History Main / BlackAndGrayMorality

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', so. Freaking much.
** One of the reasons why [[KidsAreCruel Stan, Kyle and Kenny]] are the good boys, is because the enemies and/or antagonists are much worse.
** That's not an excuse.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation is an organization that captures supernatural entities (terrible monsters and mere abnormal humans alike) and keeps them imprisoned, doing research on them. Also they use convicted felons (or innocents, in times of duress) to do the dangerous labors and conduct lethal experiments. The whole D-Class-Staff is killed and replaced every month or so. However, all this is just for security, to keep the unspeakable horrors they have captured inside their confinements. Various Groups of Interest also make the Foundation seem [[ALighterShadeOfBlack reasonable by comparison]], such as ''two'' cases of ReligionOfEvil, an organization [[VanHelsingHateCrimes that prefers to destroy anomalies]], a splinter EvilCounterpart, [[AuctionOfEvil an anomaly-dealing corporation]] and a group of {{Mad Artist}}s whose creations usually mangle or murder people.

* In ''Machinima/HalfLifeButTheAIIsSelfAware'', in one corner you have the Science Team, a group of dangerously unhinged and amoral weirdos who range from merely odd to downright psychotic who, whether accidentally or intentionally, kill any civilians they run across without fail, and even Tommy and Gordon, the most traditionally heroic of them, have moments of amorality and [[AxCrazy Ax Craziness]], but have redeeming qualities, genuinely care about each other, and will at least try on occasion to save the civilians they run across, even if they always fail and wind up killing them themselves. In the other hand, you have the US Military, a bunch of idiots whose strategies consist of killing every civilian they run across and even their own men and [[spoiler:may have sold out humanity to an EldritchAbomination]], the aliens, who are AlwaysChaoticEvil and attack everything on sight for no reason, and the BigBad [[spoiler:Benrey, a delusional EldritchAbomination MadGod who also acts like a total {{Jerkass}} and tries to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy the world]] [[DisproportionateRetribution because he didn't get to play]] on the UsefulNotes/PlayStationPlus.]]

* In the AlternateHistory.Com timeline ''{{Literature/Reds}}!'', the UASR is presented in a more positive light than most of the other governments of the time, but it is far from perfect. Its abuses include the setting up of kangaroo courts and the execution of potentially innocent civilians (though nowhere near on the scale of Stalinist Russia). Given that their primary enemies are a military junta that suspended the US Constitution and the rogue's gallery of petty fascist groups they drum up to support it domestically, and ThoseWackyNazis in foreign affairs, though...

* [[BlackAndGrayMorality/{{Film}}s

* [[BlackAndGrayMorality/{{Film}} Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'': Zootopia isn't as unified as it appears on the surface; almost everybody is shown to hold some kind of prejudice and/or stereotype. Everybody is a victim of bias, and everybody is a carrier of it, [[InnocentlyInsensitive even if they don't realize it]] until they get called out. However, there are light and dark ends of the spectrum. Those on the lighter side, like Judy and Nick, who try to move past their biases, acknowledge and apologize for their mistakes are the ones who help Zootopia truly become better. Those, [[spoiler:like Bellwether and the others involved in the anti-predator conspiracy]] who don't care who gets hurt/killed in their campaign, are too far gone into darkness.
[[/folder]]

* In a similar vein, the ''Literature/TheAngloAmericanNaziWar'' timeline pits the Western Allies, who have [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism slipped right into the cynical side of the sliding scale]] due to almost a decade of brutal, no-holds-barred total war, and after it, do pretty shady things just to maintain world peace. Of course, they were right up against Nazi Germany, who have had a decade to stew in their insane ideology and the description of [[KillEmAll what]] [[MadeASlave they]] [[IndustrializedEvil do]] to conquered Europe since winning the 1939-1943 war makes for [[NightmareFuel utterly terrifying reading]] and worse, all of it is what they planned to do in real life.

* ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy'' has [[TheEmpire the Fel Empire and Darth Krayt's Galactic Empire]]. The Fel Empire was a reorganization of TheRepublic spearheaded by Jagged Fel, a veteran of the Vong War and the Second Galactic Civil War, and his wife, Jedi Master Jaina Solo. Their HegemonicEmpire shared many characteristics with Darth Sidious' Galactic Empire including some xenophobia (albeit to a much milder extent than its predecessor) and [[AmbitionIsEvil valuing power above all else]], but the Fels were ultimately ReasonableAuthorityFigures who set constitutional limits on their power and were loyal to the Light side of the Force to the point that their Gray Jedi bodyguards [[MercyKillArrangement had orders to kill them should they ever irrevocably fall]] to the DarkSide. After they were overthrown by Krayt, the galactic citizenry immediately went back to suffering under the same harsh dictatorial conditions and genocide they had under Sidious.

* ''Webcomic/{{EVIL}}'': Being a [[WackyCollege university]] [[AcademyOfEvil for villains]], pretty much the entire main cast are explicitly evil, with the exception of [[MinionWithAnFInEvil Trevor]], who isn't particularly '''good''', either.

* Myth/ClassicalMythology rules this trope. Unlike Myth/NorseMythology, the gods aren't even contrasted with anything particularly terrible, they're [[JerkassGods just generally dicks]] who happen to be in charge (Zeus, fittingly, epitomized this, being a violent rapist and ManipulatuveBastard but also powerful enough to defeat all the other gods combined). Well, some were alright--but you never hear about them, because the Greeks generally considered any story that doesn't involve both sides of the conflict being colossal jerks to be one not worth telling.

* ''Fanfic/{{Embers}}'' has [[LawfulNeutral Zuko]], who admits he's 'no good at being good,' even in the original series [[spoiler:and is willing to hang Aang out to dry, and he isn't going to even try to prevent a genocide of his own people because even he admits that they deserve it]]. Then there's [[TheHero Aang]], who is well-intentioned but does a lot of stuff that should have killed him and his friends in the series: HanlonsRazor is true because ignorance can do just as much damage, or more, as malice. The closest thing to an unambiguously good guy may be Kuei, who still [[spoiler:ordered the Dai Li to set fires in civilian homes, traps in streets and so on as part of the Ba Sing Se resistance]] because this is war and he's the Earth King. In contrast to them, there's [[MindRape Azula]], who deserves her own content warning, but still has nothing on the BigBad and his allies, whose plans constitute a [[spoiler:ZombieApocalypse]] and horribly painful deaths in the works for anyone unlucky enough to survive the various genocidal wars they've stirred up over the millennia.

* Myth/ClassicalMythology rules this trope. Unlike Myth/NorseMythology, the gods aren't even contrasted with anything particularly terrible, they're [[JerkassGods just generally dicks]] who happen to be in charge (Zeus, fittingly, epitomized this, being a violent rapist and MagnificentBastard but also powerful enough to defeat all the other gods combined). Well, some were alright--but you never hear about them, because the Greeks generally considered any story that doesn't involve both sides of the conflict being colossal jerks to be one not worth telling.

* The Kori No Tatakai in Myth/JapaneseMythology is a battle between two groups of {{Youkai}}: the evil-type {{Kitsune}} and the neutral-type {{Tanuki}}.

* This trope is flipped on its head in ''ComicBook/{{Birthright}}'': in one hand you have the decisively ObviouslyEvil [[EvilOverlord God-King Lore]], who rules the world of Terrenos with iron fist and has designs to merge it with Earth. Against him are five mages that have [[BarrierMaiden set themselves up as barriers to prevent him from conquering Earth]], but seldom are heroic or selfless: at best, they are reclusive or selfish (one of them was more interested in preserving her wealth and privilege) and and at worse, exceedingly brutal [[KnightTemplar Knights Templars]] who will ''kill'' innocents without hesitation if it serves their ends. What makes this trope unusual is that [[VillainProtagonist the main protagonist]] is a AntiVillain serving Lore (the biggest evil in the conflict who wants to cause chaos and destruction) as his enforcer instead of fighting against him, making the mages (who want at least want to preserve the world) ''very, very loose'' [[HeroAntagonist hero antagonists]].

* The Kori No Tatakai in Myth/JapaneseMythology is a battle between two groups of {{Youkai}}: the ChaoticEvil-type {{Kitsune}} and the ChaoticNeutral-type {{Tanuki}}.

* The Curse Of Maraqua plot of ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' has two groups of pirate armies crashing against each other. While [[ChaoticNeutral Garin]] himself is not the nicest guy in Neopia, he helps defend the new city of Maraqua against the even worse [[ChaoticEvil Captain Scarblade]].

* Any version of Myth/RobinHood. Yes, he and his Merry Men were thieves and robbers, but the people of Nottingham were being overtaxed and Robin Hood was simply giving back the money to the poor so that they could live. In the [[WesternAnimation/RobinHood Disney version]], Little John even questions the morality of what they do.

* ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'' is like this, but oddly, not ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', which is more GrayandGreyMorality. The [[VillainProtagonist main character]] is, ya know, ''{{Satan}}'', who is caught between TheLegionsOfHell and the angels of heaven, who soon turn out not to be very nice either.

** For example, in ''ComicBook/BackToBrooklyn'', [[AntiHero Bob's]] a mobster, the cops use racial slurs, but the villains are REALLY bad.
** Unless he's writing Franchise/{{Superman}}.
** In fact, most modern comic writers fall into this category. Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison, and Alan Moore (just to name a few) often have morally ambigious protagonists.

* ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'' is like this, but oddly, not ''ComicBook/TheSandman'', which was more Gray and Gray. The [[VillainProtagonist main character]] is, ya know, ''{{Satan}}'', who is caught between TheLegionsOfHell and the angels of heaven, who soon turn out not to be very nice either.

* ComicBook/ThePunisher (especially ComicBook/ThePunisherMAX, which was mostly written by the aforementioned Ennis). Frank Castle is a sociopathic, cruel, KnightTemplar, BloodKnight, mass-murdering VigilanteMan, but is constantly pitted against the worst sorts of people -- {{Serial Killer}}s, {{Serial Rapist}}s, WesternTerrorists, TheMafia, HumanTraffickers and many, many other types among them. Most Punisher villains neglect fancy costumes or entertaining gimmicks and don't seem to even have any character traits besides malice, greed, sadism, and selfishness, justifying his PayEvilUntoEvil approach to the Negative Zone and beyond. Garth Ennis writes the character as 100% aware of this, often repeatedly stating that his only reason to continue living is to punish those worse than himself.

* ''Franchise/{{MarvelUniverse}}'': The villains tend to be straight up bad guys most of the time while the heroes genuinely heroic and noble tend to have infighting, personal problems and personal issues that gets in their way half of the time. Some of them tend to have bad publicity such as ComicBook/{{Spider Man}} and ComicBook/{{X Men}}.
* ComicBook/UltimateMarvel ''runs'' on this trope.

* ''Radio/TheShadow'' is GoodIsNotNice at best and more often a merciless UnscrupulousHero, but his foes deserve every bit of wrath they receive.

*** Eudora has unleashed an Undead Plague so vile both the original Scourge and Sylvana's Blight pale in comparison. All semblance of self-identity is utterly erased (interpret it as your soul is impossible to recover by any means), the victims die even more painfully, and the environment's life is sucked out faster and more perniciously than any previous strain hitherto conceived. And she unleashed it on dimensions (which includes several planets) never impacted by the Plague in the first place.

*** The Council of Rocalucce is so rotten to the core it's entirely to blame for much of the conflicts in the story (interplanetary, terrorist, and civil wars alike) including the fact Eudora's devastating impact on Magix. Nearly all of the Councilors abuse the immense power they've stockpiled for selfish gain and have bribed, blackmailed, and threatened their way out of prison several times. Many of them are rapists, slave traders, and pedophiles as well.

* In the NextGenFic ''Fanfic/{{Paradoxus}}'' (''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' and ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''):
** While the characters trying to avoid their dimensions [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt succumbing into chaos]] have committed plenty of questionable deeds for the greater good's sake, most of them don't indulge in unnecessary carnage or gratuitous cruelty for personal gain/enjoyment. {{Justified|Trope}} since they have been hardened (or already were) from the horrors of the dimensional war they are waging and fighting in. Doubly justified in that they are losing the war and, thus, cannot go through the idealistic route of helping and saving everyone. Furthermore, a few of these characters have had to thread among power-hungry, influential political figures. These 'good guys' are also deeply flawed individuals.

*** The Tyrannus Division will prioritize the mission's goal over basically everything else. Deviating resources to save every goddamned victim will only be a waste (there are too many of them and the personnel is too scarce) and won't help win the war. Most of the cast belongs or is associated to this military branch.
*** Nymph precognition unveiled to [[spoiler: Daphne]] not only about Bloom and Stella's deaths, [[spoiler: but the inevitability of the matter.]] She, along with [[spoiler: Flora of all people and Galadwen]], used that knowledge to pull the strings on Trisha, Altalune, and Stacy's lives so thoroughly that the main plotline and several secondary ones happened because of them! If that doesn't scandalize you, keep in mind Altalune and Trisha (especially Trisha) suffered A LOT due to their manipulations, even to the point of getting much of their traumas because of that.

*** Eudora killed two women (Bloom and Stella) she had nothing personal against ''in front'' of the former's kid daughter just to get rid of the threat they represented. Moments later, it was revealed that Eudora WouldHurtAChild and left said child with an injury that would've killed her if she weren't who she is.

*** The Council of Rocalucce is so rotten to the core it's entirely to blame for much of the conflicts in the story (interplanetary, terrorist, and civil wars alike) and the fact Eudora was able to cause that much damage in the first place. Nearly all of its members abuse the immense power they've stockpiled for selfish gain and have bribed, blackmailed, and threatened their way out of prison several times. Some of them are rapists, slave traders, and pedophiles as well.

* In the NextGenFic ''Fanfic/{{Paradoxus}}'' (''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' and ''VideoGame/WorldofWarcraft''):

[[folder:Eastern Animation]]
* The protagonists in ''Animation/AachiAndSsipak'' are black market drug runners who don't care about the carnage around them and simply want to exploit a hooker for money. At least Ssipak is in love with her. Aachi just tends to be annoyed with having to save her life all the time. The villains are worse in that they are willing to kill and force the hooker into labor.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fanfic]]

[[folder: Animated Film]]