About: Good Is Impotent   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

For whatever reason -- someone is magically divided into their "light" and "dark" halves, or an encounter with a Sufficiently Advanced Alien -- the cast and crew have to deal with a "pure good" (and occasionally an identically powerful pure evil) entity. Regardless of the circumstances, the pure good entity will be a complete and total wuss. Militant pacifist, empathic to a ridiculous degree, incapable of defending itself, and generally utterly useless till the main cast reunites it somehow with its evil, depraved and (of course) effective and proactive side.

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  • Good Is Impotent
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  • For whatever reason -- someone is magically divided into their "light" and "dark" halves, or an encounter with a Sufficiently Advanced Alien -- the cast and crew have to deal with a "pure good" (and occasionally an identically powerful pure evil) entity. Regardless of the circumstances, the pure good entity will be a complete and total wuss. Militant pacifist, empathic to a ridiculous degree, incapable of defending itself, and generally utterly useless till the main cast reunites it somehow with its evil, depraved and (of course) effective and proactive side.
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  • For whatever reason -- someone is magically divided into their "light" and "dark" halves, or an encounter with a Sufficiently Advanced Alien -- the cast and crew have to deal with a "pure good" (and occasionally an identically powerful pure evil) entity. Regardless of the circumstances, the pure good entity will be a complete and total wuss. Militant pacifist, empathic to a ridiculous degree, incapable of defending itself, and generally utterly useless till the main cast reunites it somehow with its evil, depraved and (of course) effective and proactive side. This probably accounts for the shock and horror with which most Media Watchdogs greet heroes who are, shall we say, less than touchy-feely about how they deal with the villain of the week. "Good," after all, is supposed to be NICE. Right? The seeming impotence of Good in general might be because good no longer hurts evil. May explain why the Balance Between Good and Evil is needed because Evil will get things done, while the presence of Good reins in the Ambition Is Evil to prevent harmful and destructive actions, thus ensuring that Evil's proactivity will be channeled into things of which Good approves. In a meta sense, this trope is used because a good character that is suddenly made extremely powerful and deadly can tip the scales too heavily in the favour of good. While this might not be so bad if the writers make it so the villains work at meeting the hero at the same level, more often it makes the good side into Invincible Heroes. On that same note, concentrating, increasing and highlighting all the positive aspects of one character without upping the ante all-round and doing the same to the other characters can only lead to one thing. Can sometimes happen when a character ascends to a higher plane of existence, and later finds out that when you're Ascended you can't actually do anything because of The Rules. For when Good can actually do stuff, see Holy Hand Grenade. Compare Good Is Boring, Redemption Demotion, The Gods Must Be Lazy, Boring Failure Hero. Frequently includes an inversion of Evil Cannot Comprehend Good. For when the impotent good is one of two or more personalities, see Helpless Good Side. Examples of Good Is Impotent include:
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