{"id":6849,"date":"2012-02-21T14:00:21","date_gmt":"2012-02-21T19:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/?p=6849"},"modified":"2012-02-21T14:44:11","modified_gmt":"2012-02-21T19:44:11","slug":"trope-tuesday-neutral-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/trope-tuesday-neutral-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Trope Tuesday: Neutral Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Arguably the best of the good-aligned characters, the Neutral Good<\/a>\u00a0can always be counted on to\u00a0do the right thing<\/a>, whether that means working within<\/a> the system<\/a> or rebelling against it<\/a>. \u00a0Whether young<\/a> or\u00a0old<\/a>, soft<\/a> or\u00a0shrewd<\/a>, nice<\/a> or not so nice<\/a>, these are the guys (and girls<\/a>) most likely to save the world<\/a> and defeat the enemy with love<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the easydamus character alignment page<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Neutral Good is not devoid of weaknesses, of course. \u00a0Although they are devoted to good, their lack of commitment to law means that they are not always willing to enforce it. \u00a0Also, for those who just want to get things done<\/a>, this alignment can be somewhat limiting, in the way that a commitment to any higher ideal usually is<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, this is a very common alignment for heroes in space opera stories. \u00a0Case in point, Luke Skywalker: even though he’s young and reckless, he’s not above learning the ways of the force and joining the Jedi order. \u00a0Miles Vorkosigan from Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series also falls squarely into the Neutral Good camp. \u00a0Moving on to manga and webcomics, Alphonse and Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist both fall under this alignment, giving balance to Edward’s more chaotic outbursts. \u00a0Agatha from Girl Genius is also a Neutral Good…at least, when there aren’t any wrenches nearby<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are quite a few characters with this alignment in my own work. \u00a0Even though she’s a mercenary captain, Danica from Bringing Stella Home\u00a0<\/strong>falls squarely into this alignment; she’s got a tough outer shell, but she’ll do anything for her men<\/a>, even…well, I don’t want to ruin\u00a0Stars of Blood and Glory<\/strong>. \ud83d\ude09 Also from Bringing Stella Home \/ Sholpan<\/strong>, Stella is solidly Neutral Good, which is part of why the ending is so deliciously twisted. \u00a0In Star Wanderers<\/strong>, Jeremiah falls into this alignment mostly through default, which is good for Noemi because the circumstances of the novel put her totally at his mercy. \u00a0And in Desert Stars<\/strong>, this is probably Mira’s alignment, though she’s easily manipulated by her Neutral Evil<\/a> mother.<\/p>\n

What can I say? \u00a0I’ve got a soft spot for Neutral Goods. \u00a0Considering how well this kind of a hero fits in to a classic space adventure, it shouldn’t come as any surprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arguably the best of the good-aligned characters, the Neutral Good\u00a0can always be counted on to\u00a0do the right thing, whether that means working within the system or rebelling against it. \u00a0Whether young or\u00a0old, soft or\u00a0shrewd, nice or not so nice, these are the guys (and girls) most likely to save the world and defeat the enemy… Continue reading Trope Tuesday: Neutral Good<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[68,44,541,857,569],"tags":[112,690,693,681,458,87,434,691,184,306,641,565,626],"class_list":["post-6849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bsh","category-ds","category-sholpan-novella","category-sw","category-sbg","tag-character","tag-character-alignment","tag-fullmetal-alchemist","tag-girl-genius","tag-good-and-evil","tag-heroism","tag-lois-mcmaster-bujold","tag-space-adventure","tag-space-opera","tag-star-wars","tag-trope-tuesday","tag-tropes-and-cliches","tag-tvtropes","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7iXK-1Mt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6849"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6943,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6849\/revisions\/6943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onelowerlight.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}