History Main / TrueNeutral

* Most of the characters in ''RanmaOneHalf'' are ChaoticNeutral (with the more villainy-inclined being NeutralEvil), but Cologne is TrueNeutral, after a stint of behavior that can be seen as NeutralEvil. While initially entering the series in an attempt to make [[AccidentalMarriage Ranma]] marry Shampoo, she basically gives up after that first story and more or less settles for watching the madness with every sign of joy at the entertainment, occasionally chipping in with aid for either Ranma, Shampoo or [[TheRival Ryoga Hibiki]]. Kasumi Tendo is generally considered to be NeutralGood, mainly because she is non-violent and docile (not to mention WordOfGod describing her as a "saint" because of her lack of violent behavior and active malice). However, niceness does not equate goodness (hence the existence of the AffablyEvil (where someone manages to be very nice despite being a villain), FauxAffablyEvil (where someone is a villain, yet still manages to be good-humored and pleasant) and GoodIsNotNice (where someone is unpleasant, yet still a fundamentally decent person) tropes) and it's legitimately possible to see her as a sweet-hearted and gentle TrueNeutral of types 2, 10 or 12.

* In the ''Franchise/DragonAge'' setting, the Grey Wardens as an order are like this, with certain individuals like [[TheObiWan Duncan]] seeming to actually be True Neutral on a personal level, while other Wardens can be worse or more decent folk depending on the individual. They take no sides, obey no kings, and every action they take somehow must make progression towards reliving the world of the threat of Darkspawn. In the first game it's difficult to pick this, as most of the tasks you have to do to stop the Blight end up saving people or quelling chaos in Ferelden anyway, but in the sequel you directly run across a group of Grey Wardens [[spoiler:during the Qunaris' assault on Kirkwall]]. Though they help you briefly, they immediately admit their primary goal is basically to cut themselves free of the chaos surrounding the city so they could go back to doing their job, namely hunting darkspawn: they even give the same line of "a greater menace then the Qunari threatens the world", despite the most recent Blight being over, reinforcing that literally every goal they ever have somehow is geared towards this. Helping people is a happy accident, if it happens at all.

* Mundungus Fletcher of the ''HarryPotter'' series.

* Scorpion from ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' is essentially this. He's seen as the series' icon for an anti-hero. He'll usually end up doing things in unethical and questionable ways, that may involve tackling an evil and assisting the greater good, but it's usually for his own personal gains. First time we see him, he has no allegiance and rises from hell to simply out to avenge his previous death by killing the murderer from a rival clan (who he also believed murdered his family and clan), then when he reckon his killer appears again he returns back from hell to finish the job. His non allegiance continues as he serves as a wild card in future battles whe he's accidentally released from hell a third time. He's recruited the fourth time by the evil forces, not because he was evil or opposed good, but because the evil side promised him his life restored as a reward. When the same evil is revealed to have killed his wife and son (as well as his clan), Scorpion switches allegiances and turns on that evil instead, but not because he wants to adhere to the good side, rather a personal vendetta. Afterwards he is recruited by the Elder Gods to tackle a force that threatens to destroy all the realms, in which he works for the greater good, but only in return for the promise to restore his family and clan. Later he joins the forces of darkness in the final battle of armageddon, but only so he can get closer to the evil that originally killed his family and clan in the first place, again for his own personal reasons. In regards of law vs chaos, he may seem at first glance to be a hot headed and free spirited individual, that will only ever do his own thing, but he has been seen to take orders when offered rewards, and remains loyal to the tradition and honour of his clan. Scorpion passes as a True Neutral, because he's logically too difficult to place in any of the other catagories.

* Scorpion from ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' is essentially this. He's seen as the series' icon for an anti-hero. He'll usually end up doing things in unethical and questionable ways, that may involve tackling an evil and assisting the greater good, but it's usually for his own personal gains. First time we see him, he has no allegiance and rises from hell to simply out to avenge his previous death by killing the murderer from a rival clan (who he also believed murdered his family and clan), then when he reckon his killer appears again he returns back from hell to finish the job. His non allegiance continues as he serves as a wild card in future battles whe he's accidentally released from hell a third time. He's recruited the fourth time by the evil forces, not because he was evil or opposed good, but because the evil side promised him his life restored as a reward. When the same evil is revealed to have killed his wife and son (as well as his clan), Scorpion switches allegiances and turns on that evil instead, but not because he wants to adhere to the good side, rather a personal vendetta. Afterwards he is recruited by the Elder Gods to tackle a force that threatens to destroy all the realms, in which he works for the greater good, but only in return for the promise to restore his family and clan. Later he joins the forces of darkness in the final battle of armageddon, but only so he can get closer to the evil that originally killed his family and clan in the first place, again for his own personal reasons. In regards of law vs chaos, he may seem at first glance to be a hot headed and free spirited individual, that will only ever do his own thing, but he has been seen to take orders when offered rewards, and remains loyal to the tradition and honour of his clan. Scorpion passes as a True Neutral, because he's logically too difficult to place in any of the other catagories.

* The B'omarr Monks in ''TalesFromJabbasPalace'' have absolutely no interest in anything besides achieving their own form of enlightenment and putting their [[BrainInAJar brains in jars when they do]]. Even having their monastery converted into a palace and occupied by crime lords doesn't matter to them- [[spoiler: until the ending, in which they reclaim it following Jabba's death.]]

** Shirou himself in ''Heaven's Feel'' shifts into this, discarding his ideal of hero of justice for a chance to save Sakura. This Sakura, however, has [[spoiler:turned into a world-destroying monster and would kill many people. Shirou's response was basically, "Screw them. I'll sacrifice some to save my beloved!"]]

* Most characters in ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey''. Beetle's main motivation is to sleep as much as possible. Killer's main motivation is to sleep ''around'' as much as possible. Plato would to just sit and think or use his smarts to get out of doing anything. Cosmo is only there to make money. Officers like Captain Scabbard and Lt. Flapp impose some order on the privates but are ready to break the rules to slack off themselves. This also applies to Sgt. Snorkel and his DistaffCounterpart Sgt. Lugg, who also have a lot of other weird personality kinks that nevertheless at least cancel each other out for alignment purposes. The General is a self-centred wuss. The Major only trails him around. Ms. Buxley just goes to work (although it varies whether she actually does anything) and occasionally has some fun, as well as constantly acting as a sex object, which doesn't exactly require a lot on her part. Otto is just a sarcastic dog with dog motives. Dr. Bonkus just wants to analyse people.\\

* Most characters in ''ComicStrip/BeetleBailey''. Beetle's main motivation is to sleep as much as possible. Killer's main motivation is to sleep ''around'' as much as possible. Plato would prefer to just think about things or use his smarts to get out of doing anything. Cosmo is only there to make money. Officers like Captain Scabbard and Lt. Flapp impose some order on the privates but are ready to break the rules to slack off themselves. This also applies to Sgt. Snorkel and his DistaffCounterpart Sgt. Lugg, who also have a lot of other weird personality kinks that nevertheless at least cancel each other out for alignment purposes. The General is a self-centred wuss. The Major only trails him around. Ms. Buxley just goes to work (although it varies whether she actually does anything) and occasionally has some fun, as well as constantly acting as a sex object, which doesn't exactly require a lot on her part. Otto is just a sarcastic dog with dog motives. Dr. Bonkus just wants to analyse people.\\

* Marvel's {{Taskmaster}} has AwesomenessByAnalysis powers; that being the case, he trains anyone who will pay him, be it villain or hero. He'll happily work for RedSkull one second and then take a job from {{SHIELD}} the next.

* Hei and, in fact, most Contractors in ''DarkerThanBlack''.

* {{Anti Villain}}s Coyote Starrk and Tia Harribel from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''.

** The group of Black-Ops Christmas elves led by Squishydodo can't really afford any other alignment. They originally worked for Santa Claus, keeping tabs on everyone being naughty or nice, but split off when Santa started to lose it during his conflict with the evil and incredibly BadAss mini-lop rabbit Bun-bun. Then Bun-bun showed up at their headquarters and demanded that they work for ''him''. They refused at first on the reasonable basis that he was about the worst person in the world (he tried to kill Santa Claus every Christmas, for a start), but threw anyone who protested out of a high window until he was left with Squishydodo, who bowed to his will and led the elves in an operation to hunt down Bun-bun's "friends" to inflict gruesome revenge on them for wiping out his collection of ''{{Baywatch}}'' tapes. When they caught them, though, Bun-bun wasn't around, and Squishydodo made the judgement call that it was enough for them to apologise and they could go free after that. From then on, the elves acted as occasional good guys, even persuading Bun-bun to help them in that on one occasion, but they were still potentially under Bun-bun's thrall (and had some weird StockholmSyndrome like affection for him), and refused to go against him when he started a war against the other {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of the holidays, acting like it was a case of GrayAndGreyMorality even though he was slaughtering others in an effort to TakeOverTheWorld, and ultimately even helping him.

** Neeshka is listed as True Neutral.

* Squall Leonhart in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' was raised as a mercenary and, as a result, doesn't particularly believe in the concepts of "good" and "evil." He accepts that any given side of a conflict has their own reasons, and believes that one's stance on any subject is shaped by one's point of view. Accordingly, when he gets involved in stopping TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt, he does so less out of any moral impulse and more as a means of ensuring the safety of the girl he loves - and because the government of Esthar is paying him to do it. By the end of the game he has arguably [[NeutralNoLonger developed]] more towards NeutralGood, but his personal morality is still defined more as "AlwaysSaveTheGirl" than anything else.

** Also from ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', [[DirtyCoward Rincewind]], the CosmicPlaything [[TheChewToy Chew Toy]] of the Disc, ''tries'' to be a prime example of the "doesn't care about Good or Evil" variety, despite having saved the world about half a dozen times (against his will, mostly). He is by no means a ''bad'' person either, but would love it if the world just decided to forget all about him. However, the number of times that he's disregarded his overwhelming cowardice in the pursuit of the greater good (even ending a magical war that could have destroyed the Disc with [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome a half-brick in a sock]]) indicate that despite his best efforts, he retains some NeutralGood impulses. His enemies, funnily enough, probably percieve him to be more ChaoticGood, whether he likes it or not.
** Death from ''Literature/GoodOmens'' might be an even better example than his ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' counterpart.

* [[TheChessmaster Roger Dunstan]], his doji [[BadassLonghair Milleiu]] and [[BadassNormal Fushimi Agari]] from ''KarakuridoujiUltimo''.

* The Norgard faction in ''{{Brigandine}}'' is Type 12. The ruler Vaynard is merely a pragmatic opportunist warlord, he's not as goody-two-shoes as Lance of New Almekia or Cai of Caerleon or Lyonesse from Leonia, but he cares about his people, more than Dryst of Iscalio (or of course Zemeckis of Esgares), and wants to build a strong nation under his rule. Vaynard himself has some genuine PetTheDog moment and is quite fond of his sister Esmeree... who's in Esgares.

** The [[spoiler:Transcendent One]] is also TrueNeutral, which is an unusual alignment for [[spoiler:a BigBad]]. All he wants is to be left alone, but so long as [[spoiler:the Nameless One seeks his true identity]], that is impossible.

** The group of Black-Ops Christmas elves led by Squishydodo can't really afford any other alignment. They originally worked for Santa Claus, keeping tabs on everyone being naughty or nice, but split off when Santa started to lose it during his conflict with the evil and incredibly BadAss mini-lop rabbit Bun-bun. Then Bun-bun showed up at their headquarters and demanded that they work for ''him''. They refused at first on the reasonable basis that he was about the worst person in the world (he tried to kill Santa Claus every Christmas, for a start), but threw anyone who protested out of a high window until he was left with Squishydodo, who bowed to his will and led the elves in an operation to hunt down Bun-bun's "friends" to inflict gruesome revenge on them for wiping out his collection of ''{{Baywatch}}'' tapes. When they caught them, though, Bun-bun wasn't around, and Squishydodo made the judgement call that it was enough for them to apologise and they could go free after that. From then on, the elves acted as occasional good guys, even persuading Bun-bun to help them in that on one occasion, but they were still potentially under Bun-bun's thrall (and had some weird StockholmSyndrome-like affection for him), and refused to go against him when he started a war against the other {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of the holidays, acting like it was a case of GrayAndGreyMorality even though he was slaughtering others in an effort to TakeOverTheWorld, and ultimately even helping him.

** The group of Black-Ops Christmas elves led by Squishydodo can't really afford any other alignment. They originally worked for Santa Claus, keeping tabs on everyone being naughty or nice, but split off when Santa started to lose it during his conflict with the evil and incredibly BadAss mini-lop rabbit Bun-bun. Then Bun-bun showed up at their headquarters and demanded that they work for ''him''. They refused at first on the reasonable basis that he was about the worst person in the world (he tried to kill Santa Claus every Christmas, for a start), but threw anyone who protested out of a high window until he was left with Squishydodo, who bowed to his will and led the elves in an operation to hunt down Bun-bun's "friends" to inflict gruesome revenge on them for wiping out his collection of ''{{Baywatch}}'' tapes. When they caught them, though, Bun-bun wasn't around, and Squishydodo made the judgement call that it was enough for them to apologise and they could go free after that. From then on, the elves acted as occasional good guys, but they were still potentially under Bun-bun's thrall (and had some weird StockholmSyndrome-like affection for him), and refused to go against him when he started a war against the other {{Anthropomorphic Personification}}s of the holidays, acting like it was a case of GrayAndGreyMorality even though he was slaughtering others in an effort to TakeOverTheWorld, and ultimately even helping him.

* ''OzzyOsbourne'' is usually this, with some songs ("Flying High Again", "Crazy Babies", etc.) falling more under ChaoticNeutral. Despite what many MoralGuardians (at least used to) think, his music rarely falls into "Evil" territory (although the subjects of some songs, such as "Mr. Tinkertrain" and "No More Tears" are definitely ChaoticEvil).

* [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Vanessa]] from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb,'' overlapping with [[SelfishGoodSelfishEvil Selfish Neutral]]---she clearly finds her PunchClockVillain father's plans annoying, but she never really actively helps his nemesis [[EverythingsBetterWithPlatypus Perry]] stop him either. She seems to becoming closer to ChaoticNeutral as time goes on, though, despite expressing at least some misgivings:

* Joey Tribbani and Rachel Green of ''{{Friends}}''. Chandler Bing is mostly ChaoticNeutral during the first few seasons but gradually shifts towards LawfulNeutral later in the series.

* The Xenon, the BigBad of ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X: Beyond the Frontier]]'' and continuing antagonists during the later games, are a race of terraforming drones doing what they're programmed to. Unfortunately thanks to a buggy (or deliberately sabotaged, [[FlipFlopOfGod depending on the source you read]]) shutdown command, their [[AIIsACrapshoot programming]] [[ChaoticEvil has them "terraforming" all biological life out of existence]].

* The [[MeaningfulName Qaron]] from ''{{Empire}}'' come across as Type 2. Their agenda is alien to the characters they're dealing with, and their ability to see the future causes them to behave in a way that seems totally amoral.