History Main / BlackAndGrayMorality

* {{Harbinger}}: Peter's pretty brutal to his enemies, either mind-wiping them or sentencing them to lives of insanity if he's angry enough. Flamingo and Torque are happy to mooch off of Peter's mind-control abilities in order to steal money and cars and stay in hotels for free. The only really "white" member of the team is Zephyr.

** Another Elder Scrolls example is present in [[TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind's]] ''Tribunal'' expansion. King Helseth, who [[spoiler: initially sends ''assassins'' to kill the [[PlayerCharacter Nerevarine]],]] ends up recruiting said character to [[spoiler: infiltrate and eventually eliminate [[BigBad Alm]][[AGodAmI alexia]].]] Neither is "good" in this situation, and even the shade of gray is ''very'' dark.

* Generally a SignatureStyle of FrankMiller, especially in ''SinCity''. All his heroes are fascists, sociopaths or both, but the villains they face are even worse.
** A special shout-out goes to his interpretation of Franchise/{{Batman}}, which [[http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox7/ draws some much-deserved mockery]] for making the Dark Knight an absolute psychopath, and celebrating those tendencies.
* Likewise, Garth Ennis' bad guys are usually the epitome of pure psychotic evil, but morally speaking his good guys often aren't anything to write home about either, as they generally tend to be a bunch of murderous sociopaths themselves. His intense dislike of and tendency to savagely parody or mock [[TheCape any generally 'noble' or 'heroic' superhero or otherwise heroic character]] (although he does make some exceptions) doesn't help matters much.

** A special shout-out goes to his interpretation of {{Batman}}, which [[http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox7/ draws some much-deserved mockery]] for making the Dark Knight an absolute psychopath, and celebrating those tendencies.

*** Benign nice guys too weak, gullible, restrained, and/or petty to ever do any lasting good (Ned, Principal Skinner, Milhouse, Lou)

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. On the one hand, we have sociopathic, corrupt amoral scumbags who will do absolutely anything for power (Mom, Zapp Brannigan, Lrrr, Richard Nixon's Head, Leo Wong), and on the other side:
** Fry, whose heart is in the right place but whose lack of intelligence often screws things up for everybody,
** Leela, who is usually on the right side of the conflict but is often short-tempered, violent and egotistical,
** Bender, whose level of morality and personality is whatever the plot requires.
** Farnsworth, an amoral crackpot whose total disregard for human life has lead to the death of several of his crews,
** Zoidberg, who exists mostly to be a punching bag,
** And Hermes, who does exactly what he's paid to do and nothing more, often regardless of personal ethics.

* The {{Fanfic/Uplifted}} series is the epitome of this trope in Mass Effect fanfics. Of the two protagonists one of them. Joachim Hoch, is a Waffen SS Officer who is not shy about his viewpoints, charming and kind on the one hand, and violent in the other. A classic Anti-hero. His Quarian counterpart and eventual lover, Hanala Jarva, is manipulative, lying, and brutal. The Quarians ally with the Nazis, because they would make the best shock troops when the time comes to retake Rannoch. While it is true that the Quarians plot a coup against Hitler, their motives are again less than pure. The Allies? Not as bad as the Nazis, but they would turn on the Quarians the first chance they get. Somewhat justified given that the fic is set during WorldWarII.

* In the {{Web Serial Novel}} {{Literature/Worm}}, there are the {{Villain Protagonist}}s, mostly {{Anti Villain}}s, and the {{Hero Antagonist}}s, who are often {{Jerkass}}es, {{Anti-hero}}es or even just in-universe {{Designated Hero}}es, both sides fighting against each other but all playing by unwritten rules and not killing or unmasking. It's all very grey. But then there are terrifying psycopaths like the [[TheDreaded Slaughterhouse Nine]] and [[OmnicidalManiac Giant monsters like the Endbringers,]] which everyone is willing to team up against.

** The [[TheFederation NCR]] is an expansionist, corrupt, overly bureaucratic state where citizens are taxed to the point that many can't make ends meet. The expansionist policies have left the military too thinly stretched to provide any real security to their existing territory, let alone the Hoover Dam/New Vegas regions they plan to annex.

* In the {{Web Serial Novel}} {{Literature/Worm}}, there are the {{Villain Protagonist}}s, mostly {{Anti Villain}}s, and the {{Hero Antagonist}}s, who are often {{Jerkass}}es, {{Anti-hero}}es or even just in-universe {{Designated Hero}}es, both sides fighting against each other but all playing by unwritten rules and not killing or unmasking. It's all very grey. But then there are terrifying psycopaths like the TheDreaded Slaughterhouse Nine and OmnicidalManiac Giant monsters like the Endbringers, which everyone is willing to team up against.

*** Eternal Jekyll-and-Hyde flipfloppers (Nelson, Moe, Barney)

*** A man whose moral bearing, and in fact personality, is whatever the current episode requires (#1 on [[Characters/TheSimpsons this list]]), and the original face of the show who’s jumped all over the spectrum (#3).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''. On the one hand, we have sociopathic, corrupt amoral scumbags who will do absolutely anything for power (Mom, Zapp Brannigan, Bender at his worst, Lrrr, Richard Nixon's Head), and on the other side:

** Bender at his best, a {{Jerkass}} but who genuinely cares about his friends and does have some limits,

* In Frederick Forsyth's ''TheDayOfTheJackal'', the OAS are far right terrorists. The eponymous VillainProtagonist is a consummate ProfessionalKiller. However, the French Action Service are secret police-like, going to use ElectricTorture on an OAS captive.

* In AndrewVachss's Burke books, Burke and his TrueCompanions are mostly ex-cons who skirt or break the law frequently. They cross paths with pedophiles from time to time.

** Quincies had a legit beef with [[TheHeartless Hollows]] - payback for losing their loved ones (among other things). However, their penchant for RevengeBeforeReason disrupted the chain of reincarnation within the verse, due to their abilities leading to the complete decimation of the Hollows' souls. It was the backdrop of a war between themselves and their Shinigami rivals, which led to the near-destruction of their race as a result. Another knock against the Quincies would be their apparent desire for "blood purity"; they look down on mixed breeds, to the point where they'd rather inbreed than split their heritages. While we've seen a couple of sympathetic Quincies, the majority of named Quincies are affiliated with the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Vandenreich]], a xenophobic, imperialist organization with allusions to NaziGermany and ImperialJapan. Almost as if to highlight the moral ambiguity of Soul Society, there is a holy knights theme to be observed in the Vandenreich's robes, contrasted with the rather demonic allusions seen among the Shinigami.

* It's also probably worth mentioning that the ''comedic relief'' in the series is orks, a pure example of an AlwaysChaoticEvil race, who are hellbent on attacking and destroying as many worlds as they can.

** It is saying something about the setting when you consider the "good" factions of the game: [[CantArgueWithElves arrogant space elves]] who [[FantasticRacism view humans as little better than filthy, stupid animals]], regularly engineer ork attacks on human worlds, and would happily [[FinalSolution murder every human in the galaxy, if given the option]]; the [[TheEmpire Imperium of Man]] which is an AntiHero ''[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters at best]]'', but would easily fall into villainy in most settings, where their policy against all aliens is [[AbsoluteXenophobia shoot first, talk later]], and they destroy entire planets of people if it is suspected to have a substantial corruption of Chaos, not to mention that their oppression is nothing short of fascism; and the communist [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Tau Empire]], whose leaders are powerful psychics that control their followers through mind control and their MO is "join us and serve the Greater Good, or we'll kill your entire race". That said, at least Tau bother with allies, the Eldar leave you alone unless you come up in one of their schemes, and the Imperium is fairly tolerable of you as long as you're human and believe in the God Emperor. Which is more than we can say for Chaos, Orks, Necrons, Tyranids, and Dark Eldar.

** It is saying something about the setting when you consider the "good" factions of the game: [[CantArgueWithElves arrogant space elves]] who [[FantasticRacism view humans as little better than filthy, stupid animals]], the [[TheEmpire Imperium of Man]] which is an AntiHero ''[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters at best]]'', and the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Tau Empire]]'s MO is "join us and serve the Greater Good, or we'll kill your entire race". That said, at least Tau bother with allies, the Eldar leave you alone unless you come up in one of their schemes, and the Imperium is fairly tolerable of you as long as you're human and believe in the God Emperor. Which is more than we can say for Chaos, Necrons and Dark Eldar.

** Quincies had a legit beef with [[TheHeartless Hollows]] - payback for losing their loved ones (among other things). However, their penchant for RevengeBeforeReason disrupted the chain of reincarnation within the verse, due to their abilities leading to the complete decimation of the Hollows' souls. It was the backdrop of a war between themselves and their Shinigami rivals, which led to the near-destruction of their race as a result. Another knock against the Quincies would be their apparent desire for "blood purity"; they look down on mixed breeds, to the point where they'd rather inbreed than split their heritages. While we've seen a couple of sympathetic Quincies, the majority of named Quincies are affiliated with the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Vandenreich]], a xenophobic, imperialist organization with allusions to NaziGermany and ImperialJapan.

** And Hermes, who does exactly what he's paid to do and nothing more.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Protagonist Walter White [[TookALevelInBadass goes from mild-mannered chemistry teacher to meth dealer in the first few episodes]], and loses his objections to murder almost as quickly.[[YourDaysAreNumbered His stage III-A lung cancer]] means he has to pay for the cancer treatment & provide for his family in the time he has left, making him sympathetic, but an AntiHero in the pilot & a VillainProtagonist by Season 5. Hank Schrader, a DEA agent & Walt's brother-in-law, is no hero either, given his KnightTemplar and GoodIsNotNice qualities. The distributors who sell Walt's product provide enough contrast to prevent the show from being EvilVersusEvil or GreyAndGrayMorality, while the rest of the characters range from hopelessly naive and caught in the middle of something they don't understand (Gale, Skyler, Marie, Ted) to NotSoDifferent from Walt or the drug lords (Jesse, Todd, Mike, Lydia).

** The closest thing in a Tarantino directed film comes to white is the [[DjangoUnchained good doctor King Schultz]] who is disgusted beyond words by slavery and is willing to give up large sums of money to save a life. He has on the other hand hard to see the problem of killing a wanted criminal in front of his little son.

* JRRTolkien's TheSilmarillion could be an UrExample of this. On the other side are Elves and Men, the assumed good guys, who are flawed, cocky, haughty, corrupt, petty, jealous and well capable of killing their own kin; on the other side is [[BigBad Morgoth]], who is a pure evil. (And [[EldritchAbomination Ungoliant]])