Line #20 PlayingWith/GreyAndGrayMorality


1	'''Basic Trope''':
2	** Characters in conflict with each other are neither good nor evil.
3	** The heroes of the story are flawed and don’t border onto completely good, and the villains likewise have redeeming qualities and don’t border into completely evil.
4	* '''Straight''':
5	** Alice, the protagonist, is in conflict with Bob, an antagonist, but both characters are neither good nor evil.
6	** Despite being TheHero of the story, [[AntiHero Officer Alice]] is {{B\|lood knight}}rutal, [[KnightInSourArmor Jaded]], {{Prag\|matic hero}}[[ShootTheDog matic]], and [[GoodIsNotNice Mean]]. Conversely, despite being TheAntagonist, [[AntiVillain Bob]] is a GentlemanThief who is [[AffablyEvil Nice]], [[NobleDemon Honorable]], and is [[PetTheDog willing to give a good number of the money he robs from others to the poor]], as well as having a [[FreudianExcuse tragic backstory]].
7	* '''Exaggerated''':
8	** SillyReasonForWar
9	** Alice and Bob's fight incorporates so many ShadesOfConflict, even [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Blue/Orange]] and [[SillyReasonForWar Green/Purple]] at times, that the conflict becomes more of a single murky shade of brown (i.e. [[DistinctionWithoutADifference the]] ''[[DistinctionWithoutADifference exact same actions]]'') than anything resembling grey and gray.
10	** Both sides are [[invoked]]TrueNeutral.
11	* '''Downplayed''':
12	** ALighterShadeOfGrey: Alice is more well-meaning than Bob, but that doesn't make her completely good.
13	** WhiteAndGreyMorality: Alice is a [[IdealHero Clear-Cut Heroine]] while Bob is an AntiVillain.
14	** BlackAndGrayMorality: Alice is an [[AntiHero Anti-Heroine]] while Bob is a [[CompleteMonster Diabolical Villain]].
15	** PoliteVillainsRudeHeroes: While Bob is [[AffablyEvil nice]], he’s still [[ObviouslyEvil unquestionably evil]] while Alice is {{jerk\|Ass}}[[GoodIsNotNice ass]], but still obviously on the side of good.
16	** MoralityKitchenSink: There are unambiguously good and unambiguously evil characters on both sides, but no side ''overall'' can be called worse.
17	** Alice is a JerkWithAHeartOfGold, and so is Bob.
18	* '''Justified''':
19	** The world has no built in moral system. Good and Evil are what you make of it.
20	** The plot is just a SliceOfLife; there is conflict and people have varying levels of principles, but there aren't any heroes or villains, just ordinary people with ordinary morals.
21	** Alice and Bob both believe that morality is just a concept that holds everyone else back. Alice discards morality because it gets in the way of true justice. Bob disregards morality because it gets in the way of his goals.
22	** Alice is [[invoked]]LawfulNeutral while Bob is ChaoticNeutral.
23	** GrayingMorality
24	* '''Inverted''': BlackAndWhiteMorality, where some characters are clearly good and some are clearly evil.
25	* '''Subverted''':
26	** Alice and Bob are honourable soldiers who love their respective countries, which are at war for reason they don't understand. It turns out that Alice's country is deeply committed to the well-being of all its citizens and Bob's country is deeply committed to racial purity, slaughtering millions of its own people in giant death camps.
27	** The conflict becomes either WhiteAndGreyMorality or BlackAndGrayMorality.
28	* '''Double Subverted''': Alice's country slaughters similar numbers of its own people over ideological purity. But it's not EvilVersusEvil because Alice and Bob are still honorable soldiers, fighting for countries they love despite evil governments. (RealLife wasn't this simple -- this is a fictional example).
29	* '''Parodied''': Alice and Bob are [[SillyReasonForWar fighting over the last piece of cupcake]].
30	* '''Zig Zagged''': MotiveDecay means that, at different times, Alice and Bob fight over different things - sometimes Grey and Gray, sometimes Black and White.
31	* '''Averted''':
32	** Alice and Bob are [[GoodVersusGood equally good]].
33	** Alice and Bob are [[EvilVersusEvil equally evil]].
34	** See Inverted.
35	** There is no conflict between Alice and Bob whatsoever.
36	* '''Enforced''':
37	** The author grew tired of good versus evil battles, so he wants to throw in a conflict where morality is subjective.
38	** The author wanted to show a realistic conflict between GoodVersusEvil, and that we all have our [[HumansAreFlawed flaws]]/[[RousseauWasRight virtue]].
39	* '''Lampshaded''':
40	-->'''Alice''': "Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys?"\
41	'''Bob''': "They left the scenario a long time ago... Now, [[HumansAreFlawed there's only us]]."
42	** “Why are the “heroes” mean and violent, while the “villains” are polite and honorable?”
43	* '''Invoked''': Charlie hates objective morality and wants to convince the world that morality is subjective by [[{{Ubermensch}} making his own moral philosophy.]]
44	* '''Exploited''':
45	** A ManipulativeBastard [[AboveGoodAndEvil claims that all morality is relative]], so he's free to KickTheDog whenever he feels like it, and if anyone tries to confront him, he claims that it is only wrong from their perspective.
46	** Bob uses Alice’s {{anti hero}}ism and his {{nob\|le demon}}ility in order for him to become a VillainWithGoodPublicity and Alice a HeroWithBadPublicity.
47	* '''Defied''':
48	** [[TheFettered Alice]] clearly draws moral lines that she vow nevers to cross while [[CardCarryingVillain Bob]] tries to close off any trace of goodness in his mind.
49	** "You guys need to wake up! Right and wrong aren't determined by mankind."
50	* '''Discussed''': "I think it's better for the world to be this way than being forced to pick a side."
51	* '''Conversed''': "I know that they're trying to pretend that their world runs on BlackAndWhiteMorality, but I keep seeing the [[DesignatedHero protagonists]] commit [[ShootTheDog immoral acts]] while I never see any proof that TheEmpire is as oppressive as the narrator claims."
52	* '''Deconstructed''':
53	** People in-universe begin believing that the world runs on shifty grey morality. Consistent moral perspective breaks down, leading to highly destructive thinking like "WhatIsEvil", "[[TautologicalTemplar It's only evil if someone else does it]]" and "[[WrittenByTheWinners I'm only the bad guy if I lose in the end]]". The world consequently develops into a CrapsackWorld.
54	** Good and bad are a sliding scale rather than stark absolutes, that is true, but the baselines for what can be considered bad should not be set to the ''worst possible'' atrocity by default!
55	** GreyAndGrayInsanity: Everyone believes that ''everyone'', no matter what is no better than each other in moral perspectives, no matter how deranged these may be.
56	* '''Reconstructed''': Alice and Bob learned to analyze the consequences of their opposing moral perspectives and come to the conclusion that while people will not agree with each other's philosophy, they can agree that the black and white morality will appear if they go overboard with them.
57	----
58	Back to GreyAndGrayMorality
59	----
60	%% Optional items, added after Conversed, at your discretion:
61	%%
62	%%* '''Implied''': ???
63	%%* '''Plotted A Good Waste''': ???
64	%%* '''Played For Laughs''': ???

Context PlayingWith / GreyAndGrayMorality