View source for Shades of Conflict

{{Useful Notes}}
{{quote|''"Man has killed man from the beginning of time, and each new frontier has brought new ways and new places to die. Why should the future be different?"''
|'''Colonel Corazon Santiago''', ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]''}}

[[Conflict]] is the driving force of nearly any story. It provides suspense, [[Stuff Blowing Up|action]], [[The Quest|adventure]], [[Seinfeldian Conversation|conversation]], [[Contemplate Our Navels|contemplation]], [[Character Development|development]] and [[Self Explanatory|football hooligans]].

With that in mind, it's inevitable that the combinations of conflict will be well charted and mapped. A fight may be between [[The Cape (trope)|a too-good-to-stand hero more wholesome than Mom and apple pie]] and a [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|serial bank robber who uses a gun that turns things into gold]], or [[Triang Relations|a pair of teenaged brothers who like the same girl]], but there is a certain tenor to the conflict that goes hand in hand with whether or not one of the participants is, in fact, a horrible person. Maybe there are actions that can be taken against [[Those Wacky Nazis]] that would be extreme against the [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]. Maybe the [[Knight Templar]] goes about his war in a different way than the [[Dark Messiah]]. The stakes are certainly higher when [[The Hero]] is up against an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] rather than an [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain]], and so the tension is heightened.

In any case, morality is a big part of conflict and with morality, the shades of black, white and grey that a story carries with it. Remember, though, just as [[Light Is Not Good]] and [[Dark Is Not Evil]], it is the actions of the people involved rather than their image that determines whether they are Good People, Bad People or Guess It Doesn't Matter People.

Compare [[Good and Evil For Your Convenience]].

Not to be confused with [[Cool Shades]], though those may be involved somewhere.

* '''[[Black and White Morality|Black vs. White:]]''' Doesn't need too much explanation. [[Harry Potter|Harry against Voldemort]], [[Castlevania|Belmont Family versus Dracula]], [[The Lord of the Rings|Gondor against Mordor]], [[Transformers|Autobots against Decepticons]], etcetera. When there are a lot of other conflicts on the side, this tends to be the one most emblematic of the series. The [[Worthy Opponent]] may deign to work for the [[Card-Carrying Villain]] to get the chance to fight [[The Messiah]], but the story isn't so much about the first as it is about the last two.
* '''[[Good Versus Good|White vs. White]]:''' [[Lighter and Softer]]
* '''[[White and Grey Morality|White vs. Grey:]]''' A lot of conflicts between the [[Ideal Hero]] and the [[Anti-Hero]] or [[Anti-Villain]] tend to lean on this side. Also the most [[Egregious]] [[Our Elves Are Better]], when lacking perfection isn't good enough for the smug little bastards. At this shade you have [[Mega Man Zero|Zero versus Harpuia]], [[Pokémon Black and White|trying to stop N]], etc. See also [[But Not Too Evil]].
{{quote|'''[[Futurama|Zapp Brannigan]]:''' ''Prepare to continue the epic struggle between Good and Neutral!''}}
* '''White and Grey vs. Black:''' The core good guys don't do bad things, but there's other groups in the world who hate the villains just as much and are willing to do nasty things to them that the heroes don't have to.
* '''White/Grey and Black vs. Black:''' Basically, where the heroes are forced to team up with bad and not-so-good people to take down other bad people.
* '''White and Grey and Black vs. White and Grey and Black''': The situation is complicated. Some [[The Good, the Bad, and The Evil]] works fall here, as well as some [[Morality Kitchen Sink]] ones.
* '''White and Grey vs. Grey and Black:''' When you want one side to be good guys yet still have moral ambiguity in both parts of the conflict. Naturally has a [[Morality Kitchen Sink]].
* '''White vs. Grey (and sometimes White) and Black:''' The villains are mixed in with people who aren't puppy-killing evil. Often leads to the dilemma that one must hurt the non-villains. Other [[The Good, the Bad, and The Evil]] works fall here.
* '''[[Grey and Gray Morality|Grey vs. Grey]]:''' More [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|cynical]] works tend to fall here. Revenge stories, such as [[Cycle of Revenge]] and [[Feuding Families]] often present such a conflict. Don't have to go Grey to get a well-developed character or anything, but it does make it easier. See also [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]] for a frequently grey conflict that doesn't have to be realistic. (Handled poorly, risks becoming [[A Lighter Shade of Gray]].)
** '''[[A Lighter Shade of Grey]]''' happens when both sides are still morally ambiguous/neutral overall, but one is more good than the other.
** '''Grey vs. Grey and Black''': A subgroup of [[Grey and Gray Morality]]. Basically, both sides are handled with great moral ambiguity, but the enemy side is made clear by there being also some Black (eg: [[Complete Monster]]) individuals in place along with the [[Anti-Villain]], [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]], [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]], [[Knight Templar]], etc. Only recently put up and worth serious contemplation, especially in regards to the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism]].
* '''[[Black and Gray Morality|Grey vs. Black:]]''' The protagonists aren't the nicest guys in the world, and may even be out and out assholes, but we root for them because the people they fight are [[Complete Monster|even worse]]. Often present in [[Darker and Edgier]] works.
* '''[[Evil Versus Evil|Black vs. Black]]:''' [[Enemy Civil War]], [[Warhammer 40,000]]. If handled poorly, tends to lead to [[Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy]] due to it being impossible to root for anyone in the story.
** '''[[A Lighter Shade of Black]]''' is an attempt to avert this by making one villain the clearly more sympathetic one.
* '''[[Blue and Orange Morality|Blue vs. Orange]]:''' A story where one of the sides is not so much good/evil/neutral as ''alien'' or just bizarre. May use [[Otherness Tropes]].

Also not to be confused with ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' (which technically falls under Grey vs. Grey, since the characters are all [[Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist]]s); or for that matter with [[Green Versus Purple]] (which is generally Grey vs Gray or even White Vs White - the point is there's no good reason for the conflict). The names of the kinds of conflicts listed above probably comes from the convention that [[Light Is Good]] and [[Dark Is Evil]]. Contrast [[No Antagonist]]. See also [[Alike and Antithetical Adversaries]].

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[[Category:Morality Tropes]]
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