"It's simple: there is Good, and there is Evil. There are those who commit crimes, and those who stop them. The two sides are opposite, as different as day and night. And the line between them is clear. Or at least, it's supposed to be..."
"I'm supposed to be one of the good guys, to always do the right thing. The line is supposed to be clear. But for me, back then, it wasn't. A madman was threatening the city, and I had to stop him. So I became Red X, a ruthless thief who could get closer to the madman than Robin ever could. But I didn't tell my teammates, and my plan didn't work. I almost lost my life, and my friends. It was the closest I've ever come to crossing the line, and I thought it was in the past. But now, someone else has crossed that line, and it's my job to stop him!"
"There is Good, and there is Evil, but the line between them can be almost impossible to find. Does one good deed make him a hero? Am I to blame for all of it because of a single mistake? In the end, all I really know is that the answers don't come easy. It's supposed to be simple. But it's not."
"I'm supposed to be one of the good guys, to always do the right thing. The line is supposed to be clear. But for me, back then, it wasn't. A madman was threatening the city, and I had to stop him. So I became Red X, a ruthless thief who could get closer to the madman than Robin ever could. But I didn't tell my teammates, and my plan didn't work. I almost lost my life, and my friends. It was the closest I've ever come to crossing the line, and I thought it was in the past. But now, someone else has crossed that line, and it's my job to stop him!"
"There is Good, and there is Evil, but the line between them can be almost impossible to find. Does one good deed make him a hero? Am I to blame for all of it because of a single mistake? In the end, all I really know is that the answers don't come easy. It's supposed to be simple. But it's not."
—Robin, Teen Titans (2003) ("X")
"What I hope people realise is that not any one type of character in the world of Splatoon is completely good or bad. You know, the Inklings have their society, the Octolings have their society and the Salmonids from Salmon Run have their own thing going on. And, what I'm hoping is that people realise that they each have their own characteristics, but sometimes those societies intermingle and come crashing together and this is one of the examples of what happens when that occurs."
— Series producer Hisashi Nogami on Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion
General Tullius: We aren't the bad guys, you know.
Ulfric Stormcloak: Maybe not, but you certainly aren't the good guys.
Tullius: Perhaps you're right. But then what does that make you?
Ulfric: You just said it yourself.
Ulfric Stormcloak: Maybe not, but you certainly aren't the good guys.
Tullius: Perhaps you're right. But then what does that make you?
Ulfric: You just said it yourself.
Wesley: There is a line, Lilah, black and white, good and evil.
Lilah: Funny thing about black and white. You mix it together and you get grey. And it doesn't matter how much white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but grey.
Lilah: Funny thing about black and white. You mix it together and you get grey. And it doesn't matter how much white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but grey.
—Angel, "Habeas Corpses"
"Surely you wouldn't do such a thing, destroying the righteous along with the wicked. Why, you would be treating the righteous and the wicked exactly the same! Surely you wouldn't do that! Should not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?"
— Genesis 18:25 (New Living Translation)
"It was Sam's first view of a battle of Men against Men, and he did not like it much. He was glad that he could not see the dead face. He wondered what the man's name was and where he came from; and if he was really evil of heart, or what lies or threats had led him on the long march from his home; and if he would not really rather have stayed there in peace ? all in a flash of thought which was quickly driven from his mind."
"There aren't evil guys and innocent guys. It's just... It's just... It's just a bunch of guys."
— Steve Arlo, Zero Effect
"That’s make-believe. There ain't no good guys. Or bad guys. There's just guys."
— Fitz, The Dresden Files: "Ghost Story"
"Idealistic boy! The world is one big moral gray area. It just makes you feel safer to believe it can be carefully categorized into good and bad; that's not actually how it works!"
— Professor Stein, Soul Eater
Nena: Taking revenge for your family?! I'm doing the same thing! Don't act like you're the only one suffering here! (Louise completely demolishes her Gundam in three seconds flat) I was created for this... and forced to fight... I refuse to die like this! This isn't how I want to die! (notices she's right in front of her enemy's weapon)
Louise: (coldly) I know. I'm sure you don't want to die. But my mom and dad... WEREN'T EVEN GIVEN THE CHANCE TO SAY THAT BEFORE YOU KILLED THEM!!! (impales Nena's cockpit)
Nena: DAMN YOU, YOU BITCH! (dies)
It's not always black and white but your heart always knows what's right.
—Pokémon Black and White opening theme
"No one involved was fully in the wrong, but no one was really right, either. That's how it felt to me."
—Sorey, after witnessing the destruction of Camlann, Tales of Zestiria
"The battle between pretty evil and pretty good has begun."
— Trailer for The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Truth has many shades; it is not a matter of black and white, but grey.
Morgan Freeman, Bombs Away (B.O.B. song)
"It's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Grey...I don't know what to do with grey."
"When you are young, the world seems so simple and straightforward. There is right and there is wrong. In the cowboy films the goodies wear white hats and the baddies wear black. As you get older you realise the world is not so simple. There are men in grey hats."
— Michael Merriot, By Royal Command
"I'm saying that with time you will see that things aren't so black and white."
— Blune. Sigma Star Saga
"There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between."
— The Monster, A Monster Calls
"The world's been hard on us, hard on him. Joel's done some terrible things. He tells me that on this journey, "you either hang onto to your morals and die or do whatever it takes to survive." I guess I'll find out."
—Ellie, The Last of Us
"A good act does not wash out the bad, nor a bad the good."
—Stannis Baratheon, Game of Thrones
"It's tempting to see your enemies as evil - all of them - but there's good and evil on both sides in every war ever fought."
—Ser Jorah Mormont, Game of Thrones
...The Usurpation shouldn't be clearly interpreted as either power struggle or an act of balance, neither a horrible betrayal nor an act of justice. Why? Because we have factions endorsing all of these positions, and it would diminish their struggle to outright decide who is right and who is wrong.
The Great Curse is a convenient tool that creates this level of ambiguity. It creates the dire necessity without justifying the horrible means taken. It muddies the moral issues by creating an unknowable, external circumstance that shifts the blame around without absolving anyone.in specific. It works.
I'm not even saying this level of ambiguity can't be preserved without the Curse, just that it would have been very hard, near impossible I daresay, to maintain it throughout numerous books by different authors without this extremely useful narrative tool.
— Morangias discussing
why this trope is enforced in Exalted
why this trope is enforced in Exalted "Our enemies are never as evil as we imagine, and maybe we're never quite as good."
— Amanda Waller, Justice League Unlimited
"Tu comprends, sur cette Terre, il y a quelque chose d’effroyable, c’est que tout le monde a ses raisons."
("The most terrible thing in the world is that everyone has their reasons.")
("The most terrible thing in the world is that everyone has their reasons.")
— Octave (Jean Renoir) in The Rules of the Game
"I don't know. I guess I picked the least shitty of two incredibly shitty sides."
— Conway, Gunpoint
Legend: So where do you stand, then? Where do you see yourself in terms of the sliding scale of good and evil, heroes and villains?
Skitter: All of the above? None of the above? Does it matter? Some of us wear the villain label with pride, because they want to rebel against the norms, because it’s a harder, more rewarding road to travel, or because being a ‘hero’ often means so very little. But few people really want to see themselves as being bad or evil, whatever label they wear. I’ve done things I regret, I’ve done things I’m proud of, and I’ve walked the roads in between. The sliding scale is a fantasy. There’s no simple answers.
Skitter: All of the above? None of the above? Does it matter? Some of us wear the villain label with pride, because they want to rebel against the norms, because it’s a harder, more rewarding road to travel, or because being a ‘hero’ often means so very little. But few people really want to see themselves as being bad or evil, whatever label they wear. I’ve done things I regret, I’ve done things I’m proud of, and I’ve walked the roads in between. The sliding scale is a fantasy. There’s no simple answers.
— Worm
"I’m trying to convince you that ‘right’ isn’t the exclusive property of the good guys, just like ‘wrong’ isn’t wholly on our side of the fence. Armsmaster’s sense of ‘good’ was purely what was good for his own interests. I’m trying to do the right thing more often than not, believe it or not, or I’m doing the wrong things for the right reasons."
Good to conquer evil,
Lies to fight the truth,
Are any of us only saints or sinners,
Or is it always red versus blue?
Lies to fight the truth,
Are any of us only saints or sinners,
Or is it always red versus blue?
— Jeff Williams, "Red Vs Blue"
Mike: The lesson is, if you're going to be a criminal, do your homework.
Pharmacist: Wait. I-I'm not a bad guy-
Mike: I didn't say you were a bad guy. I said you're a criminal.
Pharmacist: What's the difference?
Mike: I've known good criminals and bad cops. Bad priests, honorable thieves. You can be on one side of the law or the other, but if you make a deal with somebody, you keep your word. You can go home today and never do this again. But you took something that didn't belong to you and you sold it for a profit. That makes you a criminal. Good one, bad one, that's up to you.
Pharmacist: Wait. I-I'm not a bad guy-
Mike: I didn't say you were a bad guy. I said you're a criminal.
Pharmacist: What's the difference?
Mike: I've known good criminals and bad cops. Bad priests, honorable thieves. You can be on one side of the law or the other, but if you make a deal with somebody, you keep your word. You can go home today and never do this again. But you took something that didn't belong to you and you sold it for a profit. That makes you a criminal. Good one, bad one, that's up to you.
"There's a demon inside you... It's inside both of you."
"The concept of portraying evil and then destroying it - I know this is considered mainstream, but I think it is rotten. This idea that whenever something evil happens someone particular can be blamed and punished for it, in life and in politics, is hopeless."
— Hayao Miyazaki, explaining his affinity for this trope.
Tradition mages have a very biased view of the world: they see themselves as heroes who are striving to save the world, renegades fighting against an inhuman, faceless, soulless Collective; the Technocracy is seen as a ruthless, unstoppable machine. The Technocracy does include despicable overlords, soulless Constructs and inhuman assassins. However, there are many people serving the Technocracy who don't fall into that shallow stereotype. Just as it's foolish to say that all technology is evil, it is simplistic to say that all Technomancers are "evil." The Issues of the Technocracy are not always black and white. For some, the World of Darkness is a world of extremes, but for many - including the rogues who work for both the Technocracy and the Traditions, the Tradition mages who defect and the survivors who serve only themselves - everything is in shades of grey.
—Mage: The Ascension - Book Of Shadows
Raeleth: Evil men rarely convince others to their side by asking them to perform dark deeds for no good reason. They will always start with the lightest shade of gray. They so often use what seems like a good cause.
Davian: You don't think it's possible that a little gray is what's needed, sometimes?
Raeleth: No. Gray is the colour of cowardice and ignorance and sheer laziness, Davian—never let anyone tell you otherwise. If something is not clearly right or wrong then it bears actually figuring out which one it is, not dismissal into some nebulous third category. If you have a basis for your morality, a foundation for it, then there will always be an answer—and if you do not, then trying to decide whether anything is right or wrong is an exercise in futility and irrelevance.
Davian: You don't think it's possible that a little gray is what's needed, sometimes?
Raeleth: No. Gray is the colour of cowardice and ignorance and sheer laziness, Davian—never let anyone tell you otherwise. If something is not clearly right or wrong then it bears actually figuring out which one it is, not dismissal into some nebulous third category. If you have a basis for your morality, a foundation for it, then there will always be an answer—and if you do not, then trying to decide whether anything is right or wrong is an exercise in futility and irrelevance.
—The Licanius Trilogy: The Light of All That Falls
"I mean, no one is completely evil... Dragons are complicated. Some are kinder than others, or braver than others, and some of them do really cruel things. But everyone has both good thoughts and bad thoughts and reasons for what they do, reasons they believe are important."
—Moonwatcher, Wings of Fire: Winter Turning
"This has to stop. This idea that we’re all...that our team is perfect and the other team is demons. And this is not like a Kumbaya, let’s all get along. Let’s fucking fight, but let’s fight with precision and integrity, and not with just demonization."
"There was right. There was wrong. Now there is you."
— Hercule Poirot, Murder on the Orient Express
Cyndie: You have to swear...that you'll never come back and you'll never tell anyone about us, not even your own people.
Tara: Why would I come back? Why would I tell anyone about this place?
Cyndie: Because maybe you could get something out of it...anything. Why did we kill those two people who just came near us? Why did you kill all those people at that satellite station? Because you all thought you had to. But none of you had to. You just did. Nobody's evil. They just decide to forget who they are. You have to swear.
Tara: Some people are evil, Cyndie. I've seen it. That's why I have to get back now.
Tara: Why would I come back? Why would I tell anyone about this place?
Cyndie: Because maybe you could get something out of it...anything. Why did we kill those two people who just came near us? Why did you kill all those people at that satellite station? Because you all thought you had to. But none of you had to. You just did. Nobody's evil. They just decide to forget who they are. You have to swear.
Tara: Some people are evil, Cyndie. I've seen it. That's why I have to get back now.
Dark Mephisto: You... enjoy killing Beasts.
Shinya Mizorogi: What?
Dark Mephisto: Beasts attacking humans... humans defeating Beasts... its the same thing. In this wicked, pretentious world, there is no justice, good or evil. All that matters is that the strong survive. In other words, power is the truth that comes before all other truths. Stop being lost. Release your heart and become even more stronger.
Shinya Mizorogi: You bastard, who are you?
Dark Mephisto: I am, your shadow. Shinya Mizorogi, the form that you wished for.
Shinya Mizorogi: What?
Dark Mephisto: Beasts attacking humans... humans defeating Beasts... its the same thing. In this wicked, pretentious world, there is no justice, good or evil. All that matters is that the strong survive. In other words, power is the truth that comes before all other truths. Stop being lost. Release your heart and become even more stronger.
Shinya Mizorogi: You bastard, who are you?
Dark Mephisto: I am, your shadow. Shinya Mizorogi, the form that you wished for.
—Ultraman Nexus, Episode 18: "Apocalypse"
"The true rule, in determining to embrace or reject any thing, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil than good. There are few things wholly evil or wholly good."
"When one is young, it seems so very easy to distinguish between right and wrong. But as one gets older, it becomes more difficult. The villains and the heroes get all mixed up."
— René Mathis, Quantum of Solace
"Harder to tell the good from bad, villains from heroes these days."
— Felix Leiter, No Time to Die
Loki: You know you called me a scared little boy.
Mobius: I've called you a lot of things.
Loki: You did. You're wrong though. You see I know something children don't.
Mobius: What's that?
Loki: That no one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good.
Mobius: I've called you a lot of things.
Loki: You did. You're wrong though. You see I know something children don't.
Mobius: What's that?
Loki: That no one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good.
The most dramatic element in modern civilisation is the fact that one human truth stands against a truth no less human, one ideal against another ideal, one positive value against another value no less positive, and that the conflict does not represent, as we are often told, a struggle between a noble truth and a vile, selfish evil.
Karel Čapek, commenting on his play R.U.R.
Foolish: [...] Do you consider yourself to be the good guy or the bad guy?
Tommy: That really depends who you ask, doesn't it? You know? If you ask Dream, he'd say I'm his little– his little play– his little toy that he plays with, you know? It doesn't… (Beat) Foolish, honestly, I used to consider myself the good guy, the fucking second-in-command, going around and going, "Yeah! Let's do this." But recently, these past– these past like six months or so, Foolish, everything got so much harder than it was before. Because before, it was us fighting the bad guys, and it was all so clear.
Foolish: Yeah. Nothing muddy.
Tommy: It was all so clear. But it's not been clear for so long, alright? It wasn't "These are the bad guys, these are the good guys". Now it's "He's doing this, and that makes him a bit worse". It's all so fucking complicated. So, I don't know. It depends who you ask, but…
Foolish: I don't know. It just all seem strange, 'cause just from, you know, hearing from others, and learning a little bit, it seems like you've been a hero, you've been the villain, the conqueror, the savior, and even now, I still have no idea what you exactly are.
(Beat)
Tommy: Well, that's up to you to decide, isn't it?
Tommy: That really depends who you ask, doesn't it? You know? If you ask Dream, he'd say I'm his little– his little play– his little toy that he plays with, you know? It doesn't… (Beat) Foolish, honestly, I used to consider myself the good guy, the fucking second-in-command, going around and going, "Yeah! Let's do this." But recently, these past– these past like six months or so, Foolish, everything got so much harder than it was before. Because before, it was us fighting the bad guys, and it was all so clear.
Foolish: Yeah. Nothing muddy.
Tommy: It was all so clear. But it's not been clear for so long, alright? It wasn't "These are the bad guys, these are the good guys". Now it's "He's doing this, and that makes him a bit worse". It's all so fucking complicated. So, I don't know. It depends who you ask, but…
Foolish: I don't know. It just all seem strange, 'cause just from, you know, hearing from others, and learning a little bit, it seems like you've been a hero, you've been the villain, the conqueror, the savior, and even now, I still have no idea what you exactly are.
(Beat)
Tommy: Well, that's up to you to decide, isn't it?
— Dream SMP'
There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do.
"By now, as Act Two begins, each of the three factions has been thoroughly examined.
Their strengths. Their flaws. Their leaders. Their ideologies. What makes them good, and what makes them evil. These three powerhouses have ruled the Atoll State up until now; they have held it in an iron grip, throttling it by the neck. There are some who slot in perfectly with one of these factions.
But there are likely some who have a more nuanced view. No black and white: shades of gray. No faction is pure good. No faction is pure evil. And your actions have reflected that."
Their strengths. Their flaws. Their leaders. Their ideologies. What makes them good, and what makes them evil. These three powerhouses have ruled the Atoll State up until now; they have held it in an iron grip, throttling it by the neck. There are some who slot in perfectly with one of these factions.
But there are likely some who have a more nuanced view. No black and white: shades of gray. No faction is pure good. No faction is pure evil. And your actions have reflected that."
— The Atoll State worldbuilding journal, description for the Citizens section
worldbuilding journal, description for the Citizens section"The thing that I consider most important about my work is this: I told it like it is. I told my readers that the bad guys have a little of good in them, and the good guys have a lot of bad in them, and that you can't depend on anything much; nothing is always going to turn out roses."
