Basic Trope: One side is clearly evil while the other side is morally ambiguous.
- Straight: Evulz is a Big Bad who plans on taking over Tropeville. On the other hand, there's Bob, who is pragmatic, vengeful, cynical, and sometimes unfriendly. You can't really compare the two, however.
- Exaggerated:
- And on the top of that, Bob is Only in It for the Money, is very bloodthirsty and violent, is aloof and shady, and shows many traits of a sociopath, but somehow can be considered an ideal hero when compared to Emperor Evulz.
- The notoriously unscrupulous and destructive mercenary band Midnight Reapers are little more than organized, despoiling raiders and pirates who perennially terrorize the countryside and possess enough firepower to overwhelm anyone who dares to question their ways. It is composed of the unsympathetic, sociopathic, demonically evil Bob, human trafficker and devilishly cunning Con Artist Alice, over-the-top Nineties Antihero Charlie, carnally depraved practitioner of ritual sacrifice David, and sadistic orphan-eater Emily. One is led to believe that these guys are your "every day" roster of Villain Protagonists... until The Progenitor of the Dark Ages shows up.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Despite being unquestionably evil, Bob the main character is still more sympathetic than Big Bad Evulz.
- Evil Versus Evil: Both sides are unambiguously and equally evil.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is friendly and benevolent to people who treat him the same as well. But when it comes to people who enjoy hurting him, he is often mean and unforgiving to them.
- Bob may be kind for the most part, but he can prove how to act appropriately to people like Evulz when necessary.
- Evulz is a Jerkass while Bob is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
- A Lighter Shade of Grey: While neither side is good and both sides are sympathetic, one side still has a higher moral ground than the other.
- A Darker Shade of Grey: Bob remains a straight-up Anti-Hero, but Evulz himself isn’t a clear-cut villain, yet is still portrayed as less sympathetic by the narrative and is still easy to root against.
- A Lighter Shade of Black and Gray morality.
- Justified:
- Bob has experienced many unfortunate events in his personal lives which have caused him to behave bitterly.
- A flashback reveals how Bob's kindness and idealism were free passes for the unrepentant villains to continue doing evil, so he seriously took drastic measures in making sure the villains have their justice, even if it means killing them. Bob even rejects the villains who are truly trying to change.
- Bob lives in a Crapsack World where it's difficult and unnecessary to be a nice guy when the crime rate and other immoral practices are increasing rapidly, and he needs to stop it once and for all.
- Bob's moral standards are incomprehensible and questionable to anyone, whether be it the villains or the audience.
- Bob did what he had to do.
- The story takes place in a World of Jerkass, so a villain who is a jerkass would obviously be of the black morality, while a hero who is also a jerkass would be an Anti-Hero, thus, of the gray morality.
- Humans Are Bastards in this setting, so it is possible for true villains to exist. True heroes? They don’t.
- Inverted: White-and-Grey Morality; Bob is a shining, pure hero while Evulz is a Well-Intentioned Extremist at worst, but is nevertheless, redeemable.
- Subverted:
- It would seem that Bob is cynical and unfriendly, but after realizing how far he has gone in his goal to save Tropeville, he becomes become more idealistic and forgiving.
- The series introduces Lukas, a fourth grader who is idealistic, benevolent, and a shining example for humanity.
- Evulz turns out to be misunderstood, and is grey morality at worst.
- A new villain, Daniel Darkhon, is introduced, and he is actually morally gray since he's either a Knight Templar, Affably Evil, Ambiguously Evil, a Noble Demon or a mix of all 4 of these.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob eventually suffers a bad case of Aesop Amnesia but he's still good when compared to the villains.
- Lukas undergoes Break the Cutie. He dies, turns evil, or becomes like Bob.
- Evulz was lying.
- While initially an admirable figure, Daniel eventually underwent a complete Face–Heel Turn, either by giving up on any pretense of being good and fully embracing the Dark Side, or Slowly Slipping Into Evil through the consistent application of lethal violence and slowly embracing the hypocritical idea that, once the enemy falls into evil, they are truly Beyond Redemption and must be destroyed.
- Parodied:
- Evulz is clearly evil while Bob is a foul-mouthed, sex driven, alcoholic dolt.
- The bad guys are demons act expectedly evil while the good guys are angels who behave rude towards each other.
- Zig Zagged: Bob's level of morality varies depending on how sympathetic the writers are to them.
- Averted:
- Black-and-White Morality; Evulz is pure evil while Bob is pure good.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality; Both Evulz and Bob have flaws and both deserve sympathy from the audience. Neither one is more good or evil.
- There is no conflict at all.
- Enforced: The author disregards pure heroes and wants to write a story about flawed heroes. The author also had to have a pure villain antagonist because the Anti-Hero was meant to be seen as sympathetic, but that can’t be the case if the Anti-Hero was fighting against an Anti-Villain, AKA another sympathetic person.
- Lampshaded: "There are no goody-goody-two-shoes in this world. It's just these guys fighting against our oppressors."
- Invoked: Bob feels that being a pure hero is boring him to death, so he decides to change his look and attitude.
- Defied:
- Bob doesn't want Tropeville to think he's like Evulz, so he follows a strict moral code and avoids breaking it at all costs.
- "So you're telling me that my only two options are being a questionable jerk and a slimy bastard? Those are pretty shitty options then. I'll show you that there is room for true heroes in this ugly world, no matter how jaded I get."
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz attempts to corrupt the already morally-flawed Bob to his side by telling him that he is just as evil as Evulz and the ugliness of the world.
- Discussed:
- "It feels unsafe to be protected by these heroes just as much as it feels unsafe to be harmed by the villains."
- "It's the battle of the douchebag factions! Except one is way less scummy than the other..."
- Conversed: "Why does this show have the heroes who are fighting against the villains as a bunch of douchebags?"
- Deconstructed:
- Bob defeated Evulz, but this didn't stop him from keeping Tropeville safe with these stricts laws to help humanity. Because of this, the citizens feel they would rather have been killed by Evulz than being "oppressed" by this hero.
- Evulz publicly calls out Bob for being a hypocrite. He claims that Bob isn't any better than he is, and while he may be an evil man himself, Evulz still admits his flaws. As a result, Tropeville begins to view Bob as a lying, self-righteous attention-seeker.
- Reconstructed:
- A good person is capable of doing bad or cruel things, justified or not, and even if others don't agree with it, it's more preferable than purely evil people running rampant in the town.
- Bob recognizes his methods and actions will not be accepted so easily by the citizens of Tropeville, which is why he lets Alice take control of Tropeville over him, while making it clear that if she slips up and becomes as bad as Evulz, he WILL come back for her.
- Bob admits to Tropeville that he's not a perfect man, but that doesn't automatically make him evil. He claims how even though he can act as ruthless as Evulz, he doesn't behave that way to people he doesn't even know, unlike Evulz, who hurts everyone for his own good. In the end, Bob is still a loving man who can express compassion while Evulz is a complete sociopath.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob is an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist who the fans still adore none the less because he stands against the villains.
- Bob is a Heroic Comedic Sociopath while Evulz is a Laughably Evil villain who Crosses the Line Twice.
- Played For Drama: The more Bob fights off evil, the more vicious he becomes.note
On one hand you have this page, who is a Jerkass Anti-Hero. On the other hand, the Black-and-Gray Morality page is a Complete Monster at worst. Place your bets, people!