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Dark Is Not Evil

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"So yes, black mages often can be evil. But black as a color is not inherently evil. Being influenced by black’s philosophies does not necessarily mean that one will commit an evil act. That being the case, we cannot say that black represents evil. More closely aligned with evil than the other colors? Fine. More ripe with potential for evil? Sure. Evil? No. And that's a very important distinction."
Mark Rosewater, Making Magic: In The Black

So, you have a race of people who all have black, leathery wings. They're born with the ability to bend shadows with their thoughts. Also, they prefer the night, and let's not get started on how their names all start with some variant of Dark, Black or Shadow. Surely, they're evil!

Except...no one has actually mentioned them doing bad things; in fact, they may actually be pretty good guys. It's not like they keep pet dogs exclusively for kicking. Despite any images that may have been burned into our minds, creepy appearances and killing people actually don't have much to do with each other. Unfortunately, however, people can still judge them based on their looks. Expect some Van Helsing Hate Crimes to be committed, especially by dickish Knight Templars who claim to side with the holy light.

This trope can be a subversion or aversion of several other tropes depending on how it's played, including Beauty Equals Goodness, Always Chaotic Evil, and Colour-Coded for Your Convenience. A common use for it is for the "Don't judge a book by its cover" Aesop. It can also be used to promote Evil Is Cool, and sometimes Even Evil Has Standards, except without the, uh... evil. Even though with the subtle (or not so) undertone of Humans Are Bastards that this trope implies, using this does not automatically enforce Light Is Not Good; in fact, stories where Light Is Good and Dark Is Not Evil are quite common.

The extreme form of this is The Sacred Darkness, where Dark is not just not Evil, but is in fact equally holy and Good as Light (or even more so) is typically perceived to be. In situations where The Sacred Darkness exists, however, Dark Is Not Evil is not an absolute certainty, and the usual caveats about Light Is Not Good still apply.

Light Is Not Good, Good Powers, Bad People are sister tropes. For the inverse, see Dark Is Evil. A natural implication of the Yin-Yang Bomb. May overlap with Mysterious Purple if the dark color is a shade of purple and "not evil" means morally ambiguous. See also Good All Along, Bad Powers, Good People, Creepy Good, Face of a Thug, Terror Hero, Perky Goth, Our Monsters Are Different, Don't Fear the Reaper, Anti-Anti-Christ, Reluctant Monster, Good Is Not Nice, Good Is Not Soft, and Halloweentown. When vampires are involved, this trope generally puts them on the friendly end of the Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness, often resulting in a Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire. Gods of the underworld and death in particular can be this, since Everybody Hates Hades.

Compare Evil Wears Black, though the two can coincide if the Hero with Dark Powers wears white and the Villain with Light Powers, wears black.


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    Animation 
  • Mr. Kadabra from About Dressy Sally dresses in black and can often be creepy, especially with whisking Sally away from her home, but he's actually quite kind and gentle and teaches Sally an Honesty Aesop without freaking her out after bringing her to his house.
  • Careful S. from Happy Heroes is colored black (purple in later seasons), his pre-Art Evolution symbol represents Planet Gray, the villains' planet, and he's quite unemotive and quiet... and yet, at the same time, he's genuinely kind and heroic, being just as ready to fight off monsters as the other Supermen.

    Fairy Tales 
  • In The Black Thief and the Knight of the Glen, the title thief is a thief. Nevertheless, he generously throws his lot in with the three princes to help them, and in the course of the tale, he reveals that he saved the knight's life as a baby at considerable danger to himself.
  • The original tale of The Little Mermaid had the Witch as not being evil, just neutral and clearly warning of the risks. In at least some versions, she even informs the mermaid's sisters about how to save her.

    Folklore 
  • While many folklorical black dogs are malevolent, some are this trope instead. Eg. the Gurt Dog of Somerset in Britain is thought to protect children and lone travellers.
  • According to Alpine folklore, the demonic goat figure Krampus is the polar opposite of Santa Claus in that while Santa rewards good children with gifts, Krampus punishes naughty children using harsh punishments. It's because of this that he's often depicted as a good guy within countries that honor Krampus-related traditions in spite of him being a goat demon (although you might not get that within certain works of fiction).

    Manhwa 
  • Deshwitat, the main character from Rebirth is a dangerous Dark Power-loaded half-vampire bent on killing Kalutika, The God of Light because he was once close friends with Desh when Kal was still human, and after a godly-powers-releasing Heroic BSoD cursed a mutual friend with immortality, killed Desh's girlfriend in front of him because of Desh's failure to rescue Kal's sister, turned Desh into stone for 300 years, annihilated the Galactic Senate Council of the Gods, resurrected or cloned Desh's girlfriend and made her his consort, and is now plotting the destruction of the human and vampire races because of his really miserable childhood. Light Is Not Good indeed...

    Professional Wrestling 
  • WWE Superstar Mark Calaway is best known for being "The Undertaker", a wrestling gravedigger/zombie/death incarnate/cult leader/biker. Although he started off (and every so often returns to being) a Heel, he's often treated as a Face until his retirement, being one of the longest-tenured and popular wrestlers. Behind the scenes, he's also very well respected as a mentor and A Father to His Men.
  • The Boogeyman has red and black devil-style face paint and originally a stage persona to match. What impression do you get about this guy? This is crossed with Creepy Good: Despite his overall creepiness, Boogeyman definitely seemed to be a force of good in his own, weird way.
  • Hallowicked became this after his 2006 Rudo-Tecnico Turn. After Delirious used the Eye of Tyr on him to turn him against UltraMantis Black at the 2014 CHIKARA Season Finale Tomorrow Never Dies on December 6, 2014, he completely changed his look and became a case of Light Is Not Good.
  • Sting has been a face for pretty much his entire career stretching back to the 1980s and continuing through to today. In 1996, he changed from his original good-natured Surfer Dude gimmick into a gothic, brooding avenger with corpse-white face paint inspired by The Crow, but he continued to be the Big Good of WCW and established himself as the main adversary of the heel New World Order faction. The handful of times that a Face–Heel Turn was attempted with him in WCW and TNA were temporary and unpopular due to his long-time face status and fan popularity.

    Theatre 
  • The musical In the Green features the character of Shadow. She represents the repressed trauma and guilt that Hildegard carries over her sister Agatha's death. Her introductory song, "Underground," is a perfect example of this trope, as she welcomes the other aspects of Hildegard to her realm. Despite her appearance, she's gentle and kind and is trying to keep the others safe from the painful memory she holds. She is ultimately integrated with the others when Hildegard finally "becomes whole."
  • In Jasper in Deadland, most of the corpses in Deadland dress in dark clothes but are friendly, sociable, and way less of a problem for Jasper than anything else he encounters in Deadland.
  • The Magic Flute subverts this. The Queen of the Night actually is as bad as she sounds.
  • The musical version of The Phantom of the Opera zig-zags this: the Phantom does have sympathetic qualities thanks to his Freudian Excuse, and "Music of the Night" is basically this concept set to Villain Love Song — but he's still not a nice person and gets progressively worse as his Crazy Jealous Guy side takes over. He ends up with a Love Redeems and I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy ending, however. The book version of the Phantom on the other hand, while still pitiable is genuinely Dark Is Evil for the most part.
  • Pretty much the whole point of the musical Wicked. Also contains usage of Aristocrats Are Evil.

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    Visual Novels 


Alternative Title(s): Dark Is Good, Good Guys Wear Black

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Falsely convicted of the murder of his wife, Nathan Graves now punishes the guilty who've evaded justice as the otherworldy spectre, Tombstone.

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