Sandbox / Protagonist-Centered Wick Check

Protagonist-Centered Morality is a trope that is suspected of attracting complaining and subjectivity. The basic trope, where characters are judged based on how close they are to the protagonist (or if they are the protagonist) rather than based on any moral standards, is one typically associated with bad writing or bad protagonists, and due to not always being intentional on the creator's part, it might be based more on audience perception than on creative intent.

When sorting wicks, please try and keep them alphabetical for easier checking. Potholes and comments will be bolded. In examples with multiple bullets, each example will be counted separately.

Wicks/Examples checked: 50/50

Quick Results:

• Intentional non-complaining: 6/50 or 12%
• Unintentional non-complaining: 12/50 or 24%
• Complaining: 9/50 or 18%
• Other Misuse: 3/50 or 6%
• ZCE: 13/50 or 26%
• Unsortable: 6/50 or 12%

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Non-complaining, intentional or objectively written

1. Characters.Cursed Sword Master: Her moral compass is centered almost exclusively on what's good for Soujirou or not. If it's good for him, good and wholesome. It's not, indifference at best. Sounds like it applies in-universe here.
2. Fanfic.A Question Of When: As mentioned in the entry for Mundane Utility, Romilda chooses to use her abilities to try and seduce Harry Potter instead of using her knowledge of the future to try and help the greater Wizarding World, to say nothing of effectively grooming a teenage boy for a relationship. Romilda's odd combination of naïveté and Selective Obliviousness lend her quest a certain innocence, but there is always the implication that her actions are definitely Not Okay. If it's implied that her actions are wrong, then this seems to be intended.
3. Recap.Camp Camp Culture Day: Used deliberately and Played for Laughs. The Flower Scouts don't really do anything (in this episode, anyway) to deserve being robbed of their food supplies and terrorized by the platypus. Regardless, the episode frames Gwen and the Quartermaster as the heroes for pulling off their scheme, since it leads to a happy ending for Camp Campbell. The shadiness of the whole thing gets duly lampshaded at the end when David resolves not to question how the camp ended up with a massive Culture Day feast.
   David: I can't believe a single can of Sham managed to make all this amazing food! It really is a Culture Day miracle! (Beat) Yep! A real miracle! With no shady occurrence to get to the bottom of!
4. Series.When The Camellia Blooms: The drama presents Dong-baek as independent and sympathetic, and Jong-ryul as self-centered and controlling. It never deals with the moral implications of Dong-baek keeping Jong-ryul's son secret from him, and then refusing to let him into his son's life even after Jong-ryul finds out by accident.
5. Series.Wolf Hall: In a way. Do remember that this is the story of Thomas Cromwell, who has been portrayed for centuries of Tudor historiography/historical fiction as either a slimy, unprincipled courtier or as the first iconic Beleaguered Bureaucrat. Making him sympathetic despite him still committing some of the most contentious policies of Henry VIII's reign is pretty much within the scope of this. That being said, it still works.
6. TabletopGame.Mutant Year Zero: The Core and Source Books all have a number of blurbs, like the one quoted from the work page by Hanneth, that are written from the perspective of the races in their dedicated book. And a lot of the players' PC retelling of their stories are very centralized upon PCs own ideas and ethics, rather than those from an opposing party. Which is meant to lend a lot of questionability to the morality of the players' actions.

Non-complaining, subjective or unintentional

1. Advertising.Trix Rabbit: The rabbit is shown to be in the wrong for trying to steal or beg for Trix from the kids, but one commercial had him legally buy his own Trix only for a group of mean children to steal it from him. Apparently it is okay for kids to steal from the rabbit, but not vice versa. Not complainy, but I don't think this reaction was intended by the advertisers.
2. Characters.The Blacklist Main: His murder of the pristinely innocent harbormaster not only goes unpunished, but also largely uncommented on - he's unwaveringly team Liz, and that's enough.
3. Close-Enough Timeline: Usually played as a happy ending but Fridge Logic can reveal this to be based on Protagonist-Centered Morality. After all, maybe Alice got the promotion in this timeline but that means harm was done to Bob who got it last time around.
4. ComicBook.Tales Of The Jedi: Empress Teta, military dictator of the Koros system and anti-Sith crusader par excellence. She's supposed to be one of the good guys, but there are worrying little things in her portrayal. Like how the POWs from her victorious wars of unification for the greater good are still in hard labor camps a decade after the last war ended. Or how the system is renamed the Empress Teta System afterwards. Not to mention conquering other planets in wars which must have killed millions to begin with. which are explicitly described as quite brutal. The heroes don't seem to care since she's on their side. Granted, her enemies are also bad.
5. Film.Cimarron: Yancey's habit of abandoning his family for years on end isn't exactly portrayed favorably, as Sabra is shown to be broken-hearted about it, but it is portrayed as being a sort of romantic wanderlust. After Yancey disappears for five years without even sending a letter, Sabra falls into his arms on his return. When he disappears again for at least twelve years, again without even sending a letter, she embraces him as she finds him dying.
6. Film.Ideal Home: When Beau drives while intoxicated, with Bill in the car, it's treated as unforgiveable and he loses custody. Earlier in the film, Erasmus drives Bill to Taco Bell several drinks deep, with another drink in his hand, and it's Played for Laughs with no consequences.
7. Literature.Vampire Kisses: Raven condemns Trevor for taking advantage of and humiliating other girls, but is a hero when she herself takes advantage of and humiliates him. It really doesn't help that we never see Trevor do anything like that. Doesn't sound intentional, but also isn't too bash-y.
8. VideoGame.Freddi Fish: In the temple area in The Case of the Stolen Conch Shell, Luther removes a jewel from its place and accidentally activates a trap that locks him in a cage as punishment for his greed. To save Luther, Freddi must solve a puzzle using one of three other jewels in the temple. Freddi only needs one of the gemstones to solve the puzzle, yet the player can take all three with no consequences. Both Freddi and Luther can take jewels they don't need, but only Luther gets punished for it! Doesn't sound too bash-y, but also doesn't sound intentional, as it's a game and the player has to choose to do this. If anything, it's just an oversight or Gameplay and Story Segregation.
9. WesternAnimation.Joshua And The Promised Land: While killing a baby is wrong, mass-murder and a hostile takeover is completely justified when the protagonists do it. Chris and the narrator try to justify it as being for a good cause. Written pretty calmly, but I doubt it was intentional.
10. WesternAnimation.Silly Symphonies: Crossed with Protagonist-Centered Morality in "Birds In The Spring" and "Peculiar Penguins", where the birds trying to eat their prey (a grasshopper and a fish, respectively) are portrayed sympathetically, while the predators trying to eat those same birds (a snake and a shark, respectively) are portrayed as the villains. Doubt this was intentional on Disney's part.
11. WesternAnimation.Titanic The Legend Goes On: It's considered a happy ending because all the main characters survived. Special note of the scene where Angelica finds a man in the water and doesn't rescue him because he's not William. Surprisingly tame for such an infamous work, but definitely unintentional.
12. YMMV.Dangerously Chloe: Many readers have increasingly begun to feel this way about Teddy since his second Gender Bender, believing his behaviour is too out-of-character, too stupid or too despicable for them to support his would-be quest to find Chloe a potential boyfriend. His throwing Chloe out of the house is also seen by some as weakened too much by Moral Myopia and his own irresponsibility towards Abby.

Complaining

1. Anime.Reign The Conqueror: Everything that Alexander and his allies do, no matter how cruel or unethical, is excused on the basis that Alexander is a "god" who will usher in a new era. Sounds bash-y.
2. ComicBook.Chick Tracts:
   • God regularly kills people, including unsaved ones, just to get the attention of their loved ones. The subject of Mean Momma gets all three of her children killed just to make her repent. No one brings this up, instead gushing on about how wonderful God is for saving her.
   • 'Bull' is still a violent, threatening psychopath by the end of his eponymous tract, but now that he's intimidating and bullying people for "the right reasons" (i.e., spreading the Gospel and screaming at those who take the Lord's name in vain), he's treated as a hero.
   • The preacher walking around with a sign "Homosexuality is an abomination" was supposedly warning people in a "loving" manner.
3. Literature.Kono Suba: Comes with the territory given how self-centered the protagonists can be. Verdia, the first antagonist of the series, only goes after the heroes because Megumin was insistent on using his castle for target practice. Even then, Verdia was willing to let it go and spare the city the heroes were living in if she just stopped, but Megumin refused. Sounds a bit bashy.
4. Literature.Shadow Children: Luke was in on the plot to figure out if Nina was a mole or not. Which meant he condoned her being gaslit and tortured for weeks. Talbot pretty much admits he was justified because of his intentions to protect kids like Luke. So the moral is if you suspect a ten-year old girl of being a Mole for the enemy because another enemy named her as an accomplice, by all means, arrest her and assess her innocence by tempting her with a fake plea deal that involves arresting three more small children, thereby destroying her old life and old fake ID. And don't even admit that you may have gone overboard with the interrogation, instead you can get away with admitting that good intentions are sometimes not enough.
5. Series.Xena Warrior Princess: In the last two seasons, virtually anything Xena does to protect Eve is considered just and anyone that anyway puts Eve in jeopardy is deserves death people demanding justice for Eve's crimes against them Xena only gets called out on it when she nearly unleashes hell on Earth, corrupts and archangel and tries to murder the Archangel Michael. Even then any criticisms are casually brushed aside. The irony is the Olympians are portrayed as villains for wanting to murder Eve based on a prophecy and who her father is, an outsider god who wants to do away with them and take over the civilization they built. Yet Xena tried to murder Gabriel's daughter Hope on nothing more than a prophecy and who her father was. Awful grammar aside, this is really bash-y.
6. VideoGame.Mind Zero: The "heroes" straight up murder a 10 year old boy working for Togetsu simply because Togetsu was the first person who wanted to be friends with him. After his death, they fail to inform his parents (who filed a missing child report) that he died and he is never brought up again.
7. YMMV.Lighthouse Mouse: For some reason, it's the mouse we're supposed to root for, due to being unable to sleep because of the light, disregarding the fact that he's putting people in danger by turning off the light, and his problem could've been easily solved if he just moved his bed out of the way of the light.

Other Misuse

1. Animation.Vuk The Little Fox: This trope is in full action. Since the story focuses on Vuk, he is treated as a good guy, despite killing a lot of (apparently sentient) animals for food, and systematically destroying a man's property. At the same time, the hunter is treated as the Big Bad, even though he just kills foxes to protect his livestock. Justified, since Vuk would not survive otherwise. Not sure if this really counts, considering the example even points out that Vuk is just an animal trying to survive. This is sort of the natural consequence of making a predator the protagonist.
2. Fanfic.New Tamaran: In Kid Flash's origin, he and The Flash respectively kill a school shooter and a security guard who hid instead of protecting the students, which goes against their standard Thou Shalt Not Kill moral set. Also, while both the killer and the guard were scum who deserved to die, their deaths would legally be classified as murder. Yet neither Flash nor Kid Flash face any type of repercussions for the blood they spilled. (The author wrote a second revised origin which fixes these problems. The security guard is erased, and while Kid Flash still beats the shooter to death, he's traumatized over it, and isn't considered a murderer because he did stop a killer.) Sounds more like it'd fit as Moral Dissonance, I think?
3. Manga.Future Diary: Yuki's Slowly Slipping Into Evil leads him into doing the very things he feared when the death game started, thinking he can resurrect everyone when he is the last man standing. Unfortunately, he's been duped into thinking that way after both of his parents died. Not this trope; is just Slowly Slipping Into Evil and Fallen Hero.

ZCE/Partial-Context

1. DarthWiki.Nathan Cameron: Although Nathan isn't really that ordered, his dedication to the order of the show is enough to assign him as the chaos-calmer. Random pothole
2. DarthWiki.Lilies Of The Fountain: A subjective case, but her idea of morality only helps her. ???
3. Fanfic.A Cure For Love: Light wouldn't be nearly as sympathetic if he wasn't the main "hero."
4. Fanfic.MRA Trilogy: Everything Bekie does or is aligned with is "good" and everything she dislikes is "evil", got it?
5. Film.The Mummy Returns: This movie tries to ignore the prior characterization of the Pharaoh (likely due to him now being Evy's father in a past life, making it a case of Protagonist-Centered Morality) and portray him as much more genial and kind, even removing his snarled "Who has touched you?!" to Anck-su-namun before he's assassinated. This serves to make his death look more like a calculated power grab on the duo's part than a desperate attempt to protect their own lives as it was portrayed in the first movie. To be clear, the trope itself (Retcon) seems to have enough context. But the PCM wick is unexplained.
6. Film.Viva Knievel: Evel, of course.
7. Literature.Beggars In Spain: A Deconstruction of the kind of person who would even think they have this.
8. Literature.My Girlfriend Is A Zombie: What's good for Ling Mo is good, and what isn't is annoying, at best.
9. Roleplay.Lynching ITP: Trope-name-only example
10. Roleplay.The Fuzzy ORG: Commented-Out Trope-Name-Only example.
11. Series.The Unit: Seen in play several times given the nature of the work the Unit does.
12. VideoGame.Ethnic Cleansing: Commented-Out Trope-Name-Only example.
13. VideoGame.Laura Bow: In a minor example, Celie is the only person you can befriend in the first game. She ends up being the sole surviving heir to the Colonel's fortune. Am I missing something here?

Unsortable/Unknown/Misc

1. Anime.Napping Princess: Consciously averted. Exactly the goal of the antagonist and what Kokone's father has done is not known right away, but Kokone refuses to believe that her family has done anything wrong. Later on, she steals the villain's briefcase, but only because her own stuffed animal was attached to it and she had no choice. When the protagonists realize they're low on money, it occurs to them that there is probably money in the briefcase, but decide using it would be stealing, and Kokone hands over the briefcase at the next opportunity. Not sure how to sort this, since it's not bash-y and seems to describe something intentional on the creator's part, but it doesn't explain if the creator intended to avert it or if it's just not there because Kokone's actions aren't morally wrong.
2. Film.Kill Bill: Villain Has a Point: "That woman deserves her revenge. And we deserve to die. But then again... so does she." Hard to argue with any of these statements unless you're affected by Protagonist-Centered Morality. ???
3. Manga.Spirit Circle: Fortuna really did wish to live with Koko, Rune, and East. The steps he took instead drive them apart and start him and Koko on a Cycle of Revenge. Huh?
4. Roleplay.Lightning War: You can tell whether someone is good or bad based on their opinions of the Leffoy family. If they like Leffoys, they're good. If they don't, then they're bad. Can't tell if this is opinion or not.
5. VideoGame.Black Closet: Although you have a lot of freedom in how benevolent or cruel you make Elsa, at the end of the day you're still spying on people and searching their rooms without permission, harassing girls for information whether you have proof that they know something or not, and potentially solving cases by breaking up friendships and suspending or expelling people. Not sure if this is opinion or not.
6. You Sexy Beast: Admittedly this can create some interesting story possibilities if done well, both in such a creature having an inherently contradictory nature and in how the creature and his lover deal with said contradiction, particularly in how they do or do not come to a better understanding and balance and whether the creature can fight his inner nature/become a better person while still retaining what their lover finds sexy about them. (I.e., Rule of Drama.) If done poorly, however, the result can be either a lot of Wangst or a very dark case of Values Dissonance, Protagonist-Centered Morality, and Moral Myopia. Mentioned in passing in description.