Opening and bumping.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
No, the other one.
I'd say Ambiguous Allegiance is probably the better name for the trope, but I can't see a significant difference, other than a slight emphasis on Evil in the one with it in the name.
Check out my fanfiction!
That name has 585 wicks, though. A wee bit many.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Jupiterian Local
Yeah, they seem like the same trope to me. I say merge under Ambiguously Evil, unless someone can show a problem with that name.
Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.
Chair Man
Ambiguous Allegiance doesn't say anything about morality while Ambiguously Evil doesn't say anything about going with one side.
Just like Hazy-Feel Turn is when someone shift sides when both sides are grey. Or Reformed, but Not Tamed when someone switched sides but doesn't switch morality.
In short, morality isn't always clearly divided into sides. See Morality Kitchen Sink.
MAX POWER KILL JEEEEEEEEWWWWW
Villain Protagonist
^ yea, that is true. but like i said, there aren't any examples listed that fit this trope and not Ambiguously Evil. Technically, i think Ambiguously Evil would be a subtrope, but theres not much point in having a supertrope which only lists a few examples, all of which are already examples of the more popular subtrope
Chair Man
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
My extremist mind said that we should make a ykttw to bait more "disregarding morality" examples of Ambiguous Allegiance.
Just going by the names, it seems like Ambiguously Evil can be used when an entire side's standing between good and evil is unknown (without being a Tweener/True Neutral), while Ambiguous Allegiance can be used when someone is waffling between two sides at odds but equally good/evil (admittedly it seems like this would be rare in fiction).
Worth noting that the YKTTW
got hung up on its original invocation of the Character Alignment pages... which should have made the similarity to Ambiguously Evil more apparent.
Villain Protagonist
So there is a difference: but do we have any examples of Ambiguous Alliance which arent also examples of Ambiguously Evil, and if not is it worth keeping these five examples on one page?
Clock is set.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
"alleigance" in first sentence of Ambiguous Allegiance is a typo, right?
Hi
Yes; it's fixed now.
Clock is up with no progress; closing.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Ambiguous Allegiance seems to be the same as Ambiguously Evil. While I could see there being some possible differences (such as a character who is clearly evil but it is unsure which evil group he follows), as it stands there are only five examples on Ambiguous Allegiance and all of them are also examples of Ambiguously Evil. I don't think it's worth trying to separate out the definitions, this one might as well just be a redirect. If someone cares enough to make this trope properly I suppose they can go through YKTTW with it?
edited 15th Oct '14 6:48:47 PM by PistolsAtDawn