A Lighter Shade Of Black / Video Games

• Baldur's Gate:
  • In all the games, the protagonist can be evil but will still be potentially sympathetic due to being the Player Character, and will also be the lesser evil compared to the major villain of each story and their destructive plans. In Baldur's Gate II: Throne of Bhaal, the prophecy behind much of the games' plot is revealed to contain the clause that, no matter what path the protagonist chooses if they should triumph over their antagonists in that storyline, the results of their losing would always be worse.
  • In Baldur's Gate II, you are given the choice between supporting the Shadow Thieves, a thieves' guild you've probably already done some sidequests for, and a rival guild led by a lady called Bodhi that contains vampires that attack people in the streets at night. If you visit their guildhalls neither of them seem terribly 'good', but at least the Shadow Thieves don't decorate with giant pools of human blood and fill their halls with mindless thralls they feed on.
  • Viconia is a drow and a downplayed case of My Species Doth Protest Too Much in that she's evil aligned, just not that evil. The typical drow, especially those you meet in the Underdark arc in Shadows of Amn, are so evil that Viconia looks good aligned in comparison.
  • Baldur's Gate III has Enver Gortash, one of the leaders of the Cult of the Absolute. As the chosen of Bane, the god of tyranny, he has a vested interest in taking over the city of Baldur's Gate for himself, and enforcing his rule through a combination of Steel Watchers and the Elder Brain that the cult has in its control. This desire to rule puts him at odds with fellow chosen Orin the Red, who, as the Chosen of the god of murder Bhaal, is an Omnicidal Maniac who would see Baldur's Gate destroyed to satiate her bloodlust. It is such that he's willing to propose an alliance with the player to have Orin disposed of so that he could have all of the Netherstones (the third Chosen, Ketheric, already being dead by this point) so that Baldur's Gate would survive under his singular rule rather than face annihilation.
• In BlazBlue, we have the Big Bad Duumvirate formed by Relius Clover and Yuuki Terumi. Both of them are seemingly caught in a "How far beyond the Moral Event Horizon can you go" contest, but despite the fact that they're almost evenly matched as far as accomplishments go, Relius is still a lighter shade of black than Terumi is, first and foremost because most of his atrocities were committed in order to satiate his own scientific curiosity, and secondly because he is pretty pragmatic in his villainy. Compare that to Terumi, who doesn't even pretend to have a rationalization for all the shit he does and often goes out of his way to ruin people's lives just because... His behavior is sort of justified, as Terumi avoids getting erased from reality by anchoring his own existence in the world through people's hatred of him, but any sympathy points this could've earned them are ultimately Double Subverted, because he really does get off on pushing people beyond the Despair Event Horizon. The fact that the fourth game revealed that he's actually Susanoo no Mikoto, BlazBlue's own take on Satan, doesn't help his case, either.
  • Chronophantasma reveals that Relius is capable of being portrayed as an extreme version of a Well-Intentioned Extremist. All three main bad guys (The Imperator, Terumi and Relius) aim for destroying the Master Unit: Amaterasu, which can cause a genocidal damage to the current world and reset it, but it turns that Relius does so because he's frustrated that the Master Unit's Groundhog Day Loops prevents the world from making progresses and prevents advancement of his goal of creating the Perfect Doll. While he is still pretty selfish in that he only cares for his own project, his intention can be portrayed as being beneficial for the rest of humanity trapped in depressing loops. If he completes the project, he could either leave humanity alone, or try to inject the Perfect Doll for humanity, which in his twisted mind, may have a chance to be considered a beneficial improvement for overall humans (though probably other people will not agree). Compare to Terumi, who just wants to turn the world into his own playground of evil, filled to the brink with endless despair for himself to drink in, and the Imperator, being Izanami, who just wants everyone to die and reduce the world to inert seithr.
  • Relius' case gets even lighter by Central Fiction, whereas it's revealed that Master Unit Amaterasu has been abusing her world reset ability just to get her desired ending of her being plugged out of the unit and no longer having to do her duty of observing the world, which ignores not only his desire to progress on his project, but also towards the other suffering that the cast experiences, with or without Terumi's interference, an utter selfishness that drove former hero Nine the Phantom utterly mad and devised a plan to destroy the Master Unit to free the world from its machinations, which Relius is totally on board for. It's still for his own selfish desires, but it somehow became a bit more relatable.
• Blood has no good guys. On one hand you have a cult trying to summon a dark god, murdering anyone they want to and experimenting on the rest. On the other side you have one of their failed projects, a sadistic revenant named Caleb who was one of those cultists and has a penchant for murdering anyone he feels like. At least Caleb is fighting to avenge his wife and best friend and has a sense of humor.
• Lord Recluse, the Big Bad of City of Heroes, is the lesser of about 200 different evils. He is a Pragmatic Villain with several Evil Virtues he's imposed upon his army/government and the reason why there is even a national government and civilians have a decent life expectancy. That said, he is still a highly competent, Card-Carrying Villain, meaning he has Vetinari Job Security for his Big Bad status, despite this trope.
• Jackie Estacado from The Darkness is a ruthless hitman who won't hesitate to shoot anyone who opposes him paired with an Eldritch Abomination that has been in his family for generations with the same mentality. That said, he's pretty much a saint when compared to the Brotherhood, a group whose motives went from protecting the world from the Darkness to wanting to control it themselves. Johnny Powell best describes it in the Brotherhood trailer:
  Johnny: I'm not — I'm not gonna stand here and tell you that Jackie Estacado's a good guy, he's far, far from it. That said, even though while Jackie may carry the Darkness, his soul's still a few shades lighter than these Brotherhood guys.
• This is the case in Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (Laharl the wannabe Evil Overlord vs. an Omnicidal Maniac). Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories and Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten have more heroic protagonists while Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is mixed (Mao wants to slay his father, the Overlord, for trivial reasons and the rest of the cast have more heroic goals (plus, the real villain already made Mao do it and suppressed his memories).
• Drakengard: Among your plucky group of heroes is an Ax-Crazy mute soldier whose sister loves him more than is socially acceptable, a vicious red dragon, a batshit crazy elf who eats children, a religious patriarch who never passes up an opportunity to call for genocide against all other intelligent species, a blind pedophile, and a child cursed to never grow up. However, they're care bears compared to The Empire- a theocratic state that worships the Watchers/Grotesqueries (who are hideous Humanoid Abominations who wish to unmake creation), and is led by the Cult of the Watchers' high priestess Manah, a six-year-old girl who delights in ruining lives left and right because her mommy never loved her enough.
• Emperor: Battle for Dune: In the Harkonnen campaign, the Baron's sons are constantly at each other's throats, and you eventually have to choose whom to back in a civil war. While they're both ruthlessly evil, Gunseng is at least pragmatic about it, and promises rewards for following him. Copec is a Fat Bastard Psychopathic Manchild who threatens you, and continues threatening you even if you side with him.
• Warchief Ull of the Udam tribe in Far Cry Primal is the less evil villain compared to Batari the Sun Daughter. Both characters hate the Wenja tribe to which Player Character Takkar belongs and want to destroy them, but Ull is somewhat more sympathetic in that he wants to cure his people of the plague known as "skull fire", and ultimately, when Takkar kills him, he makes the noble decision of entrusting his two children to Takkar to make sure they don't die of "skull fire". Batari, by contrast, is a murderous High Priestess with a god complex who cares only about staying in power and conducting Human Sacrifice of those she views as beneath her, and burned her own son Krati alive for rebelling against her.
• Fate/stay night: Part of "Heaven's Feel" seems to be solely dedicated to making the players like Kirei Kotomine more, with several Enemy Mine and Pet the Dog situations, and most importantly, an utterly epic fight where he holds his own against the despicable Zouken Matou and his Servant quite well. In "Fate", Kotomine is portrayed as fairly simplistic with no motives beyond Evil Feels Good, and in Unlimited Blade Works he takes a backseat to the conflict between Shirou and Archer. Only "Heaven's Feel" fleshes him out at all, but in doing so it makes him into a much more complex character than when he was portrayed in simple black and white terms. In contrast, the aforementioned Zouken is an abusive grandfather to Sakura and outright rapes her via worms, and encourages his grandson Shinji to commit the same kind of immoral behavior, including raping Sakura. When Kirei finally kills him, it's extremely satisfying.
• Finding Light: The Big Bad Zamas states that Morgoth was harder to corrupt than Typhus, since the former was once an altruistic healer while the latter, despite his stated good intentions, was always a Control Freak who wanted to rule the world. Morgoth also shows more remorse than Typhus, since he wants the party to kill him while Typhus dies while giving a self-righteous rant.
• God of War is an interesting example. On one side, the Gods of Olympus, famous for toying with or outright squashing humanity when they feel like it, but also the sources of wisdom, love, agriculture, and even the Sun itself. On the other, an increasingly remorseless killer who thinks little indeed of slaughtering anybody in his way, but with basically sympathetic motives for bringing war against the gods, and who ultimately grants his enormous power or even just the Hope inside of him to humanity after bringing down Olympus after Pandora's Box, when opened, left the gods consumed with more evils. In the end, which side is Lighter comes down to the viewer.
• Common in the Grand Theft Auto series. More often than not, as bad the Villain Protagonist Player Characters are, they're still usually better than their antagonists.
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: CJ and every criminal organization he associates with (Grove Street Families, the Varrios Los Aztecas, and the Triads) are Neighborhood-Friendly Gangsters who oppose the drug trade and work to stop the sale of cocaine all across the state. Officer Frank Tenpenny, has not only been largely been giving the coke-dealers more power for his own benefit, but he's deeply corrupt and is set to kill everyone who could possibly expose his crimes. Including his own partners.
  • Grand Theft Auto V: Michael is a bank robber fresh out of retirement, Franklin is a former small-time Gangbanger turned big-time bank robber and assassin, and Trevor (who's by far the evilest of the three) is an Ax-Crazy, drug-dealing Psychopathic Manchild. Despite this, all three of them have redeeming values, Morality Pets, and Pet the Dog moments that can instill some sympathy. That's more than can be said about their antagonists: Steven Haines, a corrupt FIB agent who engages in some incredibly irresponsible Inter-Service Rivalry with the IAA for the sake of his career, and Devin Weston, a Corrupt Corporate Executive with close ties to Private Military Contractors known for committing human rights violations all over the world.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising: Viridi hates humans and wants them wiped out, but she's a Well-Intentioned Extremist who does it to save nature, making her this against Medusa's vengeance-driven goals against humanity and Palutena, Hades's gluttony for souls and power, the Chaos Kin's destruction for destruction's sake, and the Aurum's desire to strip the entire planet of life.
• In Knights of the Old Republic, Yuthura Ban is trying to overthrow her master Uthar Wynn, who's head of the Sith academy on Korriban. It's an Evil Versus Evil Sith power struggle, but if you get to know Yuthura, you will learn that she grew up as a slave and became a Jedi in order to help other slaves, only to lose sight of her compassion and fall to the Dark Side. It's possible to convince Yuthura to seek redemption, whereas the same is not true for Uthar.
• In the Dark Side Ending of Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Kreia will say that the PC is not really a Sith. Presumably, she considers them a Dark Jedi instead, i.e. someone who uses the Dark Side for their own advancement rather than submitting to the Sith Code and philosophies.
• Mad Father: In the true ending, Aya follows in her father's footsteps turning people into dolls, but as a doctor, she waits for people to come to her for medical treatment, and her victims are anesthetized before they are converted into dolls. However, possibly subverted in The Stinger added in the Steam version, depending on how you interpret what Aya means about her not forgetting because of her promise.
• The Big Bad Ensemble of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code consists of Yomi Hellsmile and Makoto Kagutsuchi, Amaterasu Corporation's leaders, the former being the Peacekeepers director and the latter being the CEO who commands him. Both of them are very ruthless and manipulative rulers, who are very much the source of the misery the Master Detectives undergo, and they both contribute their share of crimes, Makoto's having a much worse effect on the titular detectives since he pitted them against Yomi in the first place, and is the one who knocks them unconscious at the end of Chapter 4. However, Makoto is trying to save Kanai Ward's homunculi, is genuinely empathetic, and is an Anti-Villain who happens to be a clone of Number One of the World Detective Organization, who does possess Number One's virtuous personality, and said virtues are what drive him. On the other hand, Yomi is purely The Caligula and is a self-centered, apathetic Royal Brat who only cares about his own power over others and is willing to massacre anyone who dares to oppose him with zero remorse, who is also responsible for Kanai Ward being a place where crime and disaster can thrive at all.
• If you play as a rogue in NetHack, the Assassins' Guild becomes the lighter shade of black to the Thieves' Guild. You're on the eviler side.
• In The New Order: Last Days of Europe, the German Civil War that triggers early in the campaign is a conflict between the four rival Nazi pretenders Albert Speer, Hermann Göring, Martin Bormann and Reinhard Heydrich to the title of Führer after the death of Adolf Hitler, making it inevitably a conflict between villains; however, more specifically:
  • Albert Speer is a subverted example to this trope. Appearing at first to be an Internal Reformist, Speer is actually uninterested in democratizing the Reich, and actually just wants a more pragmatic application to Nazi ideology. If given the chance, he will coup the Gang of Four and maintain his iron grip on the regime.
  • Compared to Heydrich, all three others are an example of this trope. Known as the Butcher of Prague in this timeline just like in real life, Heydrich is a brutal member of the SS, having been one of the men behind The Holocaust. Furthermore, Heydrich is the right-hand man of Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS and of the rogue nation of Burgundy, as well as the codifier of the Burgundian System, an ideology so terrible it horrifies even the Reich.
  • In turn, Heydrich becomes the lighter shade against Himmler when he realizes the projects of his boss: to destroy the world by provoking World War III, cleansing it of all but the Aryans sheltered in the Burgundian underground bunkers. A second civil war starts soon after, during which Heydrich races for the control of German nukes with Heidrich to prevent him from ending the world, and, if successful, to kill him.
  • At the game's start, Japan owns a brutal and exploitative empire over East Asia where millions of souls are enslaved and/or forced to give up their freedoms to be politically and culturally oppressed... but Nazi Germany is all of this, with even more ideological insanity and ethnic genocide thrown into the mix. Japan has more options to peacefully reform into a Hegemonic Empire or even The Federation if Takagi Sokichi's liberal reforms succeed, and unlike Albert Speer (who is a fascist who furthers Nazism via more subtle means and ultimately does away with the reformists to seize power), Takagi is a genuine reformist who sees the need for liberalization and democratic reform, albeit one who still believes in Japanization and the promises of the Co-Prosperity Sphere.
• Both Overlord games have this. While the character you play as is definitely evil,^note Well, in the second game. The first game has you either be an Anti-Villain or Stupid Evil with no real in-between. you're exclusively pitted against opponents worse than you. Sure, you still get to do some evil things, but you don't get to indulge in it anywhere near as much as the people you're fighting.
• Overwatch:
  • In the lore, Hanzo Shimada is the heir to a powerful yakuza clan, groomed to be such from the day he was born. He also killed his brother (or so he assumed), but it's heavily implied that Hanzo didn't want to go through with it and he spends the rest of his life trying to atone for it. Hanzo is definitely a rude asshole, a ruthless assassin, and a morally dark gray character, but he also despises his family for what they made him do. He also denies joining up with Talon, though whether this is based more on his morals or his pride is still up for debate.
  • Another example is Symmetra. She's a devout member of Vishkar Corporation, which is so far portraying itself as a MegaCorp that tramples on basic human rights just to ensure that they can renovate the world and place their order in it, while she believed (or is tricked to believe by Vishkar) that it's for the greater good, though that IS starting to wane. When faced with a squarely moral opposer like Lucio, Symmetra would look like the villain, but she really had the best interests towards the people, and not to mention she also stands opposed to Talon, marking them as enemies of order.
• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: The feud between Matt Engarde and Juan Corrida was an ugly affair that resulted in Celeste Inpax, a woman who'd been romantically involved with both of them, caught in the middle. Celeste ended up being Driven to Suicide after Matt informed Juan that Celeste had been previously romantically involved with Matt, resulting in Juan breaking off their engagement. Juan, however, is seen as the less vile of the two, given that he appears genuinely shocked and heartbroken in an image depicting him finding Celeste after her suicide and Matt ended up hiring an assassin to have Juan killed, crossing a line that Juan never did.
• While Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire never explored the morality of Team Aqua and Team Magma when they weren't in the role of main antagonists, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire make it clear that they're still ruthless in their endeavors. When the player character first meets the non-antagonistic team's leader, he thinks nothing of threatening the kid not to get in their way. Of course, it's not entirely clear just how much lighter they actually are; while they're clearly horrified by the power of the version mascot, so is the antagonistic team, and dialog at Mt. Chimney suggests that they'd have been planning something similar if their rivals hadn't beaten them to the punch.
• Poppy Playtime: Both The Prototype and Playtime Co. are absolute scumbags, but in comparison to the Company's unbelievably inhumane cruel and petty experimentations and practices, the Prototype is much more ambiguous, but wants to free the Mascots (as well as the children, possibly) and detests Playtime Co. fairly unambiguously. It helps that the Prototype has had a redeeming moment in the past that cost it its freedom, and has yet to be hostile toward the player as of Chapter 3 (though it does display a willingness to turn on a close ally). It's possible it was much more willing to not harm the innocent, and time passing by simply drove it to extremes such as the indiscriminate "Hour of Joy" massacre.
• Rave Heart: The Archlight scientists, like Reverend Sergio, seeks to use science to forcefully evolve people. However, they're willing to back down when it's clear that they took things too far and accept Chad's suggestion to use their science in safer ways, making them come off as genuinely more well-intentioned.
• In the Saints Row series, the Third Street Saints are seen as the good guys, despite engaging in many of the same shady activities the enemy gangs do. This can potentially be invoked by the player on the Save Shaundi ending. Yes, The Boss may still be a crime lord who isn't above drugs, robbery and sexual slavery, but this ending shows their best qualities while unintentionally saving a prized monument of Steelport. Meanwhile, the STAG Initiative destroyed half of the city, killed hundreds of civilians, and were part of a giant False Flag Operation/Batman Gambit to play on The Boss' selfishness in order to get permission to wipe them out. Monica Hughes sums it up really nicely:
  Monica Hughes: You declared martial law and knocked down half the city. The Saints just saved a treasured monument. Who the fuck do you think the public will side with?
• Scarface: The World Is Yours follows the original film in this. Sure, Tony is wiping out the gangs and the enemy gangsters all the way up to Sosa, who watchers of the film would have known was not a nice person, but he is still putting drugs on the streets of Miami.
• In certain Sonic the Hedgehog games, while the original antagonist Dr. Eggman remains a threat, he ends up as the lighter shade of black against the Greater-Scope Villains that appear.
  • In Sonic Adventure, he ultimately becomes this to Chaos during the Super Sonic campaign, when the ancient water monster rebels against him and Eggman tries to destroy them in retaliation.
  • In Sonic Adventure 2, he becomes this to his own grandfather Professor Gerald, who went insane following the death of his granddaughter Maria and sabotaged the Space Colony ARK so that it would destroy the Earth if someone tried to use the Eclipse Cannon, whereas Eggman only wanted to use the Eclipse Cannon to conquer the planet.
  • In Shadow the Hedgehog, he becomes this to the Black Arms. The invading aliens want to destroy the Earth, and Eggman can't conquer the planet if there is no planet left to take over. In one mission your only ally options are him and Black Doom, and Eggman's mission is considered the "Hero" path.
  • In Sonic Lost World, Eggman becomes this when he loses control over the Deadly Six, who seek to use his technology to destroy the world.
  • Sonic Frontiers has a variation with Sage, Eggman's new AI underling, who is antagonistic towards Sonic, but willing to entertain the notion of forging an alliance with him to combat a mutual threat if Eggman would consent to it, which he does not (at first).
• Street Fighter: Compared to M. Bison—who is directly responsible for the person Juri is in the present—in her conflict with him. As abhorrent a person as Juri has become, she's still far outstripped by the mad dictator in soullessness and destructive depravity even on her worst day, and her goal of Revenge comes from a place of deep and personal pain, in contrast to Bison's megalomaniacal desire to Take Over the World. While she hates being pitied, she still garners sympathy from even her enemies, most notably Chun-Li.
• Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines: Jack flatly tells you that there are no Kindred "good guys", but it helps to retain your humanity so you don't let out The Beast.
• Wizardry has the typical Dungeons & Dragons alignments and the manuals use this reasoning to explain the presence of such people in the party: "Evil characters are not really evil when compared to some of the things they fight in the Maze. They are self-centered, and always want to know "what's in it for them." Evil characters help old ladies cross the street for a small fee."
• The Scarlet Crusade vs. the Scourge in World of Warcraft, at least until Wrath of the Lich King.

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