abstract
| - It is often found in fictional media that the protagonist/antagonist conflict takes the form of the shining knight whose breath smells of flowers and has holy light shining from his every orifice versus the very fount of all evil who Eats Babies as a hobby, and Kicks Dogs as a profession. In an effort to portray "realistic" conflicts, writers often introduce flaws in their heroes and redeeming qualities in their villains. These can be deeply unsatisfying. Movie-goers want a hero to celebrate and a villain to vilify. But if both sides have flaws and redeeming qualities, how do they know which is which? How can a writer create such a satisfying world without making it all impossibly unrealistic? It's simple: leave the job half-done. Only the white gets removed, leaving behind a world where the choice is between mundane corruption and baby-eating supervillainy. This is the essence of Black and Gray Morality; the only choices are between kinda evil and soul-crushingly evil. Obviously, the heroes of such settings tend to be antiheroes In such a world, any characters who appear to be good in any way will eventually be revealed as a Knight Templar in disguise, a Dark Messiah inches from the edge, or a deeply flawed Anti-Hero. And if there are any genuinely good characters on the show, they'll either 'come around' to the The Dark Side, die horribly, remain a figure of perpetual mockery or, if very lucky, grow a protective shell of cynicism. A good litmus test for this trope is as follows: 1.
* Do the main characters do seriously reprehensible things to their opposite number? 2.
* Are they still unquestionably painted as being "on the right side?" By virtue of the other side being worse? Whether the author is successful or not does not matter. If so, you've got a classic case of Black and Gray Morality. See also Shades of Conflict, Grey and Gray Morality, Black and White Morality, Evil Versus Evil, Crapsack World, Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism. The inverse is But Not Too Evil. Contrast with White and Grey Morality, where everyone has some nobility to them, and the thematically similar Designated Hero, a much more parodied trope which features a protagonist that is selfish and cowardly as opposed to a bastard. Also compare Nominal Hero, where a character on the side of good doesn't have any good intentions. If there are 'true' heroes around along with the 'kinda bad' and 'very bad' characters described above, it's The Good, the Bad, and The Evil. Examples of Black and Gray Morality include:
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