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| 10 | ->''"It's so much easier to see the world in black and white. Grey? I don't know what to do with grey..."'' |
| 11 | -->-- '''Garrus Vakarian''' (after realizing what he was becoming and subverting it), ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' |
| 12 | |
| 13 | In RealLife, seeing the world in absolute BlackAndWhiteMorality is considered normal for small children, [[PsychopathicManchild but seen as a far less healthy trait in adults]]. A person who regards the people around them as [[IncorruptiblePurePureness entirely good]] or [[CompleteMonster entirely evil]] has this. This type of thinking is called "splitting" in psychology, and it is a symptom of many real-life mental disorders. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Some authors have picked up on this, playing belief in BlackAndWhiteMorality as a sign of the character being insane or at least mentally unstable. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | While this is almost always done in settings that are not of BlackAndWhiteMorality themselves, exceptions exist. In such cases, a LawfulGood AntiHero suffering from Black-and-White Insanity can be very disturbing indeed in the eyes of their fellow LawfulGood real heroes. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | This trope is ''not'' about [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant regarding everyone as either completely sane or completely insane]] (though that would be an example of this trope, especially if [[InsaneEqualsViolent insanity is equated with evil]]). |
| 20 | |
| 21 | A character suffering from Black-and-White Insanity is likely to reason in FalseDichotomies, keeping their worldview coherent by applying huge quantities of InsaneTrollLogic and meeting criticism with {{Abomination Accusation Attack}}s. Black-and-White Insanity might also be what makes a WellIntentionedExtremist, well, an ''extremist'', with particularly dogmatic or unhinged examples crossing into TautologicalTemplar. This kind of insanity is pretty much the characteristic of the ObliviouslyEvil KnightTemplar. CharacterDevelopment might lead to the insane one becoming a TroubledSympatheticBigot. A justice system that operates on Black-and-White Insanity believes that AllCrimesAreEqual. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Compare ActivistFundamentalistAntics, WrongGenreSavvy, WindmillCrusader, WithUsOrAgainstUs, MoralMyopia. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | Contrast BlackAndWhiteMorality (for settings where the world actually operates in a way that makes this kind of worldview completely rational). A [[DesignatedHero failed]] [[DesignatedVillain attempt]] at BlackAndWhiteMorality will make the main character come across as suffering from Black-and-White Insanity. Contrast GreyAndGrayInsanity for when a character's mental instability has to do with too much moral ambiguity as opposed to a black-and-white worldview. |
| 26 | |
| 27 | '''Note: This trope is about characters who have a black-and-white worldview ''and'' are mentally unstable.''' |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[noreallife]] |
| 30 | -------- |
| 31 | !!Examples: |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 36 | * Seryu Ubiquitous from ''Manga/AkameGaKill'' sees everyone in the world as either completely good or pure evil. In her mind, anyone who supports TheEmpire she fights for is her staunch ally, and all those who dissent in any way or [[AllCrimesAreEqual commit even the most minor crimes]] are villains to be mercilessly exterminated. Which is why Mine caps off her TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to her with a simple "YoureInsane". |
| 37 | * Eren Yeager, the protagonist of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan''. He reacts to {{Tragic Villain}}s expressing remorse by exploding into a rage and stating they are inhuman monsters not allowed to feel emotions. When confronted by situations that are morally complicated, he tends to either freeze up or get [[UnstoppableRage angry]]. It makes his attempts to understand [[spoiler:Annie's reasons for killing people]] [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness all the more shocking]]. For whatever reason, he cannot simply dehumanize [[spoiler:Annie]] as he does to other villains. However, given how ugly and bleak the world he lives in is, it's easy to see how he would develop such a mentality, and sometimes, he's downright on the mark. The "animals disguised as humans" he killed could hardly be called anything but. They killed Mikasa's father and mother (in her case, one of the gang objected, but only because she would've fetched a good price on the slave market) and planned to sell the child Mikasa as a sex slave. [[spoiler:After the TimeSkip, while he manages to grow out of it and understands what his enemies are doing, it doesn't stop him from also acknowledging that his kind is being threatened by what he has considered the entire world and deciding the only path forward is to genocide everyone outside the Walls.]] |
| 38 | * ''Manga/BlackLagoon'': When [[AntiHero Revy]] finally pushes that iota too far with her [[StrawNihilist obnoxious and belligerent cynicism and nihilism]], an annoyed Fabiola goes on a blistering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling out how Revy isn't actually a nihilist, just a pathetic loser who has let her DarkAndTroubledPast completely consume her life and refuses to acknowledge the obvious truth that the world outside [[WretchedHive Roanapur]] is [[AWorldHalfFull more good than bad]], because otherwise she wouldn't have an excuse to indulge her selfish, materialistic ways. |
| 39 | * In ''Manga/{{Claymore}}'', Priscilla believes that she and the [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Organization]] sre absolutely good because they protect Humanity from the predations of the Yoma. Therefore, all those who oppose them -- Yoma, but also traitors like Teresa -- are evil, stemming from highly traumatic experiences in her childhood. Her beliefs are so entrenched that she can't even understand ''why she isn't winning against Teresa if she's the "bad guy"''. Once Teresa beats her, she completely loses it, throws herself at Teresa and [[spoiler:[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie awakens]], becoming the very thing she hated so much -- and the series' BigBad, too]]. To complicate things further, one of the scientists at the organization has a theory about her black-and-white insanity: she had to develop such a twisted view of the world, or she would have awoken much sooner. [[spoiler:The secret to cultivating a strong Awakening involves a contradiction of self-hate; Claymores hate Yoma, which are fueled by stress (and human entrails), but Claymores ''are'' part Yoma. Thus, the more they hate the Yoma and themselves, the more stress they develop, and the more inner power they can possess when they awaken. Priscilla in particular had the perceptive skill to realize that when she killed the Yoma that looked like her father, it actually ''was'' her father, then she resorted to cannibalism on her father's corpse to survive. From there, she deluded herself into thinking that she was raped by an evil Yoma, because it was ''less'' stressful on her than "your father was driven insane and wanted to kill you and eat you, and then ''you'' killed him and ate him and were driven insane''.]] Yeesh. |
| 40 | * In ''Anime/ConcreteRevolutioChoujinGensou'', [[AstroClone Earth-chan]] subscribes to extreme black-and-white morality. She views any improper behavior, even anything as innocuous as a white lie, as absolutely Evil, and she cannot even understand why anyone would willingly lie. Likewise, she cannot understand someone trying but failing to live up to a moral ideal -- any failure to measure up is in her eyes a willful embrace of Evil. This attitude is shown to be at odds with a world filled with shades of grey and results in Earth-chan coming to hasty conclusions about who is in the right and taking actions that solve the immediate situation but don't actually address the underlying problem -- for instance, trying to address the problem of pollution by destroying a factory's smokestacks and then flying away with the satisfaction of a job well done, not comprehending that the factory will simply fix the smokestacks and continue as usual. |
| 41 | * All the main antagonists in ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool''. |
| 42 | ** [[spoiler:Kyousuke Munakata believed that if you associated with, helped, or even sympathised with someone from Ultimate Despair, you were part of their ranks. Regardless of if you were or not, the only suitable punishment was death. This was part of the reason why he hated Naegi so much (the other being that he helped criminals he was supposed to execute), and the reason why the ''actual'' mole hiding in the Future Foundation's ranks (his girlfriend Chisa Yukizome, who showed no outward signs of despair) went unnoticed by him for years.]] |
| 43 | ** [[spoiler:Kazuo Tengan's method to crush Ultimate Despair's influence is to eradicate ''all'' despair, including any hindrances to his plan. He started the Killing Game to get the branch heads to cooperate on pain of death, and his solution to make sure no more innocents fall to despair again is to {{brainwash|ingForTheGreaterGood}} them into [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul feeling nothing but hope]]. Ironically, Tengan was the one to call out Munakata for ''his'' extreme methods.]] |
| 44 | * This tends to come up in ''Manga/DeathNote'' a lot. |
| 45 | ** Light Yagami starts to shift into this as the series goes on. He sees himself and all the actions he takes as good, including killing hundreds of people. He also sees anyone who criticizes him as wrong, killing a man on live television for condemning him. Of course, the fact that Light thought "Kill every criminal" was a reasonable solution to the world's problems makes it pretty clear that he had a bit of this going on in the first place. Light's narrow views on morality is a big factor in his rapid JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope early on. He learns that the Death Note is a genuine ArtifactOfDoom by killing two minor criminals, and recognizes that accident or not, this was an act of evil, and he's a murderer. However, Light soon embraces the role of Kira, convincing himself that as the self-appointed arbiter of right and wrong, everything he does is completely justified, and so those initial {{Accidental Murder}}s were morally right all along. |
| 46 | ** Light's underling Teru Mikami is an even more extreme example, having believed that people are either good or evil by nature ever since he was a child. |
| 47 | * Kabru of ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'' has elements of this. He has very strict ideas about good and evil and comes to conclusions rather quickly. He heard that Laios and Falin would bring money to support their former teammates who were injured. However, the former teammates went into shady business in the black market using that money, so in Kabru's eyes, Laios and Falin are responsible for perpetuating the black market on the island and are thus evil and not to be trusted. He also considers anyone who seeks to profit from the dungeon rather than focus on destroying it to be evil as well. |
| 48 | * ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': |
| 49 | ** This is Zamasu's primary problem. He has a very black-and-white view of mortals and gods. Namely, mortals are evil and need to be cleansed, while the gods are good, if not a bit [[TheGodsMustBeLazy lazy]] for not taking care of the mortals. His inability to understand that mortals can learn and grow, and the gods themselves are also [[GodIsFlawed flawed]] and need to learn from their mistakes is a point of tension between Gowasu and him. [[spoiler:He eventually jumps off the slippery slope when Goku proves that mortals can overpower gods, and decides to murder ''everyone'' in Future Trunks' timeline to create what he sees as a truly just world. Once he's cleaved in twain by Trunks, he loses what little sanity and mind he had left and tries to [[OmnicidalManiac kill everything and everyone, everywhere]].]] |
| 50 | ** [[TheCape Toppo]] of Universe 11. His overall perception of Justice and what evil is are very skewed when you see his interactions with Goku. Even though Zen'o had already planned on destroying many of the Universes, which the Grand Priest had already told them, he calls Goku evil on the grounds that Goku has to be evil since he sparked the tournament idea. If anything, he should see Goku as good since he ensured that one of the lower level universes will be spared, and he ensured that every universe has a fair chance to try and make it so that that universe is theirs. Somewhat averted in [[Manga/DragonBallSuper the manga]], in which he is understanding of Goku giving them this chance (only thinking him as strange for his desire for fighting). |
| 51 | * ''Manga/FourKnightsOfTheApocalypse'': Chion worships the ground Prince Tristan walks on after he saved him and respects the royal family and his fellow knights. However, he thinks everyone else is evil and should just die. He even attempts to murder the Knights of the Apocalypse, even though prophecy says they are supposed to be Tristan's teammates in saving the world. When Tristan stops him, he says he wants Tristan to be the only hero. |
| 52 | * ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': Gon is a case of this mixed with BlueAndOrangeMorality. His black-and-white views stop him from handling the fact that some of the people he considers 'bad' have redeeming qualities or do in fact care about others. The greatest example being when he confronts Pitou, who was in the middle of healing someone. It throws him into a mental breakdown as he is unable to accept that someone he hates can do good. |
| 53 | * ''Manga/ImTheOnlyOneWithUnfavorableSkillsIsekaiSummoningRebellion'': Yuto's classmates will make any excuse to justify their actions regardless of crazy it sounds. Miyamoto is fond of doing this, alternating between calling Yuto trash for being weak, a disease for not dying, and when he loses to him. |
| 54 | * Akoya Seishu of ''Manga/KenganAshura'' was a police officer and a martial arts master who dedicated his life to "justice", becoming a vigilante who slaughtered criminals with his bare hands. Over time he [[HeWhoFightsMonsters slowly devolved into a psychotic]] KnightTemplar SerialKiller and extended his brand of "justice" to his victims' families and any rival fighters unlucky enough to get in his way. He [[DomesticAbuse beats his lover and]] MoralityChain Hiyama for not giving him the results he wants as his MissionControl, and Adam Dudley accuses him of having "Film/DirtyHarry Syndrome". Without Hiyama's influence, he quickly becomes a sadistic monster who deliberately tries to inflict a CruelAndUnusualDeath on anyone who dares to [[IAmTheNoun stand against him]]. By the time of ''Kengan Omega'' he's been suspended from future tournaments for being too extreme [[EvenEvilHasStandards even by the Association's low moral standards]]. |
| 55 | * ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' has this in the form of [[spoiler:the Jovians]]. AnAesop for you, children: [[spoiler:[[SpaceWhaleAesop don't mould the society of your]] LostColony [[SpaceWhaleAesop around an old-school Anime series that espouses]] BlackAndWhiteMorality, ''especially'' [[AntiEscapismAesop to the point that the colony forgets how reality is]]]]. |
| 56 | * When first encountered in ''Manga/MegaManMegamix'', Duo seems to have this problem. He arrives specifically to kill Dr. Wily and all his robots but runs into Mega Man, who adheres to ThouShallNotKill and would rather bring Wily to the courts. Duo takes this to mean that Mega Man has turned evil, with his Robot Master brothers from the first game considered as still tainted by their prior programming, and attempts to kill them to get to Wily. |
| 57 | * ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'': As a member of the Harmony faction of dragons, Elma is a staunch believer in justice and making things right for everyone, but the lengths she can take this are a bit extreme even if often [[PlayedForLaughs comedic]]. She'll reprimand children for not obeying crosswalk rules, pick fights with Chaos dragons even if they're not posing a threat (Her rivalry with the titular dragon maid, Tohru, is built on this), and once spent weeks trying to singelhandedly improve her workplace's conditions past any rational degree. |
| 58 | * [[spoiler:Flit Asuno]] winds up with this after [[spoiler:Yurin's]] death in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAge'' becoming convinced that all Vagans are inhuman monsters that must be destroyed, even after the truth about their origins is revealed. |
| 59 | * ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'': Shinn Asuka's greatest problem is his inability to accept shades of grey. He's not exactly insane as opposed to being highly unstable as, unlike other examples of the trope, it isn't even that he can't be introspective -- it's that he just doesn't ''want'' to. By the finale though, he has definitely gone off the deep end, being willing to defend a KillSat about to destroy an entire country -- one that he's decided to be pure evil simply because they're opposing his side (the fact that he was until recently a native citizen ''actually fuels this belief''). Shinn's mess of anger issues are the root cause of this way of thinking; or rather ''lack'' of thinking. He's not an inherently bad kid, but he ''is'' too HotBlooded for his own good. Moreover, his "we're good, everyone else is bad" mentality is implied to largely self-enforced, so as to allow him to justify clinging to the vengeful anger that's kept him going all this time. This is because not only is that anger his best weapon in battle, but it's also the only thing he really has left to give him any purpose in life. |
| 60 | * ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'': HeroKiller Stain believes that Heroes must possess IncorruptiblePurePureness to be "real heroes" in his eyes, and that villains that commit ''any'' type of crime must be killed swiftly, circumstances be damned. The ''only'' heroes who meet his criteria are [[BigGood All Might]] and [[TheHero Izuku Midoriya]], while he brutally slaughters and cripples other heroes for not meeting his standards. His appearance in the prequel series ''Manga/MyHeroAcademiaVigilantes'' has him brutally murder villains who have already given up and pose no further harm, and this is ''before he became a villain''. Needless to say, Stain isn't quite right in the head. Notably, at one point Stain, dismisses [[spoiler:Tenya Ilida]] as a "fake hero" because he's more focused on his RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Stain than saving an injured hero. [[spoiler:Ilida]] soon acknowledges that the VillainHasAPoint and tries to do better; Stain is ''completely'' thrown off by this, unable to comprehend that one of the "fakes" could possibly want to improve themselves. |
| 61 | * ''Anime/NajicaBlitzTactics'': Episode 9 has Najica and Lila going to a nation named Gilda in the middle of a civil war, between Queen Metis, a dictator who thinks the country's dignity is what matters the most (that is, for her to keep living in luxury) and her daughter Athena, who leads LaResistance seeking to dethrone her mother and free her country. Athena's [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Humaritt]], Elith, has been with her enough to follow Athena's beliefs in freedom and fighting with pride until the very end, but when Queen Metis decides to launch a full-scale raid to her headquarters, Athena realizes that they stand no chance and chooses to surrender to avoid sacrificing the lives of her soldiers. Elith has Athena's mindset so ingrained that she doesn't understand why she's surrendering and considers this an act of betrayal to her [[spoiler:and even shoots Athena dead for it]]. |
| 62 | * ''Manga/OnePiece'' has the concept of "Absolute Justice", where law enforcers have a very strict black-and-white view of justice to the point where ''any'' deviation from the law in favor of piracy, is met with swift, harsh punishment. |
| 63 | ** [[spoiler:Fleet-]]Admiral Sakazuki of the Marines will ''execute'' people who so much as know certain criminals. A ship full of refugees met a fiery end due to the fact that a criminal ''might'' have gotten aboard (treating criminal tendency there as though it were Mad Cow Disease, if you will). |
| 64 | ** Rob Lucci's philosophy of "Dark Justice" goes further in that things against the government don't need to be destroyed for the greater good, but because they are ''evil by nature of being against the government''. He doesn't just think it's inexcusable for the soldiers he killed to be so weak as to get taken hostage or that killing Robin is necessary to maintain world order, he thinks [[TheSocialDarwinist the soldiers' weakness]] and [[FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence Robin's existence]] are '''unforgivable sins'''. |
| 65 | ** In the eyes of [[spoiler:Admiral Ryokugyu]], you're either under the thumb of the World Government or a menace to society. There is no middle ground, even if you're an upright person. |
| 66 | * The X-Laws of ''Manga/ShamanKing'' are all this, Especially in the anime, when they bring their viewpoints to the extreme. While devoted to stopping the Shaman-supremacist and genocidal Hao, they had no qualms about killing two of his followers (Boris and Bill) who were already finished, and when Yoh saved the latter, they quickly branded them and his friends as Hao's allies and therefore evil (though Lyserg eventually joins them). Iron Maiden Jeanne, their leader, shows this as while truly noble and pious, she knows nothing of the world as she isolated herself from normal people's lives and believes her acts (even killing indiscriminately when her pleas for peace are not heeded) are for the good of the world. She and Marco eventually grow out of this and decide to help the heroes. |
| 67 | * Sensui from ''Manga/YuYuHakusho''. Emphasis on "insanity". "Humans are good -- Demons are bad." Sensui existed and killed by this creed. When confronted face-to-face with atrocities committed by humans upon demons instead of the other way around, he snapped so hard he formed ''six additional personalities'' just to deal with the trauma. He eventually settles into [[spoiler:Humans are bad -- Demons are grey, as he planned to KillAllHumans and die at the hands of a demon as revenge.]] |
| 68 | * In ''Manga/{{Zetman}}'', the Amagi corporation's heir Kouga idolizes [[TheCape Alphas]], a SuperHero who fights ForGreatJustice, and tries to emulate him even into adulthood by having some of his father's scientists make him a power-enhancing [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman superhero costume]]. For a while he manages to do more good than harm because he is not mentally unstable, just [[WideEyedIdealist idealistic and naive]]. However, everything goes wrong when [[spoiler:Hayami injects him with a bug from a clone of Ichirou that turns him into a delusional KnightTemplar while he's under control]]. |
| 69 | [[/folder]] |
| 70 | |
| 71 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 72 | * ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': |
| 73 | ** Two-Face is sometimes portrayed as having this as the root of his SplitPersonality. His original character concept was even more so. Originally, he was actually supposed to do good deeds when [[HeadsOrTails the coin landed unscarred-face-up]]. This is particularly obvious in his post-''ComicBook/BatmanYearOne'' characterizations, wherein the "good" persona believes in fairness and the hope of goodness in people, while the "evil" side sees unfairness and cheating everywhere. To quote his revised origin: |
| 74 | --->'''"Harvey":''' ''Good boys don't do bad things.''\ |
| 75 | '''"Two-Face":''' ''BAD BOYS DON'T DO GOOD THINGS.'' |
| 76 | ** Batman himself occasionally comes into this DependingOnTheWriter, usually in stories in which it's pointed out how close to insanity he often walks. The Joker in particular seems very fond of calling him out on this, most famously in ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke''. |
| 77 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Grimjack}}'' #40, an early version of the Heterodyne Boys (the basis of the characters of the same name in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', but specifically not the same guys, according to [[WordOfGod Studio Foglio]]) travel to an alternate universe with GreyAndGreyMorality, where they end up killing the first guy they meet in a bar. They then proceed to conclude that he ''must'' have been evil, because where they come from, only evil people ever die. In their own universe, that is assumed to be true, but in the universe, they ended up in, that combined with their abilities essentially makes them a pair of {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s. |
| 78 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Logicomix}}'', [[https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottlob_Frege Frege]] is totally honest and devoted to truth and logic. Sadly, this devotion combined with IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance leads to Black-and-White Insanity in the form of a StrawVulcan prejudiced against women and Jews. On the whole, this makes him a TroubledSympatheticBigot who is desperately trying to do the right thing. |
| 79 | * ''ComicBook/{{Oxymoron}}'': This is how Oxymoron perceives the world, since he's obsessed with contradiction. For instance, he murders a ganglord who has some PetTheDog policies, since in Oxymoron's eyes there is no such thing as a bad man with some good in him or a good man with some bad in him. He also assassinates various public servants who were corrupt in some way. |
| 80 | * Detective Gould in ''ComicBook/RedHanded'' sees all crime, regardless of the justification, as an intolerable evil. Many of the criminals in his city of Red Wheel Barrow are more sad than sinister, and in a conversation broken up among chapters of the graphic novel, another character tries to break the certainty of his worldview. |
| 81 | * The one-time ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' villain Extremist has a black-and-white view of the world and is opposed to what he refers to as "The Grey" which tries to confuse the lines between them. He sees heroes as entirely good and critics as existential threats to the former, and so uses his powers of {{Invisibility}}, {{Intangibility}}, and AuraVision to assassinate them. He's eventually defeated when he gets a literal look in the mirror and sees with his aura reading that his motivations aren't altruistic but rather motivated by [[IJustWantToBeSpecial a selfish desire to be special]]. |
| 82 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': Subjekt-17 is essentially the living representation of Superman's nightmare of what could have happened if someone other than the Kents found him when he landed on Earth. The apparent last survivor of his race, Subjekt-17 was "raised" in isolation by a black ops government group and treated as nothing but a test project rather than a person with rights. Even after Superman is able to rescue him, Subjekt-17 appears to regard all humans as equally guilty of what he went through, content to let humanity suffer through the plans of Arion, even though his actual captors are now all dead and Superman serves as proof that not all humans are like that. |
| 83 | * ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': |
| 84 | ** [[Characters/WatchmenRorschach Rorschach]] was meant deliberately as a comment on Creator/SteveDitko's [[WithUsOrAgainstUs more fanatically Objectivist]] characters. This is clearly reflected in his ExpressiveMask, where the black and white never mix. [[spoiler:This also led to his death, as he refused to compromise and decided to tell the world the truth despite knowing it would [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans only make all the deaths from the plan meaningless and will put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation]]. Which is why Dr. Manhattan killed him in order to prevent him from doing so]]. |
| 85 | --->'''Rorschach:''' No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. ''Never compromise.'' |
| 86 | ** Played with by Rorschach's {{Foil}} [[spoiler:Ozymandias]], who is just as bad, if not worse. [[spoiler:Both Dan and Rorschach initially assume that Adrian must be insane, finding his description of his own master plan too ludicrous to believe. He assures them that he is more than rational. However, Adrian's views of the world are rather unrealistically binary. To him, there's the savagery of the past (and present) where chaos and unrest run rampant, and the utopian unity of the future where humanity's flaws will magically cease to exist. He is [[TheExtremistWasRight seemingly vindicated by the ensuing world peace]] brought about by his act of destruction, but Jon leaves him with a margin for doubt that the peace will last. Jon is eventually proven right in the sequel ''ComicBook/DoomsdayClock'', but Ozymandias doubles down and refuses to admit he was wrong even as he tries to clean up the mess he caused.]] |
| 87 | [[/folder]] |
| 88 | |
| 89 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 90 | * ''Fanfic/AlternativeClassDespair'': As Munakata's sanity slowly snaps, he decides that anyone who disagrees with him or his methods for dealing with the Remnants of Despair must be a Despair, even said person is his own girlfriend. The idea that someone else could have a different, less murderous viewpoint but still be on his side simply goes over his head. |
| 91 | * ''Fanfic/AvengersOfTheRing'': This concept serves as a good description of the antagonists' motivations in ''The Witch, the Wizard, and the Sorcerer'' sequel. [[spoiler:The former Blue Wizards of Middle-Earth have set up an elaborate digital network in Sokovia in the belief that this will allow Dormammu to take the corrupt souls of Earth and leave the pure to rebuild. However, Strange and Gandalf each acknowledge that factors such as trauma and loss could drive even good people to temporarily give into Dormammu's influence if they are caught unprepared]]. |
| 92 | * ''Fanfic/BeyondTheWall'': To the villagers, everything inside Gaea's walls is good, while everything outside them is bad. [[spoiler:To the point where they'll murder a filly without hesitation for trying to leave the village, because being outside the walls and beyond the reach of Gaea's love is considered a FateWorseThanDeath.]] |
| 93 | * ''Fanfic/CodePrime'': Suzaku, as in canon, views the world in terms of BlackAndWhiteMorality. Here, however, he starts to get progressively more unhinged and conflicted due to one of his enemies being [[IdealHero Optimus Prime]], who truly is a hero, yet is on the opposite side as Suzaku. This is further exacerbated by being on the same side as [[TheCorrupter Megatron]], who actively twists Suzaku into becoming a worse person. [[spoiler:Fortunately, the influence of Euphemia and [[NobleDemon Dreadwing]], along with being called out repeatedly, starts to get through to him; the SAZ Massacre (instigated by Megatron here) serves as the final blow, as Lelouch is able to get through to him afterwards.]] |
| 94 | * ''Fanfic/CrimsonRising'': While Adam Park’s police officer father isn’t outright ‘insane’, it is noted that he has very rigid views that mean he sees anyone who doesn’t obey the letter of the law as criminals, which includes the Power Rangers even though they have never hurt anyone. |
| 95 | * ''Fanfic/Digimon02TheStoryWeNeverTold'': Cody, even after the rest of the Digidestined accept that Ken is no longer the Digimon Emperor, continues to insist that the Emperor is planning something and Ken's still evil, right up until [[spoiler:Ken is killed by Oikawa]]. |
| 96 | * In ''Fanfic/{{Dominoes}}'', Nakamori Aoko has [[IRejectYourReality flat-out issues]] that functionally boil down to this. Initially, this manifests in childish optimism, but her simplistic moral view gains an increasingly insidious subtext as the story goes on, to the point that she implies that an abuse victim and the surviving family of a murder victim (whose late victim was framed for four deaths and four dozen injuries) [[BlamingTheVictim deserve their suffering]] and are unquestionably the bad guys if they stand against the ones who harmed them... because the ones who harmed them are the side she hero-worships and has joined, the International Super-Hero Association. By virtue of Aoko, her team, and the superheroes she idolizes [[TautologicalTemplar inherently]] being the good guys, the people they hurt and oppress who dare to stand up to them ''[[InsaneTrollLogic must]]'' be the bad guys. |
| 97 | * ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'': [[spoiler:Duke Libasheshtan]] is so convinced that Keepers are all simply and purely evil, that when he sees incontrovertible evidence that Ami is good, he breaks down into a HeroicBSOD. [[spoiler:But once he gets past that, he apologises to her and becomes a firm ally.]] |
| 98 | * ''Webcomic/FeralnetteAU'': White Knight views the world this way, dividing the world into three categories: [[ObviouslyEvil Villain]], [[KnightInShiningArmor Knight]], and [[PrincessClassic Princess]]. This fuels his power: those cut down by his blade transform into one of the three, [[spoiler:but an innocent person who happens to be nonbinary proves immune]]. |
| 99 | * ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Goh and Parker both slide into this during the second arc: |
| 100 | ** [[Characters/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrailGohFujihachi Goh Fujihachi]]'s descent is fueled by his [[NeverMyFault refusal to admit]] that he helped push Chloe away. Instead, he blames her for not trying hard enough to reconnect, [[AllTakeAndNoGive feeling SHE should have done all the work]] while HE kept chasing after Mew. He also develops a WithUsOrAgainstUs mentality wherein he gets ''furious'' over the notion that people are worried about ''anyone else'' who's '''also''' stuck on the Train -- despite how logically, helping them might lead to more help for Chloe. |
| 101 | ** Parker, meanwhile, is frustrated by feeling that [[KidsAreCruel his sisters' bullies]] weren't punished ''enough'' for their actions. The LaserGuidedKarma they were hit with during the first arc wasn't ''satisfying'' enough for him, and their ringleader shows [[TheUnapologetic an absolute lack of remorse]] for everything she did. Once [[spoiler:the Unown]] get involved, [[FromBadToWorse the situation spirals out of control]] as he attempts to ensure ''everybody'' that he feels slighted his sister is duly punished... |
| 102 | * In ''Fanfic/{{Kage}}'', Caleb is shown to harbor a black-and-white viewpoint bordering on this trope. From the moment of first meeting [[HeroWithBadPublicity Jade]] (who's partially turned back into a Shadowkhan) when she appears by chance, he refuses to consider her to be anything but a minion of Phobos or a threat nonetheless even more adamantly than the Guardians or Elyon (due to her [[CastingAShadow shadow powers]], actions of her SuperPoweredEvilSide and [[TheMole Nerissa's]] manipulations). He also states that he'll have all the villages who supported Phobos punished, regardless of their reasoning. Jade lampshades this trope by comparing Caleb to comic book heroes who have no place for gray in their black-and-white viewpoint. |
| 103 | * ''Fanfic/MarinetteDupainChengsSpitePlaylist: Remix'' has Alya, who slides increasingly into this mentality over time. In her case, this stems from the notion that if [[CassandraTruth Marinette was telling the truth]] about [[ManipulativeBastard Lila]], that would mean that Alya [[WeUsedToBeFriends pushed her former BFF away]] and refused to listen to her for no good reason... and in the process, ''also'' lost Ladybug's trust and her place as Rena Rouge. [[NeverMyFault To avoid facing the idea that she made such major mistakes]], she latches onto Lila's claims that ''Marinette'' was a BitchInSheepsClothing all along, and [[BrokenPedestal so was Ladybug]]. When Adrien tries speaking out against Lila, she accuses him of being just as bad as his ChildhoodFriend [[SpoiledBrat Chloé]], [[IRejectYourReality rejecting reality]] rather than owning up to being misled. |
| 104 | * In ''Fanfic/TheMarvelousWorldOfDC'', the Spectre believes that all MagicIsEvil, but others recognise that the truth is more complex than that. |
| 105 | * In ''Fanfic/PokemonShadowOfTime'', Paul of all people has a version of this, as he considers anyone using a Shadow Pokemon to be just as bad as a Cipher Peon, acting as though Ash is the 'villain' when Ash's only Shadow Pokemon is Pikachu, who has shown no sign of being any more dangerous than a standard Pokemon. |
| 106 | * In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'': |
| 107 | ** This was the reason [[spoiler:D___t]] was ''really'' [[RetGone erased from existence]]: [[spoiler:he saw gods as inherently tyrannical to the point of [[FinalSolution trying to wipe them all out]] to 'truly free' mortals. Even in the timeline we see where he ''won'', he can't seem to comprehend how wicked his actions are, even when reality has been reduced to an empty void with disembodied souls floating with not rhyme, reason, or ''free will'', as the concepts of those things are dead.]] |
| 108 | ** [[spoiler:Nightmare Eclipse, the ''true'' BigBad of [[BadFuture Dark World]]]] has this problem. [[spoiler:She has a ''very'' good reason for hating Discord (namely she's the original Dark World Twilight Sparkle who spent a thousand years his brainwashed, murderous [[TheDragon Dragon]] and he took everything from her), the problem is she's developed the mentality of 'me and everyone associated with me is good, Discord and everything associated with him is irredeemably evil.' This includes ''Dark World itself'', meaning she has absolutely no compulsions about erasing the whole thousand-year period and condemning everyone in it to Oblivion as part of her GroundhogDayLoop revenge scheme. She's this to such a degree that by the end, her and Discord's sides on the 'black and white' scale of ''flipped'' without her noticing: Discord has long since realized what a monster he was and would gladly ''stop'' being one, but Eclipse is ''forcing'' him to remain an EvilOverlord so she can keep punishing him over and over again.]] |
| 109 | * Dumbledore in ''Fanfic/PrincessOfTheBlacks'' series outright insists that either you're good and would never kill anyone under any circumstances or you're evil and have to be redeemed. Even someone like Voldemort shouldn't be killed in his book. |
| 110 | * ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/43468338 Prompt: Self Destruction]]'': Chat Noir believes that those that help Marinette and stop [[ManipulativeBastard Lila]] are good and those that fail to so are Marinette's enemies, a line of thinking that concerns Marinette herself. Just to emphasize the insane part, he applies this morality to ''himself''. He sees his hero identity as good since he help Marinette exposed Lila and his civilian identity as Adrien as "evil" because his high road advice [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom nearly led Marinette to be framed and expelled by Lila]], despite not knowing how bad Lila was until after the attempt. Plagg calls him out on how unhealthy and insane that line of thinking is. |
| 111 | * A significant plot point in ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10448834/1/Six-Paths-of-Rebellion Six Paths of Rebellion]]'' is Suzaku's inability to understand that Britannia can do evil and the Black Knights can do good. He even goes so far as to insist that the Shinjuku and Saitama Massacres were the Black Knights' fault. The tipping point where Suzaku goes from "refusing to understand" to "genuinely unstable" is when he insists the Japanese should prefer Britannia, which "gave them the SAZ where they could live freely" over Zero whom he considers "a monster made flesh" after the Black Rebellion succeeds. |
| 112 | * Discussed in ''Fanfic/TotalDramaNations''. Dmitri tells Emma that she's applying this to all of the other contestants and that it is unhealthy to think that way. Emma, thinking that she is just being a hero, doesn't know how to react. The Insanity part of it comes later, once she [[spoiler:starts hallucinating voices and attempts murder on three of her more villainous teammates]]. |
| 113 | -->'''Emma:''' No. Dmitri's wrong. Sure, there may be a few neutral people in the world. But, especially in ''Total Drama'', everyone can be split into good or evil. |
| 114 | * In ''Fanfic/WhyAmICrying'', Scootaloo has a hard time accepting the fact that [[AlphaBitch Diamond Tiara]] actually did nice things in her life, and that her kind-hearted teacher Miss Cheerilee was a cruel [[TheBully bully]] in her high school days, since those facts challenge her perception that all bullies are heartless monsters who are born pure evil and are incapable of change. She gets better. |
| 115 | [[/folder]] |
| 116 | |
| 117 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 118 | * In ''Film/TheBatman2022'', the Riddler is a NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist, being a LoonyFan of Batman who wants to clean up crime [[SuperheroParadox like he does]] but is too AxCrazy to care about collateral damage. [[spoiler:In the climax he decides to destroy the city on the grounds that ItIsBeyondSaving and targets the new mayor to that end, in spite of the fact that she's a force for reform like he claims to be.]] |
| 119 | * Two-Face's condition is even worse in ''Film/BatmanForever'' than it is in the comics, as his good side, if he even has one, seems to be an excuse at best. To emphasize the point, he has two henchwomen named Sugar and Spice, a pair of attractive women who are supposed to represent his good side (Creator/DrewBarrymore) and his evil side (Debi Mazar) in very sexy ways. However, Sugar, the one who is supposed to represent his good side, is just as evil as Spice. Two-Face's actions show that rather than having a good side and an evil side, he only has the evil side but becomes obsessed with wanting the world to be fair. He only looks to commit murders but everyone gets a coin toss for a chance to be let go. Made worse by scenes showing him repeatedly flipping a coin until it comes up the way he wants it to. This makes it seem less like this trope and more like an OCD-type behavior. |
| 120 | * In ''Film/DetectiveStory'', Detective Jim [=McLeod=] views the world this way, even refusing to give a break to a man who embezzled a small amount of money despite the victim not wanting to prosecute. He tells them that he'll commit another crime and another until he's like the gibbering idiots they've also arrested. His world collapses when he finds out [[spoiler:his saintly wife knew men before him, became pregnant, and had an abortion]]. |
| 121 | * ''Film/FriendOfTheWorld'': CrazySurvivalist General Gore carries this flaw in every choice he makes. |
| 122 | * ''Film/GodBlessAmerica'': |
| 123 | ** With his strict morality of right versus wrong, Frank Murdoch's reality crumbles. He comes across as being less capable of comprehending the world than Roxy Harmon, who easily exploits his insecurity to get him to embark on his misguided crusade. While he's a WindmillCrusader, she seems to simply be in it ForTheEvulz. |
| 124 | ** The television ranter, tea party members, and Westboro Baptist Church picketers Frank kills are also portrayed as suffering from this -- either genuinely or simply pretending to get attention. |
| 125 | * In ''Film/TheLedge'', Joe lives in his own personal world of strictly black-and-white morality. This gives a life that is very good but also very fragile. When reality doesn't conform to his over-simplified worldview, everything crumbles. |
| 126 | * [[KnightTemplar Overzealous mall cop]] Ronnie Barnhardt in ''Film/ObserveAndReport'' suffers from this flaw, in addition to Bipolar Disorder. |
| 127 | * In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Anakin Skywalker slowly becomes more and more deluded that all opponents of [[BigBad Chancellor Palpatine]] are enemies of the Republic, culminating in him [[InvokedTrope declaring a]] WithUsOrAgainstUs to his former mentor. Obi-wan retorts by saying "Only Sith deal in absolutes", which might also function as this trope. |
| 128 | * In ''Film/SilentHill'', Christabella and her cultists see the world in black-and-white, refusing to understand how horrible their own deeds are or that the hellish state of the world they live in is their own fault. |
| 129 | * In ''Film/TuckerAndDaleVsEvil'', Chad keeps insisting on a black-and-white narrative with himself as the good guy and the hillbillies as the villains. While the belief is initially fueled by a series of highly unlikely misunderstandings, he continues to cling to the belief to insane degrees once the truth becomes apparent due to some latent trauma. |
| 130 | [[/folder]] |
| 131 | |
| 132 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 133 | * The murderer in ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'' suffers from this trope. They explain in a confession letter that even as a child, they were self-aware enough to realize that they [[TheSociopath lacked all emotion and capacity for empathy]], but had also been "cursed" with an extremely strong sense of right and wrong. As they grew older, they gradually became obsessed with the notion of killing someone, but this trope prevented them from simply choosing a random target--it had to be a person who had done something genuinely evil to justify the deed. The murderer then hit upon the idea of choosing TenLittleMurderVictims who had committed "untouchable" crimes--things that, while definitely deadly, the law couldn't prove or punish (such as not giving an elderly woman her medicine or berating a pregnant young woman to the point where she [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself]]). This way, the murderer got to experience the rush of killing while also administering their own twisted sense of justice, [[spoiler:including executing himself afterward; after all, he was a murderer multiple times over]]. |
| 134 | * ''Literature/AvestaOfBlackAndWhite'' features perhaps one of the most extreme examples in fiction. Everything in the universe is defined by their Avesta, which is basically their moral alignment of either Good or Evil and makes someone act a certain way, with both sides locked in a ForeverWar and are fundamentally incapable of reconciling or seeing the other's side. As a result, extremist black-and-white thinking is not only encouraged but is basically the very framework by which the universe operates. |
| 135 | ** To put things into perspective, the character Alma has the unique ability to make her Avesta appear as though it belongs to the other faction allowing her to act as TheMole. But this also means that she has to be careful around her own allies as they might attack her on pure instinct even though they know intellectually that she is on their side, and that's before even getting into how hard the ability is on Alma herself psychologically. The Good vs Evil conflict is simply so fundamental of a building block of their universe that an ability like that is downright unthinkable for anyone to endure. |
| 136 | ** One moment that really nails this down is when the demon lord [[AffablyEvil Kaikhosru]] sees through Alma's attempt to assassinate him, and instead of killing her or anything of the like, he makes her one of his mistresses and is even willing to compromise with her and show kindness. The other Good characters can't believe their ears upon hearing this and are thoroughly convinced that there must be some greater evil behind those actions. Basically, the guy acts in ways that run completely counter to everyone's understanding of morals as any kind of moral grayness is treated as straight-up BlueAndOrangeMorality in this universe. |
| 137 | * Holden Caulfield from ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' suffers from this trope, thinking that the entire world of adulthood is filled with phonies and that children should be protected from the real world's corrupting influence. He eventually realizes the extent of the overprotectiveness to which he would be subjecting children but ends up in the mental hospital nonetheless. |
| 138 | * ''Literature/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Oriana Thomson wants all morality to be reduced to black and white so that nobody has conflicting ideas about what is good and evil. |
| 139 | * Played with in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' books. Granny Weatherwax is accused of having an overly black-and-white view of the world in ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'', but as she explains to Mightily Oats, in her opinion, "[[AntiHero gray's just white]] that's [[IDidWhatIHadToDo got grubby]]." |
| 140 | * ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'': This trope was the reason why the Seventh Doctor has to fight his counterpart from the Land of Fiction -- known as 'Dr. Who', and allegedly based on the Doctor from some of the early comics -- in the novel ''Head Games''; Dr. Who is only capable of seeing things in black and white, such as destroying the aliens who were threatening humans on an alien planet just because they looked like monsters (in reality, they were the native population objecting to being oppressed), considering the Doctor 'evil' for destroying an alternate Earth and allowing an entire solar system to be destroyed (which the Doctor had to let happen to preserve the universe and the Web of Time, respectively), and even trying to kill Queen Elizabeth II as the representative of the poor state of the modern British government. |
| 141 | * ''Literature/FateApocrypha'': Atalante WouldntHurtAChild, and thus is horrified when she finds out that Jack the Ripper is a little girl. To make matters worse, Jack is really an amalgamation of the souls of hundreds of unloved, unborn children, driven to murder due to their hatred and rage for their lot in life. Jeanne decides that the only thing that can be done is to exorcise them so they can be free from their pain and go to the afterlife. Even after Jeanne explains this, and even after Jack thanks her before passing on, Atalante condemns her and makes it her mission to kill Jeanne. As far as Atalante is concerned, even if it was a MercyKill, Jeanne killed those children, and that makes her evil. Also, after the encounter with Jack, Atalante has a black material sticking to her arm, actually a remnant of Jack composed of souls of unborn children who demand vengeance rather than being happy for passing away. Jeanne misses exorcising that one, and Atalante lets that material stick with her since she considers her failure to save the children something that needs punishment. The result is that [[BrainwashedAndCrazy her hatred to Jeanne is amplified to insane levels]]. |
| 142 | * In ''Literature/{{Flatland}}'', the ruling caste enforces a BlackAndWhiteMorality worldview to the point where they outlaw color, enforcing the world to literally be black and white. Their excuse for this draconic law is that it's needed for preserving the sexual purity of their women. |
| 143 | * Most of the human antagonists in ''Literature/HereticalEdge'' think this way. The hardline faction is convinced that everything supernatural and non-human is pure evil and inimical to humanity. They're very, very wrong. |
| 144 | * In ''Literature/IronDruidChronicles'', the Hammers of God have very clear lines on what constitutes good magic (i.e. the faith type they practice) and what is evil magic (i.e. pretty much anything else). And deal with practitioners of "evil" magic AsTheGoodBookSays (i.e. Suffer not a witch to live). [[spoiler:Though in ''Staked'' it's revealed that Atticus managed to make them see the error of their zealotry and to allow some grey to creep into their worldview.]] |
| 145 | * Javert from ''Literature/LesMiserables'' has no room in his worldview for moral ambiguity. No matter how minor your crime was, if you break the law at all, you are evil in his eyes. He chases down Jean Valjean for ''twenty-one years'' because Valjean broke his parole. Javert's case of Black-and-White Insanity is so strong that when events force him to confront his worldview and his worldview creates a [[MortonsFork moral dilemma he can't solve]], he is overtaken by despair and [[spoiler:throws himself off a bridge into the Seine]]. |
| 146 | * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': |
| 147 | ** The priestess/sorceress Melisandre of Asshai is convinced that everything she does, including burning people alive or using magic to fake the appearance of a prophecy coming true, is all in the name of the greater good. This is probably best exemplified when she speaks to Davos Seaworth. She asks if he is a good man or an evil one, he says that like most men he has both. Her response: |
| 148 | --->If half an onion is black with rot, it is a rotten onion. A man is good or he is evil. |
| 149 | ** Davos reflects the metaphor right back at her: when he delivered his ship of much-needed supplies to [[TheSiege the besieged soldiers of Storm's End]], many of the onions were half-rotten, and eagerly eaten nonetheless. |
| 150 | ** Try telling Cersei Lannister that fawning sycophants do not make great allies. Or that criticism aimed in her direction does not automatically make the person who came out with it a deadly enemy who must be put on the "future accident" list for her peace of mind. Well, she doesn't ''always'' do that: she also verbally abuses and belittles them enough to ''actually'' make them loathe her enough to become active roadblocks to her various plots and plans. If you are not her child, her twin, or a YesMan, she just doesn't see why she shouldn't abuse and discard you whenever she wants to, as you're simply never going to be worthy enough to be truly on her side. |
| 151 | * ''Literature/StarWarsLostStars'': After the [[EarthShatteringKaboom destruction of his homeworld]], Alderaanian Imperial officer Nash Windrider slowly descends into this, as he doubles down on his fanatic loyalty to the Empire in order to cope. He justifies Alderaan's destruction and the deaths of his family by believing anything the Empire does is necessary for a utopian future and anyone who fights against it is absolute scum. |
| 152 | * In ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', Nale divides people into law-obeying and law-breaking. In his eyes, only the law-obeying are allowed to live in peace; the law-breaking, regardless of the severity of their crime, must be punished with death, because to spare them is to invite recidivism. |
| 153 | * This is shown in ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'', a world in which the forces of light finally won a decisive victory over darkness a hundred and fifty years ago. By the time of the story's present, the heroes of the world run about unchecked and have no qualms hunting down [[NonMaliciousMonster Non-Malicious Monsters]], brainwashing villains and robbing them of their free will, and committing genocide on AlwaysChaoticEvil races. They believe their actions are acceptable since they're "on the right side" but the {{Villain Protagonist}}s of the story note that they seem more concerned with "Black and White" than "Right and Wrong". |
| 154 | * In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', [[ByronicHero Hollyleaf]] believes that the warrior code is the utmost right and that it must be protected at all costs. [[spoiler:When she learns that her entire ''existence'' goes against Clan tradition, [[GoMadFromTheRevelation she becomes justifiably insane]].]] |
| 155 | * ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': |
| 156 | ** Galad has a comparatively minor case of this; he's described as "always doing the right thing, no matter who it hurts" and has ''very'' strict ideas concerning what right and wrong entail. This leads him eventually to join [[ChurchMilitant the Children of the Light]], an organization (in)famous for this kind of thinking. [[spoiler:In the later books, he begins to lighten up, at least a little, especially after people he respects challenge his worldview and point out how even the best-intentioned person can be simply wrong, even working from the best information that they have. On the plus side, because he's now influential in the Children, his lightening up is taking the organization with him.]] |
| 157 | ** As a whole, the Children of the Light. Quite a few of them smell ''rabid'' to wolves. |
| 158 | * Discussed in ''Literature/TheWitchlands'' when Caden accuses Safi of this after noting that her power (she's a LivingLieDetector) lends itself for neatly arranging people into "true" and "false", stating that she's too focused on it to see the reasons behind truthfulness or falseness. Safi retorts by telling him that she can't do that because [[Series/{{House}} everybody lies]]. |
| 159 | [[/folder]] |
| 160 | |
| 161 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 162 | * ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'': |
| 163 | ** The Watchers Council says all demons are evil. Of course, this is first disproved by the [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire vampire with a soul]] Angel, and then the soulless vampire Spike, who actually goes and [[LoveRedeems gets a soul for love]]. Not to mention Clem, a demon so non-evil that not only does Buffy trust him with Dawn, but Dawn is able to push him around (and he comes to Buffy's birthday party). Not to mention that the Slayers themselves have powers that are demonic in origin. |
| 164 | ** ''Series/{{Angel}}'' showed the Council's position to be nonsense, with scores of non-evil demons appearing. Even many of the demons they fight are "evil" not in a LegionsOfHell apocalyptic way, but in a career criminal, thug-for-hire way. |
| 165 | ** Connor. The sad fact is that he never really adjusts to our world. Angel is a killer; therefore, he should die. The world is harsh and cruel; Jasmine made it a paradise, so she must be good. He considers himself ''above'' Angel Investigations in this respect, accusing them of fighting empty battles and helping to maintain the status quo. |
| 166 | * ''Series/CobraKai'': A lot of the series conflict, especially in the second season, stems from the fact that Daniel [=LaRusso=] refuses to view Johnny Lawrence and the Cobra Kai dojo as anything but a VillainByDefault ThugDojo due to his experiences in the original ''Film/TheKarateKid'' trilogy. Even though it's clear Johnny genuinely wants to make his version of the dojo better than Sensei Kreese's and the students, one of whom is a family friend Daniel has known for over a decade, are all bullied outcasts who just want to learn to defend themselves, Daniel considers them an evil that needs to be destroyed for good. As a result, his methods to oppose the dojo veer into TautologicalTemplar territory and his own group of students become convinced that they're the "good guys" and anything they do to the Cobras is fair game. |
| 167 | * ''Series/GameOfThrones'': |
| 168 | ** Melisandre believes in a constant struggle between the good force of Light and the evil force of Darkness. Consequently, anything that doesn't align with the Lord of Light is evil and must be destroyed because if half an onion is black with rot, it's a rotten onion. |
| 169 | ** [[Characters/GameOfThronesDaenerysTargaryen Queen Daenerys Targaryen]] shows signs of this during her SlaveLiberation, particularly in Meereen, when she starts dealing out vengeful punishments to the ruling class with the rationale that it is justice because they deserve it because they are evil, with no thought to how much or little the individuals involved were actually responsible for. Jorah is eventually able to talk her down, reminding her that he used to be a slaver himself. More subtly, there is her mounting paranoia that has come in as a result of being betrayed and used all her life by Viserys, Illyrio Mopatis, Mirri Maz Duur, the Qartheen, and later the fact that Jorah was initially a spy, which has hardened her stance. She still persisted at first in thinking of Robert Baratheon as TheUsurper and remains in the dark about the kind of person her father truly was, believing that the people who deposed him were evil and without cause. By Season 5, however, she has come to be aware of her father's insanity, with Tyrion Lannister — now a trusted advisor — informing her of why Jaime killed her father. Now, Dany openly refers to her father as terrible. [[spoiler:By Season 8, she's slid back into this, and eventually it gets her killed because it would have turned her into almost as bad a tyrant as her father.]] |
| 170 | * ''Series/{{Gotham}}'': At first, [[ByTheBookCop Nathaniel Barnes]] was apathetic at best to anyone who broke the law in any way. But then he transforms into the [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner Executioner]], a maniacal KnightTemplar killing everyone he can who did literally anything he considers even slightly immoral (although he claims to only kill criminals, he's quite happy to kill anyone who even speaks about him unflatteringly). |
| 171 | * ''Series/TheGoodPlace'': The Afterlife works like this. Only the most outstanding high achieving philanthropists reach [[{{Heaven}} The Good Place]], and everyone else goes to [[{{Hell}} The Bad Place]]. There's also no middle ground; actual evil people, jerks, and people who were nice but not enough, all go to The Bad Place, all based on an arbitrary point system (you lose points for being French and gain points for being vegan as long as you're not pushy about it). The system gets called out all the time for this fact; Eleanor often makes comments on the fact that while she wasn't good, but she wasn't evil either and there should be a "Medium Place" for people like her. Then, in Season 3, we find out that [[spoiler:the standards for getting into the Good Place are so high that nobody has gotten in for over 500 years. This EasyRoadToHell has come about because globalization starting from the Age of Colonization has caused modern life to become so complicated and the world so interconnected that nearly any good act can be dragged down by several unintentional bad ones no matter how pure your motivations are. For example, buying your grandmother a bouquet of flowers for her birthday can ''lose'' you points if the CEO of the flower company sexually harasses his secretary, the cell phone you used to place the order contains minerals that were mined using slave labor, the flowers were grown with pesticides, and the shipping process to deliver the bouquet to Grandma dumps a bunch of pollution into the atmosphere. None of the PowersThatBe see anything wrong with the system and when the protagonists manage to make [[{{God}} Gen]] realize how unfair it is, her first instinct is to try to RestartTheWorld instead of changing the system.]] |
| 172 | * ''Franchise/KamenRider'': |
| 173 | ** Satoru Tojo from ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' is a HeroicWannabe with a habit of killing off his close acquaintances and dismissing the other Riders in the [[ThereCanOnlyBeOne Rider War]] as unworthy of being 'heroes'. Notably, it's his presence and conviction that what he is doing is right that causes protagonist Shinji Kido to seriously take into consideration that the participants of the Rider War are not simply made up of bad people wanting to do bad things and that there are a lot of gray areas to be considered. |
| 174 | ** [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Shijima Gou]] from ''Series/KamenRiderDrive'' has all Roidmudes classified as pure evil, and most of time, he is pretty close. Enter Chase, their NobleDemon top hitman. As if that was not bad enough, Gou soon learns that [[MySisterIsOffLimits his sister]] may be in love with Chase. He loses a few marbles afterwards. |
| 175 | * ''Series/{{Monk}}'' will try to prosecute people for letting their dogs pee in the street, having an uneven number of buttons undone on their shirts/sweaters, or wearing mismatched socks because such "crimes against the universe" will "invariably" lead to crimes like ArsonMurderAndJaywalking. And don't even get him started on nudists... |
| 176 | * Virginia in the ''Series/NorthAndSouthUS'' miniseries is against slavery. Fine. Believing that everyone from the southern USA is AlwaysChaoticEvil? Not so fine. And it keeps going downhill from there, with her ruining her own life and arguably becoming more of a liability to her cause rather than an asset. |
| 177 | * ''Series/{{Oz}}'': Clayton Hughes only sees things in terms of black and white, which is made worse by [[NeverMyFault his inability to take responsibility for his actions]], resulting in him seeing everyone who doesn't agree with him one-hundred percent as evil. It ultimately results in him being radicalized and becoming a self-righteous madman. |
| 178 | * Lena Luthor in ''Series/Supergirl2015'' has this as her FatalFlaw. In Lena's eyes, you are either truly good or irredeemably bad, no middle ground. Even if someone she considers good uses less than squeaky clean methods (herself included), she will find the intentions justified. However, if anyone dares to lie to Lena or betray her trust, they will be little to no chance of RebuiltPedestal for the transgressor in question. |
| 179 | * In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', most spirits have a bad case of this. They see anyone who happens to be their target as completely evil and deserving of death or some other horrific fate, no matter what the victim had actually done; all that matters is making them suffer. The most straightforward example of this is Bloody Mary, who would kill anyone with a DarkSecret that involved someone's death, but this results in her going after people who only feel responsible for a death since, in her eyes, they’re guilty (to elaborate, the man who likely killed his wife and the girl who apparently killed a child in a hit-and-run accident are just as "guilty" to Mary as the girl whose obsessive controlling boyfriend committed suicde after she left him). |
| 180 | * Police commander Howard "Bunny" Colvin from ''Series/TheWire'' bemoans how police adopting a black-and-white mentality and an increasing determination to never compromise or question the "War on Drugs", regardless of its obvious failings, has changed being a police officer for the worse throughout his career. In [[https://youtu.be/BA5za4VsskM?t=22s one frustrated speech]], he says that police officers are being turned into wartime soldiers, and outlines what he sees as the differences between the two. (According to him, one protects a community and the people within it, while the other kills their enemies.) He goes on to add that this has only succeeded in turning the very community that police are supposed to protect into their enemies. |
| 181 | -->I mean you call something a war, and pretty soon everyone is going to be running around acting like warriors. They gonna be running around on a damn crusade, storming corners, racking up body counts. And when you at war, you need a fucking enemy. And pretty soon damn near everybody on every corner is your fucking enemy. And pretty soon the neighborhood you're supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory... Soldiering and policing, they ain't the same thing. |
| 182 | [[/folder]] |
| 183 | |
| 184 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 185 | * In Music/BadReligion lyrics, this trope is implied to be one of the main problems with people and society. |
| 186 | * Music/BillyJoel: |
| 187 | ** In his song "Shades of Grey", while he notes his own departure from BlackAndWhiteMorality and how much easier it was, he also cautions in the vein of this trope: |
| 188 | --->''And the only people I fear\ |
| 189 | are those who never have doubts\ |
| 190 | Save us all from arrogant men,\ |
| 191 | and all the causes they're for'' |
| 192 | ** This is also exemplified in the title character of his "Angry Young Man". |
| 193 | * The video for the Music/InsaneClownPosse song "Wrestling/ChrisBenoit" touches on this in the form of a Rubix cube that arranges itself from evenly checkered to solid black or white on each side, representing the titular wrestler's descent into the insanity that led him to kill his family. The use of chess pieces and dice also add to the Black versus White theme prevalent in the video. |
| 194 | * Music/TheMonkees also did a song "Shades of Grey" with the same theme, but without the caution aspect. |
| 195 | * Music/{{Vocaloid}} producer Nem has a song called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMag4s6Boww "Super Hero"]]. In it, the title character, Kagamine Len, chooses to become a superhero like his idol on a cartoon show in order to administer justice. Over time, he finds the real evil lies in the government and tries to destroy the system for the greater good. |
| 196 | -->''I'm a superhero!!\ |
| 197 | The time has come to change the world\ |
| 198 | Call me insane? Call me a murderer?\ |
| 199 | You're the ones who are evil!\ |
| 200 | Terrorist, you say? That's outrageous!\ |
| 201 | Hey, where do you think you're taking me?!\ |
| 202 | I protect everyone, this town, this world, and you!\ |
| 203 | I'm your great and noble hero!!\ |
| 204 | This wasn't the way it ended on TV....'' |
| 205 | * In Hitoshizuku-P's song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW-6U5bCyS4 "Karakuri Burst,"]] Kagamine Len states that his views of morality are separated only by 'black and white'. |
| 206 | * R.I.P's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc_JjKrrauo "The Monochrome Mentality"]], is all about this. vflower and Gumi both claim that an unnamed character is either pure evil or pure good respectively, and Maika bemoans this line of thinking. |
| 207 | -->''[[TitleDrop The monochrome mentality]]''\ |
| 208 | ''Is what made this nightmare start'' |
| 209 | * {{Downplayed}} and {{Discussed}} in Music/PoetsOfTheFall's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGWBGFZcKGE&index=11&list=PLjACqN5i5sDWoCTXHzphV5EZtNqPEmYaP "Nothing Stays the Same,"]] as the singer describes wallowing in absolutist thinking in darker, depressive moments. |
| 210 | -->''And black and white thoughts have all bowed to me\ |
| 211 | As I've walked through their unlit corridors'' |
| 212 | * The BlackMetal band Music/DeathspellOmega discusses this trope extensively in a [[http://www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2019/06/23/deathspell-omega-interview/ 2019 interview]], in which they argue that good and evil are not as clear-cut as people wish to believe, and suggest that their musical and lyrical output is intended as a counterargument to this belief: |
| 213 | --> "It acts like a mirror and some may, predictably, not like what they see –- if they see anything at all –- because it contributes to shatter a myth that’s so central to stability both on an individual and civilisational level: the impervious necessity to believe that what we do is just, that we are just, that good and evil in intent and deed are as distinct as night and day. That what we do is condoned either by God or whatever man-made order that’s taken precedence –- whose exceptionalism is of course indisputable and acts like a secular religion. Those who missed the religious nature of the ideology of progress, nationalism, Marxism, basically any discourse based on a human collective from an essentialist point of view, up to Milton Friedman’s approach to capitalism and the potential of a good narrative to befuddle the masses, Pied Piper of Hamelin-style –- haven’t been paying much attention to their surroundings. In short, one of the questions emerging at the end of the process reads as follows: how much have YOU already surrendered to the Devil? How many of the depicted mechanisms have YOU unconsciously made your own, thus how infected and corrupt are YOU? People often greatly overestimate their innocence –- the louder the virtue signalling, the higher the odds –- but it takes a frank and courageous character to admit to that." |
| 214 | ** They also argue that humans' intrinsic necessity to believe that they are good and that humanity is intrinsically good has, in some sense, enabled untold horrors such as war crimes, genocide, and the degradation of the environment: |
| 215 | ---> "Lucid in some regards –- Saint-Simon, Adam Smith, Herbert Spencer, Auguste Comte all knew that there had to be a derivative to man’s innate aggressive impulses and promoted industry as a means of channeling it and transforming this sinister energy into material progress for the collective. Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, author of La Marseillaise, wrote a chant to the glory of industry and productivism. Instead of conquering other people or other nations, man ought to conquer nature -– to subjugate the natural world under his yoke. These murderous impulses were neither amended nor negated, simply directed at another target. However, as Spinoza wrote, Deus sive Natura (God or nature). Twice, man committed the highest of crimes: by waging an absolutist war against nature and, therefore, against life itself. And, secondly, by severing the bond to nature and forging an anthropocentric worldview that places man above everything else and, therefore, can be used to justify just about anything –- no matter how short-sighted or ill-advised -– so long as it appears to serve mankind’s interests. Extracting man from the natural order, by intent if not in effect, was a sign of hubris which remains literally without equivalent and whose resulting devastations will know no equivalent either. Listen carefully enough and you’ll hear demonic snigger.\ |
| 216 | \ |
| 217 | Within years, an astute observer would’ve noticed what Günter Anders later called the ‘promethean gap’ between, on the one hand, ever-increasing technological prowess and, on the other hand, the astounding lack of moral progress of the species – feelings Anders so aptly named ‘promethean shame’. In parallel, as industry rapidly became an extension of mankind’s deadliest impulses directed toward his contemporaries, ideologies giving man the role of the Demiurge flourished and, predictably, ended in horrors on a scale that breaches the confines of imagination." |
| 218 | * Music/ElvisCostello's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5A8ZUB6b1I Complicated Shadows]]" skewers this mentality. |
| 219 | -->''Well, you know your time has come\ |
| 220 | And you're sorry for what you've done\ |
| 221 | You should've never been playing with a gun\ |
| 222 | In those complicated shadows\ |
| 223 | Well, there's a line that you must tow\ |
| 224 | And it'll soon be time to go\ |
| 225 | But it's darker than you know\ |
| 226 | In those complicated shadows''\ |
| 227 | [[/folder]] |
| 228 | |
| 229 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 230 | * ''TabletopGame/BeastThePrimordial'': Heroes represent the dangerous end-result of mixing this trope with AxCrazy; they are defined as [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]] who will seek out and destroy all [[DesignatedVillain Beasts]], even those who [[PokeThePoodle choose pretty innocuous methods]] of sating their HorrorHunger. In fact, Heroes see the universe in terms of "me as good; Beast as evil" that they easily slide into delusions of ProtagonistCenteredMorality, allowing them to effortlessly justify ''anything'' they do to themselves as being for TheNeedsOfTheMany. |
| 231 | * ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'': The [[BigBad Oracles]] have this as their defining character flaw. They've rejected any sort of possible nuance or greyness in morality, and act on very old and simplistic moral philosophies, being ''quite'' proactive in righting all the supposed wrongs they find. And no matter what you say, they always think they're the ones in the right. |
| 232 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': This is [[LightIsNotGood White]]'s main flaw, which is why {{Knight Templar}}s are fairly easy to create. A specific example were the Loxodons from Mirrodin (metal-covered anthropomorphic elephants), which were mentally incapable of accepting the concept of moral shades of grey. The white [[AlwaysChaoticEvil phyrexians]] that took over Mirrodin were even worse in that regard. |
| 233 | * ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': The Archangel Dominic has a habit of seeing the world in extremely stark moral absolutes, with no room for ambiguity, shades of gray, or subjectivity. As far as he's concerned, everything can be sharply separated between Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, True and False, Dominic's side and the wrong side. |
| 234 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'': |
| 235 | ** The Harmonium and Mercykiller factions tend to be extremely dogmatic, and are often presented as draconian monsters -- the courts often had to throw out cases where someone was arrested by the Harmonium for minor infractions like membership in a "wrong" faction. This came from being in a setting where belief is power and strong belief is ''more'' power, leading factions to resort to dogmatic extremism to get and keep their power. |
| 236 | ** In an interesting subversion, it's suggested that, for creatures who are born from and composed of the pure force of Good (or Law, or whatever), to ''cease'' to see the world in the black-and-white terms of their alignment is a sign of mental instability. The main example are a group of celestials (beings of pure Good) who conspired to keep the fiends (demons and devils) wrapped up in their EnemyCivilWar by running arms to both sides. Some seemed to be close to losing their grip from seeing things in shades of gray. In other words, shades-of-gray is a healthy and mature view for mortals but unhealthy for immortals, and black-and-white absolutism is the reverse. |
| 237 | * ''Tabletopgame/Warhammer40000'': Pretty much every single sentient being is afflicted by this, due to FantasticRacism. Except the AlwaysChaoticEvil ones. Of course, this being ''[[CrapsackWorld Warhammer 40000]]'', the only mistake most of them make is [[BlackAndGreyMorality assuming there's a "white"]]. |
| 238 | * ''TabletopGame/WarhammerAgeOfSigmar'': Some Stormcast Eternals can slide into this over time; unfortunately, the process that allows them to come BackFromTheDead when killed in battle has the side effect of shaving off a sliver of their humanity each time. Those who've gone through the process ''many'' times -- and that number is growing as the war against Chaos continues -- slowly lose the ability to discern shades of grey in morality, ruthlessly hunting any who stray even slightly from Sigmar's doctrine. [[GodOfGood Sigmar]] himself is quite depressed about this, but views it as NecessarilyEvil until he can figure out how to fix it. |
| 239 | [[/folder]] |
| 240 | |
| 241 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 242 | * This is [[AntiVillain Inspector Javert's]] FatalFlaw in ''Theatre/LesMiserables.'' As an officer of the law, he views all criminals -- regardless of their crime -- as evil and all those who uphold the rules, including himself, as good. As such, he spends the better part of twenty years hunting down Jean Valjean, a man who, despite stealing a loaf of bread to save his starving sister and nephew, served his time and repeatedly proves himself just, compassionate, and caring. But Javert cannot let go of the image of Valjean as an inherently corrupt person, and so develops an unhealthy obsession with capturing Valjean and exposing him as a villain. This leads to a [[VillainousBreakdown total breakdown]] when Valjean has Javert at his mercy and chooses to set him free instead of seeking revenge. The notion that an "evil" person could do such a kind action is too much for Javert to take, and he's ultimately DrivenToSuicide as he realizes that his total BlackAndWhiteMorality is, and always has been, foolish. |
| 243 | * In the ''Theatre/MrsHawking'' play series, Mrs. Hawking herself falls into this trope over the course of several plays. We first see it in Part III, ''Base Instruments'': after a suspect in a murder investigation lies to her, she immediately considers that suspect the most likely culprit...even though she was the one who hired Mrs. Hawking to begin with. This worldview gradually gets worse as the shows progress -- in Part V, ''Mrs. Frost'', her entire crimefighting career grinds to a halt because of her non-stop obsession with the title villain, and in Part VI, ''Fallen Women'', she refuses to believe that ''any'' marriage could possibly be happy because of how self-serving and controlling men are, despite her maid Mary's protests to the contrary. |
| 244 | * In ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet'', the titular character ends up falling into a twisted version of this trope to support his philosophy. He "reasons" that there are only two kinds of people in the world -- the manipulative and destructive upper class and their poor, downtrodden victims. As such, he decides to murder anyone and everyone who crosses his path -- it will be karmic justice for the former and a sweet release for the latter. |
| 245 | [[/folder]] |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 248 | * Tuyet from ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}''. She's a LawfulEvil character, who wants to take over the Matoran universe because she genuinely believes [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans she could make it a better place]]. However, an Alternate Universe shows that this would mean brainwashing all the other Toa into {{Knight Templar}}s, and killing anyone who poses a potential threat to her position as Empress. |
| 249 | [[/folder]] |
| 250 | |
| 251 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 252 | * Handsome Jack of ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' operates off of the reasoning of "Hyperion = good, everyone else = bad", completely disregarding everything good his enemies have done and [[TautologicalTemplar his own moral bankruptcy]]. Even when recalling a story of [[EyeScream scooping out someone's eyes with a spoon]], he'll still recall the story as if they were some kind of insane savage because of the fact that they weren't Hyperion, and laugh about the incident like the guy brought it on himself and started it when in reality it sounds like the guy was trying to defend his kids from Jack. |
| 253 | * The Crimson Court DLC for ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' added new bosses to the game, one of them being a prime example of this trope: the Fanatic. Obsessed with destroying the Crimson Curse, he shows up in random dungeons to attack parties containing infected heroes and is completely unconcerned with whether or not the people he burns at the stake are themselves infected; anyone with the Crimson Curse, to him, is evil, and anyone who aids them is abetting that evil. Even the Ancestor, a man whose obsessive pursuit of [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Things Man Was Not Meant To Know]] is responsible for much of the crap you have to clean up in the game and which led to him shooting himself in the head while an angry mob broke down the door to his room, [[EvenEvilHasStandards thinks the Fanatic is little more than a rabid animal that needs to be put down]]. |
| 254 | * ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'': |
| 255 | ** Anders becomes more and more obsessed with the Mage/Templar issue of Kirkwallover time. And as [[FightingFromTheInside he's starting to lose the battle against the Spirit of Vengeance]], he becomes more and more hostile to those he perceives as pro-Templar or just generally an enemy of mages, including those in Hawke's party. He seems to struggle equally with the idea that mages can do wrong. No matter how many blood mages you encounter in Kirkwall, Anders will always assume that accusations of blood magic or wrongdoing on the part of a mage are Templar lies until confronted with direct evidence. When you encounter the conspiracy between mages and Templars in Act III, Anders is completely shocked and disbelieving that the prime driving force for attacking Hawke was Grace, a mage they had previously rescued. |
| 256 | ** Fenris believes that all mages are evil, period. Interestingly, he's aware that it's a bad idea to overgeneralize the innocent many based on the actions of a guilty few. But reminding him of that will cause him to rationalize that bad magic is so tempting that all innocent mages will eventually become guilty. Unlike Anders, Fenris never quite acts on his belief beyond insulting the mages in the party, and Fenris will sometimes apologize for being rude if it's pointed out to him. Fenris will even help mages if Hawke points out their treatment could be considered a form of slavery; as a former slave himself, the one thing Fenris hates more than mages is slavers. |
| 257 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': Barret's worldview in a nutshell. Shinra is bad, everything they do is bad, [[HitlerAteSugar everything and everyone connected or associated to them is bad]], and everything is Shinra's fault. While it is true that a lot of Midgar's problems can be tied back to them, Barret often employs InsaneTrollLogic to explain why things are their fault. Someone works for Shinra to provide for their family? Stupid asshole. Monsters nesting in the city's train system? Shinra's fault for allowing it to happen. And of course, him bombing reactors and killing people to "stop" Shinra is good, even if it's clear to everyone else that isn't the case. Cloud even lampshades this by nearly name-dropping the trope. [[spoiler:It's implied that Barret ''forces'' himself to view things this way, because he would otherwise crumble under the weight of his actions otherwise.]] |
| 258 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': The main flaw with Myste, a character from the Dark Knight questline, is his utter refusal to look at the big picture when it comes to killing people in wartime. Myste hates the fact that [[PlayerCharacter the Warrior of Light]] has had to kill people in order to save Eorzea. However, Myste ignores all context, justification, or explanation as to why the Warrior killed people, saying that "murder is murder" and it's not an excuse. He uses this even on people from the Garlean Empire who were planning to TakeOverTheWorld, and even on the Knights Twelve of ''Heavensward'' who were perpetuating an oppressive government. The fact that the Warrior of Light doesn't feel good about any of the blood on their hands doesn't matter a whit to Myste, which Myste uses as proof that the Warrior is a monster. [[spoiler:It's revealed late into the ''Stormblood'' Dark Knight quest that Myste is an EnemyWithout of the Warrior of Light's GuiltComplex over needing to kill people.]] |
| 259 | * In ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'', this trope is a huge part of Dimitri's CharacterArc. While his moral compass can accurately distinguish what is right and just, his standards for irredeemable evil are far too strict. To him, war, self-defense, or ideology are just flimsy excuses villains use to justify murder, so there's no point in understanding or empathizing with their position. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this outrage extends to even himself, so [[IAmAMonster he's an unforgivable bloodstained monster]] for fulfilling his princely duties and for taking joy in killing others. Only on the Azure Moon path does he come to terms with the complexity of killing and learn how to forgive both others and himself.]] |
| 260 | * Count [[MaliciousMisnaming Vulgar... uh, Veger]] from ''VideoGame/Jak3'' certainly qualifies. His vision of the world boils basically to: anything related to Light Eco -- good, anything related to Dark Eco -- bad. Even if the person ''unwillingly'' (though he was against it) pumped by Dark Eco is a [[DarkIsnotEvil hero]] that defeated the Metal Head leader. Predictably, the war goes to hell after Jak is banished, which probably contributed to his demotion by Ashelin. |
| 261 | * In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', [[spoiler:Atris has a simplistic sense of morality: everything is either completely good or completely evil. This caused her to turn on the Jedi Order, whom she previously saw as perfect and infallible, when their actions during the Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War challenged these notions, leading her to secretly plot to recreate the Jedi Order according to her values -- where any Force-sensitive would be killed for showing even the slightest sign of turning to TheDarkSide. By the time of her final confrontation with [[PlayerCharacter the Exile]], it's clear that Atris' inability to reconcile morally grey actions has caused her to snap and turn to the Dark Side]]. |
| 262 | * Heavily implied with [[spoiler:the apparent BigGood Rohoph]] in the ''VideoGame/{{MARDEK}}'' series, [[spoiler:due to the Violet Crystal's influence]]. [[spoiler:[[AntiVillain Qualna]] calls him out on it and gets a FateWorseThanDeath for his trouble]]. |
| 263 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': As per the quote above, this is played with for Garrus Vakarian in the [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 first]] and [[VideoGame/MassEffect2 second]] games, both of which portray him as someone who thinks along these lines before he finally mellows out in [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 the third]]. |
| 264 | ** In the first game, he was someone who saw lawbreakers as people who needed to be put down, with his entire reason for joining Shepard to stop Saren being simply to kill the latter on principle. His introduction has him risking a civilian's life to snap-kill a thug, [[spoiler:and his backstory reveals that'd he'd once advised a transport of civilian hostages be destroyed in order to stop one criminal, willing to write them all off as necessary losses purely because they were in the way]]. Shepard can choose to reinforce or reprimand this behavior, but it won't change who he is at his core; only get him to accept another way of doing things is possible. |
| 265 | ** In the second game, he's slid further into this after seeing all the political hogwash on the Citadel in response to (or rather denial of) the Reaper threat, heading to Omega purely because of how easily he could find lawbreakers -- and he not only didn't hesitate to kill ''anyone'' who broke the law (be they legally-enforced or just unspoken edict), but he sometimes gave them rather cruel or ironic deaths in line with what crimes they committed. As before, Shepard can work to either encourage or discourage this behavior, with a Paragon Shepard (who themselves arguably classes as a LawfulGood AntiHero by this point via association with Cerberus) being particularly disturbed by Garrus' more ruthless behavior. |
| 266 | * ''VideoGame/MortalKombat12023'' has Havik[[spoiler:/Dairou]], a member of the lowest caste of Seido, the Realm of Order. Brutally punished by Seido's ruling caste for a petty crime, Havik has developed the mentality of the world being divided into the oppressors, who need to be overthrown, and the oppressed, who need to be liberated wherever they realize it or not. Attempts by other characters to reason with him get nowhere because he's so adamant in his beliefs that he even accuses ''Johnny Cage'' of being a tyrant. |
| 267 | * The King of Shadows in ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'' is [[spoiler:the immortal guardian of the Illefarn Empire and his sole purpose for existing is protecting it. He views everything as either part of the empire or an enemy to it, with anybody who attacks him being slotted into the latter category. Since most people want to kill him (for the obvious reason that he’s a HumanoidAbomination whose very presence is inimical to life), he thinks that [[OmnicidalManiac the entire world is an enemy of the empire]]. It should be noted that the empire in question ''no longer exists''; it collapsed centuries ago, but the King is so [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity deranged]] and [[LawfulStupid duty-obsessed]] that he genuinely thinks it still stands.]] |
| 268 | * [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Zealot Angels]] in ''VideoGame/{{Nexus|War}}'' games fall into this trope with frightening regularity, although it's hard to tell whether Namm (their patron god) is [[IncorruptiblePurePureness immune]] to it as his PR says or the [[KnightTemplar worst]] example. |
| 269 | * "Black Mask" [[spoiler:Otherwise known as Goro Akechi]], TheHeavy in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'', actually mocks the concept of justice ''for not being morally clear enough'' when you confront him. As far as he's concerned, his enemies, his ''allies'' and even all of society should be thrown into chaos as recompense for the crimes and injustices they've ignored. |
| 270 | * ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'': |
| 271 | ** While all the Monarchs have this to a certain degree, this is one of [[spoiler:Akane, the fifth Monarch]]'s flaws, even before being turned into one. After [[spoiler:her father Zenkichi]] stopped investigating her mother's murder, [[spoiler:Akane]] began to see people in two ways: law enforcers and their supporters are evil and those who fight against law enforcers (like the Phantom Thieves) are good. There is no middle ground for her. Although, prior to [[spoiler:being brainwashed to become a Monarch]], she was at least willing to listen to Makoto's advice. However, this flaw soon became magnified to extreme degrees. She rejected [[spoiler:Zenkichi]]'s legitimate reasons for backing off the case and began acting like [[spoiler:Konoe]], down to parroting the latter's goals and exact words and refused to listen to any reasoning from the Thieves due to being influenced by [[spoiler:Konoe]] without realizing it. |
| 272 | ** [[spoiler:Akira Konoe]] has this as his greatest flaw, due to being what the Thieves would be if they didn't have each other to pull themselves back from the brink. He believes that he's a hero and that it is his duty to root out Japan's corruption. Therefore, whatever he does in pursuit of that goal is heroic (even if it involves using EMMA for mind control via stealing desires), and anyone who opposes him must be a villain who should be dealt with by any means necessary, even if they're the Phantom Thieves and are dismantling Jails because having one's desires stolen can ruin one's life (such as people bankrupting themselves to by Alice merch or Ango's book), and the Jails trap the Monarchs within their own trauma. There's a reason that his theme sin is Pride. |
| 273 | * ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'': Vhailor, the SixthRanger, is a [[AnimatedArmor haunted suit of armor]] who's the patron saint of the [[VirtueIsWeakness Mercykillers]], a faction of KnightTemplar {{Bounty Hunter}}s who believe in punishing evil at any cost without mercy (hence the name). Through sheer force of will alone, he [[PurposeDrivenImmortality cheated death]] by becoming the [[AbstractApotheosis embodiment of justice]]. This would be great if not for the fact that his personal definition of justice is batshit insane, as the slightest misstep in conversation with him will make him turn on half the party. Even in a universe where good and evil are actual physical forces as real as gravity and magnetism, Vhailor's fanaticism renders him close to non-functional and the rest of your party consider him equal part crazy and terrifying. |
| 274 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': |
| 275 | ** N and Team Plasma from ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' (appropriately enough) have this. If you're not in support of their insane CartoonishSupervillainy, then you're a cruel and abusive [[KickTheDog Lillipup-kicking]] Pokémon trainer! [[spoiler:It turns out that Team Plasma's claim to having this is merely a cover-up for their true motives -- to TakeOverTheWorld. N turns to be the true Plasma King. The only one who wants to TakeOverTheWorld is Ghetsis.]] N even all but invokes the idea by name: |
| 276 | --->''"Many different values mix together, and the world becomes gray... [[ThisIsUnforgivable That is unforgivable!]] I will separate Pokémon and people, and [[TitleDrop black and white]] will be clearly distinct!"'' |
| 277 | ** In ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', Ghetsis and his loyalists [[spoiler:pretty much ditch their "Pokémon Liberation" facade and become a full-blown terrorist organization aiming for world domination]], while N is still interested in [[spoiler:freeing Pokémon]], but more specifically [[spoiler:freeing them from Pokéballs]]. As the end nears, he begins to question if people and Pokémon really can live alongside each other. |
| 278 | ** It's also worth noting that N [[spoiler:was specifically manipulated by Ghetsis in order to think this way]]. Interestingly enough, he also notes that ''some'' trainers (like the player character) are okay, but he still believes that the overwhelming majority are so abusive that it's more worth it to separate all trainers from their Pokémon ''anyway''. While he's still questioning things in the sequels, N ultimately seems to have ''accepted'' things the way they are, at least. |
| 279 | * Ishida Mitsunari in ''VideoGame/SengokuBasara''. [[LikeAGodToMe He defines 'good' as his master]], UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi. If you are a fellow servant of Hideyoshi, he will (grudgingly) tolerate you. If not, you are a vile sinner who will be beaten until you become a servant of Hideyoshi at best or killed in the most gruesome fashion imaginable for the 'sin' of disobedience. It doesn't help that he's quite a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter. |
| 280 | * ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'': By the end of any of the games in the main series, both the [[ChaoticEvil Chaos]] and [[LawfulEvil Law]] factions will have degenerated into this. Don't much care for a WorldOfSilence? Then [[SophisticatedAsHell get thine ass hence]], [[YeOldeButcheredEnglish for thou art]] a {{greed}}y, [[BloodKnight war-mongering]] {{Jerkass}} who [[ItsAllAboutMe placeth his own whims before the needs of thy fellow man's]]! Think that a world of [[TheSocialDarwinist Social Darwinism]] where MightMakesRight isn't your thing? Then [[PrecisionFStrike FUCK YOU]], you [[HolierThanThou goody-good]], [[LesCollaborateurs backstabbing]] [[ARealManIsAKiller peace-lover]]! |
| 281 | * [[RogueProtagonist Angela Deth]] in ''VideoGame/Wasteland3''. She was dispatched ahead of [[PlayerCharacter Team November]] to Colorado but upon seeing how the morally gray Patriarch administrated the region she almost immediately went rogue and started plotting against him [[HonorBeforeReason despite the fact that the fate of their entire organization and community hinges on his support]]. General Woodson flat-out warns the player that she's incapable of thinking past BlackAndWhiteMorality and not to let her interfere with their mission, [[spoiler:but if you fail to get the GoldenEnding she instigates a coup that wipes out half the Rangers]]. She shows no regard whatsoever for the consequences of her actions, with her insistence on maintaining her perceived moral high ground regardless of how it affects others making her [[HeWhoFightsMonsters not much better]] than the WellIntentionedExtremist she seeks to depose. |
| 282 | [[/folder]] |
| 283 | |
| 284 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 285 | * ''Franchise/DanganRonpa'': |
| 286 | ** In ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'', you have [[spoiler:Nagito Komaeda, the "[[TheAce Ultimate]] Lucky Student"]], who believes that hope is good and despair is bad, and therefore that [[WellIntentionedExtremist all actions done in the sake of hope are good]]. The problem is his [[BlueAndOrangeMorality twisted perception of hope]] that leads him to [[spoiler:create an opportunity to murder on Chapter 1 and masterminding his own death in Chapter 5 on a ThanatosGambit to kill everybody on the island]]. |
| 287 | ** The FanGame ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaAnother'' has Tsurugi Kinjo, the "[[ByTheBookCop Ultimate Policeman]]", whose KnightTemplar mindset gradually has him go from TheLeader to TheFriendNobodyLikes. At the very start of the game, he [[LeeroyJenkins nearly gets himself killed for attacking Monokuma]], and his attempts to prevent more [[DeadlyGame deaths]] get more and more desperate as he [[WellIntentionedExtremist enacts harsh rules to try to keep everyone out of trouble]] while alienating everyone with his WithUsOrAgainstUs attitude, labeling everyone who refuses to submit to him "potential killers". He also outright refuses to empathize with any of the killers despite the impossible situation they're in, [[spoiler:such as [[BreakTheCutie labeling Taira an attempted murderer]] for not immediately coming clean about her self-defense stabbing or lashing out at Kinji for using the same TheNeedsOfTheMany logic he does. In the fourth chapter, he's even more mentally unbalanced after Kinji points out his {{hypocri|te}}sy, and when the others point out further inconsistencies with his thought process in the next trial, he stammers like a robot that's been handed a LogicBomb and [[HeroicBSOD bluescreens so badly that he passes out and gets excused from the courtroom]]. He improves somewhat in [[VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpaAnother2 the sequel]], but still retains his AllCrimesAreEqual mindset]]. |
| 288 | * Ichijo Ayane from ''VisualNovel/FullMetalDaemonMuramasa'' is someone who firmly believes in justice and that things can easily be slotted into either good or evil and that it is her job to smite the wicked. Unfortunately for her, she is caught in a story mired with moral relativity and that there often are no easy answers. Things doesn't get any better once she meets Masamune who is just as bad in this regard leading to them having a mutual ToxicFriendInfluence on each other. The story also delves into one of the less apparent issues with this mindset in that without even realizing it, she becomes a DarkMessiah inspiring others to take up her ideals of killing those they deem evil. The story spares no expense at pointing out that there often is nothing worse than an army of people killing in the name of justice as it devalues the act of taking a life from the sin that it is to something that is morally right. [[spoiler:This is ultimateley why the main charcter Kageaki cannot side with her despite their burgeoning love for each other as he had understood the true meaning of the Law of Balance, leading to a final confrontation between the two.]] |
| 289 | [[/folder]] |
| 290 | |
| 291 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 292 | * ''WebAnimation/FreedomToons'': Dr. Mac has a rather bad case of this because he views the world exclusively through a power+prejudice ideological lens. He actually argues that a survivor of a terrorist massacre is an evil racist... [[IResembleThatRemark because he's white, so he can never be victimized]]. Meanwhile, any group or idea endorsed by his team has to be wonderful by default, facts be damned. |
| 293 | [[/folder]] |
| 294 | |
| 295 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 296 | * In ''Webcomic/CaptainSNES'', Max Force labels people who disagree with him about just about anything as "[[DrugsAreBad druggies]]" and attempts to shoot them down. Once he is convinced someone is a druggie, no force in the world can convince him otherwise. When he fails to shoot [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros his target]], he comes up with [[InsaneTrollLogic insane excuses]] as to why he didn't actually miss; he was just aiming at something else. |
| 297 | * ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': As far as Othar Tryggvassen (GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!) is concerned, Sparks can be divided into the ones who are responsible for the deprivations Europa is under and who must therefore die, and the ones who are prepared to join him on this crusade (who must ''also'' die, but will be left to last, just before [[NoPlaceForMeThere himself]]). The amount of doublethink this requires is illustrated when Tarvek is horrified that girls with the Spark were being killed by the Geisterdamen, and Othar assumes that the fact Tarvek is not a CompleteMonster is entirely down to his influence, while at the same time reminding Tarvek (and the readers) that he would have been quite prepared to kill those girls himself. |
| 298 | * ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'': Kore the Paladin is nominally LawfulGood, a requirement maintaining his paladin status. However, he believes certain races of monsters are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil inherently evil]], and that [[VillainByProxyFallacy anyone who comes into contact with an evil creature]] becomes "infected" with evil themselves, [[RedemptionEqualsDeath which can only be cured by death]]. This includes people who merely come into contact with evil creatures, people who are kidnapped by evil creatures, and even people ''[[SympathyForTheDevil who might potentially sympathize]]'' with evil creatures... and no, [[WouldHurtAChild children are not exempt]]. The scariest part? Kore still retains his paladin magics, which means that either the divines who guide the church agree with and/or tolerate his philosophy, or there is something very ''wrong'' with heaven. [[spoiler:(It's neither; he's cheating the alignment requirements [[PoweredByAForsakenChild via captured souls]].)]] It eventually turns out that [[spoiler:demons "cursed" him a millennium ago]]; it's not confirmed if that is the main cause of his insanity, but it probably prevented him from getting psychological help. |
| 299 | * ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': |
| 300 | ** Miko is built on this trope, growing increasingly delusional over the course of the story arc. As her insanity increases, it changes her from a mere KnightTemplar into a total WindmillCrusader -- handwaving even the fact that the Gods have stripped her of her paladin powers. |
| 301 | ** [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1229.html And as a lesser (but more prevalent) example]], [[spoiler:Serini Toormuck]] calls out the regular Paladins for taking any extremes to prevent outright black Evil from taking over; yes, millions would die, but millions more would survive to make a comeback, [[FantasticCasteSystem and some races who aren't doing well under the current status quo]] could make a better future for themselves. More importantly, extremist actions '[[WellIntentionedExtremist in the service of good]]' could lead to the destruction of the world itself, to nobody's benefit. |
| 302 | --->'''Lien:''' This is ridiculous! You can't just let everything be ruined and hope to fix it afterward!\ |
| 303 | '''[[spoiler:Serini]]:''' [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech And you can't keep knocking over the game board whenever your side starts losing!]] |
| 304 | * Irina Tepes from ''Webcomic/RasputinCatamite'' hacks up people in the name of God, and is absolutely convinced that her activities are virtuous. |
| 305 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Remus}}'', the partisan climate of the US devolving into this on both sides was the driving force behind the [[{{Dystopia}} less-than-stellar]] state of affairs. |
| 306 | * Glinda comes off like this in the "Kings War" arc of ''Webcomic/{{Roommates}}'' when she goes to war against an ''evil, greedy, glory-seeking'' villain who fools people into thinking that he changed and got his hand on a magical kingdom, but villains are villains and heroes are heroes, period... In her own world, she might be justified (OZ is not the land of great moral ambiguity), but because the comic is a MoralityKitchenSink, that ''villain'' happens to be a LawfulGood ex-HeroAntagonist who is also the TokenGoodTeammate of the main cast. When she explains her reason, it boils down to: "There are heroes and there are villains, and you are a villain, so you must be opposed." |
| 307 | [[/folder]] |
| 308 | |
| 309 | [[folder:Web Originals]] |
| 310 | * On the ''WebVideo/DreamSMP'', since the [[TheExile Pogtopia arc]], when his mental health took a ''[[SanitySlippage massive]]'' hit[[note]]His [[TookALevelInCynicism mental spiral]] technically [[CynicismCatalyst kick-started]] after Eret's betrayal in the L'Manburg War for Independence, but it was heavily exacerbated by Schlatt exiling him and Tommy from the country they founded [[TyrantTakesTheHelm after becoming President]][[/note]], [[FallenHero Wilbur]]'s worldview has been cleanly split in half, between "heroes" and "villains". This is most clearly shown in how he treats both Dream and himself. |
| 311 | ** In Pogtopia, Wilbur initially considered himself the hero, and [[PresidentEvil Schlatt]] the villain. However, after hearing that Schlatt was planning to hold a festival in Manburg meant to be a nice event for his citizens, Wilbur realized that taking Manburg back from Schlatt wasn't as morally white as he'd first assumed, leading him to [[InsaneTrollLogic come to the conclusion]] that ''Schlatt'' was the hero and ''he'' was the villain. Even when the festival turned out to be a front for [[spoiler:Tubbo's execution]], Wilbur had already leaned so hard into [[ThenLetMeBeEvil becoming the best "villain" the server had ever seen]] that he didn't even consider walking back on his stance. |
| 312 | ** After [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead regaining Ghostbur's memories]]]], Wilbur was initially ''furious'' at Dream because of his treatment of Tommy in exile, and even outright told Tommy that he would've murdered Dream on the spot if he'd been there [[spoiler:instead of Ghostbur]]. However, after being saved [[spoiler:from the Afterlife]] by Dream, he seems to disregard the horrific abuse Dream put Tommy through and outright proclaims him a hero, giving a long speech about how his quest for power wasn't for power's sake, it was to prevent the rest of the server from filling the power vacuum Wilbur left behind. The first part is later retconned, as when Tommy mentions it, Wilbur is unaware of what Dream did to him… [[spoiler:and then [[BigBrotherInstinct rapidly shifts to trying to murder him once he finds out]].]] |
| 313 | * ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': Panacea aggressively categorises capes as heroes and villains with no grey area, to the point that she continues to view Skitter as an irredeemable villain even after the other [[spoiler:breaks her back protecting a civilian shelter from Leviathan]]. Furthermore, in the Slaughterhouse Nine arc, she actively sabotages the Undersiders even though they're the main force opposing the [=SH9=] and save her life multiple times, just because they're "villains". Her adoptive sister Glory Girl and foster mother Brandish (who's the reason they are this way) are just as bad if not worse, although Brandish has a FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler:She and her sister were kidnapped and held captive when they were young. Brandish started seeing her kidnappers as not really that bad... which is when they announced that they were going to kill her and her sister. That betrayal caused her to [[TraumaticSuperpowerAwakening Trigger]] and colored her view of everyone she met later, making her absolutely incapable of trusting anyone even distantly associated with villainy (which unfortunately includes Panacea, as she's the daughter of a supervillain) because they remind her of her kidnappers.]] |
| 314 | [[/folder]] |
| 315 | |
| 316 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 317 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'' has [[ManicPixieDreamGirl Jinx]], a trauma-filled girl/woman/child who [[spoiler:turns on her sister after she discovers that the latter has been working with an enforcer]] due to her black/white perception of allies and enemies. She also [[spoiler:turns on her adoptive father]] for this same reason. |
| 318 | * Near the end of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', especially in the finale, [[Characters/AvatarTheLastAirbenderPrincessAzula Azula]] begins to adopt this mindset, seeing everyone as being either completely for her or a complete traitor to her -- most notably, the end of "[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheBoilingRockPart2 The Boiling Rock, Part 2]]" [[spoiler:after Mai and Ty Lee turn on her]]. Parodied when she banishes one of her twin handmaidens, convinced one is loyal and the other is treacherous, despite the fact that she can't tell them apart. They themselves can't decide who's supposed to leave as a result. |
| 319 | * In ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', this trope, combined with NeverMyFault, is [[BigBad Demona]]'s FatalFlaw. |
| 320 | ** She [[FantasticRacism despises humans]] and believes that every last one of them is nothing more than a [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters cruel, hateful monster]], although she is at least self-aware enough to realize that a few select people are capable of good deeds; for example, when Brooklyn argues that Elisa is a decent person, Demona claims that she's simply the exception that proves the rule. While Demona's tragic past ''does'' justify this belief to an extent, and she's often [[VillainHasAPoint proven right about humans]] given their horrified and violent reactions to the gargoyles, flashback episodes reveal that she has always carried extreme hatred in her heart, despite the rest of her kind realizing that humans are fundamentally different from them and need to be treated as such. It's also shown that her initial dislike of humans came from the gargoyles having to share their home with humans (who were willing to cooperate with the creatures, especially because gargoyle physiology means they can only move during the night) based on a flimsy "we were here first" argument. It also becomes increasingly clear that Demona bears the centuries-old guilt of betraying her entire clan and leaving almost all of them to die while saving herself, and thus clings to the belief that it is the fault of humans because it protects herself from having to deal with her own culpability. |
| 321 | ** Demona's relationship with Macbeth also proves that she suffers from this line of thinking. He was one of the few humans who she actually liked and trusted (albeit extremely reluctantly), as he showed her nothing but respect and honor for her skills as a warrior. However, when one of Macbeth's allies suggested betraying the gargoyles, Macbeth remarked that he'd think about it -- even though it was clear he would ''never'' do so and only made that claim because, in his own words, "a wise king considers all options". However, in Demona's eyes, anything other than a complete and violent display of loyalty to her was a sign of treachery, and so she turned on Macbeth with a hateful vengeance. |
| 322 | * ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has Rumble [=McSkirmish=] from "[[Recap/GravityFallsS1E10FightFighters Fight Fighters]]". A character from a fighting game played by Dipper, he comes to the conclusion that Robbie, Dipper's romantic rival, is evil and killed Dipper's father. When Dipper admits he lied, Rumble decides that Dipper is a villain as well and beats him too. |
| 323 | * ''WesternAnimation/KipoAndTheAgeOfWonderbeasts'': [[BigBad Dr. Emilia]] believes humans are inherently good and [[UpliftedAnimal mutes]] are inherently evil, and thus works to create a "cure" to devolve mutes into normal animals so humanity can go back to being the dominant species of Earth. |
| 324 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'': [[spoiler:[[Characters/TheOwlHouseEmperorBelos Belos/Philip]] operates under the assumption that all witches and demons are inherently evil and [[FinalSolution must be eradicated]], and that all humans are inherently good and must be protected, but can be corrupted through association with witches, [[MurderIsTheBestSolution at which point it's best to]] MercyKill them. He's so committed to this line of thinking that on top of the genocide of the Boiling Isles he spent 400 years planning, he murdered ''[[SiblingMurder his own brother]]'' for falling in love with a witch, and was fully ready to turn 14-year-old Luz to stone for sympathizing with witches.]] |
| 325 | * ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheBadBatch'': Saw Garrera believes the Empire is bad (which it admittedly is) and anything he does to it is therefore good. Anyone who disagrees with him on his methods, regardless of why (like, for example, his plan being needlessly destructive) or even how minor that disagreement, is a hinderance who isn't willing to do "what's necessary". By the time of ''Film/RogueOne'', this attitude has led to Saw being a broken, paranoid wreck hiding in the wilds of Jedha, having managed to piss off any potential allies outside his small group of loyalists, and is no longer able to see that an Imperial pilot could actually defect, believing it to be a plot and having the man tortured. |
| 326 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': |
| 327 | ** [[Characters/StevenUniverseJasper Jasper]] strongly believes in Homeworld's rigid HiveCasteSystem; every Gem is built for a purpose, and anyone who can't fulfill that purpose (such as "off-color" Gems) or won't (like the Crystal Gems and other rebels) deserves to suffer. This also applies to herself; her desperation to defeat the Crystal Gems after constantly losing to them drives her to [[SanitySlippage increasingly erratic behavior]], to the point that [[spoiler:she ends up corrupted near the end of season 3]]. |
| 328 | ** Bismuth sees the world as Crystal Gems = Good; Homeworld Gems = Evil. [[spoiler:Her view goes to the point where she creates the Breaking Point, a weapon meant to render gems DeaderThanDead, and when Rose (and later Steven) protest, she attacks them, as she sees anyone trying to show mercy to the Homeworld Gems as just as evil. She gets better after Steven un-bubbles her and explains the truth about Rose Quartz being Pink Diamond. Feeling terrible about what she tried to do to Steven, she reconciles with the other Gems.]] |
| 329 | ** [[Characters/StevenUniverseWhiteDiamond White Diamond]] suffers from this trope in a bad way, because in her mind, there's only one good thing in all of creation: ''herself.'' To her, anything and everything she thinks of or believes is a wonderful idea [[InsaneTrollLogic because she came up with it]], and anyone who dares to question her logic or judgment is obviously a broken, misguided idiot. White thus combines this trope with CondescendingCompassion by [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul brainwashing those who disagree with her]] into becoming [[KillAndReplace colorless extensions of herself]], with no will or personalities of their own (they even begin talking in White's voice). In her eyes, totally eradicating another sentient creature's mind is actually a ''good'' thing, because getting to be an extension of the universe's most ideal specimen is the most wonderful fate possible. [[spoiler:Once Steven and Connie manage to prove White wrong about something and thus demonstrate that she ''isn't'' perfect, she has a VillainousBreakdown that releases her victims and forces her to confront her own flaws.]] |
| 330 | [[/folder]] |
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