History Main / MoralityKitchenSink

->''Among the Alps and Pyrenees, perhaps, there were no mixed characters. There, such as were not as spotless as an angel might have the dispositions of a fiend. But in England it was not so; among the English, she believed, in their hearts and habits, there was a general though unequal mixture of good and bad. Upon this conviction, she would not be surprised if even in Henry and Eleanor Tilney, some slight imperfection might hereafter appear; and upon this conviction she need not fear to acknowledge some actual specks in the character of their father, who, though cleared from the grossly injurious suspicions which she must ever blush to have entertained, she did believe, upon serious consideration, to be not perfectly amiable.''

* Comes with the the territory of being based on th DungeaonsAndDragons alignment system in the OrderOfTheStick. You have good characters doing good things becuase it' the right thng to do, bad people doing bad things for a greater good, and bad people doing bad things for amusement.

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See also ShadesOfConflict, SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes. Compare TheGoodTheBadAndTheEvil. Contrast BlackAndWhiteMorality.

* SixteenThirtyTwo The heroes range from almost pure heroism to rather questionable, the antagonists range from CompleteMonster to people who could be heroic under slightly different circumstances and/or are just victims of ValuesDissonance.
* In ChungKuo, there are some very upstanding characters on both sides, who rub shoulders with pure villains

* One of the best examples of this trope is ''TheDresdenFiles''. At the furthest extreme of the Hero end we have Michael, the Fist of God, who only fights monsters, is about as wholesome as a person can be, and never even cusses. Slightly away from the good extreme would be Harry, as he's a generally upstanding guy, but every now and then he'll get practical. Much further toward the evil end, we have Thomas who, as of Turn Coat, [[spoiler: is once again a practicing incubus, but he's trying to promote more responsibility between vampires and their prey]]. Even closer to the evil end than him would be Marcone, who is a crime boss, but his reasons behind his enterprise are good ones. Arguably the furthest down the line toward the evil extreme would be the Skinwalker, who has no seeming goal except to hurt people in whatever fashion it chooses.
** Harry himself, in ''Changes'' when he decides he needs to [[spoiler: make a DealWithTheDevil for a lot of power in a hurry goes through the list of entities he knows. He tries the Archangel Uriel, but was told he was already being affected InMysteriousWays, the [[NorseMythology god Odin]] contacts him and gives some advice, but also doesn't directly interfere. He considers the Denarians; fallen angels and other BlackCloak wizards; but figures they're too big on being TheCorruptor and that DarkSideWouldMakeYouForget. Besides, he could just contact demonic forces directly if he wanted that. Finally he decides on Queen Mab of the [[TheFairFolk Winter Court.]] She's cruel and she'll own his mind and body if not his soul, but she won't make him eat babies.]]
* Daniel Suarez' ''Daemon'' and it's sequel ''Freedom tm'' where the reader's perceptions of who the good guys and bad guys are is constantly changing.

* The {{Aesop}} of JaneAusten's ''NorthangerAbbey''

* While the first ''MassEffect'' had this to an extent, the second game features it a lot. Furthest toward the hero end, we have "pure" [[NeutralGood Paragon Shepherd.]] Slightly down from him/her, we've got Jacob, who seems to be a good man, just involved with bad people. In the middle, we have Miranda (who has her moments), Garrus (who [[KnightTemplar rather doesn't like criminals]]), Mordin [[IDidWhatIHadToDo (who does bad things to stop even worse things happening)]] and Thane, an [[CareerKiller assassin]] who only kills bad people. On down toward the villain end, you have Zaeed, a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary]], though he's not too selective about who he kills. Even closer to the far end, you have the [[AffablyEvil surprisingly charming]] Illusive Man. But there are those without any decency at all, namely people like [[CompleteMonster Nassana Dantius and Morinth]].

* While the first ''MassEffect'' had this to an extent, the second game features it a lot. Furthest toward the hero end, we have "pure" Paragon Shepherd. Slightly down from him/her, we've got Jacob, who seems to be a good man, just involved with bad people. In the middle, we have Miranda (who has her moments), Garrus (who [[KnightTemplar rather doesn't like criminals]]), Mordin [[IDidWhatIHadToDo (who does bad things to stop even worse things happening)]] and Thane, an [[CareerKiller assassin]] who only kills bad people. On down toward the villain end, you have Zaeed, a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary]], though he's not too selective about who he kills. Even closer to the far end, you have the [[AffablyEvil surprisingly charming]] Illusive Man. But there are those without any decency at all, namely people like [[CompleteMonster Nassana Dantius and Morinth]].

See also ShadesOfConflict, SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes. Contrast BlackAndWhiteMorality.

In [[BlackAndWhiteMorality some stories]], the good guys are squeaky embodiments of shiny goodness and fight bearded stage magicians who cackle a lot. [[GrayAndGreyMorality Other stories]] might have the pragmatic freedom fighters against a government who alternately sing orphans to sleep or murder their kittens. Then again, sometimes you [[WhiteAndGrayMorality have stories]] where your caped crusaders largely go up against the misguided and distraught. Still [[BlackAndGrayMorality other stories]] have the world's mightiest, most murderous, most-pants-wettingest [[TheAuthority "heroes"]] you've ever seen against a guy who made entire worlds into slave-states for [[{{Greed}} profit]] and [[ForTheEvulz laughs]].

In [[BlackAndWhiteMorality some stories]], the good guys are squeaky embodiments of shiny goodness and fight bearded stage magicians who cackle a lot. [[GrayAndGreyMorality Other stories]] might have the pragmatic freedom fighters against a government who alternately sing orphans to sleep or murder their kittens. Still [[BlackAndGrayMorality other stories]] have the world's mightiest, most murderous, most-pants-wettingest [[TheAuthority "heroes"]] you've ever seen against a guy who made entire worlds into slave-states for [[{{Greed}} profit]] and [[ForTheEvulz laughs]].

See also SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes. Contrast BlackAndWhiteMorality.

* TheElderScrolls - There are no morality bars. In Oblivion there was a fame-infamy bar, but the two don't always sync up. Therefore, the choices of the player determine where on the scale the protagonist falls, and it could be absolutely anywhere, embodiment of IncorruptiblePurePureness KnightInShiningArmor to CompleteMonster and anything in between. The NPCs, being pre-written, are also suitably vague and varied.

* ''FullmetalAlchemist'' - The Elric brothers and Winry are the most purely heroic characters; the heroes from the State Military are more gray, being former war criminals who want to atone for their sins; Greed and Scar are fairly sympathetic antagonists; there's Barry the Chopper who is the TokenEvilTeammate for the State Military heroes- he's clearly Chaotic Evil; finally, the other villain characters are definitely very far down toward the evil extreme of the scale.

* While the first ''MassEffect'' had this to an extent, the second game features it a lot. Furthest toward the hero end, we have "pure" Paragon Shepherd. Slightly down from him, we've got Jacob, who seems to be a good man, just involved with bad people. In the middle, we have Miranda (who has her moments), Garrus (who [[KnightTemplar rather doesn't like criminals]]), Mordin [[IDidWhatIHadToDo (who does bad things to stop even worse things happening)]] and Thane, an [[CareerKiller assassin]] who only kills bad people. On down toward the villain end, you have Zaeed, a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary]], though he's not too selective about who he kills. Even closer to the far end, you have the [[AffablyEvil surprisingly charming]] Illusive Man. But there are those without any decency at all, namely people like [[CompleteMonster Nassana Dantius and Morinth]].

* Because it's a game by Obsidian (formerly Black Isle), it should come as no surprise that ''[[KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights of the Old Republic 2]]'' features this trope pretty significantly. If the player should choose to be Light Side, then he and his group are fairly close to the Hero extreme. A little further away from the good end, but hard to say by how much, would be the Jedi Council, who are shown to have good intentions but be seriously flawed in their execution of them. Further toward the Villain side, you would have Darth Traya. Then, practically sitting on the Villain extreme, you have Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus, with the second one the most non-Heroic, most Villainous person in the game.

** Harry himself, in ''Changes'' when he decides he needs to [[spoiler: make a DealWithTheDevil for a lot of power in a hurry goes through the list of entities he knows. He tries the Archangel Uriel, but was told he was already being affected InMysteriousWays, the [[NorseMythology god Odin]] contacts him and gives some advice, but also doesn't directly interfere. He considers the Denarians; fallen angels and other BlackCloak wizards; but figures they're too big on being TheCorruptor and that DarkSideWouldMakeYouForget. Besides, he could just contact demonic forces directly if he wanted that. Finally he decides on Queen Mab of the [[TheFairFolk Winter Court.]] She's cruel and she'll own his soul, but she won't make him eat babies.]]

* While the first ''MassEffect'' had this to an extent, the second game features it a lot. Furthest toward the hero end, we have "pure" Paragon Shepherd. Slightly down from him, we've got Jacob, who seems to be a good man, just involved with bad people. In the middle, we have Miranda (who has her moments), Garrus (who [[KnightTemplar rather doesn't like criminals]]), Mordin [[IDidWhatIHadToDo (who does bad things to stop even worse things happening)]] and Thane, an [[CareerKiller assassin]] who only kills bad people. On down toward the villain end, you have Zaeed, a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors mercenary]], though he's not too selective about who he kills. Even closer to the far end, you have the [[AffablyEvil surprisingly charming]] Illusive Man. But there are those without any decency at all, namely people like [[CompleteMonster Nassana Dantius]].

In short, none of the groups or fit cleanly into the White-Gray-Black categorization, as all of them do things both good and evil with varying degrees of frequency. This generally makes for more dynamic stories, as you're never sure if the heroes will stay on the straight and narrow or villains will keep wreaking havoc.