History Main / OrderVersusChaos

* The [[UsefulNotes/Taoism Taoist]] creation story from the ''Zhuangzi'' is about a chaotic, bag-shaped god named Hundun ('chaos'), who lived before the universe existed, and two emperors called Shu and Hu (Brief and Sudden). Hundun treated Shu and Hu kindly, so they decided to repay his kindness. "All men have seven openings so they can see, hear, eat, and breathe," they said (nostril, nostril, mouth, ear, ear, anus, the other one). "But Hundun has none. Let's trying drilling some into him!" Every day they drilled another hole, and on the seventh day, Hundun died. [[ObstructiveBureaucrat People like the emperors]] [[AnAesop meddle with the primal world by trying to establish rules and regulations for it, thus killing it]].

* The theme of Jonathan Hickman's ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' is a war between science as a force for change (represented by LeonardoDaVinci) and science as a means of control (represented by IsaacNewton). The lead character, the son of NikolaTesla, initially sides with Leonardo, before deciding both sides are wrong because they're locked into the idea there must ''be'' a war.

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The chaos-loving Independents (which comprises Our Heroes) vs. the order-loving Alliance (the antagonists, responsible for a number of nasty things in the name of the greater good, but still more noble-minded and sympathetic than, say, the Empire from ''StarWars''). The Unification War is a more complicated matter. [[note]] The "EternalProhibition" was left on Earth-That-Was, everyone was permitted weapons, and taxes were both the lowest of any government in history and actually treated as ''charity''. A lot of Independents weren't all that nice; thugs and debt slavers right out of Creator/CharlesDickens. It was when the war was declared that it got worse. [[/note]]

* In TamoraPierce's ''[[TortallUniverse Daine]]'' novels, the BigBad turns out to be [[spoiler: the goddess of chaos who fights against the other great gods. It's because of her that creatures like the stormwings got into the mortal realm.]]

** dances around this with the Chaotic Djinni-si (a collection of vampires, shapeshifters, telepaths, and other things that go BumpInTheNight) and the Orderly Celeste (a hybrid species of angels and demons who are "often" associated with the good side, even though they're collectively the VillainWithGoodPublicity).

* This ''[[DominicDeegan Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire]]'' [[http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2005-01-10 strip]] sums up the basics of this conflict.
* ''[[http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ps238/ PS238]]'' does this, complete with angels of order and demons of chaos -- this, along with the fact that their conflicts are "mostly political nowadays", may be explained by the fact that ''PS238'' is intended as a children's comic.
** ''{{Nodwick}}'', from the same author, once featured a split-personality god whose Orderly and Chaotic halves - and the worshippers of those halves - simply couldn't get along. Even Piffany, the ultimate MoralityPet, couldn't get them to work together for more than a week or two before the mayhem started again.
* When faced with the moral quandary of whether to save his traitorous brother, Elan in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' tries taking the problem as a Good vs. Evil scenario, but fails. Then he tries Law vs. Chaos. [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0068.html It doesn't work either]].
* ''Webcomic/GunnerkriggCourt'' appears to be detailing a conflict of this nature, the Court representing order and Gillitie Wood chaos.

* ''LastRes0rt'' dances around this with the Chaotic Djinni-si (a collection of vampires, shapeshifters, telepaths, and other things that go BumpInTheNight) and the Orderly Celeste (a hybrid species of angels and demons who are "often" associated with the good side, even though they're collectively the VillainWithGoodPublicity).
** Ironically, the main BigBad, Veled, is a Celeste best defined as a force of Chaos and Evil.
** WordOfGod also says that the bullethole-and-skull logo of ''LastRes0rt'' is actually ''named'' "Chaos". No clue what an alternate logo for "Order" might look like...
* Most of the conflict in ''{{Juathuur}}'' boils down to this (with Meidar and Arvval on the order side, and Juar and Faevv on the chaos side).
* In [[http://www.appplevalleycomic.com Apple Valley]], most of the 'heroes' are of a chaotic alignment (it even says so on their [[http://www.applevalleycomic.com/tag/character-sheets/ character sheets]]), while a majority of the villians all belong to various orderly organizations. It probably doesn't help that the main character is the chosen keeper of The Apple of Discord, either.

* ''{{Reboot}}'' has a case of EvilVersusEvil, as Hexadecimal is The Queen of Chaos and Megabyte represents Order in the form of tyranny. Daemon represents an even more extreme form of Order: oblivion.
** Though Hexadecimal isn't exactly "Evil"...she just IS. She'll do whatever pops into her head. Megabyte is a scheming power hungry megalomaniac... Hex is a a force of nature. Which perhaps explains why, even when she was chained up, he was still scared of her...

* On ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold,'' [[BigBad Equinox]] has the powers of both Order and Chaos Magic. Eventually it's revealed that [[spoiler:[[PowersThatBe the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos]] made a deal, tasking him to keep balance between the two forces]]. Finding this impossible, he [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity decided to]] [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt restart the universe from scratch]].
* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is ''weird'' about this trope. In place of standard Order, it has "Harmony," which emphasizes unity and compromise rather than strict discipline. Opposing it is "Disharmony," which is occasionally referred to as Chaos, but in practice is more like arbitrariness. Discord, its primary representative so far, acts according to random whims, but he flies into a rage whenever a SpannerInTheWorks impedes those whims in any way, rejecting any chaos other than his own.
** The episode "Feeling Pinkie Keen" has Twilight Sparkle as Order and Pinkie Pie as Chaos. Twilight is the Element of Magic, and firmly believes that everything has an explanation, even magic ([[MagicAIsMagicA it works in ways you direct it in, and get the expected effect]]). Pinkie is the Element of Laughter, and despite being an earth pony, is seemingly able to bend space and glimpse the future due to the RuleOfFunny.
* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb''. Candace ''thinks'' of herself as representing order but her own behavior is at least as chaotic as the boys. Played straighter with the OWCA versus the whimsically evil Doofenshmitrz.

** [[spoiler: It could be said that the endings run on the order/chaos spectrum. The Synthesis ending would represent "order", because organics and machines combine their DNA so that they could coexist peacefully, which was what the Catalyst and his army of Reapers (and Saren Arterius in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'') wanted. Meanwhile, Destroy would be "chaos", because by destroying the Reapers, the galaxy would become free to evolve and develop on its own, without Reaper intervention like in the Synthesis ending. As for Control, this would sort of be in the middle; Shepard frees the galaxy from the Reapers, but also becomes its newest god presiding over it.]]
** To a lesser extent, Paragon and Renegade can be like this. Paragon choices tend to be Orderly: Paragon Shepard abides by a code, follows the rules where possible, treats others with respect and works to build unity. Renegade choices are more Chaotic; Renegade Shepard does whatever they deem necessary, bullies people into going along with their plans, lies, cheats and steals, and defaults to violence with a remarkable degree of enthusiasm.

** The new series and ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'' has The Trickster and The Pantheon of Discord. Though an opposite Order aligned group has not been shown. As they share some dialogue, some speculate that the two may be related, if not the same being.

* ''Anime/YuGiOhZexal'' has the conflict between the Astral World (representing Order) and the Barian World (representing Chaos), with Earth caught up in the middle. The Astral World's ruler Eliphas is so fanatically devoted to Order that he stands in [[TheHero Yuma's]] way just because he has Chaos powers, [[UngratefulBastard even when Yuma uses them to heal several inhabitants of Astral World]]. After Yuma narrowly manages to defeat him, Eliphas realizes he was wrong, especially with the revelation that [[spoiler:Chaos is the source of life, and the Astral World was slowly dying because they had purged it of Chaos.]]

* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The chaos-loving Independents (which comprises [[BigDamnHeroes Our Heroes]]) vs. the order-loving Alliance (the antagonists, responsible for a number of nasty things in the name of the greater good, but still more noble-minded and sympathetic than, say, the Empire from ''StarWars'').
** ItsAllThereInTheManual, but it gets ''better''. First of all, the Alliance isn't all that order-loving; The "EternalProhibition" was left on Earth-That-Was, everyone was permitted weapons, and taxes were both the lowest of any government in history and actually treated as ''charity''. A lot of Independents weren't all that nice; thugs and debt slavers right out of Creator/CharlesDickens. But before the Unification War, ''people were free to live where they wished'', anywhere along the spectrum. It was when the war was declared that it got worse, and things degraded into BigDamnHeroes getting raped by the KnightTemplar.

* The overarching conflict in ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' is this, although it's played with a bit. The angels are ChaoticNeutral, though they're largely just selfish jerks who want to have fun heedless of the amount of mayhem they cause while protecting the city; by contrast, the Demon Sisters are LawfulEvil and make some attempts to improve the quality of life through tyranny and enforced conformity.

* A theme in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue''. The game is a very complex MoralityKitchenSink, but generally Order is evil and Chaos is good.

** [[spoiler: It could be said that the endings run on the order/chaos spectrum. The Synthesis ending would represent "order", because organics and machines combine their DNA so that they could coexist peacefully, which was what the Catalyst and his army of Reapers (and Saren Arterius in ''VideoGame/MassEffect'') wanted. Meanwhile, Destroy would be "chaos", because by destroying the Reapers, the galaxy would become free to evolve and develop on its own, without Reaper intervention like in the Synthesis ending. As for Control, this would sort of be in the middle; Shepard frees the galaxy from the Reapers, but also becomes its newest god presiding over it.]]

* ''Manga/{{Devilman}}'' spin-off manga ''AMON'' potrays conflict between God, Satan and Amon as this. God is cruel tyrant, who wants to exterminate demons just because he didn't create them and they don't fit his vision of order in the world. Satan, while defending demons, despises their chaotic nature and wants to rule over them. Amon, deeply chaotic spirit, despises both of them.

** The concept of order versus chaos is actually the creation myth of Tamriel. In the beginning there was Sithis: A realm of pure chaos where all things were transient. But from the innumerable creations arose one thing that was not destroyed, Anu. Anu was a being of Stasis, unchanging and immune to Sithis. So Sithis birthed Padomay, Change, who merged with Anu and created the universe.

* "Wrestling/CMPunk" has been on both sides of this in recent years. He's been a force of Chaos operating against the authority in the WWE in the form of John Laurinitis and "Wrestling/TripleH". However, in his recent feud against "Wrestling/JeffHardy", Punk played the role of Order, contrasting his personal dedication to the Straight Edge lifestyle against Jeff's excessive self-indulgence.

* [[CMPunk]] has been on both sides of this in recent years. He's been a force of Chaos operating against the authority in the WWE in the form of John Laurinitis and [[TripleH]]. However, in his recent feud against [[JeffHardy]], Punk played the role of Order, contrasting his personal dedication to the Straight Edge lifestyle against Jeff's excessive self-indulgence.

* [[Wrestling/CMPunk]] has been on both sides of this in recent years. He's been a force of Chaos operating against the authority in the WWE in the form of John Laurinitis and [[Wrestling/TripleH]]. However, in his recent feud against [[Wrestling/JeffHardy]], Punk played the role of Order, contrasting his personal dedication to the Straight Edge lifestyle against Jeff's excessive self-indulgence.

** House and Wilson might also be an example, but only in their methods of practice. Outside of their jobs, Wilson is willing to do a lot to entertain himself or House, including agreeing to a bet that required seeing who could keep a chicken in the hospital without getting caught.
*** Because Wilson also spends time mediating between House and Cuddy, he can be the Order (when trying to argue with House) OR the Chaos (when trying to argue with Cuddy). After a chaotic road trip that involved [[spoiler:being pulled over, losing keys in the street, being arrested, and breaking the window at the funeral home where House's father's funeral was happening at the same time]], House explicitly states that Wilson is attracted to the chaos that House brings into his life, and Wilson admits to it.

** The main conflict between Sonic and Eggman can be considered a case of this. Eggman wants to mechanize the world and later the universe and rule it with his unquestioning robots, while Sonic stands for freedom and can't stand to see anyone being captured or oppressed and opposes Eggman.

* According the comics, the [[{{Hellraiser}} Cenobites]] are order. In one of the more comedic stories, an obnoxious, lazy office worker spends all his time tinkering with one of the puzzle boxes, distracting his fellow employees and annoying his borderline ClockKing boss, who easily solves the puzzle for him, summoning some Cenobites. The Cenobites prepare to take the boss to the Labyrinth, only to be told off by him; the boss says he only solved the puzzle because it was disrupting the order, productivity and perfectionism he constantly strived for, which the Cenobites are now doing. The Cenobites mull this over for a bit, eventually decide the boss is essentially "doing Leviathan's work" and decide to take the employee, who the boss had earlier described as "a gear that has become misaligned", in his place.

* ''AeonFlux'' is all about order vs. chaos to the point of being a gender-flipped version of Moorcock's Cornelius stories, with Aeon as chaos/Jerry and Trevor as order/Miss Brunner.

Rarely is it brought up that by sorting the world into clearly defined categories of Chaos and Order, the trope inherently skews itself in favor of Order. It's also generally vague as to why the forces of discord and chaos are regimented and disciplined enough to have actual Forces of Chaos. Naturally this only applies to absolute, cosmic-level order and chaos, not human individuals who tend toward one or the other because humans are a diverse lot. Incidentally, this skews the trope in favor of Chaos.