10
Dec
ALIGNMENT CHART WEEK! Television, Generally
Posted by MGK Published in D&D Explains Everything, General Nerd Crap, TVSearch
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42 users responded in this post
*slow clap*
This was retweeted by Graham Linehan
https://twitter.com/#!/Glinner/status/13170137121165313
Before you stop, the Glee chart you linked got me thinking. Could you do one where all 9 squares were Mr. Schuester? I bet you can, he’s one inconsistently-written son of a bitch.
I only recognized five of the nine shows. I guess I need to watch more TV…
Sidenote: Comment moderation *maybe* active?
To be fair, Andrew . . . *every* character on Glee is inconsistently written 🙂
Excellent job as usual as usual, sir; especially liked the quote selection for the Always Sunny and Venture Bros. crews
I recognize everything *except* LN, but damn near any legal drama should fit.
Top Chef, the most LN show on television. Top Chef does not care if a horrible accident happened to you in the kitchen. Top Chef does not care if you had the bad luck to receive subpar ingredients. Top Chef only cares that its competitors follow the rules and cook the best possible food, and there is no mercy for failure.
Lawful Good = West Wing
Neutral Good = Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Chaotic Good = Dr. Who
Lawful Neutral = Top Chef, apparently
True Neutral = Venture Brothers
Chaotic Neutral = Glee?
Lawful Evil = Dexter
Neutral Evil = Seinfeld
Chaotic Evil = It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, according to a Google search
My stumper was Chaotic Neutral. Oddly, Never watched anything below True Neutral. 😐 (Granted, not having premium cable does that….)
You’ve never seen Seinfeld? My god, how I envy you.
I don’t usually comment, but I want to say that Top Chef in Lawful Neutral is BRILLIANT.
That’s very true, Cap’n Neurotic, but there is inconsistently written, and then there is Mr. Schuester-level inconsistently written. It’s the difference between a splinter and an impaling.
Also, for you people who apparently have something better to do than watch 9 pretty goddamn good TV shows: West Wing, Buffy, Dr. Who, Top Chef, Venture Brothers, Glee, Dexter, Seinfeld, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Now go watch the ones you didn’t recognize, having a life is overrated.
I must say that I hadn’t realized it before, but Dr Who is pretty much the platonic ideal of chaotic good. Henceforth if anyone in my RPG group ever has difficulty playing a CG character, I shall refer them to the good doctor as a reference.
The only one I didn’t immediately recognize was Top Chef, and I got that as soon as I recognized the host.
Seriously, this isn’t the blog to pull your “Shoot your Television” I’m-cooler-than-you-I-don’t-watch-TV card out.
The only ones I didn’t get was True Neutral (I’m not even sure it’s ever aired in Brazil) and Chaotic Evil because I never really watched that show (I beleived it aired in Brazil on the same time as some show i liked best).
Lawful Neutral and Neutral Evil are brilliant.
I only recognised West Wing, Buffy, Doctor Who, and Seinfeld, though I suspected the one was Glee.
I’ve seen a few episodes of Buffy, but the Doctor and Seinfeld are the only ones I’ve watched regularly.
When you don’t have cable you miss a lot.
It’s Always Sunny… always makes me feel dirty when I watch it, so…perfect.
I’m just happy whenever someone spreads the word about Venture Bros 😀 I just belatedly caught the season 4 close via adultswim.com and damned if that show doesn’t keep bringing the quality
I myself wouldn’t put Dexter in Lawful Evil… he uses his serial killer powers for good! Maybe more Chaotic Good… he will break every law of society to do what he feels is right… except of course I don’t want to dislodge my favourite show of all time, Dr. Who.
Lawful Evil, I think more of Survivor or Big Brother; you must follow the rules while being as underhanded and dirty as possible to your opponents.
GLEE is Chatoic evil, hands down. Venture Brothers is probably true neutral but maybe chaotic neutral. Buffy herself is Lawful good, and really that show has a CLEAR definition of good and evil for the most part, making it Lawful good.
To be fair, Andrew . . . *every* character on Glee is inconsistently written 🙂
Hence Chaotic Neutral.
Except for Sue Sylvester, who is Chaotic Awesome.
Sheer perfection.
(Geez, some of you people live under rocks.)
Can I be sad that you didn’t do a Deadwood chart
But Venture Brothers placement = awesomeness!!!
Top Chef is the perfect choice for TN, as already explained succinctly by MGK. An inspired choice.
Typos Happne – should read “Top Chef is perfect choice for Lawful Neutral.”
The argument for Top Chef being Lawful Neutral makes me wonder if you’d consider the Total Drama Series Lawful Neutral as well. I’ve considered doing a Total Drama Island and Total Drama World Tour chart (and yes, the season matters: for example, Heather’s Lawful Evil Season 1 and Lawful Neutral Season 3.)
(To be fair, the difference between the Top Chef and Total Drama is that the host of Top Chef is Lawful Neutral while the host for Total Drama is Neutral Evil.)
Buffy feels Chaotic Good to me, for what it’s worth, but not strongly enough to justify a move.
Eh.. not sure I agree with this one, but
http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/907903725/a-d-d-alignment-chart-for-star-trek-characters
I go for older shows. (and add some movies)
Lawful Good: K.I.T.T, Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap
Neutral Good: Michael Knight, Arthur from the Tick
Chaotic Good: The Tick
Lawful Neutral: Um, Javery from Les Mis? The Martians from Galaxy High?
True Neutral: Hell, Anyone remember Morlun from the Visionaires cartoon?
Chaotic Neutral: Alf? Animal from the Muppet Show?
Lawful Evil: The Operative from Serenity
Neutral Evil: Destro, G.I. Joe
Chaotic Evil: The Evil Midnight Bomber what bombs at midnight
If I understand alignments correctly, I reckon Seinfeld would be true neutral. They never really seemed evil, just really selfish and not interested in anyone else.
@jack: The cast of Seinfeld would regularly screw people over or even do horrible things to each other without feeling a shred of remorse.
Backing up Burke here, just the death of George’s fiance episode ALONE…
@jack – “really selfish” is one of the hallmarks of D&D’s Evil alignments.
Just wondering how a Venture Bros. Alignment Chart would look in MGK’s eyes.
I’m sad to say, I don’t think there is a Lawful Good in that show at all.
I can now see the difficulty in making a chart for this show. Seinfeld too for that matter. Modern Television is just full of horrible people.
That’s why I like it, it reflects the real world with near perfection.
@ Count Baqula: Brock is Lawful Good. He’s always worked within the confines of a hierarchical organization, and always been the best they have. The boys themselves are Neutral Good. Then…
Chaotic Good – Orpheus
Lawful Neutral – Sergeant Hatred
True Neutral – Pete and Billy
Chaotic Neutral – Action Johnny
Lawful Evil – The Monarch
Neutral Evil – Rusty
Chaotic Evil – Phantom Limb
I don’t watch all of these, but the ones I recognize are dead on. Of COURSE Dexter is Lawful Evil, is this even disputable? A horrible person–like a SERIAL KILLER WHO MURDERS PEOPLE–but is bound by a code. Lawful Evil.
Also, the show itself would be lousy if it didn’t have Dexter himself keeping it on track. And its morality is kind of fucked, but consistent. Lawful Evil. Boom.
Buffy’s Neutral Good because they acknowledge “higher powers” and often go along with them, but don’t feel obligated to obey them.
Love the Doctor Who inclusion, but I’d have gone with the Second Doctor line, “Bad rules are made to be broken.” But that’s just me.
Alternate Chaotic Good: Leverage. “Sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get.”
Prankster — I totally get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think that “Dexter”, the show, considers Dexter, the character, to be a horrible person. And I don’t think we are supposed to either… that’s why his Code demands that he prove beyond doubt that his targets are Evil People who deserve to die. And he’s good to everyone else in the meantime.
But it’s a bit of a contradiction. On one hand he commits evil acts according to a strict code; on the other hand he is righting the wrongs that society cannot because he is not bound by their rules. Ultimately I think the show considers itself to be Chaotic Good. Whether you agree is, of course, up to you.
I would think a fully Lawful Evil show would have a central character truly committed to doing evil, destroying the lives of innocents, etc, on purpose, while operating within the law of the land. Thing is I can’t think of an example. There was that Adrian Pasdar show “Profit”… would that work? I can’t remember it very well.
ANY-hoo, just my take on it. What fun!
Gotta agree with MGK on Dexter as Lawful Evil. See, the thing is, Dexter doesn’t kill other killers because he cares about the wrongs they’ve done or the people they’ve hurt. He kills them because he is compelled to do so and he enjoys it. That right there is evil, even if it’s against evil victims. Dexter’s lawfulness is actually twofold. On the one hand, he generally tries to appear legitimate and normal because it keeps him alive and safe from a society that would kill him or lock him up, and second, his code is something he consistently sticks to. He’s steered his pathology of murder towards technically positive ends, but Dexter likes murdering people, doesn’t really care about anyone else (except kinda sorta his family, but evil people can love too), and sticks to rules. He is very Lawful Evil.
Excellent chart. I agree wholeheartedly with every square.
@Die Macher But I’d argue that the morality of the show ITSELF is Lawful Evil, precisely because it asks us to sympathise with Dexter. And because it’s so half-assed when it comes to all the other, more moral characters. The fact that the show doesn’t judge its lead as harshly as, say, Breaking Bad is precisely what makes it evil (I mean, for purposes of the D&D alignment chart.)
jajajaj Nice Web, but I want an X-Files chart 😛
@Count Baqula
I thought the easiest way to do a “Seinfeld” chart was to use the secondary characters. It’s the only way it works. I tried to think outside the box on a few of them, so please chime in.
Lawful Good: Bookman, the Library Cop. “Yeah, ’71. That was my first year on the job. Bad year for libraries. Bad year for America. Hippies burning library cards, Abby Hoffman telling everybody to steal books. I don’t judge a man by the length of
his hair or the kind of music he listens to. Rock was never my bag. But you put on a pair of shoes when you walk into the New York Public Library, fella.”
Neutral Good: Frank Costanza’s Lawyer: “I’m Frank Costanza’s Lawyer.”
Chaotic Good: Aaron, the Close Talker: “This watch…”
Lawful Neutral: Susan Ross: “Well you know, all you guys ever do is sit around the coffee shop
talking, sit around Jerry’s apartment talking. Frankly, I don’t know how you can stand it.”
True Neutral: Mr. Peterman – “I’m afraid it’s your urine, Elaine. You’ve tested positive for opium…White Lotus. Yam-yam. Shanghai Sally.”
Chaotic Neutral: Uncle Leo – “They said they were sending an Asian woman.”
Lawful Evil: The Soup Nazi – “You’re pushing your luck, little man.”
Neutral Evil: Jack Klompus – “What d’you think? I’ve never ridden in a Cadillac before? Believe me, I’ve ridden in a Cadillac hundreds of times. Thousands.
Chaotic Evil: Who else? “Well, I wouldn’t hear of it. I said, “Nice try, granny!” And I sent her to the back of the line!”
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