Lost in Space
Is formal justice a Chaotic goal, though? Equality, maybe, but one hallmark of the Knight Templar is that they believe themselves to be supported by and enforcing a rigid system of authority, and that's antithetical to the Chaotic mindset.
A fanatical Chaotic revolutionary may seek to tear down the existing power structure and may indeed administer summary justice to the "offenders", but they do so out of a belief that they have denied people freedom rather than broken the laws.
A true Knight Templar believes themselves to have moral authority because of the legal system that they claim to represent, not in spite of or defiance of it.
Edited by Fighteer on Aug 27th 2018 at 10:33:09 AM
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Where are you getting that? I dont see it on the trope page. In fact, it explicitly mentions chaotic evil as a possible alignment.
Lost in Space
I think there may be some Trope Decay going on.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Well, to be truthful, the trope description of the Knight Templar doesn't actually come up with a definition. Might want to fix that before crying Trope Decay. That said, I don't see anything in the description about enforcing a system of authority, or legitimate authority (except "legitimate" in one's own mind) - it's more about imposing one's will on the world, whatever form that takes.
Chaotic Knight Templar types are enforcing a "utopian" vision on the world that has nothing to do with law and order (or only does through such a warped lens that it misses the point entirely).
-Zaheer (mentioned above) is fighting to forcibly impose chaos (his ideal) on the world. Can't get much more Chaotic than that.
-The Dark Judges are Neutral Evil. Their vision, stripped down, is simple Omnicidal Mania as a utopian ideology: by making life itself a crime, they've stopped Judging based on any standard I'd call Lawful.
(Of course, this also carries shades of The Great Character Alignment Debate. Maybe we should excise alignment from the description entirely?)
Edited by Ramidel on Sep 28th 2018 at 5:47:47 AM
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
The question isnt whether an anarchist can be lawful, but whether they can fulfill the criteria of a Knight Templar. Substitute "Justice" for "Crime" and I think they can.