seen as an antagonistic and oppressive ruler, she turns out to be a WellIntentionedExtremist who's trying to save Oz from an even worse threat.
* In spite of the very clear divide painted in the promotional material, neither of the factions in ''VideoGame/WildStar'' are not entirely good nor evil. The Exile "heroes" are basically criminals and terrorists, and sink to some serious lows to have a fighting chance, the Dominion "villains" provide a highly tolerant, well-educated, and prosperous and free society to their citizens. On the other side of the coin, many Exiles are also refugees and innocent hopefuls who want to start a new life on Nexus, while the Dominion demands unconditional servitude and obedience from it's citizens when called upon to serve the Empire.
* In ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'', there are virtually no "right" or "wrong" decisions. Over the course of the game, you'll have to face ethical dilemmas whether or not you should obey the rules or sympathize with the entrant. Heck, even the border guards and your supervisor will make requests that is considered to be morally grey in the eyes of the player. Thus, this is why the game has MultipleEndings.
* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall Daggerfall]]'' is full of this. About the only morally unambiguous choice in the end-game is to aid the Underking, and then only because his goal is to finally ''[[UndeathAlwaysEnds die]]'' rather than to actually use Numidium. There are several candidates for worst of the worst, and you ''will'' aid at least one of them out of your own free will, without being fooled, over the course of the main storyline. A note on ''Daggerfall'': it turns out that due to an event called a "Dragon Break", in which time flows in a non-linear fashion, somehow all the choices you're able to make ended up happening at the exact same time. This would be known as the "Warp in the West", and resulted in having every single nation in western Tamriel (there were a lot) turn into two provinces and swear loyalty to the Empire.
** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]''. Although the main quest appears to be black-and-white (though if you really dig into the backstory, the BigBad has some WellIntentionedExtremist and VillainHasAPoint aspects that can move him closer to a "dark gray", and the wannabe BigGood Azura has a ton of skeletons in her closet), the politics in Vvardenfell are very clearly Gray And Gray. House Hlaalu, for example, is open-minded but corrupted, House Telvanni is honest but elitist, House Redoran is strong but xenophobic, the Empire often ranges from oppressive to a little bit too lax, the Dunmer Temple is kind and charitable but has Knights Templar (the Ordinators) and is to some degree a CorruptChurch, and the three [[PhysicalGod god-kings]] to which it is devoted are, respectively, benevolent but pathologically dishonest, egotistically psychotic, and completely withdrawn from the affairs of mortals. House Dagoth are portrayed as evil, but still remain somewhat gray. At most the main quest is closer to BlackAndGrayMorality.
** The fifth installment, [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]], takes place in the middle of a civil war: the Empire, after losing a war against the [[OurElvesAreBetter Aldmeri]] [[TheEmpire Dominion]], was forced to outlaw the worship of Talos and are generally viewed as cowards who oppress the citizens of Skyrim instead of resisting the Dominion's rule. The Stormcloak Rebellion wants an independent kingdom, but they're also ultranationalists who dangerously border outright racism [[FantasticRacism and confine the Argonians, Khajiit and Dark Elves to slums]]. In the defense of that last point, the Argonians and Dunmer are ancestral enemies (indeed, the former recently conquered the homeland of the latter, and the latter was enslaving the former for generations), so their desire to keep the Argonians and Dunmer apart may be in the interests of preventing a race war in their capital.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the Tenpenny Tower quest has this. On one hand, you have the residents of Tenpenny Tower, who are (mostly) a bunch of arrogant bigots... but, they have a ''point'' that ghouls are generally dangerous and unpredictable, and this band in particular are hardened raiders from the Wasteland; how do they know it'd be safe to let them in? On the other hand, you have Roy Phillips and his ghouls, ruthless raiders who do have a point that they are being held at bay from living in a safe, comfortable environment purely because they're not exactly human anymore. Both sides are perfectly willing to bribe the player into slaughtering the other for them. [[spoiler: And if the player negotiates a truce, the ghouls promptly take advantage of having been allowed inside to murder all the humans for themselves.]] It's not a very ''well-handled'' example, and has attracted a ''lot'' of scorn from players.
** In the DLC "The Pitt", the two factions the Lone Wanderer encounters fit this trope. Wernher, leader of the slave rebellion, wants to steal the cure to the mutations that ravage The Pitt to use it as a bargaining chip for the slaves' freedom. Even when he finds out what that 'cure' is, he's still determined to exploit it, no matter what. Ashur, ruler of the Pitt, considers his Raider army and slave workforce necessary evils that gave The Pitt safety and industrial power; he hopes to use the drug to cure his constituents [[spoiler:(a cure taken from his own daughter, who was born immune to the radiation)]], allowing them to bear healthy children which would grow to eventually replace slave labor with a homegrown workforce. The player can side with either faction. Like the Tenpenny Tower quest above, fans generally find it very hamfisted in its handling.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has this, hard: The New California Republic are well-intentioned and filled with good people, but are ruthless expansionists, suffocated by bureaucracy and corruption, and would be spread way too thin to bring true safety to the Mojave Wasteland. Mr. House is genuine in his desire to rebuild lawful civilization and has the intelligence and resources to do so, but only cares about New Vegas and enforces his laws with an iron fist, ruthlessly executing anyone who opposes his rule. The Legion are a group of [[ScienceIsBad regressive]], misogynistic and violent Slavers who are held together by [[CultOfPersonality one intelligent man]], but are [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans the only group capable of enforcing genuine security within the Mojave Wasteland]] and would actually be a boon to travelling merchants. The Wild Card route allows the PlayerCharacter to take over New Vegas themselves, but this requires the murder of Mr. House and there is nothing to indicate that they can succeed where the other factions would fail.
** At least, the developers' ''intentions'' were that it'd fall under this. In practice, the Legion is presented in such an awful fashion that it's more a case of BlackAndGrayMorality.
** There's also the main struggle in the DLC "Honest Hearts" between New Canaanites[[note]]Mormons[[/note]] Daniel and Joshua Graham. Both are guardians of a relatively "innocent" tribe that is under attack by an old enemy of the New Canaanites. Daniel wants to withdraw the tribe to where their enemies cannot follow, out of guilt over the situation the New Canaanites have brought upon them. Graham wants to teach them to fight and destroy their enemies, both as a just thing to do and to assuage his own personal demons, of which there are many.
* And, of course, the tradition continues into ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''. The Brotherhood of Steel have reverted back to their former conservatism, becoming arrogant, xenophobic, tech-grabbing conquerors who are pushing their way into the Boston region and who are characterised by extreme FantasticRacism. However, they also dedicate themselves to wiping out real threats such as feral ghouls and mutants (as well as synths and non-feral ghouls) and actually have the military power to ensure security. The Minutemen are unambiguously good guys, but are notably inefficient, to the point of being virtually extinct at the game's start. Also, with the player character at the helm early on, ultimately the player's motivations dictate the course of the faction. The Institute are xenophobic manipulators who want to destroy all remnants of the "old world" and reshape the Commonwealth into what they want it to be -- but who prize innovation and scientific discovery, and want to create a world superior to the old one. Lastly, the Railroad seem to be good guys who oppose the slavery and oppression of Synths, who they believe are sentient beings, but they care very little for the Commonwealth as a whole and the methods they'll use and the lengths they'll go to in order to achieve their goals are a little extreme... There's also the fact that [[spoiler:the only ending in the game which doesn't involve you betraying and killing your BigBad son is through siding with the Institute, and doing so will mean you'll have to wipe out the sympathetic, helpful Railroad who helped you find him.]]
** There's also the conflict between Honest Dan and Covenant. [[spoiler:Dan is a mercenary simply trying to rescue Amelia per his contract, but the Covenant citizens are survivors of synth assassins, who infiltrated their families and friends and killed them. As a result, they're attempting to develop a psychological exam to help spot synths, but are unfortunately torturing a lot of innocent people in the process too. Helping Dan requires the deaths of everyone in Covenant, however.]]
** The game also takes measures to humanise the previously AlwaysChaoticEvil Raiders through EnemyChatter and WhatMeasureIsAMook. Some are [[CardCarryingVillain psychos who enjoy their line of work]], and some are obviously strung out and tormented by what they have to do to survive. Shooting Raiders dead will sometimes cause their allies to cry out in anguish and horror.
** The Expansion Pack "Far Harbor" continues with the tradition: The synth refuge of Acadia is genuinely peaceful [[spoiler: but it's leader [=DiMA=] has committed some terrible crimes to protect it and will need to commit more for a peaceful resolution to the conflict]]. The town of Far Harbor is wary of outsiders but that's mostly a product of their circumstances with them nearly being driven off the island by the fog. The local Church of the Children of the Atom is "very" antagonistic towards nonbelievers [[spoiler: and is planning to wipe the other two factions out]], but this is due to the influence of their (sincere) current leader. The majority of the cult is genuinely devout [[spoiler: and has nothing to do with the fogs' behavior.]]
* No character in ''VideoGame/MountAndBlade'' is entirely good, [[DeliberateValuesDissonance at least not by modern standards]]. Lords are generally overbearing and arrogant, scholars are constantly insulting anyone who isn't another scholar or arguing with other scholars, peasants possess very loose morals, professional soldiers and mercenaries [[BloodKnight tend to be the type to enjoy violence]], and even ''you'' will probably be some sort of pragmatic AntiHero, [[BeingGoodSucks if not by choice then by necessity]].
** Many of the multiplayer characters are, according to their back-stories, either greedy sellswords or criminals.
** Throne claimants each have their own backstory about why they should be king/queen. The current monarchs will actually have ''their own'' sides to the story and their own reasons, so you're left to decide who's story is worth more. For example, Arwa the Pearled One of the Sarranid Sultanate claims that Sultan Hakim is an EvilUncle who illegally usurped the throne from her, but Sultan Hakim counters that she is a BitchInSheepsClothing, and that he has a more legitimate claim due to his royal heritage (while Arwa is an adopted peasant girl). The only claimant/monarch conflict where one side is ''definitely'' more sympathetic than the other is Swadia, which pits the competent and reasonable [[ActionGirl Lady Isolla]] against the incompetent and tyrannical [[FatBastard King Harlaus]]; really, when you ask for Harlaus' reason for exiling Isolla and denying her claim, his argument basically amounts to "[[StayInTheKitchen she is a woman and therefore won't rule well]]".
* Believe it or not, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]]'s world was like this in his debut game. In the arcade ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', Mario had captured the eponymous ape and wasn't very nice to him, leading to DK escaping and abducting Mario's girlfriend as revenge by proxy. Nintendo of America workers even named Mario after their landlord as a result of being mad at him, [[SpringtimeForHitler which backfired in a truly epic fashion.]] However, while Mario did mistreat Donkey Kong, he did risk life and limb to save Pauline from the rampaging ape, so he was more of a {{Jerkass}} AntiHero than a VillainProtagonist. On the other side of the conflict while Donkey Kong did kidnap Pauline and needlessly harassed Stanley in the third game, he's shown to have had a [[MoralityPet loving son]] who rescued him from Mario in the sequel.
* ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' has this in spades. None of the factions or leaders have been presented as entirely good or evil, but instead as various nations with their own traits, strengths, and weaknesses. Also true for the three Affinity choices: [[HalfHumanHybrid Harmony]], [[HumansAreSpecial Purity]] and [[{{Cyborg}} Supremacy]] all have their good and bad points, and are incredibly divisive to the point where even the ''developers themselves'' argue over them.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Catherine}}'', as [[DiscussedTrope mentioned by Trisha]], the choice between Katherine (law) and Catherine (chaos) does ''not'' represent good and evil, as the two both have their merits and flaws. Catherine is [[{{Yandere}} physically abusive]] [[ClingyJealousGirl and pushy]], while Katherine is [[ControlFreak controlling]] [[FinancialAbuse and overbearing]], but they both genuinely love Vincent and want what's best for him. It depends on the player and their own sense of morality to choose what's best: Katherine, Catherine, or [[TakeAThirdOption neither]].
* The conflict between the Humans and the Beta in ''VideoGame/GreyGoo'' comes down to scared survivors making bad decisions with bad intel. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the Grey Goo is also quite grey as well... [[{{Pun}} Ugh]].]]
* The world of ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' runs on this. The "Good" and "Evil" in a Shinobi's alignment are all but meaningless, both do all sorts of dirty wetwork, the only difference is the former take orders from the government while the latter take corporate contracts (and as one of the manga shows, this sometimes ends up with both sides chasing the same target). Evil Shinobi can have [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes loved ones]] and [[EvenEvilHasStandards standards]], and Good Shinobi can be [[KnightTemplar assholes]]. However, the strong tradition around Shinobi training mean both sides are trained to hate the other on principle, despite knowing how thin that line is. The first game is about a class of each learning about this and coming to terms with it. The second focuses on the reactions of a group of fanatics from both sides to some of their own being "corrupted".
* Almost everyone is this in ''VideoGame/WarOfOmens''. Even the current Campaign protagonist, Listrata, tends to be extremely harsh when quashing dissent.
* ''Videogame/{{Ingress}}'': The Enlightened want to infuse humanity with the Exotic Matter coming out of mysterious portals, as they have good reason to believe it's what gave humans creativity and ideas themselves, and direct exposure would uplift them to their full potential, while cutting them off completely would lead to the end of creativity itself. The Resistance believes this is a lie, that it's truly the beachhead for an alien invasion, and that the Exotic Matter allows them to take over minds, or even breach this dimension to invade it, so it must be shut off and destroyed. Both sides believe they're doing what is the right thing to do, both resort to underhanded tactics when they must, and both have good arguments and proof that their view is correct. But never enough to truly decide who is actually ''right'' in this conflict.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' takes a very "choices and consequences" approach to morality in its many, many sidequest dialog options, and the road to hell is truly paved with good intentions - sometimes being a dick is the only way to minimize the body count, and the people involved may or may not sympathize with this after the fact. This comes to a head late in the plot when [[spoiler:Elma points a gun at a traitor and Rook, unbidden by the player, will join Lin in [[GoThroughMe standing between them]] because they find said traitor's story sympathetic. The thing is, the ''player'' might very well be on Elma's side, and a very strong case can be made that it's irresponsible of everyone involved not to put a bullet in the traitor on the spot when you weigh one tragic story against humanity's survival. And to cap it off, what at the time is an ambiguous situation or message about humanity [[BrokenAesop proves Elma completely right]] when the traitor's actions later compromise or destroy the subject of humanity's entire efforts thus far.]]
* In regards to the [[WeAreStrugglingTogether conflict between the five main factions]] of ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'', each faction is nuanced in general.
** The UPR are altruistic soldiers dedicated to rescuing and protecting refugees fleeing from the Varelsi threat. However beneath this otherwise good face, the faction has a dark side, one which is steeped in bureaucracy, draconian law enforcement, and even forbidden genetic experimentation and clone soldier production. This has led them to doing some hard and questionable decisions such as an forceful attempt to set a base on Ekkunar in the past until they were driven off by the Eldrid. Furthermore, where the other factions can be characterized by their position on how to save Solus, the UPR's focus is squarely on the preservation of life, no matter the cost even if the star is lost.
** The Eldrid are firm believers of being in harmony with natural laws of the universe. They prefer to simply observe, preserve, and catalog all that they can find and be one with nature rather than impose upon it. Although that maybe the case, their beliefs at its core are more the reverence of the natural order of the cosmos itself and less of life. They believe that the universe should be left alone to run its course even if it means natural death and entropy. As such, they greatly oppose anything that would disrupt the natural order of the universe even going so far in some cases as to attack or sabotage the efforts of certain other factions regardless of whatever these factions' motives may be.
** The LLC are a aristocratic merchant class focused solely on making a profit even at end of the universe. They sell weapons and such to the other factions regardless of the cost as long as they get paid. On top of that, even the kindest of the LLC members have an air of aristocracy, entitlement, and affluence that cannot completely be shed; whether that means a daily assumption that someone is there to clean your dress, or firmware-held beliefs that all beings of lesser classes must be eliminated to raise the value of the remaining universe. While they certainly wish to preserve the universe, if it were to come to a sudden and dramatic end, the LLC would be the group selling tickets to the live stream to watch the last battle.
** The Rogues are the truest form of outcasts, rejects and wanderers from every civilization and walk of life. They are vagabonds, pirates, raiders, mercenaries, hermits –beings who value personal freedom over anything else. For some Rogues, that freedom means a life of freeing possessions from other people. For other Rogues, it just means living in isolation, free from the rules, restrictions, and conflict of the rest of the universe. While not every Rogue is a criminal, certainly there are a few who just want to be left alone, but most Rogues value freedom and pleasure, sometimes in that order. The Rogues are wild, weird, and individualistic however despite their differences, the Rogues share one thing in common: They do want to survive. They have all spent their lives trying to avoid capture or destruction, and now that their home, the Last Star, is threatened, many of them will put their criminal empires on hold in order to turn their attentions to the real enemies – Rendain and the Varelsi.
** The Jennerit are the bad guys among the five factions. They're pragmatic and ruthless, more than willing to manipulate and control anything and everything to accomplish their goals and achieve what they view as perfect. They even go so far as to bend the natural laws of the universe in order to gain things such as immortal life. What they can't control or fix to fit their concepts of perfection, they destroy. The Jennerit are in essence everything associated with a stereotypical evil empire. Despite this however, they are not necessarily "the bad guys". Although they fit the bill, not all of them are evil. It's just that they're not nice and have rather "flexible ethics". The Jennerit did ally with the other factions against the Varelsi as the strongest military force before Rendain betrayed everyone and decided to have the Jennerit switch sides. Even then though, the Jennerit are split within Rendain's Imperium between those who follow him and those who rebel against him. In fact, Rendain himself is not exactly evil as he's ultimately driven by a desire to save something of the universe from what he perceives as inevitable even if it means screwing everyone else.
** Also a DeconstructedTrope since the quirks and traits of all of these factions are what forced people like [[OnlySaneMan Trevor Ghalt]] and the [[TitleDrop titular]] [[RagTagBunchOfMisfits Battleborn]] on trying to stem the tide of Valresi rather than entering in [[WeAreStrugglingTogether pointless war against each other]] out of both resources and bitterness.
* Both sides of the human-monster war in ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}''.
** The humans are... well, humans. They've had hundreds of years of wars, charities, and everything in between, while individuals run the gamut from paragons of virtue to vicious sociopaths, but they band together to prevent the slaughter of their race.
** The monsters, while being exactly what they sound like, are still on equal moral footing with the humans. They massacre humans and raze worlds because [[spoiler: that's what the humans have been doing to ''them'', albeit unintentionally, for hundreds of years]]. Trying to judge them at an individual level falls flat because of the vast differences between [[StarfishAliens their own nature]] and humans, let alone [[spoiler: the differences between them and [[EnergyBeings anything that naturally has a physical form]]]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/BeyondTheWesternDeep'' is by its own creators admission meant to be a morally gray piece, opposing the ''very'' BlackAndWhiteMorality of the ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'' series it was inspired by. None of it's FunnyAnimal races are inherently good or evil, and the main conflict of the series is too complex to be categorised as justified or not: one of the races, the Ermehn (which are anthropomorphic ''weasels'', strongly averting the usual WickedWeasel archetype with many sympathetic characters and an AntiVillain for an antagonist) have been banished from their homelands to die off in the wastes, and the series is focused on the rising tensions across the world as they want to ''remain alive'' by reclaiming said territories.
* ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'', with several condemned criminals in its ranks, usually sits firmly here; while most of the characters involved are criminals (and even some of the volunteers are only a couple notches above 'em), it's only when Arikos, Geisha, or the Celeste get involved that the comic slips into BlackAndGrayMorality.
* ''Webcomic/{{Angels 2200}}'' does not go into the causes behind the colonies' revolt against earth, and both sides are composed of leaders who use morally dubious tactics in order to win and soldiers who only want to stay alive. Then again, depending on [[spoiler:what the true origin of the genetic plague is]], one of the sides might count as black.
* WordOfGod claims that this is the case in ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'', where the story is shown through several viewpoint characters, neither being portrayed as good/evil and with fairly realistic motivations for their actions. It also features a character who in most stories would be a shoe in for TheHero who is a horrifically abusive parent, while her counterpart on the "bad" side is unquestionably one of the best parents in the series. And even the character who so far seems to be clearest example of the BigBad sill remains somewhat sympathetic and [[JerkassHasAPoint has a point]] on some issues.
* In the very NotSafeForWork webcomic ''{{Felarya}}'', man - eating monsters are depicted as no worse than the humans they eat.
* The conflict between Agatha and Klaus in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. Klaus has every reason to want to keep Agatha locked up until she's proven trustworthy, and (given recent events) can make a pretty good case for [[KillItWithFire killing her with fire]]. On the other hand, Agatha really hasn't done much to deserve that (''yet''), aside from getting the BigBad stuck in her head, and she's got every right to fight back (particularly when her friends get caught in the crossfire). Not forgetting Othar, who is killing off sparks. He's deluded, but considering [[TortureTechnician some]] [[AIIsACrapshoot spark's]] [[CrushKillDestroy creations]] he's kinda right.
** Othar slips out of grey if you read the side materials in his point of view: his solution to the problems caused by Sparks is to ''kill them all''. He's pretty OK with a train going into a canyon with everybody aboard when he finds out they're all Sparks. Let's hope he never realizes the definite possibility that he will have to kill all humans to permanently eliminate Sparks.
** Klaus' reign over Europa itself. At first, it's pretty much implied to be an Evil Empire, with Klaus at its head as the BigBad and his son as the main love interest for the protagonist. Then you read about his backstory and what Europa was like before Klaus: [[note]]There were several years in which Klaus and the heroic Heterodyne Boys roamed Europa as adventurers. Before the Boys, the Heterodynes were actually very brutal, very sadistic mad scientists with no regard for human life and a massive army of fiercely loyal superhumans at their disposal. The idyllic times of the Boys ended when one of their wives, who was cheating on her husband with Klaus, drugged the latter after a tryst and presumably abandoned him in a place he would be hard-pressed to ever return from. Then she engineered a series of events that led to the disappearance of the Boys, the orphaning of her daughter, ''and the total destruction of peace around all Europa,'' earning her the nickname The Other. By the time of Klaus' return, he has almost no choice but to engage in the most brutal methods possible in order to make the region ''livable'' again, including usurping power from every noble imaginable by taking their heirs as hostages. It takes this ''and'' an internal betrayal within The Other's faction in order to bring Europa some stability.[[/note]] When [[spoiler:The Other's]] return nearly two decades later sets off a chain of events resulting in both Klaus and Agatha being put out of commission for a while, Europa degrades right back to chaos, and that's ''with'' most of the rebelling factions banding together to support the new Baron - showing just how necessary the previous Baron's ruthlessness really was.
* The main conflict in ''Webcomic/{{Juathuur}}'' is between control and freedom. Both sides have their reasons, and their differences are mainly due to age gaps (as the 'control' side grew up in a world torn by war, and the 'freedom' side did not). See the comic page for details.
* The main characters of ''Webcomic/{{Narbonic}}'' are a mad scientist, her henchwoman who loves to destroy things, her henchman with a deep dark secret not even he knows, and a superintelligent gerbil whose efforts to do good often cause more havoc and chaos than some of the evil plans afoot.
** In SpiritualSequel (and, we eventually find out, actual sequel) ''Webcomic/SkinHorse'', there's somewhat more of the same; again, surrounding Artie. Specifically, transgenic rights activists that fall into two main camps: Older transgenics, like Artie, who favor peaceful resolution through debate, but some are [[BlueAndOrangeMorality insane by any human standard and quite possibly by their own as well]], and [[GoodIsNotNice not all of them are necessarily nice people]]; and younger ones, who overall tend to be more personable in their outward attitude, but aren't above using a little terrorism to achieve their ends, and also [[NotSoDifferent some are insane by any human standard and quite possibly their own]].
* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3607 this appears, rather more literally, to Seymour's horror.]]
** This comic has played with the trope for ''years'', going at least far enough back to get [[http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=691 Slick's and 'Nique's opinion on the matter]] while this notable [[WebcomicsLongRunners long runner]] was still young.
* ''Webcomic/TheKingfisher'': Both Theodore and his sworn enemies - the vampire progenitors - are uncanny, manipulative, and monstrous. It's telling that the protagonist has not committed to a side.
* ''Webcomic/{{Lackadaisy}}'' is full of this. Even the SpoiledSweet, pretty girl who mainly works the restaurant front knows how to use a gun, is still a pretty big part in the operation, and in a recent arc, is still responsible for a large shipment of booze going to Lackadaisy. Basically, nobody in the comic is blameless, and it reaches truly ridiculous heights in the more recent arcs.
* In ''Webcomic/OffWhite'', the [[spoiler: dark wolf spirit Hati]] is trying to save the world, but he's willing to kill (or at least threaten to kill) [[spoiler: Sköll/Ike's innocent pack mates]] to do so. Meanwhile, the [[spoiler: white wolf spirit Sköll]] wants the world to die, but the world is going to get rotten anyway because the guardian of good died so goodness is dying with her.
* The Forever War between Angels and Demons in ''WebComic/SlightlyDamned''. Neither species is inherently good or evil, and both have committed atrocities, as you might expect in a war that long.
* In ''Webcomic/{{Terra}}'' the ForeverWar between the United Earth Coalition and Asurian Empire is a fairly dark version. Both sides are responsible for atrocities, and both sides also have good people who are just {{Punch Clock Villain}}s (one of the main characters joined the UEC military to feed his family, not out of ideology). The Resistance is ALighterShadeOfGrey: they're fighting for their homes and loved ones and have the goal of forcing both sides to the negotiating table with the hopes of ending the war and setting up a FictionalUnitedNations, but they use assassination as a primary tactic.
* ''Webcomic/AmongTheChosen'' has the {{mega corp}}s Heirotus & Expert Technologies Limited, a politically neutral Interstellar Cartography Group, and semi-secret-society Templars; all of which have some shady secrets and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity generally good publicity]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Erfworld}}'' is centered around the conflict between Gobwin Knob and the Royal Crown Coalition led by Jetstone. Gobwin Knob is led by Stanley who is convinced he is following the will of the Titans and many of his subordinates are merely trying to survive against their enemies. The members of the RCC have good reason to try to put down Stanley, as he's been attacking most of them in his quest to get the Arkentools. Jetstone, however, doesn't really have a reason to hate Stanley beyond the fact that he isn't a Royal, which they believe to be the only proper rulers in Erfworld. Even so, they still value honor and justice in battle, which Stanley and his Chief Warlord Parson don't. The whole thing is further muddied by the very nature of Erfworld, where open warfare against ''someone'' is virtually the only way to survive, much less grow, and the local laws of physics promote a forever war.
* ''Webcomic/DraconiaChronicles'': Originally, the central conflict had the Tigers as the clear good guys and the Dragons as the clear bad guys. However, with the addition of some sympathetic Dragon characters, and some brutal KickTheDog moments for the Tiger side, the conflict instead falls squarely into this.
* ''Webcomic/CucumberQuest'' is a more [[LighterAndSofter light-hearted]] variation of this. Characters like Cordelia and the Disaster Masters are pretty ObviouslyEvil and [[CardCarryingVillain they don't exactly try to hide it]]...but their actual interactions with other members of the cast can be surprisingly heartwarming such as Cordelia cheering up her minion Peridot as well as Noisemaster and Mutemaster's unseparable friendship. Meanwhile on the "heroes" side, the Dream Oracle, the supposed BigGood, is portrayed as hilariously incompetent at her job and even [[BreakingTheFourthWall interrupts the chapter intermissions]] whenever they start to question her actions, while Cucumber's father Cabbage is pretty much the personification of a [[{{Jerkass}} Jerkface]], being greedy and teaching his son to do well on tests by cheating. Most of the time it's PlayedForLaughs.
* ''{{Webcomic/Homestuck}}'' has the conflict between Prospit and Derse, the conflict that drives the "game" of Sburb. Prospit is fighting so that Sburb can perform it's intended purpose, [[spoiler: creating new universes]], while Derse is fighting to destroy Skaia, which would stop Sburb from destroying innocent worlds and races to propagate itself. In-Universe the players of Sburb are ''intended'' to side with Prospit and thus continue the game but it's made clear to the reader that both sides of the conflict are mostly good people. Indeed, late in the Kids session the two armies end up making peace under the unified goal of overthrowing the Black King [[spoiler: though this doesn't [[KillEmAll end well]] due to Bec Noir...]]
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' falls into this quite hard. The main characters are mercenaries who will enthusiastically participate in almost anything as long as there's money in it, while the governments they work for scratch and claw for advantage. Even the most benevolent figure, the Fleetmind, is still extremely ruthless when it needs to be. At the same time, however, most of the people engaging in active bastardry are there for positive ''reasons'' such as patriotism, they're just working towards them in horrible, horrible ways.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Web Original]]
* The online book ''Literature/ImperialDawn'' is centered around a war between those who support democracy, and those who are moving towards an arguably better new government system. Neither side is presented as wholly good nor bad.
* ''WebVideo/ThereWillBeBrawl'': There is no good or evil. The 'good guys' are drug dealers, strippers, or {{Fallen Hero}}es, the 'bad guys' actually have a plan to improve the quality of life in the Mushroom Kingdom, and the cops are corrupt and trying to usurp the throne. The only one with a clear designation is Kirby...who is a psychotic cannibal, a la [[Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]].
** There's also [[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red]], the only character who is truly good. Which makes it all the more sad (and fitting) when [[spoiler: he dies by Pikmin bomb]]
* In ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfTaras'' the hero is a psychopathic, snarky teenage girl with a penchant for martial arts and mass slaughter, while the bad guys are scientists [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans who just want to make the world a better place]] and see her as a test subject for their horrific BioPunk Experiments.
* ''Machinima/RedVsBlue''. The default characterization seems to be 'incompetent jerk', with variations lying mostly in the type and degree of incompetence and/or {{jerkass}}ery.
** The gray becomes even more clear when the Freelancer backstory starts to be brought out in seasons 6 through 10. On one hand, you want to root for the Freelancers. On the other, they're doing a lot of morally questionable things. Even those who are clearly "bad guys" (Sigma, the Director, CT, etc.) have a lot of nuance once you learn why they do the horrible things they do, and in the end, it's hard to say who's really good or bad.
* ARG/DarkDreamChronicle. One side has [[CuteButPsycho the Laughing Clown]] and [[WouldHurtAChild Darkness]] as two of its primary members. The other is trying to warp humanity for their [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Cause]] and are more than willing to use violence to get there. Oh, and it's led by the [[TheSlenderManMythos Slender]] [[HumanoidAbomination Man]].
* "Champions of Meridell" in ''Franchise/{{Neopets}}'' is the first war between Meridell and the Darigan Citadel, after the greedy king Skarl stole the orb of prosperity from the originally PerfectPacifistPeople of Darigan for his own glory and power, causing them much misery and pain and mutating them into vengeful monsters who try to destroy Meridell. There are both good and evil in both sides, with the heroic Jeran serving the villainous Skarl, and the anti-villain Darigan seeking to return the orb to his people.
* In ''{{Pokegirls}}'', humankind survives entirely due to a system of raping and brainwashing the eponymous female subspecies... which are themselves notorious for rape and ''murder''.
* Neither side in TheAbridgedSeries ''WebVideo/SonicTheOtherMovie'' is clean. Sonic only fights evil because it's fun, and villain Dr. Robotnik's evil plans to kill Sonic are simply to remove the obstacle preventing him from taking over the world and turning into a utopia.
* While Doug's writings of the anniversaries are a bit blacker, WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic's show runs on this. Critic's a PsychopathicManchild but tries to be a decent human being, Sage-as-Satan is much less scary than he is as his normal self in other series, BigGood Santa Christ can hold a mean grudge and even major troll Douchey manages to show a bit of heart when he feels pity for Critic at the end of the third fuck-up list.
* ''WebAnimation/DeadFantasy''. Sort of. Creator/{{Montyoum}} always said right from the start that the series isn't about which side wins, or which is better, or which is good or bad, and that [[RuleOfCool everyone should just focus on the fighting]].
* Comes up in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', and PlayedForDrama. What happens when you take two people who are supposed to be friends and colleagues and have circumstances beyond their control place them on opposite sides of a conflict like this? [[spoiler:Just ask Weiss and Blake. Weiss is the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, and Blake is a former member of the White Fang terrorist group. Weiss and her family have been targeted by members of the White Fang for as long as she can remember, and it's also implied that [[AbusiveParents her ill-tempered father took his frustrations out on her]], but where Weiss is wrong is that her personal prejudices cross the boundaries onto ''all Faunas in general''. While it is true that Blake was a member of the White Fang, she left because they began terrorising and killing innocent people, which she objected to. Despite this, she still feels compelled to defend their cause and their actions. Of the two, Blake is perhaps the more sympathetic, but Weiss remains a TragicBigot]].
** {{Averted|Trope}} in regards to the story's main overarching conflict, which is pretty much BlackAndWhiteMorality.
* In ''WebVideo/SpaceJanitors'', a parody of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe, rebels are portrayed as egotistical adrenaline junkies. Meanwhile, imperial citizen are portrayed as very happy to completely buy into the propaganda of the empire.
* In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'', both heroes and villains tend to be ambiguous, whether 'good' or 'bad'.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'': For the Cadmus Story Arc, Cadmus is presented as rather dodgy, but with legitimate fears about the dangers of superheroes. The heroes, meanwhile, had a habit of putting the good of their own members ahead of that of unpowered individuals most at risk of supervillains. Notably, this went so far that [[spoiler:the writers were forced to have [[HijackedByGanon a more 'traditional' supervillain]] take over the BigBad seat, because they had no way to finish the arc in a satisfactory way with the time given without massive MotiveDecay to make Cadmus [[CardCarryingVillain arbitrarily 'evil']].]]
* ''WesternAnimation/ExoSquad''. The Neosapiens do perform atrocities and Phaeton is pretty much a CardCarryingVillain but they are [[HeWhoFightsMonsters responding to being essentially slaves]] whose earlier, more moderate attempt to gain civil rights was stomped on. The SpacePirates are more chaotic than evil and are motivated by a combination of survival and having been screwed over themselves in the past. The SpacePirates were a prison labor force that were abandoned once the Neo Sapiens were made and [[spoiler:were driven crazy by their secret homeworld Chaos.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry''. Though Tom is often out to harass, kill, and eat Jerry, you can't overlook the fact that Jerry is extremely sadistic, and sometimes isn't even provoked. But that still doesn't excuse Tom, who often brings his punishment upon himself, and at the beginning of the majority of the episodes is bullying Jerry. At times it's hard to tell who the victim is; sometimes it's neither (and occasionally it's both).
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** The participants in the Hundred Years War. Even in Book One, there are heroic and villainous characters on both sides of the war, as well as civilians of every nation victimized by both sides; by the end of Book 2, the Earth Kingdom's government is little better than the Fire Nation, with Ba Sing Se being run by by the Brainwashing StateSec and villagers being routinely harassed and extorted by the soldiers who were supposed to protect them. The beginning of Book Three, meanwhile, shows a lighter side of the Fire Nation; after two books of their representatives being mostly soldiers and Azula's party, most citizens of the Fire Nation are just people, victimized by a century of propaganda and hardship brought on by the war.
** The Jet/Zuko conflict in the later half of season 2, since both are former villains seemingly on the road to redemption, there's really no way to give one moral superiority. However, since Jet was the aggressor, and the show had spent most of the season building up Zuko's eventual HeelFaceTurn, [[ALighterShadeOfGrey he came off as more in the right]].
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', is even better at this. In the fourth season, its outright mentioned the intentions each of the antagonists has aren't evil in and of themselves, but the way they go about it is.
** Book 1: The main enemies are the Equalists, who show FantasticRacism towards bending and wish to eradicate it, and their leader [[BigBad Amon]] can be very brutal and callous in his treatment of benders. On the other hand, [[VillainHasAPoint he has a point]] - the Council of Republic City is itself very prejudiced towards ''non''-benders, and only Tenzin appears to represent their best interests as well as those of benders. There are good and bad people on both sides - Tarrlok vs. Tenzin on the council, and Amon's side has people like [[spoiler:Hiroshi Sato]], who despises benders for similar reasons but is still more sympathetic than the BigBad. On a non-political level, Korra and her friends aren't depicted as paragons of goodness (though they ''try'' to do what's right), and even characters like [[{{Jerkass}} Tahno]] and [[DaChief Lin Beifong]] have multiple dimensions to their personalities. Only Tenzin's family can be considered purely "white", while Yakone and [[spoiler:his son Tarrlok]] ''might'' well be purely "black". [[spoiler: And the latter made a HeelFaceTurn.]]
** Book 2 veers more into BlackAndGreyMorality, with little spots of white mixed in. Unalaq's intentions are clearly evil, as he wants to plunge the world into darkness by [[spoiler:merging with the GodOfEvil Vaatu]]. Then there is Varrick, a CorruptCorporateExecutive who uses a civil war to get rich and resorts to things such as intimidation, bribery and even kidnapping [[spoiler:the president]]. He does help the heroes, but only when he knows he'll get better for it. On the heroic side of things, Korra casually threatens a corrupt judge with death to have him spill the truth, while the Republic City police force is portrayed as a bunch of incompetent bureaucrats.
** Book 3 is a very good example of this trope. The villains are called the Red Lotus, who seek to create a world in which all people can be free. The way they go at it, is planning to assassinate all world leaders, as they believe having a leader decide what's best for the people is the exact opposite of freedom. They do have a point however, as many of the world leaders portrayed in both ''Avatar'' and ''Korra'' are at best incompetent and at worst tyrannical. Case in point being the Earth Queen, who raises the Earth Kingdom taxes to impossible levels in order to indulge herself with luxuries. The Red Lotus members portrayed are shown to be AffablyEvil, as they are quite civil to even their enemies and only resort to intimidation and violence when they believe it will further their agenda and not just ForTheEvulz.
** Book 4 has a similar but opposite situation. Because of the actions of the Red Lotus, the Earth Kingdom fell into anarchy, with much of the country being plagued by roving bands of bandits. On the other end of the spectrum is Kuvira, who restores order to the land by dealing with the bandits and bringing supplies to the villages having suffered under them, but soon after establishes a military dictatorship.
* ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' is chock full of this. Kevin is evil in the eyes of Eddy, who is actually pretty cruel himself, who is viewed as merely ignorant by Double-D, who is seen as a talking encyclopedia to Ed, who is seen as a complete idiot by Sarah, who is seen as the greatest heroine by Jimmy, but is otherwise seen as an annoying and violent [[TheScrappy Scrappy]] by everyone else. And that's not even covering the [[MinimalistCast entire cast]].
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'': Despite some of the shallow natures and flaws of characters, few characters are truly malicious and at some points prove to be decent people (such as [=DeMartino=] and Britney). Daria, while mostly moral, can often become petty and cold towards others.
* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'': Mordecai and Rigby are far from good workers most of the time, and often either slack off, or inadvertently cause destruction. However, their boss Benson is also a Jerkass who shows blatant favoritism towards other workers, and occasionally deliberately antagonizes the main duo, but his boss is ''even worse'' then him.
* Pretty much the central conflict of ''WesternAnimation/AeonFlux''. Aeon is a ruthless self-motivated secret agent doing spy-work for an underground organisation, or possibly simple sabotage for the sake of anarchy, but she honestly thinks her terrorist activities are done for the greater good. Trevor is a morally ambiguous totalitarian ruler who genuinely believes that people are better off submitting to his authority. May also count as BlueAndOrangeMorality; the two take their opposite ideologies to such extremes that they're difficult to quantify by realistic standards.
* ''WesternAnimation/CaptainPlanetAndThePlaneteers'': The episode "If It's Doomsday, This Must Be Belfast" explores this. One of the villains, [[ForTheEvulz for the heck of it]] plants a nuclear bomb in three areas of ethnic conflict, and gives detonators to one member of each side, in an attempt to prove humanity will destroy itself. The individuals from each conflict act petty, stubborn, and have their fingers on the button at one point. But neither side is portrayed as truly malicious, just a product of conflicts that go back generations. And when shown a vision of nuclear war, they agree to dismantle the nukes. This would have been a fine message had it not for the [[SoBadItsGood poor but unintentionally hilarious writing]] (turning what would be an analysis on sectarian conflict into a WestSideStory-esque gang feud), [[ArtisticLicense little (or lack of) research]] (usage of Fenian Prots instead of its usage as separate terms of Fenian for Catholic and Prots for Protestants), and [[WhatTheHellIsThatAccent ridiculous dialogue]] for the Belfast inhabitants.
* A main theme of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', according to its creators, is that almost nobody is truly good or truly evil. Antagonists aren't permanent, and are all multi-faceted with a chance of [[HeelFaceTurn redemption]]. The protagonists also have the capacity to become [[FaceHeelTurn malicious and harmful]]. However, they are very unlikely to become largely 'evil' compared to 'evil' characters becoming 'good', making the show lean slightly towards WhiteAndGreyMorality at times.
** The major theme of season 3 is showing that while the Crystal Gems were fighting for a good cause against Homeworld's imperialist conquering, Gems on both sides suffered a lot during the Gem war. Rose Quartz was always implied to have done many questionable things during her time, with Garnet saying out right that she kept many secrets from them. As Bismuth's reappearance in the present day proved, the decisions of a leader are never easy. When Bismuth presented her with a weapon known as the Breaking Point that was capable of shattering Gems, effectively fragmenting their beings into several self-aware pieces that are subjected to AFateWorseThanDeath, Rose wouldn't stand for the thought of shattering as it would taint her belief that all life was worth giving a chance and making them no better than the Diamonds. Bismuth understandably upset seeing her friends broken in battle and having her creation rejected, faught Rose to take back the weapon for herself, forcing Rose to bubble Bismuth who was too dangerous to be set free. Yet she never told any of the Crystal Gems what happened to their friend, making them believe she was lost. For all that, Jasper reveals a few episodes later during one hell of a VillainousBreakdown that the vicious, uncaring soldier who spared no pity for others came back to Earth to get revenge on Rose for shattering Pink Diamond, an act equivalent to deicide in Homeworld society. As a Ruby and later Garnet confirmed, Rose went against her own morals because she felt it was for the greater good, so that Earth, humanity, the Crystal Gems, and Steven to exist, compromises had to be done. And for all that, the Homeworld Gems who faught in the war are crushed to know that all their sacrifice and centuries of fighting were for nothing. As Greg said back in season 1, "There's no such thing as a good war, Kiddo."
[[/folder]]