History Main / StupidNeutral

->''"To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom—-it is indolence."''

** The Sharlayan nation is portrayed as being completely neutral when it comes to political affairs of others, even if their own safety is at risk. When TheEmpire was bringing down the moon Dalamud, Louisoix, an elderly Sharlayan, went on a mission to warn Eorzea on what would happen if the Garlean Empire succeeded. He was ousted from his homeland as a pariah simply because he shared his knowledge with Eorzea and the Sharlayan people prefer to keep their knowledge within their own circle. The Sharlayans even tried to negotiate some form of a peace treaty with the empire but, when that fell through, the entire colony went on a mass exodus and left behind everything instead of defending themselves. This is also touched upon in the Astrologian job quests where an important character from Sharlayan is hunted down by her own people just because she wanted to spread the knowledge of Astrologians to the realm.

May be considered an unstable middle ground between LawfulStupid and ChaoticStupid. Taken to an extreme, this character can become OmnicidalNeutral. See also NeutralitySue.

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', the ancient magic of Nirvana is named after its inventors, a peaceful country that was neutral in the war between dark and light magicians. To maintain the balance, they invented a spell that could turn both dark to light ''and'' light to dark, where LightIsGood and DarkIsEvil. This is especially odd since we've yet to see a dark mage who wasn't a homicidal maniac. We later find out that they did usually use it to flip dark to light, but this screwed them over because the expunged darkness went into them and made them kill each other.
** [[spoiler:Except for Zeref, who seems to be somewhat of a Stupid Neutral type himself. Despite multiple people trying to kidnap and use him for their own ends, the only person that he's killed intentionally so far was the leader - and more because he pissed Zeref off rather than any moral standpoint.]]
*** [[spoiler: Zeref is actually a WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds. Poor guy ''used'' to be such a [[UsedToBeASweetKid sweet kid]]...]]

** In her defense, the world ''was'' about to be destroyed in a flash of light by the imbalance. The other druids, on the other hand, were pretty dumb betraying the massive forces of good in an attempt to save evil before it got to that state. Wouldn't it have been smarter to retreat, bide their time, and just do what Kaylana did?

* Subverted (or perhaps deconstructed) in "The Last Man Standing" a tale about Boba Fett from ''Literature/TalesOfTheBountyHunters''. The night before Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca are to be thrown to the Sarlacc, Fett confronts Leia Organa just before going to bed and tells her that, while he's not particularly fond of the Empire, he supports it against the Rebel Alliance because the Rebels are criminals defying a legitimately elected government [[note]] which is ''technically'' true, but there's a huge asterisk [[/note]] and also [[FamilyValuesVillain because they are being aided by all kinds of scummy pirates and drug dealers like Solo]]. Leia fires back that then Fett is a hypocrite because he's working for Jabba the Hutt - perhaps the biggest pirate and drug dealer in the entire galaxy! All Fett can say in his defense is that he's not ''intending'' to be subversive and doesn't care about politics; [[OnlyInItForTheMoney he's just working for Jabba for the money]], which is all that really matters to him.
** Caleb the Healer in ''Literature/DarthBane'' was willing to help heal soldiers on either side of the Jedi-Sith War, but refuses to help either the Sith Lords OR the Jedi as he blames both of them for the fighting...even though the Jedi are benevolent peacekeepers reacting to the Sith's OPEN attempt at intergalactic domination, and while neither side has clean hands the latter is still far more blatantly bloodthirsty and power-hungry than the former and far more prone to committing atrocities. He may be a {{Downplayed}} trope somewhat since the Jedi and Sith war has certain particular "quirks" about it - some Jedi are self-styled Lords who rule planets and lead armies, the leader of the Sith is himself a former Jedi, the war was but the latest in a century of violent conflicts- but these aren't really brought up in story and the Sith are still clearly the villains and pretty open about their evil intentions either way. His daughter is arguably just as bad as she tried to find and kill Bane as she (semi-wrongly) blames him for [[spoiler: killing Caleb]] but also has little regard for the Jedi Order, and thinks that she is just as qualified or deserving as anyone else to bringing Bane to justice, in the end [[spoiler: just getting a ton of her own people and herself killed at the hands of the most dangerous and evil people in the galaxy, achieving little other than seriously annoying the two surviving Sith]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the Impartial Mediation perk gives you 30 bonus points to the Speech skill (an extraordinary amount) as long as your Karma level is "neutral". Since, once again, Karma is a scale between good and evil, with no specifically "neutral" actions, you will probably be forced to alternate between stealing and murdering and giving to charity to maintain a neutral Karma.

* Averted in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' where the neutral choice between one side or another simply means not accepting a quest or refusing to complete a quest (though may be boring since you didn't actually '''do''' anything.)
** Also, there's a third option for the civil war between the [[LaResistance Scoia'tael]] and the Order of the Flaming Rose: you can in fact remain neutral.

* This seems to be the concept behind a majority of the neutral route characters of ''VideoGame/NexusClash''. One learns to stop trusting "neutral" characters rather quickly after the counter of Neutral Myrmidons that have senselessly slaughtered your Good character in the night hits double digits.
** The Nexus Champion class inverts this, with impressive bonuses for maintaining purposeful neutrality and staying as close to zero morality (In a system where morality ranges from -40 to +40) as possible.

* The Sharlayans in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' are portrayed as being completely neutral when it comes to political affairs of others, even if their own safety is at risk. When TheEmpire was bringing down Dalamud, Louisoix, an elderly Sharlayan, went on a mission to warn Eorzea on what would happen if the Garlean Empire succeeded. He was ousted from his homeland as a pariah simply because he shared his knowledge with Eorzea and the Sharlayan people prefer to keep their knowledge within their own circle. The Sharlayans even tried to negotiate some form of a peace treaty with the empire, but when that fell through, the entire colony went on a mass exodus and left behind everything instead of defending themselves. This is also touched upon in the Astrologian job quests where an important character from Sharlayan is hunted down by her own people just because she wanted to spread the knowledge of Astrologians to the realm.
** Sophia of the Warring Triad is depicted as a borderline malevolent take on this trope, dedicated to upholding balance regardless of how many lives are ruined or destroyed. According to her theme song, she incited a girl to "restore the balance" in her life by [[{{Matricide}} killing her]] [[AbusiveParents abusive]] [[{{Matricide}} mother]]...and then "finish the job" by [[DrivenToSuicide killing herself]].

* Arguably the staff at [[Literature/WhateleyUniverse Whateley Academy]] are bordering on this. While their desire to provide a safe haven for the superpowered children of both heroes and villains is understandable, their execution of their policy leaves much to be desired-- turning a blind eye to some of the criminal and even outright vicious behavior of many "ethically alternative" students, hiring staff of criminal and even murderous backgrounds, welcoming an EldritchAbomination prophesied to destroy all humanity as a student.....
** Part of the issue is the Whateley Charter -- the details on which are sketchy, but is an agreement between Superheroes, Supervillains, and Superneutrals to make sure Superpowered children are safe. Presumably, the Supervillains would have made absolutely certain that part of the charter included turning a blind eye to certain amounts of villainy -- remembering that for a villain, learning how to sneak behind authority's back is a vital life lesson. Ultimately, the one thing the Superheroes, Supervillains, and Superneutrals could agree on was going after friends and family is beyond the pale -- the only way to make sure ''everyone'' wants you dead in the setting is to break that cardinal rule.
*** Unlikely, a neutrality agreement means no crimes or crime-fighting. Anyway, you don't learn anything about sneaking behind authorities back if they turn a blind eye.

* The Neutral Planet in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' is a deliberate parody of this alignment.
** Their government's motto is "Live Free or Don't".
** When the Planet Express Ship is put on a direct collision course with the Neutral Planet, the following exchange takes place:

* In the backstory for ''VideoGame/RuneScape'', Saradomin (the god of Wisdom and generally the "good" one, if a bit LawfulStupid at times) accuses [[TrueNeutral Guthix]] of being this. As he puts it, evil should be exterminated, not allowed to grow wild. [[spoiler: In the game proper, Saradomin ends up [[JerkassHasAPoint having a point]]- a lot of questlines are based on the player character/World Guardian cleaning up messes that directly resulted from Guthix's kicking all gods out and secluding himself for ages- for example, the Dorgeshuun questline has the GodOfEvil Bandos figure out a loophole to his banishment, necessitating your intervention to close the loophole before Bandos can terrorize the world unopposed.]]

* Nix from ''TabletopGame/QueensBlade'' isn't the stupid one; rather her stave, the Funikura, is essentially an unstable piece of work that can either destroy a village or kill the evil leader of said village. Needless to say, she [[IncrediblyLamePun sticks]] with it.
* Rounding out the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Inquisition examples: the Amalathian faction are the ultimate conservatives, believing that the Imperium as it currently exists is the Emperor's divine work, and that mere mortals have no right to interfere with His divine plan. As such, the Amalathians fight to preserve the Imperium in its current state, [[InherentInTheSystem despite all its lumps and imperfections]]. At best, the Amalathians will clean up the system and are the least likely faction to engage in the sort of schemes that lead to horrible wars and planets overrun by nasties. At their worst, they will even fight to keep corrupt or ineffectual leaders in power (which, being the Imperium, happens to be most of them), simply to avoid the inevitable shakeup associated with replacing those leaders, even in the face of an ensuing crisis that requires effective leadership. As you can imagine, Amalathians and Recongregators [[RightHandVersusLeftHand don't get along very well]].

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', the ancient magic of Nirvana is named after its inventors, a peaceful country that was neutral in the war between dark and light magicians. To maintain the balance, they invented a spell that could turn both dark to light ''and'' light to dark, where LightIsGood and DarkIsEvil. This is especially odd since we've yet to see a dark mage who wasn't a homicidal maniac.

* Many stories about [[Myth/GreekMythology Ares]] state he would happily switch sides if the one he was on was doing too well. However, that has less to do with him "maintaining the balance", and more due to the fact [[BloodKnight he really liked killing things]].

* Rounding out the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' Inquisition examples: the Amalathian faction are the ultimate conservatives, believing that the Imperium as it currently exists is the Emperor's divine work, and that mere mortals have no right to interfere with His divine plan. As such, the Amalathians fight to preserve the Imperium in its current state, [[InherentInTheSystem despite all its lumps and imperfections]]. At their most extreme, the Amalathians will even fight to keep corrupt or ineffectual leaders in power (which, being the Imperium, happens to be most of them), simply to avoid the inevitable shakeup associated with replacing those leaders, even in the face of an ensuing crisis that requires effective leadership. As you can imagine, Amalathians and Recongregators [[RightHandVersusLeftHand don't get along very well]].

* In the backstory for ''VideoGame/RuneScape'', Saradomin (the god of Wisdom and generally the "good" one) accuses [[TrueNeutral Guthix]] of being this. As he puts it, evil should be exterminated, not allowed to grow wild. [[spoiler: In the game proper, [[JerkassHasAPoint Saradomin ends up being right]] as several new evils are able to rise up thanks to [[AllPowerfulBystander Guthix's neutrality]] and it is now up the [[PlayerCharacter World Guardian]] to fix things.]]

* Played with in the literal Batman Cold Opening of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: The Court of Owls''. Two-Face, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze, Black Mask, and several other Arkham Asylum inmates have Batman cornered on their own turf (a corrupt GCPD guard let them out) and are prepared to kill him...when just in the nick of time ComicBook/TheJoker (who has said in the past that he doesn't ''really'' want Batman to die, since he's [[ItAmusedMe just so much fun to fight against]]) unexpectedly joins forces with Batman ("Let's get to the punch line!") and physically assaults various fellow members of the RoguesGallery, much to their disgust ("Joker! You turncoat [[CurseCutShort son of a-!]]"). However, this proves to be a subversion, because [[spoiler: in this case, it was really Nightwing wearing a computer-generated Joker mask]].

This trope can also manifest itself as a particularly warped variation on the GoldenMeanFallacy: [[LawfulStupid taking a crudely reactionary point of view against anything "radical"]], even though [[TheExtremistWasRight radicalism can sometimes be good]]; or worse, refusing to sympathize with either side in a conflict between two radical parties or even insisting both sides need to be harshly punished, even when one party obviously has the moral high ground and the other stops just short of (if not actually crossing the line into) being evil.

* Political newspaper and web comics, such as ''Webcomic/TheNib'', treat swing voters as such. [[https://thenib.com/swing-voters-explained/ The Nib]] implies they have limited memory, while other comics make other claims about alternating back and forth (between a claimed good and bad party) just in hopes of a balance.

There is also the reverse of this in the form of the "extreme apathy" type of neutral, who wound't even be motivated enough to try to get out of the burning building.

* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', the ancient magic of Nirvana is named after its inventors, a peaceful country that was neutral in the war between dark and light magicians. To maintain the balance, they invented a spell that could turn both dark to light ''and'' light to dark, where LightIsGood and DarkIsEvil. This is especially odd, since we've yet to see a dark mage who wasn't a homicidal maniac.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Legacy}}'' the Fel Empire would count if you don't consider them really evil. Though the new Empire has good intentions, they though it was a good idea to side with the ObviouslyEvil Sith who have a long history of ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, and were responsible for the death of billions and don't mind killing billions more to achieve their goals, one of them is backstabbing the Empire.
* Played with in the literal Batman Cold Opening of ''Franchise/{{Batman}}: The Court of Owls''. Two-Face, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze, Black Mask and several other Arkham Asylum inmates have Batman cornered on their own turf (a corrupt GCPD guard let them out) and are prepared to kill him...when just in the nick of time ComicBook/TheJoker (who has said in the past that he doesn't ''really'' want Batman to die, since he's [[ItAmusedMe just so much fun to fight against]]) unexpectedly joins forces with Batman ("Lets get to the punch line!") and physically assaults various fellow members of the RoguesGallery, much to their disgust ("Joker! You turncoat [[CurseCutShort son of a-!]]"). However, this proves to be a subversion, because [[spoiler: in this case it was really Nightwing wearing a computer-generated Joker mask]].

* In ''Literature/VillainsByNecessity'', the TrueNeutral druid rounds up a bunch of "villains" (most of whom are pretty decent sorts) to save the world from destruction at the hands of LawfulStupid [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]], and advises them that she would be equally willing to turn against them if the "balance" began tipping in favor of evil.

* In the ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' the Forkrul Assail seem to have fallen into this category. Their entire culture revered harmony and balance to the point that when war broke out between the two other ancient races they would aid whichever side had the balance least in their favor. For an idea how well this policy worked out for them, they're functionally extinct in the present.
* The troop of Dwarfs we see in ''Literature/TheLastBattle''. They don't want the heroes ''or'' the Calormenes to win, so they shoot at whichever side seems to have the advantage. "The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs." It doesn't work out well for them, when the Calormene reinforcements arrive.

* The Creator/DouglasAdams book ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'' features a race that is almost indistinguishable from human beings, save that they have no desires. Arthur reads one of their books, and is rather taken aback when the main protagonist dies of thirst midway through. He backtracks and finds a single offhand reference to the character's plumbing being broken. He simply didn't care enough to have it fixed, or to seek another source of water.
* ''Literature/PeterPan'': When the Lost Boys were fighting the Indians Peter would sometimes switch sides if he felt the Lost Boys were winning too easily. (Of course, this was probably more to [[RuleOfFun make the games last for as long as possible]] than not being able to decide whom to sympathize with.) However he never did this with the pirates.

* Subverted (or perhaps deconstructed) in "The Last Man Standing" a tale about Boba Fett from ''Literature/TalesOfTheBountyHunters''. The night before Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca are to be thrown to the Sarlacc, Fett confronts Leia Organa just before going to bed and tells her that, while he's not particularly fond of the Empire, he supports it against the Rebel Alliance because the Rebels are criminals defying a legitimately elected government [[note]] which is ''technically'' true, but there's a huge asterisk [[/note]] and also [[FamilyValuesVillain because they are being aided by all kinds of scummy pirates and drug dealers like Solo]]. Leia fires back that then Fett is a hypocrite, because he's working for Jabba the Hutt - perhaps the biggest pirate and drug dealer in the entire galaxy! All Fett can say in his defense is that he's not ''intending'' to be subversive and doesn't care about politics; [[OnlyInItForTheMoney he's just working for Jabba for the money]], which is all that really matters to him.
** Caleb the Healer in ''Literature/DarthBane'' was willing to help heal soldiers on either side of the Jedi-Sith War, but refuses to help either the Sith Lords OR the Jedi as he blames both of them for the fighting...even though the Jedi are benevolent peacekeepers reacting to the Sith's OPEN attempt at intergalactic domination, and while neither side has clean hands the latter is still far more blatantly bloodthirsty and power hungry than the former and far more prone to committing atrocities. He may be a {{Downplayed}} trope somewhat since the Jedi and Sith war has certain particular "quirks" about it - some Jedi are self-styled Lords who rule planets and lead armies, the leader of the Sith is himself a former Jedi, the war was but the latest in a century of violent conflicts- but these aren't really brought up in story and the Sith are still clearly the villains and pretty open about their evil intentions either way. His daughter is arguably just as bad as she tried to find and kill Bane as she (semi-wrongly) blames him for [[spoiler: killing Caleb]] but also has little regard for the Jedi Order, and thinks that she is just as qualified or deserving as anyone else to bringing Bane to justice, in the end [[spoiler: just getting a ton of her own people and herself killed at the hands of the most dangerous and evil people in the galaxy, achieving little other than seriously annoying the two surviving Sith]].

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

** Mordenkainen the Mage is the original incarnation of this trope. He believed that the forces of good, evil, law and chaos would ''all'' screw the world up if they were unquestioned, so he ensures that no side is ever vastly more powerful than its counterpart. As of 5th Edition, his alignment has become Chaotic Neutral as a result of his extremist tendencies rather than the True Neutral it was in older editions.

* ''TabletopGame/MummyTheResurrection'': The Amenti are servants of the universal balance, which is explicitly said to mean that if the forces of good ever gains the upper hand, they are required to switch sides. Since they live in TabletopGame/TheWorldOfDarkness, though, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
* In ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' there is a pseudo religious movement called Omniss who follow a Luddite like style and reject any form of technology that encourages war. In a galaxy that is dominated by armies of HumongousMecha this is pretty dumb, and their homeworld was an easy target for the techno-religious cult of the Word of Blake.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}} 2: Durandal'', the Jjaro AI Thoth aids Durandal's (and by extension, your) cause with the reasoning that you're at a serious disadvantage against the Pfhor hunting you down. Then when things start going your way he tries to thwart you and aid the slaver race but [[MagnificentBastard Durandal has tipped the scales too far in his favor]] for Thoth to make a difference at that point. Also, the slavers are pissed and refuse to accept Thoth's aid, not knowing this was it's shtick.

* In many early {{MUD}} games, alignment was determined by what monsters you were killing. Kill some innocent Gnomes in the Gnome Village, and your alignment shifts towards evil. Kill some Lamias in the ruins across the forest and your alignment shifts towards good. Neutral characters, to maintain their alignment, had to kill an ''equal'' number of creatures from both alignments. This lead to "Neutral" characters being "justified" for massacring a peaceful village by simply cleaning out an evil temple later. Granted, you could seek out and kill only neutral creatures all the time, but these (usually animals) obviously almost never carried many powerful items.
* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' features a character called Blackrose, who lurks in the corner of a dangerous alley. In the alley are two gangs, one good and one evil. Blackrose will ask you what your alignment is, and ask you to kill the opposite gang. Once you've done that, he'll ask you to kill the other to maintain the balance. Then he'll request that you fight him to the death because it's the right thing to do. You can at least avoid the fight to the death by informing him that you're immortal and would eventually win.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' where the the neutral choice between one side or another simply means not accepting a quest or refusing to complete a quest (though may be boring since you didn't actually '''do''' anything.)

* Grand Cleric Elthina of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' is a strange case in that she is portrayed quite sympathetically. It is her express job to control the templars, who at this point are out of control and openly abusing their power, and yet such is her desire to maintain the status quo (believing, almost literally, that StatusQuoIsGod) that she does ''nothing'' about it, other than making some vague talks about reaching a "compromise", without ever really explaining or specifying what exactly that would entail, making her leadership come across as HeadInTheSandManagement. The consequences of her decisions--or rather lack thereof--are not pretty.

*** Unlikely, a neutrality agreement means no crimes or crime fighting. Anyway you don't learn anything about sneaking behind authorities back if they turn a blind eye.

* Equinox, a vigilante on ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold''. He tries to kill Gorilla Grodd for his crimes, but in order to "maintain the balance" he tries to kill the Question at the same time. Based on Libra, from the main DC Universe, who also "maintains the balance", but what that translates to is "giving the baddies some wins." [[spoiler: He eventually graduates to OmnicidalNeutral when he decides he has to destroy the world so that he can remake it according to his own definition of "balance."]]

* Invoked in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': Strickland Propane tries to cultivate a (superficial and profoundly hypocritical) "green" image by purchasing "carbon offsets" (i.e., funding a renewable-energy scheme that may or may not be effective, or even legitimate) instead of engaging in direct action like planting trees. The businessmen feel that their tokenism is enough, and that it will just cancel out any more environmentally destructive activities they engage in.

There is also the reverse of this in the other type of neutral, so neutral that they refuse to try to get out of the burning building.

* In the backstory for ''VideoGame/RuneScape'', Saradomin (the god of Wisdom and generally the "good" one) accuses [[TrueNeutral Guthix]] of being this. As he puts it, evil should be exterminated, not allowed to grow wild.

* ''VideoGame/AncientDomainsOfMystery'' has a central theme of LawVsChaos that's really GoodVsEvil because ChaosIsEvil. Chaos as a cosmic power is unambiguously evil and destructive; even a Chaotic player character's default goal is to stop its invasion to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. This trope appears in a song of the Mad Minstrel that gives the backstory of the Eternal Guardian: a warrior was told by his god to stop defeating the [[LegionsOfHell forces of Chaos]] for the time being, because the god was obviously a god of Balance, and all this Chaos-fighting was getting too Lawful.

-> ''"I have no strong feelings one way or the other."''
-->-- '''Neutral President''', ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'' ("Brannigan Begin Again")

This trope can also manifest itself as a warped variation on the GoldenMeanFallacy: [[LawfulStupid taking a crudely reactionary point of view against anything "radical"]], even though [[TheExtremistWasRight radicalism can sometimes be good]]; or worse, refusing to sympathize with either side in a conflict between two radical parties or even insisting both sides need to be harshly punished, even when one party obviously has the moral high ground and the other stops just short of (if not actually crossing the line into) being evil.

This trope can also manifest itself as a warped variation on the GoldenMeanFallacy: [[LawfulStupid taking a crudely reactionary point of view against anything "radical"]], even though [[ChaoticGood radicalism can sometimes be good]]; or worse, refusing to sympathize with either side in a conflict between two radical parties or even insisting both sides need to be harshly punished, even when one party obviously has the moral high ground and the other stops just short of (if not actually crossing the line into) being evil.

Some TrueNeutral people are devoted to the BalanceBetweenGoodAndEvil - They fight only because the forces of evil grow too strong. Some just don't care very much about Good vs Evil (or Lawful vs Chaotic), only getting involved if their personal interests and/or friends and family are threatened. Some, however, are [[OmnicidalNeutral ''militantly'' neutral]]; so devoted to not taking sides that they lash out against both Good and Evil without distinguishing between FriendOrFoe. This usually takes the form of always siding with the underdog; the moment one side gains the upper hand, they'll pull a FaceHeelTurn (or a HeelFaceTurn) to make sure both sides are 'equal'. This can lead to a very [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder unreliable fellow]] and a WildCard whose predictably unpredictable morals lead his former allies to cut him down despite his [[WhatIsEvil protests that he was only following his heart]].

-> ''"I have no strong feelings one way or the other!"'' [[note]] - when, of course, the exclamation mark indicates that [[LogicBomb he has strong feelings about not having strong feelings]] [[/note]]

** Mordenkainen the Mage is the original incarnation of this trope. He believed that the forces of good, evil, law and chaos would ''all'' screw the world up if they were unquestioned, so he ensures that no side is ever vastly more powerful than its counterpart.

* In the early days of the Internet (mid- to late 1990s, user-created "Top Ten" lists a la David Letterman were popular. One ridiculed LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman by citing various pathetic attempts he could make to atone for his racism. One was, instead of picking on people of African descent, "Beat up a Mexican to 'cleanse the palate'", as if [[HatesEveryoneEqually diversifying one's racism makes one more fair]]. Another one was "Date a white woman with a dark tan."

* Dragon's Dream in ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'' is a Stand that allows the user to focus a FantasticFightingStyle based on feng shui, pointing out the most perfect places to strike. However, it's also sentient, and as one of the major principles of feng shui is balance, it [[ExplainingYourPowerToTheEnemy gives a full explanation to the opponent on how the fighting style works, how to counter it, and where the places it's pointing to are. Why? Because otherwise it wouldn't be fair; the user knows how it works, and that means the opponent should, too.

* Matt's friend Saul in ''Literature/AWizardInRhyme'' comes pretty close. He's brought from our world to the one Matt went to while looking for him, and while he mostly does good deeds he's a FlatEarthAtheist who wants to stay off both God and the Devil's sides. That's not exactly possible thanks to the way this universe works, but he tries to balance things out anyway. His "evil" deeds are all technicalities like eating meat on Fridays, though.

* Matt's friend Saul in ''Literature/AWizardInRhyme'' comes pretty close. He's brought from our world to the one Matt went to while looking for him, and while he mostly does good deeds he's a FlatEarthAtheist who wants to stay off both God and the Devil's sides. That's not exactly possible thanks to the way this universe works, but he tries to balance things out anyway.

** Versions 3.0 and 3.5 explicitly point out that [=PCs=] playing "true neutral" shouldn't fit this trope. Even though they usually don't care about greater causes, true neutrals still prefer neighbors who aren't going to betray, kill, or enslave them. And a "militantly neutral" character who flip-flops between backstabbing one side and the other in a conflict so as to always support the underdog would actually fall on the extreme end of the ''Chaotic'' axis of the alignment chart.