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| - If being good were as easy as most cartoons make it out to be, everyone would be alright. Truth is, sometimes Being Good Sucks. Doing the right thing doesn't always feel good which it can be painful, even harmful, to yourself and others. Being good requires a Heroic Sacrifice, keeping your word and thinking of others before yourself. It means swallowing your pride, owning up to and apologizing for your mistakes. It means doing the above without expecting a reward (even a spoken thank you), refusing one if offered, and most ego-crushing, accepting the punishment for being good.
- You can't spell sympathetic without pathetic! If being good were as easy as most cartoons make it out to be, everyone would be a saint. Truth is, sometimes Being Good Sucks. Doing the right thing doesn't always feel good, is hard to pull off, and is often very painful, sometimes even harmful, to yourself and others. Being good requires a Heroic Sacrifice, keeping your word, and thinking of others before yourself. It means swallowing your Pride, owning up to and apologizing for your mistakes. Oh, and it also means doing the above without expecting a reward (even a spoken thank you), refusing one if offered, and most ego-crushing, accepting the punishment for being good.
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| abstract
| - If being good were as easy as most cartoons make it out to be, everyone would be alright. Truth is, sometimes Being Good Sucks. Doing the right thing doesn't always feel good which it can be painful, even harmful, to yourself and others. Being good requires a Heroic Sacrifice, keeping your word and thinking of others before yourself. It means swallowing your pride, owning up to and apologizing for your mistakes. It means doing the above without expecting a reward (even a spoken thank you), refusing one if offered, and most ego-crushing, accepting the punishment for being good. The variations are endless, but below is a condensed catalog:
* Sacrificing your own happiness: It can be any type of happiness, but the heroes denying the romance to protect their love Interest
* Giving up your ambitions: Usually these are selfish or dark ambitions, and denying them helps the character in the long run. When a character wants Revenge for the murder of a loved one in a world which it will cost them dearly. However, this can extend to less dark goals, when Ambition Is Evil.
* Good behaviour. Obvious as it is, being good requires acting good. This means sharing, forgiving others, not killing people and generally acting contrary to one's impulses to those who dislike.
* Humility and honesty. Honesty is a big source of Suck when being good. It means that any wrong doing on your part (or your friends') must be revealed. Worse, it means denying and obeying the law. The character may find that to do what is right means going against stupid laws, becoming a wanted man, separated from loved ones, with their "reputation" ruined.
* Being good would require the character to stop being nice. Whether it's telling an uncomfortable truth, or calling out your loved ones for their mistakes, the character will have to put aside their nice attitude and do what they have to do for the sake of doing what's right. The character will not enjoy this at all, but this will cause other characters to hate and resent the hero for making tough decisions that he is morally obligated to do.
* Redemption: A character realizing that Being Evil Sucks will turn to the side of good, only to find out that it comes at a price since Redemption Equals Affliction. This means the character has to put aside their ego and acknowledge that they are in the wrong, accept their karmic punishment, and work to regain the trust and respect from others, even if people aren't willing to forgive or at least forget what they've done.
* Giving up on a Love Interest, so that they can be truly happy with someone else, or somewhere else, or doing something else. You may end up with someone else...or you may end up a Celibate Hero or dead.
- You can't spell sympathetic without pathetic! If being good were as easy as most cartoons make it out to be, everyone would be a saint. Truth is, sometimes Being Good Sucks. Doing the right thing doesn't always feel good, is hard to pull off, and is often very painful, sometimes even harmful, to yourself and others. Being good requires a Heroic Sacrifice, keeping your word, and thinking of others before yourself. It means swallowing your Pride, owning up to and apologizing for your mistakes. Oh, and it also means doing the above without expecting a reward (even a spoken thank you), refusing one if offered, and most ego-crushing, accepting the punishment for being good. The variations are endless, but below is a condensed catalog of horrors that will make you doubt in the Auto Revive of Crystal Dragon Jesus.
* Sacrificing your own happiness: It can be any type of happiness, be it denying romance to protect the Love Interest, or where their quest To Be a Master is leveraged against a friend's life when the "Friend or Idol?" Decision comes along. Even simple promises have to broken with alarming frequency.
* Giving up your ambitions: Usually these are selfish or dark ambitions, and denying them actually helps the character in the long run. When a character wants Revenge for the murder of a loved one in a world where If You Kill Him You Will Be Just Like Him, their giving up murder (though not necessarily forgiving the villain) will cost them dearly but ultimately be the right thing. However, this can extend to less dark goals, when Ambition Is Evil. If the story deems the character's dream as "selfish" or bad, they have no choice but to give up.
* Good behaviour. Obvious as it is, being good requires, well, acting good. This means sharing, forgiving others, not killing people and generally acting contrary to one's impulses to be a Jerkass to those disliked. No matter how much they may wish or be tempted to do otherwise.
* Humility and honesty. Honesty is a big source of Suck when being good. It means that any wrong doing on your part (or your friends') must be revealed. Worse, it means denying Protagonist-Centered Morality and obeying the law. No room for a third option, no Cool and Unusual Punishment, you follow the law even if it's blindingly stupid and will benefit the villains. Good is indeed Dumb.
* Guilt over bad deeds - and not doing enough good. At times, it can lock characters into Status Quo Is God, where success requires an evil action, making winning and staying good impossible. On the other side of the fence, this crops up when Evil Feels Good. Often applies to a Heel Face Turn character, or the Badass of the team who laments that they have to save somebody they hate from a burning building, or they don't get to kill their most hated enemy, all because of a stupid oath they took. In a Crapsack World, not only does Good Feel Crappy, but it will eventually destroy you, your Soul, and everything and everyone you love and care about. Granted, usually there's a reason behind that, like, say, Redemption Equals Death-- for everyone involved. At least these characters get to go to the inky Nothing After Death knowing they lived a life of principles which was cut tragically short, changed nothing and on the whole made many other people suffer more than just ducking his head would have. Still, most authors will at least throw them a bone and have the Pyrrhic Victory lean towards the Bittersweet Ending end of things, bringing some good out of all the suffering, or showing the villain Lonely At the Top. No promises though. Contrast Being Evil Sucks. Also, see Downer Ending, or, if you're lucky, Earn Your Happy Ending. Compare No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, where the good action (rather than the process of being good) is what gets the characters in trouble. Contrast Karma Houdini Warranty, where trying to turn over a new leaf can bring down heaven's wrath.This is one way people become an Iron Woobie or a Knight in Sour Armor, depending on whether the suffering is taken with quiet dignity or grumpy complaining. Of course, there are many instances in real life in which being good doesn't suck that much. Scientifically, deeds perceived as good entail social recognition and approval, and bad deeds entail reprisal. Justice is one of the fundamental evolutionary imperatives that allows human society to function coherently; we may not all be saints, but we're not all lawless murderers. And especially when you haven't got superpowers, it's usually more profitable to abide by society's rules. At least unless you just so happen to be a Villain with Good Publicity... Examples of Being Good Sucks include:
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