True Neutral - Television Tropes & Idioms

Kevin Mask in Ultimate Muscle.
Fred Lou from Outlaw Star. His business policy is "Don't ask questions" and (with exception to Gene, who he's in love with) "Don't take credit." There's even a scene where Fred calls in to alert Gene about the Kei Pirates' arrival. How does he know they're on Sentinel? Because he sold them their weapons. Twilight Suzuka also falls into this trope, mainly due to her wavering between Lawful Neutral and Chaotic Neutral in the series and her apathy. She adheres to strict codes about assassination, but is willing to twist the letter, if not the spirit, of her code when it suits her purpose. She travels with the Outlaw Star and is a loyal crew member in crisis, but in everyday life walks alone from the others, neither contributing money towards the expenses, nor racking up further expenses.
Guts from Berserk is so burned out with all the political maneuvering and demonic atrocities that mark his world that he no longer cares about good, evil, law, chaos, or anything outside his own survival and the well-being of his nakama. Back when he was with the Band of the Hawk, he was closer to Lawful Neutral due to his respect for Griffith, but that's long gone now thanks to the events of the Eclipse.
Kino of Kino's Journey is interested in traveling and observing the world. Period. She's pretty adamant about not interfering; it takes some pretty special circumstances for her to do so. She once listened to a man explain to her how he killed a woman's family and then decided to become The Atoner and protect her... Kino then passively watched as said woman shot him dead. She makes company with villains and heroes, and contemplates what drives both. Do not, however, think that this means she's submissive; she will kill anyone who attacks her or stops her travels without hesitation and without remorse.
The Data Overmind from Suzumiya Haruhi, which seeks the maintain the status quo so that it can monitor the series' titular character. Yuki, the android interface which it uses to interact with the show's characters initially follows this alignment as well, but as she develops a more independent personality, she drifts more towards Neutral Good.
- Also, Sasaki from the same series. How close she is to becoming Neutral Evil is anyone's guess.
- And then we have Kyon of course. Sure he saves the world and genuinely cares about the Brigade members, Yuki the most. But then again, he also likes to be a cynical jerk. Above all of course is his sheer apathy to everything.
Shizuru from Mai-HiME started out as a Type 2 Neutral, taking a relaxed approach to everything (her official bio states that one of her pet peeves is "being rushed") but eventually became Neutral Evil when she received her powers and felt that violence was the only way to keep her from being separated from Natsuki.
The Gundam series has many great examples.
- Wu Fei Chang in Gundam Wing, after a Freak Out, starts attacking everybody in space who possesses weapons regardless of what side they're on. Treize Kushrenada is probably another good example, though he uses one assassination or the other to serve his purpose, he mainly uses his charisma and intellect to legally governing the OZ organization and whose ultimate plan was to start a war so terrible that would make both Earth and the space colonies give up war forever while giving up his own life in the process.
- Kira Yamato and his friends from Gundam SEED started as civilians who live in a Neutral Nation called Orb. But after the Heliopolis incident, they got dragged into war. Although he doesn't want to get involved, he chose to fight to protect his friends and becomes either Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral. But after a Hes Back Moment late in the series, he shifted to Neutral Good.
- Shinn Asuka from Gundam Seed Destiny also lived in the so called Neutal Nation of Orb. But thanks to the war killing his family, he migrated to the PLANTS and joined ZAFT as a Chaotic Good soldier.
- Gundam 00 has Ordinary High School Sweet Hearts Saji Crossroad and Louise Halevy. They spent most of the first season as Type 10 until their Wham Episode. In season 2, Louise joined a Lawful Evil State Sec and eventually becomes one herself as the story progresses. Saji on the other hand became Celestial Being's Tag Along Guy but remains in this alignment spending half that season as a Type 7 until he finally decided to fight for both Louise and the greater good thus shifting to Neutral Good. Lockon Stratos aka Neil Dylandy, is somewhere between Type 4 or 5. His Backup Twin Lyle shifts from Chaotic Good to Type 4 due to him being a Double Agent, but when he left Kataron, he settles to Neutral Good. Sumeragi Li Noriega becomes Type 9 after the first season until she decided to rejoin Celestial Being in season 2. Marina Ismail, being an Actual Pacifist, spent the whole second season as a Type 7 True Neutral.
Seto Kaiba from Yu Gi Oh. He is on record as saying that he considers himself unbound by laws, but he also clearly follows his own rules.
Near from Death Note. Although he tries to emulate the Lawful Neutral L, it is obvious that he doesn't have anywhere near as much of a sense of justice.
- Actually, this troper would say that L is Neutral Good and Near is Lawful Neutral.
- This troper sees L as this, specifically a type 2 True Neutral.
- Ryuk, and apparently the Shinigami in general. He leans a little towards Chaotic Neutral due to him dropping the title Artifact Of Doom into the human world just because he's bored and wants to see what will happen. Other than that, though, he just watches what happens, and makes it clear that he has no sense of loyalty or emotional attachment to the person who finds the notebook (Light, in this case), and rarely interferes with anything. Still, Ryuk doesn't seem to be evil or overly malicious, and he has enough decency to call Light out when he's emotionally abusive to Misa.
Genkai of Yu Yu Hakusho holds a tournament to determine her successor, and is willing to train whoever wins, even if it is an assassin or a demon. In the Dark Tournament, she admits that she is not a champion of justice, but she fights against those she dislikes, which includes her former teammate Toguro.
Lelouch Lamperouge. He kicks dogs with frightening regularity in the pursuit of his goal, but is ultimately selfless, sacrificing his own life and reputation to create a better world for the people he loves. Also, his ultimate aim is peace, but abuses/subverts pretty much any rule that is thrown against him.
- From whose perspective? I'm sure all the people who died as a result of him pretending to be a Jerk Ass after he usurped the throne would beg to differ.
Nathan Mahler from Blood Plus is Diva's chevalier but he is completely apathetic to her organisation's plan to replace humanity with chiropterans. Not only does he refuse to take orders from Amshel, he often prevents other villains from killing Saya despite the fact that Saya is the major threat to Diva's plan. The only thing he is concerned with is the happiness of Diva, which in the end turns out to be completely irrelevant to her plan to turn all humans into chiropterans. Throughout the series, Nathan remains as a distant observer to how the two queens of vampires struggle against each other and where that struggle leads to.
- The fact that Nathan isn't even one of Diva's Chevalier (because Saya's blood is lethal to Diva and her offspring, and it had no effect on Nathan) completely reinforces the possibility that he was in on it for shits and giggles.
- Natahan still qualifies as he has little to gain out of the entire ordeal and thus does not care about the goals of both sides (i.e. when Amshel asks Nathan to kill Saya, Nathan refuses). He also has no goal of his own other than simply observing what goes on.
Golgo 13. Duke Togo seems to live by one single rule: if someone meets his hefty fee and explains their motives for wanting another person dead, Golgo 13 will put a bullet in said person's head in a laughably improbable manner. As long as you do NOT double-cross him, of course
Rock and Benny from Black Lagoon. Ultimately, neither are willing to cross the line entirely into the villain territory occupied by most of the rest of Roanapur, but they're certainly no charity cases either (though Rock has his moments) and merely associating with Revy is probably soul-staining enough to keep them off the straight and narrow.
So Touma from QED, who prefers to laid back than getting involved in cases. But Kana makes him do it anyway.
Record Of Lodoss War has the fourth variant down pat in the form of Karla, whose goal seems to be the preservation of balance—when two kings clash in the battlefield and one falls, she quickly blasts the other from afar.
Fai D. Flowright, or however you choose to spell it from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. While he bears no actual malice to any of the main characters—and, indeed, repeatedly demonstrates that he's grown close to all of them—the fact remains that he knows a hell of a lot more than they do about what's on from the very beginning of the series and doesn't say anything because he's technically working for the Big Bad. He becomes Neutral Good when all of his dirty secrets come out and his friends help him move beyond his many, many personal issues.
- Clone!Syaoran belongs here too. It's true that he does a large number of absolutely horrible things once he appears on the scene, but this is less due to him being "evil" and more because he's a moral-free construct programmed to complete the task he was made for by any means necessary. He also performs a Heroic Sacrifice-slash-Heel Face Turn for the protagonists when he attacks his creator Fei Wong Reed, demonstrating that he's developed a heart of his own.
Haku of Naruto typically defines his existence as serving as the Neutral Evil Zabuza's tool and assisting in his evil doings, but unlike Zabuza, has a conscience and has, on at least one occasion, rendered his opponents unconscious to avoid having to kill them.
- Also, to the untrained eye, Sasuke seems to change alliances as often as he changes his wardrobe (the two actually seem to be somewhat connected anyway, as in the case of the Akatsuki robes), but it's more the result of this trope, which drives him to work with anyone as long as it furthers his own goals (and, by extension, betray them if simply leaving isn't an option), which basically means he's on his own side and no one else's, falling between type 2 and 9.
Bernkastel of Umineko No Naku Koro Ni appears to be of the ninth variety. After having fought against fate and won as Furude Rika, she is the embodiment of all the dead Rikas who didn't make it to a happy ending. As such, she interferes apparently to help Battler, but her ultimate goal is simply to be entertained by his struggle. It wouldn't be any fun to her if the match was one-sided, after all.
- After reading Witch's Tanabata, we learn she may be a shade close to Neutral Evil.
  - Just a shade?
  - After reading End of the Golden Witch, and seeing just how far she'll go not even to win, but merely for shits and giggles, it's really hard to argue that she's anything but Neutral Evil. There's a reason she's referred to as "TRUE NEUTRAL" in all caps.
Asakura in Negima is probably true neutral. She's willing to do almost anything for a story or work with anyone, but she does draw the line at using material that will actually hurt someone. Her allegiance is to herself and to the press.
Most of the characters in Ranma One Half are Chaotic Neutral (with the more villainy-inclined being Neutral Evil), but Cologne is True Neutral, after an initial stint of behavior that can be seen as Neutral Evil. While initially entering the series in an attempt to make Ranma marry Shampoo, she basically gives up after that first story and more or less settles for watching the madness with every sign of joy at the entertainment, occasionally chipping in with aid for either Ranma, Shampoo or Ryoga Hibiki. Kasumi Tendo is generally considered to be Neutral Good, mainly because she is totally non-violent and very docile (not to mention Word Of God describing her as a "saint" because of her lack of violent behavior and active malice). However, niceness does not equate goodness (hence the existence of the Affably Evil (where someone manages to be very nice despite being a villain), Evilly Affable (where someone is a villain, even a Complete Monster, yet still manages to be good-humored and pleasant) and Good Is Not Nice (where someone is unpleasant, yet still a fundamentally decent person) tropes) and it's legitimately possible to see her as a sweet-hearted and gentle True Neutral of types 2, 10 or 12.

Close Anime and Manga

Wormy of Wormy is true neutral in increasingly complex ways.
Metron of The DCU's New Gods is more concerned with seeking out knowledge than taking part in the huge cosmic war that the rest of his people are engaged in, and has aided both sides over the years.
- This Troper thinks Metron is more Neutral Good, as, while he does put the search for knowledge above actively participating in the war for the most part, he has still actively aided the heroes on more than one occasion and has never aided Darkseid (in the main DCU continuity, that is).
Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen, to the absolute screaming extreme.
- And completely fails to maintain it in one spectacular heel face turn... or was that face heel turn?
Marvel's Civil War arc had characters that fell firmly in the number 7 group. In particular, Ben Grimm (The Thing) - who ran off to France rather than choose a side and end up fighing one teammate (Mr. Fantastic, Pro-Reg) or the other two (Sue and Johnny Storm, Anti-Reg).
- Actually he is neutral good, he chooses not to fight because neither side is working towards the greater good, and eventually repatriates in order to save civilians from the conflict.
Namor of Marvel Comics doesn't quite qualify; at any given time he can fall into any of the alignments by virtue of having drastically different motives from most of the Marvel Universe and a disorder than manifests as drastic character changes due to his Half Human Hybrid biology. He goes here because he averages out as True Neutral, and he's the only person who can effectively have a reputation as both good and evil without anyone giving him lip about it (if only because he could kick the Hulk's ass).
Marvel's Taskmaster has Awesomeness By Analysis powers as such he trains anyone who would pay him, be it villain or hero.
Galactus is beyond your petty morality and insipid human judgement: He is what he Is. And what he does is hunger.
- He also cares not for the opinions of lesser mortals regarding his hat.
The Watcher watches. That's it! That and host all the What If? comics, but still. His job is the universe's biggest voyeur!
- Notionally. In practice, if the Watcher turns up in a non-What-If comic, he's more than likely there to break his code and actually interfere. Someone needs his ass fired.
- There was also the Eron the Rogue Watcher who was more Neutral Evil (or Stupid Evil if you want to quibble over the intelligence of letting a habitual powers stealer like Dr. Doom around you). As a general rule though, the Watchers as a race though tend to be quite True Neutral, and have been known to chide Uatu for breaking his oaths.
- Lampshaped in The Eternals, the Dreaming Celestial points out the Watcher broke his oath over 600 times
Newspaper comic example: Wally from Dilbert. Very much a Just Don't Care type. As are most of the others after overexposure to management; when someone died while working in the office, Dilbert did nothing because that way someone else has to do the paperwork.
Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge. Carl Barks noted that their ability to serve as either the hero or villain of a story made them infinitely more interesting to write for, as opposed to the generally moral Mickey Mouse.
- Donald was at least initially more on the Chaotic Neutral side - a lazy, unreliable slob and Hedonist, playful Rebellious Spirit full of contradictions, utter loser and occasionally Anti Hero.
The Qaron from Empire come across as Type 2. Their agenda is alien to the characters they're dealing with, and their ability to see the future causes them to behave in a way that seems totally amoral.
Close Comic Books

The Kaminoans from the Star Wars prequels seem to pretty much not care about the rest of the galaxy. They just want to clone, and research new ways to clone, and raise their clones, and...
- Obviously they're working on cloning their hats.
- The books imply, however, that they're closer to Neutral Evil - it's just not obvious to people who aren't their "products." In one case, they intend to kill the first batch of clones after they've already clearly achieved a level of self-awareness because they're "faulty."
Agent Sands (Depp's character) in Once Upon a Time in Mexico. He actually says "restore the balance" when he explains his purpose. It includes summarily executing cooks who are too good.
James Bond has varied over the years but probably fits in this category overall, as do most of the people he works with. He's definitely too morally ambiguous to be Good, but not Evil either, and he has a Chaotic personality but is reliable and trustworthy enough for MI6 to count on him. Most spies and intelligence agencies in fiction and Real Life probably fall under this, as their entire shtick relies on subverting laws and morality for the good of their country.
Captain Barbossa from Pirates Of The Caribbean. He has enough respect for the traditions of piracy in the third film to cement his place in non-chaotic ground.
Most of John Anderton's temporary allies in Minority Report fall under this heading: Rufus Riley and Dr Solomon Eddie are grey-market salesmen who are only interested in Anderton's money, while Dr Iris Hineman has no interest in anything outside her Garden Of Evil.
Rick Blaine starts out like this in Casablanca.
Due to never receiving instructions on anything from their state legislature, the New York delegates in 1776 never vote on anything, always abstaining. Courteously. In the end, they decide to sign the Declaration anyway.

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Mundungus Fletcher of the Harry Potter series.
- Also Peter Perrigrew, AKA Wormtail, who pretty much follows and obeys without question whoever he feels is best capable of keeping him safe. At first this was James Potter, who was more of a Neutral Good (maybe leaning more towards Chaotic Good, what with his frequent disregard for rules), but ultimately ends up on the side of Voldemort himself (likely Neutral Evil or even Lawful Evil, considering how he uses the laws to try and restrict Harry's movements in book 7).
- Goblins, who regard the main conflict in the series as "a wizard's war" and therefore not concerning them. Centaurs as well, who are only concerned with predicting the future and refuse to go against what has been foretold, although one centaur, Firenze, says My Species Doth Protest Too Much and gets kicked out of the herd.
Death of the Discworld is sometimes this, and sometimes... not. Really, he's all over the place. He tends to go from a friendly Type 3 True Neutral to an odd combination of Lawful and Chaotic Good. For example, he has rules he has to follow, but nothing stops him from, say, "hinting" to his granddaughter that something ought to be done, or twisting a rule to do the right thing. In the early books he would sometimes "have a talk" with the gods.
- Death is also shown in any situation where he can appeal the rules or doesn't have to follow them to be the only sense of justice in the world. There is no justice, there's just me. One situation has him taking the place of the Hogfather, a Fantasy Counterpart Culture version of Santa. He takes great joy in the role in doing things Death is not allowed to do, like save the Match Girl from freezing to death. He's also presented in his role as being the rules as much as possible for the good of humanity against the Auditors of Reality.
- The justice system in Ankh-Morpork is a somewhat haphazard affair. The Guilds punish offenders against their rules, and the Guild of Lawyers sells its services to anyone with cash. At least the police force is severely low on corruption. Vetinari is the court of the last appeal for those too poor to afford a lawyer, or who ran afoul of someone more powerful, or those no-one cares about. And surprisingly often he decides in their favour, as a moral lesson to everyone.
- Also from Discworld, Rincewind, the Cosmic Plaything Chew Toy of the Disc, is a prime example of the "doesn't care about Good or Evil", despite having saved the world about half a dozen times (against his will, mostly). He is by no means a bad person either, but would love it if the world just decided to forget all about him. His enemies, funnily enough, probably percieve him to be more Chaotic Good, whether he likes it or not.
Meursault, from L'Etranger.
Raistlin of the Dragonlance saga started out as this, as signified by his red robes but wasn't exactly content to stay that way...
Titania from The Dresden Files.
- Mother Winter and Mother Summer are either Type 2 with hints of 6 and 9, or are merely so bound by Law that they can't really do much without risking the balance of pretty much everything. Or both.
The Dealy Lama AKA Gruad the Grayface from The Illuminatus! Trilogy. His philosophy is summed up best by an old koan which tells about a duckling that is placed in a glass bottle and allowed to grow until it is too big to fit through the bottle neck, and asks how to remove it without breaking the bottle. The answer, of course is to let it continue to grow until it is big enough to break out of the bottle on its own. However, he denies being uninvolved in world affairs, stating that "someone needs to feed the duckling while it grows".
- He also remarks that the only reason he's lived to such an old age is that he doesn't give a fuck about good or evil.
Redwall's Asmodeus could fall into either this trope or NeutralEvil. He eats good and bad characters alike, bears no grudge or sympathy to either side, and doesn't actively try to make his victims suffer (in fact, his habit of hypnotising them beforehand could be seen as making them suffer less). He's definitely dangerous, but a snake's got to eat something.
Tuf Voyaging by George R. R. Martin stars Haviland Tuf,a quiet,modest space trader/ecological engineer who just happens to be sole owner/operator of a 30-km-long 'seedship' filled with all manner of Lost Technology. He hires out indiscriminately,but if your ecosystem is out of balance,he'll co-operate with your demands in finest druidic style by ensuring that whatever you're doing to destabilise it will eventually be corrected. By him. His character development via his interactions with humanity leads to him, in the last story in the book,enforcing a peace by dispassionately saying "I go now to destroy your respective homeworlds. Rest assured,I hold no ill will against you.". Then,just after that,he reveals that the new wonder plant that will feed an overpopulated world that he had helped earlier also induces widespread sterilisation. He compares it to neutering cats.
- He has some lawful tendencies, however, as evidenced by the fight in which he obtained the ship. His opponent had a mind-controlled T-rex on her side, while he had a pistol and a cat. He tossed her the pistol, saying "You have a claim, I have a claim. You have an animal, I have an animal. Now you have a gun." She gives chase, of course, but as it turns out, "I had a gun too."
The B'omarr Monks in Star Wars: Tales from Jabba's Palace have absolutely no interest in anything besides achieving their own form of enlightenment and putting their brains in jars when they do. Even having their monastery converted into a palace and occupied by crime lords doesn't matter to them- until the ending, in which they reclaim it following Jabba's death.
Tom the Merchant in Deltora Quest is a happy shopkeeper to both the Evil Overlords forces and the Resistance members, giving different discounts and preferential treatments to both (only discriminating against the neutral adventurers).
Though she's a benign character in the movie adaptation, the original novel The Neverending Story gradually reveals the Childlike Empress to be an inhuman and almost unfathomably neutral entity, with her sole concern being the preservation of Fantasia's existence. Atreyu attempts to invoke her authority to save Falkor from a monster, only for it to reply that, since she transcends good and evil, the Empress would never forbid it from acting on its own evil nature. Later, he's shocked to learn that, now that Bastian's served her purpose in saving Fantasia, she has no further interest in his well being. Being heroically good himself, Atreyu renounces his loyalty to her and swears to help Bastian anyway.
In The Worm Oroboros by Eric Rücker Eddison, there is a character who seems to be the ultimate expression of 1st Edition AD&D's definition of True Neutral, Lord Gro. He is pathologically obsessed with 'the Underdog' - to the point where he even switches sides to the losing side in the middle of a battle. He's also a bit of a Combat Pragmatist, even to the point of suggesting to his (temporary) liege that he attack under a flag of truce to ensure victory. He also is the most nuanced and otherwise fully developed character in the book.
The oracles in The Belgariad are supposed to cultivate being on the fence so they can make an unbiased decision between good and evil. Though this troper can't help but feel that traveling with the good people and being courted by and eventually marrying one of them might just possibly have influenced her decision.
- Another thing that just might have influenced it: the Child of Light, which changes from moment to moment, has been people like Belgarath, Durnik, and Belgarion. The Child of Dark was, for five books, Torak (who likes long rampages along the beach and human sacrifice, and hates sunshine, puppies and children).
A Song Of Ice And Fire: Jaime Lannister, after he becomes POW Character seems to show signs of a type 9 True Neutral. He has challenged the will of his father to join the Kingsguard, then "betrayed" his king. Faced with scorn for his oathbreaking ways, he embraces the arrogant and amoral personality people seemed to expect from him, but now tries to make amends.
- The Guild of the Faceless Men's philosophy seems close enough of True Neutrality.
The Ents in The Lord Of The Rings begin this way before being roused into action. "I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side," quoth Treebeard.
Tom Holt's The Better Mousetrap has Frank Carpenter, who limits himself to this alignment because he knows the kind of havoc that would result if someone who Only Wants To Make The World A Better Place or Someone Who Only Wants To Screw People Over had the time-travelling Portable Door he inherited. He uses it to save people...thereby making himself 10% of the money an insurance company would have had to pay out if they were dead. (Most other Holt protagonists are either this or a particularly screwed-up variant of Neutral Good).

Close Literature

Hades, as portrayed on Hercules The Legendary Journeys and Xena Warrior Princess, considers himself above the petty squabbles of god and man, and pays little attention to them one way or the other. This sort of indifference makes him a sometimes-ally, sometimes-foe to the heroes.
The Ferengi from Star Trek would seem to be the 'Just Don't Care' version. They'll happily do business with anyone.
- One could argue that the Ferengi are extremely selfish and do take sides... their own. But yes, many will happily sell weapons to both sides of an armed conflict. (The appropriate Rules of Acquisition are sequential: "War is good for business" and "Peace is good for business.")
The Vulcans of Star Trek are famous for their impartiality, as exemplified in their mantra "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one" (which includes the individual Vulcan himself or herself).
Although Wesley from Buffy/Angel starts out as Lawful Neutral, he drifts into True Neutral territory after undergoing Character Development.
The True Ancients in Farscape: being godlike aliens that live in another dimension, they have no interest in the affairs of the main characters. In fact, the only reason they took an interest in John Crichton was due to his wormhole knowledge, which could endanger the very fabric of reality if used incorrectly- one of the reasons they honestly considered killing him to save time.
Firefly's River Tam is ordinarily Chaotic Good, but she becomes the fifth form of this when a certain advertisement for Fruity Oaty Bars comes on.
- Depending on who you ask, Jayne Cobb could be considered True Neutral, showing surprising loyalty to Mal (even when he could make more money betraying him) and to the rest of the crew, and only turning on River and Simon when both offered a lot of money and River attacks him and presents a danger to the rest of the crew.
The Rock of Ages in the Merlin miniseries, who spends most of his time sleeping and being mistaken for a mountain. Since he's one of the few immortals that don't require human belief to survive, he isn't troubled by Christianity's arrival in Britain, and only helps Merlin because his role requires the least amount of work- holding Excalibur.
Possibly John Locke from Lost, although it's a tough call. He's definitely not a bad guy, but he commits several acts that are apparently selfish and even amoral. He seems to alternate between law (doing everything the Island says) and chaos (he has a long history of losing his faith, changing his mind, shifting allegiances...). He's also something of a Wild Card.
- Alternate Character Interpretation, with the same True Neutral result: Locke is totally and utterly dedicated to his goal of being special. He will do anything and everything to prove that he is a worthy human being, and will sign up with any force or follow any person who will show him even a gram of gratitude or love.
- Note also that True Neutral is the typical alignment of druids, and that, especially in the first season, John was often portrayed as a sort of druid/shaman-like figure. So Yeah...
Cameron from The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a sapient machine, but nonetheless is bound by her programming to protect John Connor, no matter the cost. Or her programming to kill him, no matter the cost. This tends to result in her doing terrible things to people her programming dictates are threats, or being apathetic toward others' plights if they do not concern her. In the second season, she even discusses her blank morality with John, pointing out that even though Terminators like her are killing machines, that "we aren't cruel."
Dr. Smith from Lost In Space occasionally falls into this alignment. For example, in one episode he travels back in time to avoid going on the Jupiter II, but upon learning that by staying behind he'll condemn the Robinsons to death, he can't quite bring himself to stay behind - he's self-interested, certainly, but not a straight-out bastard.
Deb from Drop Dead Diva is an airhead model who dies in the pilot episode. The angel who evaluates her status as a "good person" tells her that "you've never done a single good deed or bad action in your life, you're just shallow."

Close Live Action TV

Tropes. Tropes Are Not Good. Tropes Are Not Bad. They can be used to reinforce conventions, or defy them. Truly, tropes are True Neutral.

Close Meta

Anthropomorphic personifications of Death are usually True Neutral (or Lawful Neutral; see that alignment page), although a rare few are actively malicious.

Close Oral Tradition

In Pro-Wrestling fandom, these characters are called "Tweeners" (as in "between a Heel and a Face"— Would that make them a "Butt"?). Traditionally, Kevin Nash's Diesel character is viewed to be the first modern version of the character, though they became increasingly popular during the Attitude era.
- Ur-example: "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Swore like a docker, drank like a fish, cheated like an Argentinian footballer and attacked anyone and everyone as the mood struck him.
  - Should this be changed to "cheated like a South Carolinian Governor"?

Close Professional Wrestling

Wikipedia. That it is neither good nor evil is expressed by its Neutral Point of View and Verifiability policies ("The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth.") Meanwhile, its many detailed policies and guidelines may make it seem Lawful at first glance, until you realize that a) it's much more Chaotic in practice, and b) there is also an expressly stated rule to ignore all rules.

Close Real Life

In 1st and 2nd editions of Dungeons And Dragons, druids had to be true neutral, implied to be of the balance-keeping rather than the dispassionate variety.
- In Second Edition all True Neutral people were stated to be type 4, and the player's guide definition explains that they always side with the underdog, and sometimes swap sides when one is winning. It goes on to explain that "Clearly, there are very few true neutral characters in the world". This may because of the enemies they've also wiped out killing them when they show up at the door and claiming they want to swap.
  - They presumably had to change this after the sheer absurdity of Jaheira and Faldorn in the Baldurs Gate series having the same alignment despite having mutually exclusive philosophies of nature and society (with Jaheira as the calm, benevolent-but-paying-lip-service-to-balance Nature Hero and Faldorn making the average Knight Templar look calm).
- In Third Edition, druids have to be no more than one step away from True Neutral, supposedly to retain at least some of "nature's dispassion".
- In the 2nd Edition setting of Planescape, each alignment had a race that exemplified it (appropriately, called "exemplars" in the fan community). The rilmani were the type-3 True Neutral exemplars, and have whole castes dedicated to preserving the Balance by any means necessary. Mentioned once and then never again were also the kamerel, the type-2 True Neutral exemplars who were displaced by the rilmani when their apathetic isolationist tendencies proved detrimental.
- Mordenkainen, the Lord Mage of Greyhawk, has a philosophy of either aiding or sabotaging the forces of both good and evil to ensure that neither side wins supremacy, which he believes would lead to a devastating war (like the Greyhawk Wars, which he was unable to prevent). The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness which he founded, the Circle of Eight, works along the same lines. This led to an angry schism between him and his former companion, the Lawful Good archmage Tenser, who blames Mordenkainen for the deaths of several of their friends.
The Tyranids of Warhammer 40000 are a Cosmic Horror-grade swarm of alien bugs guided by a Hive Mind that is so far beyond human comprehension that its raw psychic presence is lethal to telepaths across the span of light years. Probably a particularly nightmarish Type Five.
- The Orks are arguably type 5 also, all inevitably violent and bloodthirsty... but when one particular Ork is strong enough to keep all the other Orks in line and become Warboss, they typically are able to form a "Waagh!" horde which is large and strong enough to rampage throughout the galaxy. Of course, that doesn't mean there are no Orks that are willing to try to take down the current Warboss and take control from there...
  - Specifically the Blood Axe clan, who not only learned human-style tactics such as retreating and camouflage, but also do mercenary work as well. Considering the rest of the race, this is what makes them neutral.
The Wood Elves of Warhammer are distinctly of the Type 5 variety, Wild Hunt and all. They are described as true forces of nature, they don't get involved in anything unless it directly threatens their forest.

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Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat games.
Archer's alignment in the Fate Stay Night visual novel is listed as simply "Neutral". Though summoned as a Servant in the game, his typical role is a Guardian, a heroic spirit periodically summoned by The World to slaughter any humans, good or bad, who pose a threat to humanity's existence as a whole. This (un)living hell has left him bitter and uncaring towards humans.
There are four factions that could be considered Neutral Neutral in Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri and the expansion Alien Crossfire:
- Prokhor Zakharov of the University of Planet, whose only interest is pure scientific research—ethical barriers notwithstanding—and knowledge for its own sake. In general much more good-natured than, for example, Miriam, Yang or Svensgaard. (Although, can someone say nerve staple? Still, more of an "ends justify the means" than evil in his case.)
- Aki Zeta-5 of the Cybernetic Consciousness, an entire faction of Spocks who base all their decisions in cold, hard logic.
- The alien factions are of the balance-keeping kind, one of them trying to prevent Planet from reaching Transcendence and the other pushing it, keeping all the other sides in check and fighting if necessary.
The Silencer, of the Crusader games, just doesn't care about the morality of his allies' cause or the ethics of killing indiscriminately anyone who works for the WEC. He kills out of a desire for vengeance against those who betrayed him, and that is all.
Kreia/Darth Traya from Knights Of The Old Republic II. She operates according to a set of rules of her own devising, and her only interest in the rules of others is how to best use them to her own advantage.
- Technically speaking, the player characters from Knights I and II start out this way and develop an alignment based on the player's best judgment and the character's actions in-game.
  - This is true in all Bioware games with a morality slider (Mass Effect, Jade Empire, and Knights Of The Old Republic).
Ryu from Street Fighter. A warrior who fights to better himself, and has no particular interest in ethics, other than fighting fair and not causing willing harm to opponents... sounds very much True Neutral.
- Or Lawful Neutral. He's a fair fighter who wouldn't accept an upper hand even if the world is depending on it. Actually, this tropper would dare call him Lawful Stupid (save the fact that he isn't dangerous to others Knight Templar style).
- He actually seems more like Neutral Good in someways. He does have a strict honor code and won't hurt someone unless they willingly fight him.
  - Also Akuma/Gouki, who, believe it or not, isn't so much malicious as not caring at all about others, for better or for worse. Despite what it seems, he never does anything truly evil, and has done some good acts (killing Bison/Vega for abusing his power, and, according to Word Of God, he occasionally helps those in need) as well as more evil acts (killing his opponents, which, to be fair, he does in accordance with the Code Of The Warrior, not because he's particularly vindictive). However, his arrogant attitude in conjunction with his penchant for fighting to the death often cause him to seemingly tip towards evil, though he is actually more True Neutral.
  - This troper would like to point out that Akuma once called off a fight with Gen, a vicious assassin the world would be better off without, on the grounds that Gen was suffering from a terminal disease, and thus, could not fight at his full power.
- Basically, everyone, in short, both Akuma and Ryu are Samurai without the swords (Akuma more so). Think Mitsurugi, who only fights if the opponent(s) is strong and willing, and will not hesitate to kill them if he has to. Not evil, per say, but not very goody goody either.
As a blank slate, the amnesiac protagonist of Planescape Torment starts out True Neutral, with his actions in-game determining his alignment.
- The Lady of Pain, despite her evil sounding title, is completely apathetic towards morality and is utterly inscrutable. The only motive she seems to have is that of protecting Sigil's existence.
The daedra of The Elder Scrolls are True Neutral of various types. Canonically, they're type six; too different from humans for our understandings of good or evil to be meaningful, and neither able to create new things nor particularly lawful by nature. Sheogorath is a type one, too insane to really go good or evil, and crazy enough to play lawful just to shake things up or when he becomes the lawful-seeming Jyggalag. Hermaeus Mora is For Science personified. Azura tends to look like a 'good' daedra through most of The Elder Scrolls III and IV, but Word Of God has stated her to be a type five, and that particular delusion to be very, very unhealthy.
Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider◊ was True Neutral in Warcraft III. His only aim was the survival of his people, no matter the cost.
- On a similar note, Orgrim Doomhammer◊, the warchief of the Horde during the second game of the franchise, has been Retconned into this alignment. He wished to save his people, the orcs, by conquering Azeroth from the humans, knowing that their own home could no longer support their numbers. To achieve this goal, he betrays his own chieftain to assume command and lead his people.
It is possible for Viconia deVir of the Baldurs Gate series to change her initial evil alignment to this. If this happens, she'll be of the "Don't bother me and I won't bother you" variety.
- Baldur's Gate II allows you to have two True Neutral characters in your team, not counting Viconia; Jaheira, a Type 4 balance-preserving Druid, who becomes more Type 6 throughout her storyline, and Yoshimo, who initially comes accross as just a 'screw alignments, I'm just in it for myself' type, but is in actual fact a baffling mishmash of contradictions that about average out at True Neutral.
  - Also, Cernd, a werewolf-druid who spends most of his time speaking in Ice Cream Koans; as Minsc put it "You talk in circles, Cernd, but that's okay. Boo runs in them."
The AI Thoth in Marathon 2 always try to help the underdog. This means he helps you from the point where you reactivate him, and then turns on you and Durandal when you're winning against the Pfhor. Thoth isn't very successfull when trying to stop you though, as the Pfhor completely ignore his offers of assistance.
Rouge the Bat from the Sonic The Hedgehog games; morally ambiguous but trustworthy enough to work for the Lawful Neutral G.U.N, and seems to care about her allies and is willing to work in a team, but her goals of gathering jewels are her top priority in the end.
Beckett in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, a deeply sarcastic vampire scholar with no allegiance to any side in the Jyhad, and motivated entirely by his archaelogical interests.
- Also, the PC can choose to become True Neutral close to the end of the game, when Cain offers you "the path of legends and pariahs." In this decision, you assassinate Ming-Xiao, slice the Prince to ribbons, and give Nines Rodriguez a middle finger before strolling off into the night.
Shadow from Final Fantasy VI. He works for the highest bidder and, according to Edgar, would kill his own mother for a nickel, but certainly doesn't enjoy killing.
Similarly, Amarant from Final Fantasy IX (who, paired up with Eiko, pretty much serves as an Expy to the Shadow & Relm dynamic). He doesn't care about things. His battle strategy involves letting his opponents kill each other.
Squall Leonheart is a mix of type 5 and type 12.
Lara Croft of the Tomb Raider franchise is described in the D&D supplement Complete Scoundrel as True Neutral.
Vincent in Silent Hill 3. He wants nothing to do with Claudia's plans to unleash a Cosmic Horror on the world, but neither does he care enough to intervene directly, preferring to manipulate a seventeen-year-old into doing it for him. Perhaps as a result, he is by far the most cheerful and well-adjusted character in the entire series (although that isn't particularly difficult).
Garrett is one type; the Keepers another. The Keepers are True Neutral because they strive to preserve neutrality, via the balance of power between the lawful Hammers and chaotic Pagans. Garrett is neutral because he does not in any sense care about the Balance, or any such 'ideal'. A loner and a cynic, he's selfish, almost amoral and motivated by profit, but feels neither pleasure nor remorse when killing and avoids it where possible out of professional pride. Strangely enough, he's therefore the only one who can be relied upon to save the world: because it's what he happens to be living on, and he'd like to keep living, thank you very much.
- Note that Garrett acts, in the end, as the ultimate balancing agent. Whenever any one faction gains too much power, Garrett topples it.
Jack Cayman could certainly be considered True Neutral, for reasons similar to Guts above. He seems to work for the government, is sent to rescue a well-to-do in danger and, when it turns out she was taking part in orchestrating Death Watch, Jack may have struck her, but he notably didn't kill her. However, the brutality of his kills certainly don't fall under any "Good" category this troper cares to think of, he claims "I don't work for justice, and I'm certainly not its bitch", and he has a habit of doing things his own way when the situation calls for it. In short, Jack's the living proof against True Neutral being a wuss or wishy-washy class: if he's on the fence, it's probably so that he can decide how to kill you with it.
Several of the ghosts encountered in The Suffering. For example, the ghosts of Torque's family seem unable or unwilling to interfere with the plot; Horace Gage swings wildly between lashing out in pain and providing rudimentary assistance; finally, the utterly amoral Dr Killjoy has taken it upon himself to cure Torque of his insanity by any means necessary.
- Sergei, one of the corrections officers on Carnate, has decided to spend what will probably be the last hours of his life as happy and stoned as possible. As such, he's a type 1.
- Kyle is a darker variant on the average type 1: he's a teenage heroin addict with almost no objective besides surviving the invasion of Baltimore long enough to find his next fix. In fact, he only follows the PC because he appears to believe that Torque is his father.
- Torque himself can be a True Neutral if he wishes.
Travis Touchdown is a brutal Blood Knight, but he's too pathetic to be called evil. Mostly, he's just unable to sepreate reality from fantasy; he lives for the fight, to reach the next rank in the UAA, and is utterly oblivious to the reprecussions of his actions. He won't kill any woman he'd like to have sex with, but otherwise is completely fine with finishing off his enemies. He doesn't enjoy killing, as he tells Bad Girl, he just likes the battle. It's all a great big game to him, one that he doesn't even try to understand.
Saya, the titular Eldritch Abomination in the extremely gory visual novel Saya No Uta. While obviously sentient, she doesn't seem to even have a clear concept of morality, and even at her worst, she comes across as Obliviously Evil. Her only real goal is to understand her own purpouse and propagate her species. And, well, her love for Fuminori is heart-wrenching.
Rachel is a vampire that acts out of boredom rather than any real malice.
Pete Wheeler from Backyard Sports. Because he's too stupid to think otherwise.
M.A.R.Go.T. the transit system CPU in Fallout 3: Broken Steel. She is the only robot in the game (besides John Henry Eden) who seems to know that a war happened 200 years ago, and humanity is struggling today, but is solely concerned with making the trains run on time. She only helps the player because you help her.
Cothineal in Shogo Mobile Armor Division is Type 3 as a force of nature. While it is technically responsible for starting a terrorist movement on Cronus and brainwashing Toshiro, it only does so to protect itself as the source of kato, and doesn't seem bound by human standards of morality.

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Roy Greenhilt's sister, Julia, from Order Of The Stick. She goes both ways.
- That is so hot.
- Their father Eugene Greenhilt comes off this way as well. He's nominally Lawful Good, but has done very little to show it.
  - Eugene is a Jerk Ass to his son. He was only in it for vengeance, and he dumped that on his kid when it got inconvenient. He mistreated his wife. That sounds like it's more Neutral Evil.
  - Except he's not. Yes, he's a Jerk Ass to Roy and certainly has his issues with the boy. But then, so did his father, who saw him as an erudite nerd but looks on his grandson as who his son should have been. Not to mention that Eugene gave up the Blood Oath specifically because it would be unfair to his son. It was only when it kept him from moving on to the afterlife that he passed it on to his son. Eugene's more of an Insufferable Genius really.
- V is also argued to be this alignment- not so much out of apathy but devotion to his/her goals: Saving the world and gaining magical power. And a recent comic has shown V is quick to eliminate potential obstacles in the way...
- The Oracle sells information to anyone who asks, to the best of his ability, whether it helps or hinders the OOTS. Silly humanoids think the story revolves around them.
- Also Therkla, who in one strip claims she's "fed up with good guys and bad guys" and just wants everyone to be safe.
Ronson from The Gods Of Arr Kelaan, who manages to be both the don't care type and the balance type. He's the God of Apathy (and Beer), and because he's the leader of the gods his attitude manages to temper the other gods and prevent them from twisting the mortal world in their image.
Antimony Carver from Gunnerkrigg Court. She's respectful towards the school staff even when she disagrees with them and she won't break rules needlessly, but she doesn't hesitate to break them when the need arises, either. She seems to hold to the philosophy that "It's not breaking the rules if you don't get caught", yet she criticizes Eglamore for suggesting the same. She's capable of great selflessness (see her entire career as a spirit medium) as well as petty selfishness (such as cheating on a test or stealing from her best friend's parents). Overall, it seems Annie's neutrality isn't really a choice on her part; rather, she's young and confused, and her moral compass simply hasn't stabilized.
In Dungeon Crawl Inc. the Archdruid, and later, the Archdryad are major opposition to the main characters because the forces of good, in his opinion, have grown too strong .
Spoofed in The Non Adventures Of Wonderella, when the title character says she has no "evil" twin because "The opposite of neutral is still neutral!" (She's supposed to be a good guy, but falls into the "Just Don't Care" variant, above... or rather slumps apathetically into it.)
Red Mage of 8-Bit Theater is a combination of type 5 (amoral) and type 2 (indifferent to the good/evil conflict), concerned only with maximising his stats. It also helps that, despite few characters being anywhere near stable, he is by far the most insane character in the series, actually attempting to benefit from being lit on fire.
- Plus, in 3.5 Dn D True Neutral characters couldn't be affected by most of the alignment-based spells (such as Magic Circle against Good/Evil/Law/Chaos), meaning he'd probably list this as his actual alignment in any case (since he doesn't have levels in paladin or monk).
  - Although it turns out his alignment is actually "Lawful Awesome".
- It really says something about the 8BTVerse that the one with unrealistic views of the world is crazier than the Chaotic Evil Omnicidal Maniac hellbent on destroying the universe.
Dominic Deegan of, well, Dominic Deegan is literally the champion of balance (aka the hero of True Neutral).
- Well, he's supposed to be Neutral Good, but the author isn't very good about keeping his Aesops intact.

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The Neutral Planet from Futurama is a spoof of the Just Don't Care type.
- In addition, most of the main cast aside from Bender and Farnsworth (Chaotic Neutral), and Leela and Hermes (Lawful Neutral) can be placed into here.
  - A humorous "errata" published by Wizards of the Coast pegged Bender in the Neutral Evil alignment. Seems to fit, he is Flexo's evil twin, after all. Even the Robot Devil was a bit shocked by what he would do...
Zuko in the first season of Avatar The Last Airbender would count as either this or Lawful Neutral.
- This seems a good a place as any to note that Sokka has been argued to be pretty much any non-Evil alignment.
- Mai is a candidate for this as well. Despite working for Azula at least until "The Boiling Rock", she really doesn't care what happens as long as she's not bored.
Charles Foster Ofdenson. Sure, he rules a lawful business empire, but he also associates with the Chaotic Neutral Dethklok, and is not above using them achieve his own ends. And ultimately, the only rule he lives by is that no one fucks with his bread and butter.
- This troper would say he's still Lawful Neutral. He is technically doing almost everything by the book, and often acts as the group's legal councelor. Though it might be debatable, considering how much he lies about Rockso's treatment, stating he is taking a nap while he is actually being tortured.
Gaz of Invader Zim is an incredibly selfish and conceited version rather than apathetic, so unconcerned with anything not directly related to her that she casually dismisses an alien obssessed with enslaving and/or incinerating Earth (who while admittedly Lord Error Prone is still capable of causing massive death and destruction), and even once remarks "the rightful order has been restored".
Red X from Teen Titans essentially spells out this alignment in one word, when asked whose side he was on.
Red X: Mine!
In Lion King, Timon and Pumbaa start off as the "Don't Care" type of True Neutral, with their motto of "Hakuna Matata", AKA No worries. They manage to convert Simba into this temporarily before the latter chooses to recognize his duty to the pride.
Equinox from Batman The Brave And The Bold is a rare Type 4 True Neutral, seeking to balance the conflict between good and evil. In his first appearance he had Gorilla Grodd and The Question suspended on a gigantic scales, intending to kill both, stopping only when Batman interferes.

Close Western Animation

Bladedancer, in the Whateley Universe, is 'The Handmaiden', the one chosen by The Tao to uphold balance no matter what. She might have to kill a demon. She might have to slay a superhero. Whatever it takes to maintain 'balance'. Several of her teammates have figured out the consequences of this, in terms of their own health, should they ever unbalance things by being too successful as Big Damn Heroes.
Dr. Horrible likely drifted into the Just-Don't-Care variant after Penny's death. He is seen robbing banks and attending Evil League of Evil meetings, but his heart isn't in it.

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