History Main / GrayingMorality

* Canadian columnist Eric Nicol has the story of ''Literature/TheWhiteKnight'', who rides off in search of the Black knight, whose path is marked by a string of thefts and seductions, and who gradually transforms into the Black Knight.

* Karen A. Brush's children's book ''The Pig, The Prince, and the Unicorn'' begins as a classic Good vs. Evil Quest story, but as the naive protagonist (the titular Pig) finds out more and more about the opposing side as he journeys, at the end of his quest he's totally conflicted about whether to go through with it or not.

* Canadian columnist Eric Nicol has the story of ''Literature/TheWhiteKnight'', who rides off in search of the Black knight, whose path is marked by a string of thefts and seductions, and who gradually transforms into the Black Knight. [[/folder]]

* In a unusual way ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' fic ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10143440/118/Just-a-Note Just a Note]]'' does it to canon through AlternateCharacterInterpretation. One of the canon cases involved the death of an Interpol agent who was tracing smuggling of a cocoon which can be used as medicine or poison, and whose taking out of its origin country is illegal. The culprit wanted to sell the cocoon to a buyer whose son needed said medicine to survive. The fic presents the culprit as a WellIntentionedExtremist who never wanted any deaths and wanted to get the cocoon to a buyer not for money but to save the kid's life, and the victim as someone whose sticking to the rules resulted in a child's death.

* The first ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy (IV-VI) had this. ''Film/ANewHope'' was like a comic book, with mostly clear-cut heroes and villains (except for LovableRogue Han Solo). In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', we learn that Obi-Wan [[MetaphoricallyTrue lied]] to Luke about his father, leading to ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' where Luke is told that he must kill his own father or the Emperor will win. The prequels end up being much greyer than the originals, with the heroes using ChildSoldiers and a slave army. This is expanded on in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', where Luke scoffs at Rey's deification of the Jedi when they were accountable for the horrors that befell the galaxy in the rise of the Empire, and deconstructing tropes of hot-shot ace pilots, obstructive brass, and rogue characters that shade the series to shades of grey not seen since ''Empire''.
** The expanded universe runs the whole gamut. The first few novels are fairly light, only for subsequent ones to get darker. Then every couple of series there'll be a conscious effort to be lighter again, which in turn get darker etc etc.

* The ''Series/JohnFinnemoresDoubleActs'' episode "Wysinnwyg" pulls this off within a single 28-minute radio play.

* The first ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy (IV-VI) had this. ''Film/ANewHope'' was like a comic book, with mostly clear-cut heroes and villains (except for LovableRogue Han Solo). In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', we learn that Obi-Wan [[JediTruth lied]] to Luke about his father, leading to ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' where Luke is told that he must kill his own father or the Emperor will win. The prequels end up being much greyer than the originals, with the heroes using ChildSoldiers and a slave army. This is expanded on in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', where Luke scoffs at Rey's deification of the Jedi when they were accountable for the horrors that befell the galaxy in the rise of the Empire, and deconstructing tropes of hot-shot ace pilots, obstructive brass, and rogue characters that shade the series to shades of grey not seen since ''Empire''.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In ''FanFic/WhyAmICrying'', Scootaloo believes that Diamond Tiara and all bullies were born pure evil and that they were incapable of changing their ways. As the story goes on, Scootaloo finds out that Diamond Tiara had a HiddenHeartOfGold and that her kindhearted teacher Miss Cheerilee was a horrible bully in her high school days, and she soon realizes that bullies ''can'' change for the better.

* Canadian columnist Eric Nicol has the story of '' Literature/TheWhiteKnight'', who rides off in search of the Black knight, whose path is marked by a string of thefts and seductions, and who gradually transforms into the Black Knight. [[/folder]]

* The original ''[[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]]'' series is fairly [[BlackAndWhiteMorality Black And White]]. The [[VideoGame/MegaManX sequel]] [[VideoGame/MegaManZero series]] get less and less so.

*** The Wardens' actions in ''Inquisition'' actually result in a BrokenPedestal moment for Blackwall, who idolized the Wardens and never knew how shady they could be. Indeed, one of the [[spoiler: clues that Blackwall is not really a Grey Warden is his obvious hero-worship of them, lauding their bravery and goodness]]. If the Player played ''Origins'', they know the Wardens are less [[IdealHero Ideal Heroes]] and more [[PragmaticHero Pragmatic]] or [[UnscrupulousHero Unscrupulous Heroes]]. It's also a RebuiltPedestal moment, as Blackwall feels the Wardens are still heroic and inspirational, but for different reasons than he believed.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' was never blatant good vs evil -- the protagonists [[SmugSuper weren't especially pleasant]] and the antagonists [[AffablyEvil never seriously intended to cause harm]] -- but at least one side was clearly the good guys, with {{youkai}} causing trouble for selfish reasons and the humans going out to beat them up until they stop. Then ContinuityCreep and GoingCosmic happen, delving deeply into the nature of the relationship between youkai and humans, and it becomes increasingly clear that [[DeliberateValuesDissonance morality isn't a particularly large factor in what's going on]] (or, rather, that what's moral depends on who you ask, and [[BlueAndOrangeMorality few people will give answers that seem normal to most of the audience]]).

* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} I--II'': The Horde of AlwaysChaoticEvil orcs who naturally destroy everything in their path invades a world of noble humans [[StandardFantasyRaces and other "nice" races]] who form TheAlliance to protect themselves. ''Videogame/WorldOfWarcraft'' ten years later: The orcs were [[{{Retcon}} actually]] corrupted by demonic influences and escaping a dying homeworld, and now the Warchief of the Horde is the biggest peacemaker around and both the Horde and the Alliance are a mixture of heroes, neutrals and warmongering jerks.

* It really depends on the ending route of ''VideoGame/AviaryAttorney'' how this goes; in 4B (Égalité) [[RousseauWasRight everything seems brighter]] and in 4C (Fraternité) circumstances make the [[BlackAndWhiteMorality heroic characters more heroic and the unheroic characters much worse]]. But in 4A (Liberté) Jayjay Falcon [[spoiler: loses all his faith in justice and becomes a VigilanteMan]]. His assistant Sparrowson loses most of his ComicRelief characteristics, becomes more serious about justice, and can decide whether to let a known murderer [[spoiler: go free or burn to death, as well as whether to turn in Falcon to be tried and executed]].

In the first and second ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'' games, each race had an alignment of Good, Neutral, or Evil. In ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders3'', this was dispensed with; while goblins might be more prone to sneaky tactics, for instance, a faction's alignment is determined entirely by their actions in-game, and every race has good, neutral, and evil members.

-->-- '''John Diggle''', ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', "Suicide Squad"

** The expanded universe runs the whole gamut. The first few novels are fairly light, only for subsequent ones to get darker. Then every couple of series there'll be a conscious effort to be lighter again, which in turn get darker etc etc. Franchise/StarWarsLegends is even ''more'' gray, sometimes veering straight into BlackAndGreyMorality (most clearly with VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic and the [[Literature/DarthBane Darth Bane Trilogy]]/Jedi Vs Sith comics) as the Sith are deranged, murderous lunatics with an OmnicidalManiac as their GodEmperor and the Jedi are KnightTemplar types who see no issue with conquest of and despotic rule over entire star systems to "save" them from the Sith and genocide against species they view as AlwaysChaoticEvil - with the muggles caught in the crossfire of their theological conflicts.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]
* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}''. The film starts out with FantasticRacism between predator and prey being widespread among all the characters, but as the story progresses, the heroes learn to overcome their prejudices, while the villains aim to escalate racial tensions for their own purposes.
[[/folder]]

* The ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' is an inversion. It starts out with a deep discussion of good and evil, right and wrong, and cause-and-effect, including black, white, and lots of distinct shades of grey. As the focus of the series switched to the war against the Imperial Order, it became a very us-against-them, black-and-white morality environment, to the point where the protagonists were doing things at the end of the series that they would have decried as evil at the beginning.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'' manages an [[InvertedTrope inversion]]. Like the books it is based on it generally started out as a GreyAndGreyMorality deconstruction of fantasy, showing that no character is really good or evil and war is a murky affair at best. With few exceptions there's not really any fighting for the greater good or justice, only dynastic interests. Over time it has become closer to BlackAndWhiteMorality with many characters experiencing changes to their personalities to make them more [[AdaptationalHeroism clearly heroic]] or [[AdaptationalVillainy villainous]], and the appearance of an AlwaysChaoticEvil faction that has been foreshadowed since the start of the show.

* ''Series/{{Merlin 2008}}'': Inverted. Originally, the series had a quite complicated morality. Arthur and Merlin are certainly good people (as was Guinevere), however both of them are forced to support the ruthless, paranoid, nigh-genocidal King Uther. While he is stable and competent ruler, he firmly believes all magic is evil to the point he’s had people executed for simply renting a sorcerer a room for the night, has drowned children for having magical parents and would have executed Merlin if he ever learned the truth. Arthur does so out of love of his father, while Merlin does out of loyalty to Arthur and the words of the dragon (who also hates Uther) that he’ll be the king they all need. Arthur himself starts off seemingly quite arrogant and firmly believing in his father’s paranoia. The antagonists are more often than not people Uther has wronged in the past, or would execute just for existing, to the point many border on DesignatedVillain. It’s only due to the extremity of their methods (many wanting to destroy all of Camelot rather than just the king) that they need to be stopped. Morgana likewise starts off as a caring sympathetic person, who has quite a strong FreudianExcuse and even when she sides with Morgause it originally seems hard to call it a FaceHeelTurn. Cracks started to appear, however, as it became clear Morgause was not as [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist benevolent or good intentioned]] as [[BaitTheDog her first appearances suggested.]] Likewise, her influence on Morgana proved to be profoundly toxic, while Arthur outgrew the majority of his arrogance all the while revealing a deep sympathy for oppressed. By Season Four and Five the series morality became a lot more black and white, as following Uther’s death Arthur proves to truly be TheGoodKing who brings peace, stability, justice and a lot more social mobility to Camelot. Not to mention recruiting the [[KnightInShiningArmor Knights of the Round Table]]. Meanwhile, Morgana [[TookAlevelInJerkass takes multiple levels of jerkass]] and goes through a massive amount of MotiveDecay. Initially, she only wants to rule to end the oppression, by the end [[BecameTheirOwnAntithesis she is the oppressor]] who is blatantly only after personal power, happily leading not one but two separate ruthless hordes of barbarians, who live by RapePillageAndBurn, to invade Camelot. By the end of the series she's just as deluded and paranoid as Uther but proves to be [[TheCaligula an even worse tyrant than him.]] This is arguably the whole point of the series; Merlin needed to ensure Arthur would become king as that was the only way things would get better.

Compare CerebusSyndrome, DarkerAndEdgier, MoralityKitchenSink and {{Grimmification}}, which can all sometimes involve this. However, plenty of works go through those tropes without shifting their basic moral scale. It may sometimes overlap with GenreDeconstruction if Black and White Morality is one of the key assumptions of the genre which the work is deconstructing. Contrast DebateAndSwitch, where a morally challenging issue is made into more of a Black And White one, or ignored.