Half-Context WhiteAndGreyMorality Examples

I made this thread simply because I was bothered by how the examples of White-and-Grey Morality are detailed, both in its article and outside. The examples only describe how the "bad guys" aren't bad and mention exceptions, yet they said nothing about the good guys and why they're good in the first place, essentially ignoring the word WHITE in its name. Meanwhile, the other Shades of Conflict, Black-and-White Morality, Black-and-Gray Morality, and Grey-and-Gray Morality, have both sides detailed and analyzed.

These are a handful of WAGM examples that only describe the grey/antagonist side:

Edited by KJsixteen on Jul 3rd 2020 at 11:21:54 AM

Because it can safely be assumed that the good guys's side is "white" by default. Trying to describe them would be redundant.

Then by that logic, we might as well not describe the villains in BAGM because we can assume the black side is always evil. Except, that isn't the case 90% of the time, as the villains are equally detailed as the anti-heroes/gray side.

Edited by KJsixteen on Jul 2nd 2020 at 11:48:09 AM

That's the thing: we seemingly like more to describe the negative-looking sides than positive ones.

We can say about the bad guys' side, whatever it is that they do that make them "bad". By contrast, it's basically "accepted" that the good guys will do good things by default; there's nothing "notable" to it.

And it's not a bad thing, mind you.

Edited by 4tell0life4 on Jul 2nd 2020 at 9:07:36 AM

I do admit it's usually easier for people to focus on the villain side rather than the hero side more, probably because of Accentuate the Negative or something like that.

That being said, I still find it (for a lack of a better word) unfair that most of this trope's examples are half-baked, yet the other tropes get both sides detailed. It's also pretty inconsistent if you ask me. A reason why that is a bad thing is because people would think the "not having bad guys" rule automatically means this trope, even if that rule also applies to Grey-and-Gray Morality and Good Versus Good, which is why I replaced the music example of WAGM, as the lyrics explicitly said there are no good guys, making it a case of GAGM.

• Before: Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree."
  There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree. (Replaced on May 23rd, 2019)

• After: Interestingly for a Melodic Death Metal band, Arch-Enemy's the conflict between KHAOS and the government CAN be this Trope, as KHAOS is portrayed as heroic, while the government's morality depends on the listener's view.

Edited by KJsixteen on Jul 3rd 2020 at 11:33:15 AM

Welp, it's been a week since this thread had a response, so I guess I'll move it to Trope Repair Shop.