The lawless benefactor - Chaotic Good

- You know something Robin I was just wonderin'... Are we good guys or bad guys? You know... I mean... our robbin' the rich to feed the poor...

- ROB?!? tsk tsk tsk that's a naughty word. We NEVER rob! We just... sort of borrow a bit from those who can afford it!

- Borrow? heh... boy are we in debt

Chaotic Good. The hero of the people, who opposes the law because laws are meant to be broken, tied to a horse, dragged around the streets naked, and then burnt while the newly freed people celebrate their hero.

Chaotic Good is another one of those alignments that come up very often in a Roleplaying game, mostly because it's easier to roleplay someone who does not follow the rules. A true Chaotic Good character is not as simple as that though. From my point of view a Chaotic good character is very likely to turn Chaotic Evil, even more so than a Chaotic Neutral character. Crazy huh? Let me elaborate on that.

A chaotic Good character will go out of his way to denounce and fight the inequities imposed by society and its laws. Why should there be kings that live in opulence when their people are starving? Why do people starve when there's more than enough food for everyone? Why am I threatened with jail time when all I've done is denounce the corruption of the state publicly with my opinion? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, so there should be no absolute power! Freedom is the right of all sentient beings! Let's take away from the rich and give to the poor! All these statements resonate very well with the Chaotic Good alignment. And each and everyone of them could lead down a very dangerous path, in which the line between good and evil is no longer clear, and the heroes become the villains by doing what they think is right, but ends up hurting more people than helping them. 

These characters usually have a hard time dealing with the aftermath of their revolutionary actions. Once the evil tyrant is gone, who's left to lead the people? you? Of course not, you don't believe in order. You believe in freedom and in doing everything you want to do regardless of what the world thinks of you. So why would you replace an Evil Tyrant's government system with another one that limits the freedom of the people you just saved?

See? not so simple if you think about it!

Not everything needs to be 1500 shades of grey though. So let's look at the positive side of this alignment

Chaotic Good characters have good intentions, possibly the best intentions, They are quite possibly the best type of heroes, since they act quickly and are very emphatic with the ones they want to save.

Here's the textbook definition of Chaotic Good:

A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he's kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society.

Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit.

Chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment when it disrupts the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.

So that quote at the beginning should make it pretty obvious who we're going to add to the chart, right?

Drumroll...

PLOOOOT TWIST!!!

PFFFTTT!!! YOU THOUGHT I'D KEEP USING THE SAME TYPE OF TEASER/REVEAL ON EVERY POST!!! HAH!!! CHAOTIC GOODNESS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR RULES!!!

ROW ROW, FIGHT THA POWAH!!

Simon: Force your way down a path YOU choose to take, and do it all yourself! That's the way Team Dai-Gurren rolls!

Nia: Even when trapped by karma's cycle...

Yoko: The dreams we left behind will open the door!

Leeron: Even if the universe stands against us...

Viral: Our burning blood will cut through fate!

Simon: We'll break through heavens and the dimensions!

All: And defy all who would stop us to grab hold of our path!

Simon: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!

All: JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!

— Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Fun fact: Kamina (The dude with the awesome cape) is Chaotic Good BIG TIME.

TEAM DAI GURREN!!! AAAAAWWWW YYYEEEAAAAAAHHH!!!! ROW ROW FIGHT THA POWAH!!!

These guys are Chaotic Good to the core. If you haven't seen this anime I highly recommend it.

Thanks for reading

The Hero - Neutral Good

The Hero - Neutral Good

*Notes from the Present: After writing the entry for Lawful Good, I started working on Neutral Good, but then life happened, and I lost interest in the project. What follows is completely new material, fresh out the oven. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and doing research for it.

"What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

Neutral Good, the alignment that most, if not all, of the heroes we know from comic books, tv-shows and mainstream media tend to fall on. What is Neutral Good in a nutshell? Well simply put: whoever chooses to do good deeds, aid those who can’t fend for themselves, and at the same time does not fully associate himself with the law. He does good because it’s the right thing to do.

The man who stole the loaf of bread a couple of posts ago was going through some hard times. A Neutral Good character would have more than likely gone out of his way to buy a loaf of bread and give it to the man before he committed the crime. They do not care who needs help, he or she will help regardless of whether it’s done because it is dictated by society's morals or ethics or even the laws themselves.

Here’s what most player handbooks say about this alignment:

Neutral Good can be the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. Neutral Good characters value freedom and will protect others' freedom as long as it's not used to do harm.

Understandably, this alignment can be confused a lot with Chaotic Good, but a good way to set the two of them apart is remembering that Neutral good is a lot more practical and a lot more moderate than Chaotic Good. Although both are led by a more internal code of morality, rather than an external code or set of morals, Neutral good tends to stick to the safe and practical side of "doing good deeds".

Simply put: If the Neutral Good character lives in a society where the laws allow or help him to do what he believes is good. Then he will abide by the law. However, if the laws impede them to do what they internally find to be good, they will find no problem in breaking those laws. Only… you know… not as extremely as Chaotic Good, who would not only save the children. They would also go and burn the churches, kill the priests, hack the planet, boom.

And here you see one of the problems with Alignments. When you need to define what is good and what is evil. Maybe your morals dictate that something that is good for someone else, is actually very twisted and evil for you. What is good? what is bad? what is love? baby don't hurt me... don't hurt me... no more...

SO! Who would be a good example? One who Serves kings and magistrates but is not beholden to them, right?

Dumroll…

He levels up by killing a Balrog in a 1v1 fight... also kind of a dick move since he shared NONE of the xp...

GANDALF!

He does not stop to think about the laws of men, Hobbits, Elves or Orcs when doing his duty as one of the Istari. He travels middle earth doing good, even though his definition of good clashes with others like Denethor, Théoden or Boromir. Who, let’s face it, were ALL doing what was good by their own set of morals. Here’s Gandalf at his finest: with the most ominous quote from the book and the movies.

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many - yours not least.” 

Gandalf – The Fellowship of the Ring

If you google "Meaning of foreshadowing", you find that quote.

Thanks for reading! What do you think? Did I get it right? Was I HORRIBLY off-point in this one? leave a comment and tell me what you think!

The Paladin - Lawful Good

“He could have tried. He could have died. Old or young, a true knight is sworn to protect those who are weaker than himself, or die in the attempt.”

Again… remember that quote for me ok? ;)

 Lawful good… I took my sweet time to write this because of several reasons. One: I wasn’t sure which side of the chart I was going to cover after “Neutral”. Two: I don’t like to play LG. Three: since I don’t like to play it… research was needed for this one. Four: I wanted a true example of LG to fill the chart, but I also wanted to have a woman as the example. Let’s face it, out of the whole hero population; Lawful good female heroes are about 15% of it. But I found her, and it’s funny because she was right under my nose. And thanks to that we don’t have a sausage-fest in the chart anymore (I know… Treebeard is a tree, but his voice is manly, so there) (Notes from the future: A wood joke... there was a wood joke here, and I missed it... DAMN IT me from the past... DAMN IT)

A Lawful good character lives by a code, a strong set of rules that define his actions. He or she also believes that these rules exist to help those in need. To protect the weak and uphold justice, honor and morality, while also being humane and kind to those who need it, and ruthless to those who would violate the law and do evil upon his fellow man/woman.

 Now, how do we avoid becoming “that paladin” who instead of Lawful Good just seems to be “Lawful Stupid”?

The one that will throw the party’s rogue into the hands of the authorities because he picked some noble’s pocket to get the key they needed to save the slaves.

The one that will throw a sermon every single time anyone breaks the law, ANY LAW, at anytime, anywhere, and even go as far to act as Judge, Jury, and Executioner on the spot (Sound familiar? This is how Lawful Neutral USED to be played in the old days… thankfully it’s been rewritten)

The one that decides he needs to convince every single NPC of how good his deity is, to the point where it’s impossible to start an adventure without some kind of conflict of ideas between him and the quest giver.

Ugh… yeah… that one

Basically we need to keep this in mind: Characters of this alignment believe that an orderly, strong society with a well-organized government can work to make life better for the majority of the people. To ensure the quality of life, laws must be created and obeyed. When people respect the laws and try to help one another, society as a whole prospers. These characters strive for those things that will bring the greatest benefit to the most people and cause the least harm.

 Keywords for Lawful Good:  Honor, Tradition, Justice, Fairness, and the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few.

 So… who’s going up on the Lawful Good bracket on our chart? The same person who said those words at the beginning of this post…

 *Drumroll*

 

Coming very soon to a theater near you wearing Chrome Plated armor and an assault rifle...

Brienne of Tarth!

Simply put: Brienne is a Knight in Shining Armor who is willing to risk life and limb to fulfill an oath she has taken or to protect innocent people, despite the fact that she lives in a Crapsack World dominated by dishonorable or even outright evil men and gets little respect or glory for it.

Remember that scene in the Game of Thrones tv-series where she faces a road bandit who has just threatened to rape her just as he did rape a woman he left hanging from a noose on a tree… and after beating him in a sword fight she shoves her sword straight up his rectum?

That… my friends… means Lawful good does not necessarily mean “Lawful Nice”.

*shudder*

*Notes from the future: 
As I mentioned before, this article is a bit dated, since Lawful goodness is no longer directly related to Paladinhood. Personally I like it a lot more the way it is now. An alignment should not be a straightjacket for character development. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!