Zzzzzzzzzz
Trope names apply to what the trope is. Not about all the times the trope doesn't apply.
The trope is Good Is Not Nice.
The times that Good is nice are irrelevant to the trope and to the trope name.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Boiled and Mashed
Also, your understanding of the trope is off. This trope is about good people who are jerks. Period. It's not about justifying the behavior or saying it's a sometimes thing.
edited 17th Nov '10 12:15:52 AM by arks
Video Game Census. Please contribute.
Yeah, I just interpret it as the converse of Affably Evil, and the heroes it applies to as foil for Affably Evil villains.
EDIT: Frankly, I think Good Is Not Nice should be mentioned more often; aside from being the foil to Affably Evil, it's also a bit more plausible and less contradictory-sounding. (Let's face it, there's a difference between virtue and friendliness, after all, and often people in real-life are perceived as mean for doing the right thing.)
edited 17th Nov '10 9:11:51 AM by neoYTPism
What else would we need to change to fit this pattern? Good Feels Good, Good Is Not Dumb, Good Is Dumb, Good Is Boring — and that's just starting to touch the Good tropes.
One Winged Egret
The point of the trope is that good is not necessarily associated with politeness or friendliness. Good itself is not nice. Niceness and goodness are on two different axes. So it is applying universally, even when good characters in the same setting are nice. Those characters just happen to be both good and nice, rather than the standard good-nice of other works that don't use this trope.
It's most comparable to Dark Is Not Evil. The existence of evil people using darkness is not relevant to the trope.
edited 25th Nov '10 1:19:22 AM by Clarste
I see the Awesomeness.
I don't think there's any point in leaving this open.
Fight smart, not fair.
Zzzzzzzzzz
^ Agreed. No reason to change it was ever offered, besides, "this title puts me off somehow."
Locking.
...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.
Something about the title Good Is Not Nice kind of off puts me. Yes, I get that the trope is about that good people are sometimes forced to do very harsh things for the great good, but its not always that way. I think that a more accurate title would be Good Is Not Always Nice. Like I said, minor example.
"All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you." -Gandalf