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"Me, I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly, it's the honest ones you have to look out for." — Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates Of The Caribbean
"There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die." — Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (The movie NOT the book)
characters do whatever the hell they like and damn the consequences (unless they're too noble or hurtful, watch out for that part!). Some say they're the ultimate free spirits, others that they're just crazy. Either way, there's no telling what they'll decide to do next - their main, and often only, concern is their own freedom. Whose side are they on? It's doubted they even know themselves. Nobody else does. Chaotic Neutrals detest the self righteous, believe in power to the individual—and notably power to themselves (but remember—not evil!). Such characters are also useful in any story that involves something that isn't damnably black and white in the outcomes.
The Chaotic Neutral character is sometimes a goodhearted character with a wild streak that lands them in trouble, and sometimes just an amoral nutjob (but not so much that they're evil!). Occasionally, if a character runs the entire gamut of alignments with their actions (inevitably failing at Good), they can be classed as Chaotic Neutral on average, or perhaps True Neutral (or Lawful Neutral).
While any chaotic character tends to live by a credo of, "Do what you want, when you want, and don't let anybody stand in your way," the difference between Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, and Chaotic Evil lies in just what it is they want. Chaotic good people tend to philosophically desire "fairness," "liberty," and "social justice" in as many things as they can possibly spread. Those who are less self-conscious about this might just to want to see everyone have a fair chance, and hold a fierce loathing of bullying of any sort, if not just doing good the joy of doing a good thing. A chaotic neutral character, meanwhile, wants to enjoy their own freedom. Generally concerned with their own happiness, and by extension the happiness of their closest friends, they don't get involved in the fights of others outside their little circle...unless they see a profit in it, or think it'd be a great excuse to go wild for a bit), because doing so would be going out on a limb for someone they don't care about. They won't really care about anything like good or protecting justice or freedom, but neither do they want to get interfere with anyone else's freedoms. Chaotic evil characters also are concerned with their own wants—but what they desire is to give in to their darker passions, and will do so with gusto. The border between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil lies somewhere around where "what I want" starts to involve routinely hurting others.
Chaotic neutral can be a dangerous alignment because those that adhere to it as an ideal to be upheld—those who who can be bothered to care—may seek to eliminate all authority, harmony, and order in society. Most, though, are apathetic on the whole issue. Others may wish to improve society by strict adherence to political philosophies even at the obvious detriment to the greater populace. (Such as when a Well Intentioned Extremist goes from just supporting freedom and equality to outright anarchy or even further down the slope, Darwinism.) Or perhaps they wish to exploit what society for their own ends, but they aren't amoral enough to try and rip it down to do so. A chaotic neutral character might even practice law as a career, enforcing their own beliefs on the system and exploiting it with more liberty than anyone of the lawful axis seeks to.
In Tabletop Games, Chaotic Neutral is oftentimes the choice of players who want to do bad things when the GM forbids playing evil characters, perhaps breaking up the party and killing P Cs for the hell of it...or for deeper reasons... It's also the favorite alignment of The Loonie (though in his hands it might end up descending into Chaotic Stupid territory).
Chaotic Neutral character types include:
Examples
When dealing with the examples of specific characters, remember that assigning an alignment to a character who doesn't come with one is pretty subjective. If you've got a problem with a character being listed here, it probably belongs on the discussion page.
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Anime and Manga
- This is pretty much the default for the characters in Ranma One Half. The only real exceptions from the main cast are Nabiki Tendo, Happosai (although mostly in very silly ways, and he's Chaotic Good to children or extremely kind "pretty ladies"), Kasumi Tendo, Shampoo and Cologne (In terms of general laid back behaviour. Neutral Evil in ruthlessness when she feels like it. She is the one who ingrained values into Shampoo). Pretty much everyone is motivated by self-interest and impulse, though with morals that keep them from going too far into the dark side (though Kodachi Kuno may be Chaotic Evil or simply lost and insane depending on interpretation). Ranma and Akane at their cores are helpful, self-sacrificing, idealistic, compassionate, and mean well, thus Chaotic Good, but their status as golden-hearted jerks, or more specifically insecurities, neuroses and immaturity means that they frequently slide into unthinking, impulsive, or petty behaviour. Ryoga Hibiki enters the series as on average Chaotic Neutral, with a severe and quasi-legitimate grudge, but softens up as the series progresses, and saves his rival's life on various occasions in spite of this, finally climbing to Chaotic Good by the end, whereas Mousse, who was initially a less competent almost as ruthless version of Shampoo settles into Chaotic Neutral behavior. Ukyo is friendly, and though she doesn't like to show it charitable and sentimental, but also cynical, violently irritable, rather manipulative, and not averse to intimidation. She essentially switches between "lower-end" Chaotic Neutral and Neutral Good. Tatewaki Kuno is near impossible to place, as unlike his sister he wants to be noble and do good deeds, but is completely delusional and clueless, and tends to act like a major and sometimes harmful annoyance. He is completely oblivious to the damage he caused Akane's mind at the beginning of the series.
- This troper would argue that Shampoo is Chaotic Neutral in the anime. While she does still have moments of evil, including her contemplating of murdering Akane in the first Pantyhose Taro story, she has a lot more positive actions as well, including being willing to cut a date with Ranma short so that he can go to Akane's rescue and saving Akane from a fall in the anime adaption of the Legendary Phoenix story.
- Lina Inverse from The Slayers can be considered one of the best examples of this trope in a Dungeons And Dragons sense, being motivated almost entirely by self-interest and whim. While she has morals that do prevent her from going too far to the dark side, and even to come off as Chaotic Good once in a while, she is extremely selfish, greedy, bad-tempered, self-centered and impulsive, and even comes off as Neutral Evil on occasions, as she often refuses to give any attention, never mind assistance, to people who don't offer her a reward of some kind. Notable stunts include refusing to a fight a dragon (which A: she set loose and B: happens to be tearing down the village she's in) unless the Village Headman agrees to pay her, only agreeing to help a girl whose village has been enslaved in one of the movies after recalling that said village is built near Elven ruins, saving a girl from a rampaging Golem in another movie and then harrassing her for a reward, and demanding a new companion of his surrender a family heirloom of his to her after finding out it's a powerful magical weapon.
- The creator-deity of the Slayers universe, the Lord of Nightmares, fits this alignment even better, being chaos itself.
- Of her companions, Naga the Serpent, Zelgadis and Martina are also Chaotic Neutral. Gourry Gabriev is somewhere on the border between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good (he has more morals then Lina does, but is perfectly willing to just follow her lead), Amelia wants to be Lawful Good but generally only manages to be Chaotic Good or Neutral Good, Xellos is Chaotic Evil and Filia believes/wants herself to be Lawful Good, but generally succeeds only in being Neutral Good or Lawful Neutral.
- Gene Starwind of Outlaw Star is a perfect example of this as the series begins, perhaps softening to Chaotic Good by the series' end. This has less to do with him being an outlaw and more with him being impulsive, hedonistic, lazy, immature and self-centered. This is one of the reasons why the crew is often broke; Gene refuses to take up small jobs, a very bad thing coupled with his spending habits (and his knack for randomly destroying things that he subsequently has to pay for). Aisha Clan-Clan also counts, though it seems that part of the reason for her acting so erratically is that she's something of The Ditz.
- More accurately, she's a Ditz from an apparently prominent family of a race that has to wear two Hats to cover their egos. So Yeah...
- Excel from Excel Saga. I don't think she needs any elaboration.
- Probably also Lord Il Palazzo and Dr. Kabapu, in the manga at least, even though both insist otherwise. And indeed, probably majority of the main cast in general.
- Nao Yuuki from Mai-HiME. Though she's quite temperamental and hates dealing with people (and rules), she's not out-and-out evil. She'll very rarely stick her claws out for the "good guys" if it personally benefits her in some way. Still, it's a pretty bad idea to cross her, because she will attack you. Her Mai-Otome incarnation, Juliet Nao Zhang, is closer to Chaotic Good.
- Seto Kaiba. Challenges anybody and everybody, regardless of what side they're on (though he seems inordinately obsessed with battling Yugi) and screws the rules, because he has money...and lots of it.
- Joichiro Nishi from Gantz is a good example of the "amoral nutjob" type. Though he does have a Neutral Evil streak, he's really just an an aggressive kid who cares more about how many points he gets than how many people die in the process.
- Haruhi Suzumiya is a perfect example of this. She might help you out if you've got some problems which might be supernatural in nature and got a couple of subtle Pet The Dog moments plus Character Development in the "nicer" direction; on the other hand... computer blackmail incident. "Well, I've decided Mikuru-chan IS my toy!"
- Bleach's Kenpachi Zaraki fits this trope nicely. A battle-hungry warrior who has been known to let opponents live on a whim. Or not.
- Also: Urahara Kisuke during the flashback arc, mainly due to his association with the Neutral Evil Mayuri. In the series proper, he's closer to Chaotic Good, but still doesn't completely qualify (e.g. awakens Ichigo's inner hallow without telling him, hides an Artifact Of Doom in Rukia's soul.
- Its very difficult to classify Urahara as anything in particular; his motives, goals, and even overall behavior are not entirely clear. While he often seems chaotic in his behavior, he really employs Obfuscating Stupidity; in reality, he's one of the most dangerous members of the cast and it isn't entirely clear why he does everything he does. He seems like a good man in some ways, helping out the main characters, but in others he's pretty callous.
- Urahara is on his own side. He's possibly allied with the Vizard, but it seems he helps Ichigo and co because they're currently doing something that he finds beneficial. If that changes...
- Much of Squad 11 counts as Chaotic Neutral. The characters tend to like fighting, and put it above all else (even their orders. in the final battle, Ikkaku gets defeated and lets a pillar be destroyed rather than use his bankai and risk being forced to become a captain. Yumichika tells Charlotte Cuulhorne that if not for the convenient Rosa Blanca smokescreen, he would not have used the true form of his zanpakuto no matter what).
- Potentially the Visoreds, as they mainly want revenge on Aizen for causing their hollowification and exile from Soul Society, rather than wanting to save the world or help the Gotei 13.
- Spike, Faye, and Ed from Cowboy Bebop are all Chaotic Neutral, although Spike is implied to have been more Neutral Evil in the past.
- Only Faye is really Chaotic Neutral. Spike is too reliable and falls more closely into True Neutral territory, while Ed is more benevolent and therefore Chaotic Good.
- Mello from Death Note. He's out to catch the Lawful Evil serial killer Kira, but his methods largely involve kidnappings and holding them for ransom. He's also mostly in it to avenge his mentor, not for any moral reasons. And did we mention he's a high-ranking member of the mafia?
- It's also noted that he did not want to kill Soichiro Yagami.
- Dr. Kureha tends to act like this in One Piece, coming in whenever she wants and treating the patients for certain fees she requests. Unlike Hiruluk, she does not have any great desire to save Drum Kingdom.
- The titular character from Akagi fits this alignment to a T. He spits on societal rules, regularly cheats while playing Mahjong, won't obey even if it means death (not that he cares about dying) and generally isn't a very nice person. He isn't particularly malevolent, it's just that you better stay away from him.
- Oh, Claire Stanfield. Only you can massacre dozens of not-very innocent people for both money and a bizarre interpretation of train etiquette, only to go completely (well, almost) straight by sunrise. Granted, his real alignment is probably "Batshit Fucking Insane," but this is the closest the D&D system can get.
- Ryoko from all the various Tenchi incarnations. She's a lazy, conniving, hard drinking space pirate who robs banks for a living, but she's willing to fight to the death to defend her friends (even her arch-rival Ayeka).
- Killerbee in Naruto, who disregards his brother- the Raikage’s- repeated reminders not to transform into his full Tailed Beast form and fakes being captured in order to leave the village and write music. He hardly cares about anything apart from what he wants to do at the moment, but doesn’t do anything particularly bad in order to fulfill those desires.
- Evangeline of Mahou Sensei Negima swears she is Always Chaotic Evil, and has the reputation to back it up. However, she helps out Sayo, friendly neighborhood ghost, out of sympathy/boredom, is a sort of ally to Negi and willing to help him and others out if she considers them a
friend nakama useful pawn. She doesn't care about anything else, though, either. What she does or wants is anyone's guess. Except wanting to get the hell out of that school. Who wouldn't?
- Any red-blooded heterosexual male. Yowza.
- Hiei follows this alignment after his Heel Face Turn in Yu Yu Hakusho; while he tends to help the protagonists, he usually does it because he's forced to, or because there's something he wants. He tends to spare his opponents, but usually because he doesn't feel like killing them, or believes he is under no obligation to finish them off.
- Hiei spares exactly one opponent in the series, and only because said opponent was a Death Seeker and begged him to finish the job. This reinforces his Chaotic Neutral alignment.
- Although arguably Neutral Evil in the first season, Suigintou becomes this in Träumend with her devotion to her sick medium Megu, which changes her motivation to participate in the Alice Game from meeting her father to curing Megu. She also seems to value her sisters somewhat more (albeit she would deny it), as she herself starts believing nobody is junk.
- Mugen from Samurai Champloo is a great example. He's a womanizing, hard-drinking Heroic Sociopath who never lets the law (or the yakuza) get in the way of any opportunity for mayhem and bloodshed.
- Greed in the anime and manga versions of Fullmetal Alchemist rebelled against his creator, the Big Bad, to pursue his own desires (especially immortality). While he is quite selfish, he cares for his friends (albeit because they are in a sense, his possessions).
Comic Books
- Deadpool of Marvel Comics, the Merc With A Mouth. He ties vegetarians up and force-feeds them meat loaf.
"This is my Sand Guy impression! Like in Star Wars!"
- The Incredible Hulk arguably fits in here. Sure, he'll go Ax Crazy if you make him mad, and he'll cause tremendous amounts of damage in the process, but a lot of the time he does go crazy, it's because one of his enemies pushed him too far. He's capable of showing a certain amount of empathy and friendship in rare cases, and rarely seeks to hurt people or try and use his power for personal gain...but God help you if you provoke him.
- V, the anarchist terrorist of V For Vendetta is considered a fine example of this trope. He wants to overthrow a fascist authoritarian government but he isn't opposed to murder and torture while doing it, not even if his victims are innocent. In the movie he's more Chaotic Good. (Still tortures, starves and brainwashes his own sidekick, though...)
- Downer Tarantula, the down-on-his-luck titular renegade drow elf and Jerk With A Heart Of Gold from the Downer comics published in the Dungeon magazine, has this alignment. His stats were published in one of the last Dragon issues, so this can be considered Word Of God.
- Catwoman switches between good and evil, but mainly is out for herself.
- True to his chosen name, Madcap is a deliberately (both in the alignment and the insanity) Chaotic Neutral Cloud Cuckoolander whose only goal is to show people that the world makes no sense.
- John Constantine, Hellblazer, sometime Occult Detective and gambler with Fate, full-time smartass and Rebellious Spirit, is the ultimate individualist, always looking to Take A Third Option, and just as likely to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory as he is to pull a Crowning Moment Of Awesome out of his butt. However, given that he is as likely to Rage Against The Heavens as battle The Legions Of Hell, even at the best of times Constantine's victories tend to be bittersweet.
- The Creeper.
- Delirium of The Sandman exemplifies Chaotic Neutral, of The Loonie variety. Destruction also becomes Chaotic Neutral in abandoning his duties to become a dabbling wanderer. For similar reasons, Lucifer fits this alignment, albeit with Chaotic Evil overtones.
- Several Walt Disney characters (Donald Duck, Goofy, Fethry Duck) fall under this alignment, although Mickey Mouse is undeniably Lawful Good and Scrooge Mc Duck can alternate dramatically between True Neutral, Lawful Neutral, Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good.
- Tank Girl, oh god Tank Girl.
Film
- Captain Jack Sparrow, a free-spirited Pirate who may or may not be out of his gourd. May be Affably Evil, may be a Jerk With A Heart Of Gold - probably close enough to call him Neutral, and definitely Chaotic.
- Both Han Solo and Lando Calrissian in their initial appearances. They later moved toward Chaotic Good and even Neutral Good.
- Torgo, the insane, sexually-deprived Crusty Caretaker satyr of marginal loyalty to the Lawful Evil Master.
- Tyler Durden, the nihilistic anarchist of Fight Club. Looking for a better world by destroying society as we know it. But not actually Chaotic Evil, considering that he constantly avoids actually killing anyone. It takes a fair bit of planning for him to destroy several skyscrapers without putting any lives at risk.
- Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford), the unpredictable and erratic young con man in The Sting, especially in the first part of the movie.
- Tuco, without a doubt. Probably Blondie as well.
- Judging by the Long List of crimes committed by Tuco and by the fact that he does
very little nothing to redeem himself throughout the movie apart for being a hilarious Heroic Sociopath, he is probably closer to Chaotic Evil. It's a testament to Eli Wallach's performance that in spite of all this he comes across as a funny and genuinely likeable Anti Hero.
- Though technically the antagonist at times, Dr. Frank N Furter can be this at times.
- Riddick is a guy who does good things in a horrendously evil manner, and all because he wants to fulfill a deal so that people will just leave him the fuck alone.
- Flip from Little Nemo was definately Chaotic Neutral in the movie Little Nemo Adventures in Slumberland. He did screw things up for Slumberland by convincing Nemo to open the forbidden door, thus releasing the Nightmare King, but he was just having some fun.
- Good? Bad? I'm The Guy With The Gun.
- In The Dark Knight, while Batman is probably a Well Intentioned Extremist and the Joker is the epitome of Always Chaotic Evil, Harvey Dent switches from literally and extremely Lawful Good to Chaotic Neutral. Perhapse even Extremely Neutral or Always Chaotic Neutral or even Neutrally Intentioned Extremeist (I'll stop now) after half his face gets burned off
 , he no longer saw any difference between teh Cops and the Mob, and that's how he started flipping a coin to make discisions about who lives and who dies. Seriously, even HE doesn't know who his next victim will be at any given time. He even shot the driver of a limo he was still in!
Literature
- Conan The Barbarian could be the poster child for this trope. He's a thief, a reaver, a slayer... and pretty much everything else you can think of where there's an opportunity for violence, wenches and loot. Including piracy, assassination, mercenary work and becoming warrior-king of the richest country on the continent.
- Despite all animals being True Neutal, rampaging animals in fiction, such as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, often behave in a Chaotic Neutral manner—they probably aren't aware and don't intend the damage that they're doing, but they sure as Hell manage to cause a lot of it.
- On the topic of Michael Crichton's work, the nanobots from Prey probably fit this trope too, at least to begin with, because the harm they cause isn't intentional. As events progress and they become more intelligent, however, they inevitably go from this to Neutral Evil.
- Achilles of The Iliad may temporarily devote himself to a particular ruler, but at the end of the day is loyal only to himself.
- Queen Mab from The Dresden Files. Unpredictable, alternately helpful and malicious, oh, and totally batshit. This fits her pretty well. Her daughter, Meave, probably fits here too, though Mother Winter is probably closer to True Neutral.
- He dresses like a pimp. He'll stab you in the back on a whim (and patch you up if he decides he made a mistake). He tries to reform assassins and corrupt knights. He's the male Chosen of a female misandrist goddess...maybe ex-Chosen by now—nobody's really sure, least of all him, and he doesn't care. He thrives in the midst of chaos, a calm, smirking eye in the raging storm. He is...Jarlaxle. He is Chaotic Neutral on legs.
- The Meddler of the Firekeeper novels is generally in this area. Besides he does with the main characters, the stories that exist of him, as told in the fifth book, describe how he earns his name by getting involved in situations with seemingly good intentions but without ever considering the consequences. Most telling is a tale in which he persuaded a boy to run away with a girl his father was loudly opposed to his marrying, only to learn after the fact that the two were in fact half-siblings. While she was ignorant of the fact, the boy fully understood who she was to him.
- Discworld Elves, the local version of The Fair Folk, are essentially Chaos personified. They don't have enough of a concept of morality to be actively evil, but you really want them to stay far, far away from you. They have been compared to cats.
- It has been made clear that, at least in this setting, no-one with a sense of actual right and wrong can choose wrong. In that case, none of the villains is really evil by choice, just amoral. With the exceptions of Carcer and Teatime, both of whom were insane, and Evil Harry, who was at worst Lawful Neutral (despite his claims to the contrary).
- Lady Felmet (of Wyrd Sisters) would disagree - she's Lawful Evil to the core, and knows it.
- In her appearances in the New Jedi Order, Vergere appeared to be Chaotic Neutral, starting on the "side" of the Yuuzhan Vong, then flipping, then flipping back, then capturing Jacen Solo to torture him, then helping him escape, then claiming to be a Jedi of the Old Republic posing serious questions of morality and ethics to Luke's order. Later novels put the kibosh on that.
- Depending on your interpretation, (especially if you've seen Gankutsuou), Edmond Dantes is either a completely justified hero, or the ultimate example of Chaotic Neutral. This is mainly because his motives for seeking revenge are entirely Chaotic Good, while his methods to do so, specifically destroying the lives of several of his enemies' innocent children when they had absolutely nothing to do with his situation, is a prime example of over-the-top Chaotic Evil.
- Elric of Menilbone, Michael Moorcock's anti-hero is kept alive by the Gods of Chaos, but he'll tender his services to the highest bidder.
- In the earliest stories he's maybe neutral. But he goes from this to Chaotic Good if not Neutral Good, after all, he can't get rid of his sword containing a trapped Chaos God without dying and uses it to kill other Chaos Gods. He tries to be lawful until he determines Law Sucks. Eventually he kills most of the gods of law and order and helps to create the world we live in which is more balanced.
- Gollum in The Lord Of The Rings is definitely not good, but overall he comes across as more unstable and deranged than truly evil. He has some serious issues, after all. If we're to look at his two personalities as separate characters (as the movie did), "Sméagol" would be Chaotic Neutral and "Gollum" Chaotic Evil.
- The original draft of The Silmarillion (The Book of Lost Tales) contained two war-gods—Makar and his sister Meássë (whose names mean "battle" and "gore"). They were loyal to the side of good, but yet were sympathetic to the great enemy Melko, because they delighted in ceaseless violence. They were quietly dropped from the book, probably because having a pro-Melko/Melkor faction among the gods would have opened up a few cans of worms that Tolkien didn't care to deal with.
- Yossarian, the protagonist of Catch 22, is positively dedicated to Chaotic Neutrality.
- Simkin, a side character in Weis and Hickman's Darksword trilogy, sums up the Chaotic Neutral life philosophy (and his own) with the declaration that, "The game is nothing, the playing of it everything."
- Archie, the gang leader in The Chocolate War and Beyond The Chocolate War, is either this or True Neutral. When Obie remarks that "You really hate this school," he responds "I don't hate anyone or anything." Obie is somewhat disturbed by this, wondering if he loves anyone or just walks through life in a fog.
- Peeves the Poltergeist from Harry Potter is a literal spirit of chaos. He delights in wreaking havoc wherever he goes, but his pranks tend to be more annoyinh/humiliating that seriously dangerous. The only individuals at Hogwarts who can exercise control over him at all are Dumbledore, the Bloody Baron, and on one memorable occasion, the Weasley twins.
Live Action TV
- Klingon society's outward face seems to be Lawful Neutral, but its internal politics walk the line between Chaotic Neutral and Neutral Evil.
- Q is a straighter example; he's chaotic in order to amuse himself, but neutral in that he honestly doesn't care about mortal politics or morality.
- The Nietzscheans from Andromeda - they work on the principle of "enlightened self-interest", which basically means they can do anything the writers want.
- Dr Gregory House. Definitely on the side of Chaos, as he chafes under authority - be it legal, professional, or religious. He rebels at every opportunity, and even his rigorous problem-solving method seems holistic, piecemeal, and free-associating (complete with 'Eureka!' moments) rather than strictly logical and linear. House doesn't care enough about his patients as people to be Chaotic Good, but is too dedicated to saving them to be Chaotic Evil.
- If further evidence was needed, it's worth noting that his personality traits and dealings with authority are pretty much a checklist of Chaotic traits.
- Michael Westen of Burn Notice. He'll help out the underdog if they appeal to his sense of justice, but his immaculately thought out plans often end with the episode's antagonist dead in an alley.
- He's closer to Chaotic Good, as he generally tries to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and helps the greater good by topling those who abuse the weak. In fact, Michael willingness to help the weak is so strong it interferes with his own life and goals. Fiona's closer to Chaotic Neutral. She's impulsive, violent, enjoys beating on people, as is as likely to be unwilling to help the needy as she is likely to want to help them. She's not above using others to further her own ends especially towards toying with Michael.
- Jayne from Firefly fits here, according to some interpretations.
- Chiana from Farscape embodies Chaotic Neutral.
- Rygel would likely qualify as well.
- Faith from Buffy The Vampire Slayer began as Chaotic Neutral, slipped into Neutral Evil and eventually ended up as Chaotic Good.
- This troper would say she started as Chaotic Good, slipped into Chaotic Neutral, fell into Neutral Evil under the Mayor, then became Chaotic Evil as she self-destructed, and finally made it back to Chaotic Good.
- "Claude Rains", the Ensemble Darkhorse Trickster Mentor from Heroes. He's lived as an Invisible Hobo for seven years, pickpocketing and following random people around because he can. He's a callous pessimist who puts Peter Petrelli through Training From Hell (which includes pushing him off a building). But we learn that his misanthropy is justifiable (his best friend betrayed and shot him), and that he lives as an invisible, homeless pickpocket to stay off the Company's radar. And he loves his pigeons.
- Merritt Rook from Law And Order Special Victims Unit, episode "Authority." He convinces people to do utterly vile things that never quite cross the Moral Event Horizon (although his first act, strip-searching a teenage girl, came close), his only concern being to subvert the power structures he blames for the death of his wife.
- The Shadows of Babylon 5 are initially portrayed as Chaotic Evil. However, later we find out that their antagonism with the Vorlons started off as an educational partnership for the benefit of younger races, making them Knights Templar for Chaos, and really more Chaotic Neutral than evil.
Miscellaneous
- Puck (Robin Goodfellow) in most traditional incarnations, notably Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and especially in Gargoyles where he seemed to go out of his way to be a Literal Genie just for his own amusement.
- Elaborating on the Queen Mab example above, in general, The Fair Folk are at best Chaotic Neutral, but can easily become Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil, as they are extremely capricious, just as likely to torture someone to death as to help them. The ones in Discworld are more on the Chaotic Evil end, as is the villain of Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell (although his vendetta against Strange might move him into Neutral Evil). For instance, one story has a "faery servant" Tom Brightwind who does good deeds for completely selfish reasons, and being a human raised as a faery, the Raven King is comfortably in this category.
- Traditional Robin Hood (ie. before storytellers added the "rob from the rich, give to the poor" schtick) was Chaotic Neutral: he was just as likely to go out looking for a random fight as he was to look for a rich person to rob.
- Most incarnations of Peter Pan probably match this alignment best.
- Everyone on The Goon Show, except perhaps Moriarty and Grytpype-Thynne (both Neutral Evil, most of the time). Only when Spike Milligan is involved is the Cloud Cuckoolander the least crazy.
Newspaper Comics
Oral Tradition
- Loki in Norse Mythology. Leads the monster army against Odin and Valhalla during Ragnarok.
Professional Wrestling
- Stone Cold Steve Austin lives by the motto "Don't Trust Anybody" and is concerned with nothing so much as drinking beer and kicking ass. He can occasionally be convinced to do the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing, but is just as likely to turn on the convincer and beat him up for shits and giggles once the good deed is done. About the only thing he's ever been consistent on is that he absolutely hates being told what to do.
Close Professional Wrestling
Real Life
- Cats in Dungeons And Dragons are often seen as familiars to Chaotic Neutral characters. Cats themselves, D&D's protests aside ("all animals are True Neutral"), are certainly Chaotic Neutral in Real Life.
- Ailurophiles across the World, including This Troper, must argue that the feline population is divided about equally into Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good.
- Rudyard Kipling's The Cat That Walked by Himself story was created and later repeatedly referred to for good reason.
- Free-market economics are inherently Chaotic Neutral; the purpose of regulatory bodies, ideally, is to maintain balance.
- So what alignment is a regulated free market?
- Depends who's regulating it. Regulators' own, or Lawful Stupid / Chaotic Stupid if not competent enough for task.
- Of course, free markets are a purely theoretical concept since every market in real life has some degree of regulation to curb the "Chaotic" part.
- Most little kids are best described this way. (Hey, it's either that or Neutral Evil.)
- According to himself (when asked if he was a Jedi or Sith), Vin Diesel.
- 4chan is currently in this alignment. Although pre-Chanology, most of the internet outside (and maybe inside) of them would have gladly classed 4chan as Chaotic Evil. Especially furries. Villain Decay, eh?
- For those confused, a good majority, if not all of 4chan is made up of Trolls who can potentially ruin an innocent man's life beyond repair and laugh about it. However, they've busted their fair share of pedophiles, and even saved a cat from an abusive life at the hands of a webcam whore.
- So it's Chanotic Neutral?
- The main problem with trying to classify 4chan is that it's made up of so many different people, all with different alignments, who can come and go as they please, unlike Something Awful's
overzealous moderation. Another one is that when people hear "4chan", they immediately think "/b/", in what can be described as the internet equivalent of Hollywood Geography. Many of the boards are quite civilized, and perfectly capable of intelligent discussion without devolving into dick jokes and memes. (/o/ and /fit/ come to mind.)
- The Internet itself.
- In general, Youtube Poop can be considered Chaotic Neutral incarnate by some. Some videos use common sources and manage to create something that is so odd, random and basically mind raping that it barely even resembles the original source. Variations exist, of course, some being more musical or sentence mixing in nature, which proves just how much you can do to a video source to make it fun (although Your Mileage May Vary on whether Youtube Poop is fun or not).
- Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation declares himself to be this. This could be backed up by the fact that he's also a Goon.
Tabletop Games
- The Random Number God, appropriately. He'll give you great rolls or horrible ones, depending on what he finds most amusing that day.
- ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS ORKS
- While the Eldar commonly fight against threats to Order and Good like the Necrons, Tyranids and Chaos, above all they are concerned only with their survival, the deaths of innumerous members of the "lesser races" insignificant in comparison. Members of the Imperium describe them as a capricious, fickle force of the universe like the aforementioned Orks and Tyranids, yet realise that allying with them is often the difference between victory and defeat.
- If you stretch it, some of the chaos gods in both Warhammer and Warhammer 40 K might barely count as Chaotic Neutral. Nurgle might be the best example, since he does love you. A lot. Then we have Necoho and Malal, while not any of the greater chaos gods, act more benevolent than the other gods, in Malal's case, he practically only focuses on other chaos gods, since he represents chaos turned against itself, and Necoho is the god of atheism, which means he practically only targets religious cults of any kind, in addition to the other chaos gods.
- In Dungeons And Dragons, the slaadi are the Anthropomorphic Personification of this in the same way demons represent Chaotic Evil and archons (sorta like angels) represent Lawful Good. Why the living embodiments of Chaotic Neutral take the form of big ol' toads is anyone's guess. Sadly, they've been shifted to evil in 4th edition for no adequately explained reason.
- Well, the toad shape is quite simple - they're beings of pure chaos. They don't need reasons. Thankfully, one of the 3rd edition monster manuals recognized the strangeness of this and provided a table to randomly determine (i.e., with dice) unusual features an individual slaad might have.
- A prominent Chaotic Neutral race in D&D are the grugach, also known as wild elves. Unlike the more noble high elves, they're a violently xenophobic culture of forest-dwelling nomads.
- Almost every Shadowrunner, and most Shadowrunning teams fall victim to this standpoint. The ones who go too evil find themselves obsessed with blood magic and insane amounts of cybernetics, while the ones who wind up too good eventually go legitimate. Or start up a television show once their statute of limitations expires.
- While several characters in the Magic The Gathering storylines fit this trope, most red-aligned characters are Chaotic Neutral, with a few slipping into Chaotic Good (the flamekin) or Chaotic Evil (the Mercadians).
- Everyone in Paranoia. Except Friend Computer. Friend Computer is Lawful Good. Have a pleasant day. The Computer is your friend.
Video Games
- Black Whirlwind from Jade Empire, an Ax Crazy mercenary whose chaotic and impulsive actions (Sleeping with his employers wife, cutting in two a girl two rivals were fighting over) normally end in him having to kill everyone in self defence.
- Same goes for Cha Dawn from Alien Crossfire, leader of the Cult of Planet, whose ultimate goal is to respect Planet's environments at all costs, even if that means returning Planet to its pristine state (making him at least borderline Chaotic Evil).
- Lilica Felchenerow from Arcana Heart rides the line between this and Chaotic Good. Her main goal is to just have fun and play harmless pranks, actively tries to break the rules, and doesn't care much for the dimensional disturbance, but she will do anything for her friends.
- Insufferable Genius Kira Daidohji probably fancies herself to be a Lawful Evil Overlord, but despite her intelligence and overblown ego, her plans are too simplistic and random to make her really dangerous.
- Arcueid Brunestud of Tsukihime is quite a complex case. She is whimsical, naive, somewhat self-centered, and definitely Chaotic... but, while she isn't too concerned with morality, she can be very kind when she wants (especially with Shiki...) and refuses to give in to her vampiric urges, not wanting to become a blood-sucking monster. She, too, is probably hanging between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good.
- Eiji Shinjo, the brash main character of Toshinden, probably started out with this alignment, never mind his more heroic anime incarnation. He used to only care about himself, his only objective being to surpass his brother Sho in fighting skill. He eventually matures, and by the end of the third game, he can probably be considered Chaotic Good. That is, prior to his Face Heel Turn in the fourth game, which quite a few fans refuse to consider canon...
- In his days as Dr. Baldhead, Faust from Guilty Gear was Chaotic Evil. Then he repented and now acts much like Tezuka's Black Jack. But he's still okay with the occasional killing spree, so he hasn't quite gotten to Chaotic Good yet. Plus he's completely insane. It all adds up to Chaotic Neutral.
- In Warcraft III, Grom Hellscream◊, previously a Chaotic Evil Berserker, permanently cements himself as a Chaotic Neutral Berserker instead. Every action he takes that isn't fueled by his desire to atone for his past sins is fueled by his anger at anyone whom he views as an enemy. Near the end of the Orc campaign he falls once again to his Chaotic Evil side but redeems himself by killing the demon responsible for cursing the Orcs (and thus freeing them from the demons) in exchange for his life.
- Illidan Stormrage◊ in the same game. His main goal is power, and at a brief glance it seems that he's willing to do absolutely anything for it, but he shows from time to time that there are things that still matter to him, such as his childhood friend Tyrande and the lands he grew up in. One reading of his actions would be "a really selfish and greedy guy who tries to be good to show off but doesn't really know how to".
- Annah, the fiercely passionate, mercurial young tiefling from Planescape Torment, is a thief, a guttersnipe, and a corpse-seller—but while she has a sharp tongue she doesn't have a genuinely mean bone in her body. On the other hand, the pyromaniac Ignus, though officially Chaotic Neutral, generally acts more Chaotic Evil, and is consumed with a desire to burn the entire multiverse. And Nordom is Chaotic Neutral by his species' standards because he split was split from his Hive Mind, and listed as such, but by human standards he is more Lawful Neutral.
- This troper loves Planescape Torment to death, but he has never been completely persuaded by many of the alignments of the party members. Annah, after she joins your party, is basically a Chaotic Good Disney Anti Hero (think of Aladdin); Ignus is pretty much the quintessential Chaotic Evil, Token Evil Teammate individual (remember his manic laugh when the Big Bad informs him that "There are creatures who need to be killed"?); and the polite, helpful, gracious Fall-from-Grace seems more Neutral Good than Lawful Neutral.
- Shadow The Hedgehog, from the various Sonic The Hedgehog games, seems to fall under more the 'rebel without a cause' type of Chaotic Neutral. He originally worked with the bad guys, has a pretty screwed up past and doesn't think much of humanity, but his Dead Little Sister gives him enough of a conscience to try and save the world when necessary. He still does not get along well with the more heroic characters, working better with True Neutral Rouge and approximately Lawful Neutral Omega.
- And let's not forget Chaos, who's Chaos incarnate and fits this trope well even without much screentime.
- Despite her character sheet listing her as True Neutral, the tiefling rogue Neeshka in Neverwinter Nights 2 has a personality that practically screams Chaotic Neutral with most of her suggestions being (small-scale) evil or chaotic, but she still seems to have a nice streak that shows through on occasion.
- Then there's Qara who is listed as this alignment, and it shows - being quite selfish and tends to want to set things on fire just because she can, regardless of what the object is or the safety of anyone else around.
- Pretty much everyone in the Grand Theft Auto series is Chaotic Neutral, seeking only their personal profit, owing allegiance to nobody. Although the fact they kill people would probably count as Evil, you also have to consider that all the protagonists in Grand Theft Auto live in a world of crime where killing is like everyday commute. The probable exception would be CJ and Sweet from San Andreas, whose intentions of cleaning all the drug dealers from Grove Street and restoring its former days of glory make them more Chaotic Good, as well as Niko from GTA IV, whose aspiration is to live the American dream and retire from the life of crime he made in Liberty City.
- Jak in Renegade is pretty much a textbook "Chaotic Neutral without being Chaotic Stupid". He's basically trapped in the battle between his natural compassion and the aftereffects of spending two years in prison being painfully tortured and experimented on with Dark Eco. He joins La Resistance not because he wants to help people, but because his sole desire at that point is to crush his archenemy's face into the ground, then place a gun to Praxis's head and fire. He eventually swung over to Neutral Good, though.
- The Daedra from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, despite being technically beyond good or evil, often come across as Chaotic Neutral. Only problem is, their divine shenanigans can destroy entire worlds...
- Sinder Roze from Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri. Her beliefs are, in basic terms, those of Freedom of the People through Freedom of Information, and she leads a nation of hackers with anarchistic tendencies.
- Atton Rand from Knights Of The Old Republic II is mildly insane, largely out for himself, and it's rather tricky to predict exactly how he'll respond to anything.
- More specifically, Atton starts out neutral. How the Exile behaves toward him can guide his Character Development to either good or evil - but he remains chaotic regardless, and the fact that the Exile can gain influence with Atton through either good or outright psychotic behavior certainly says something about his character.
- Depending on how forgiving you're willing to be, Kirby is either Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Good. He mostly seems to follow his instincts while saving the world almost on accident. King Dedede probably also qualifies.
- Axel fits this alignment to a tee. While ostensibly a member of the bad guys, he basically does what he wants, when he wants through the entire series. In Chain of Memories, his duty seems to be that of The Mole, but he really only does his job because he wants to, not out of any sense of loyalty to the Organization. Indeed, at one point he muses that "all the players are in place," and that he's looking forward to "one hell of a show." In Kingdom Hearts II, he actively plays both sides, alternating between helping and hindering Sora as he feels like it. He follows his orders to bring Roxas back, but only because he himself has an interest in seeing him again. He kidnaps Kairi, but only because he knew it would bring Sora to their door that much quicker. At one point, he shows up and all but spells out the Organization's plot to Sora's face. Interesting to note is the fact that Axel seems to be the only member that really doesn't care whether he gets a heart out of this deal or not.
- Alma. She's not really evil, just a very insane and very angry eight-year-old girl in a twenty-year-old's body. All she wants is to be free, to hold her children, and to be with a man she loves. And to get payback on Armacham, but considering what they did to her, its almost justified.
- Disgaea and the rest of the Nippon Ichi games tend to have this as their default alignment for virtually all demons. Mao, Rozalin, Zetta, Pram, even Laharl and Etna (in the original Disgaea, at least, their subsequent appearances make them much more JerkAss characters), plus virtually every NPC demon all can fall in this category. (For the main characters, that is assuming you get the good endings, at least.) While they loudly proclaim their villainy, it generally comes down to a few childish pranks, and picking fights with each other in a world where coming back from the dead is a quick stop at the nurse's office and some chump change. They really just want to live their lives goofing off, and hanging out with the buddies that they may or may not willingly admit they have, and in any time of trouble, always come to the aid of their fellows.
- Sheogorath from Shivering Isles is like a pendulum that swings between Chaotic Evil, Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good (He is the prince of madness after all). On one hand, he's a psychopath and Ax Crazy, on the other hand he helped the Chimer (who later became the dark elves) move from Summerset Isle and form their pre-tribunal culture. He's also very keen on punishing those that deserve it, or teaching lessons to people.
- Boomerang from Wild Arms 1 has one goal in life: to fight the strongest opponent he can find. He is most definatly not a good person, but he isn't trully malicious either. Lucied, his wolf companion is also probably of this alignment.
- Ultimately, almost the entire cast of Touhou can be classified in this alignment. Effectively a giant band of superpowered little girls who unleash their world-breaking, space-time continuum-shredding superpowers upon one another largely for shits and giggles, possibly because at their extreme age, they just want a little excitement every now and then. Of course, nobody dies in Gensokyo, and Defeat Means Friendship, so it's really difficult to definitively say anyone is evil in Touhou.
- Very definitely Knights In The Nightmare's Meria. Some of her actions (rescuing you, her Taking The Bullet scene) lean a little towards Chaotic Good and others (her power fixation) towards Chaotic Evil, but she defiantly (and repeatedly) states that she's really only fighting for her own freedom.
- Guybrush Threepwood is almost a human personification of chaos. While destroying the evil Le Chuck is a good thing, but he mostly do it out of trying to get into Elaine's pants (nevermind his Pant of Holding is big enough to put her in.... er, let's not go there). He lies, steals, and openly cheats to get what he wants - proper for a MIGHTY Pirate but hardly ethical, but he doesn't do it out of Malice (well except for nailing Stan into a previously used Coffin, but that's Stan). In fact, he seems highly unaware of the consequences of his actions, and tend to refuse to take responsibility for his failures when it does blow up in his face.
- Taokaka the Cat Girl from Blaz Blue. She's a hyperactive Cloud Cuckoo Lander with a virtually non-existant attention span, particularly is food is involved. Tao is also prone to attacking/fighting with others on the thinnest of pretenses, such as she's bored and thinks fighting may be fun. That said, she's hardly malicious, and can be sweet and affectionate to those she likes.
- Wario did a brief stint with Chaotic Evil in his premiere game, Super Mario Land 2, but quickly and permanently settled here afterward. He has little interest in fighting for (or against) good or evil, only treasure.
- Kimmy Eckman of Backyard Sports. She likes candy and hurts pinatas and dolls just to see if candy is in them (or for batting practice).
- I'm surprised Zelos from Tales Of Symphonia hasn't been mentioned, yet.
Webcomics
Western Animation
Web Original
- The titular character of Interviewing Leather.
- Red from Ruby Quest, despite starting as Chaotic Good, has fallen squarely into this alignment by the time Ruby and Tom find him, mainly due to insanity. The fact that he's technically responsible for everything going haywire probably didn't help.
- The "Three Little Witches" of the Whateley Universe. They're junior high mutants (one probability warper slash witch, two witches) who really really want the power the 'big kids' in the high school classes have. They figure the way to do this is steal Essence from high school mages. Hilarity Ensues.
- For all his attmpts to join the Evil League of Evil Dr Horrible really comes of as this rather than Chaotic Evil while he has good intentions most of his disrupting of the status quo benefits him.
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