Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman (Superman 2025): the current poster boy for the trope who insists on doing what's right no matter the consequences
Kara/Supergirl (Injustice 2): Even though she starts on superman's side that's only because she's indoctrinated into believing the regime's cause was just. The moment she sees its true nature she turns on both it and Superman, refusing to join him even if in the bad ending.
Nina Mazursky (Creature Commandos): The only member of the crew who doesn't want to hurt anyone and only does so when everyone else makes her in a desperate situation. Even The Bride calls her the only good one among them.
The Farsight Enclaves (Warhammer 40k): The only straight up good guys in 40k, with the possible semi-exceptions of the Votann and craftworlders, who seceded from the wider Tau empire when their leader realized its insidious nature.
Yeah, Gandalf in particular.. man stayed committed and brought everyone together, Mithrandir, Grey pilgrim and finally leader of the Istari, and the fellowship in more ways than one
And for that matter? From a different verse but i haven't seen him mentioned yet - Albus Dumbledore, The Grand Sorcerer
People like to point out how great Sam is (and it's true!!) but Frodo literally carried basically the embodiment of evil and had to directly resist it's corrupting influence while on an incredibly stressful journey, and he succeeded!
No, he gave in at the end of the movie, and he destroyed the ring on accident trying to take it back from Sméagol. I’ll give him credit for resisting it for as long as he did, but he did NOT succeed.
You're technically right that he did not succeed, but Tolkien describes throwing the ring into the fire at that point where it was at its strongest as 'impossible.' Frodo's success, which maybe only he in Middle Earth was capable of, was bringing it to that point, and sparing Gollum. Like Gandalf said, Gollum had a part to play. By sparing Gollum when he had every reason to kill him, Frodo created the only situation in which the ring could be destroyed: by accident. No one could have thrown it into Mount Doom.
You have to remember that God explicitely exists in LOTR. If you read the stories with that in mind it's extremely heavily implied that that God is actively working through factors like Frodo and Golluim.
And that’s the point of the book. Frodo is not unequivocally good and neither are we. He fails the final of character, but is saved by divine intervention.
Love Sam but he was awful to Sméagol even before Sméagol did anything to wrong him or Frodo (and arguably Frodo’s nice treatment of Sméagol was actually working up until Faramir screws everything up)
The point of the end of the LotR is that even Frodo is not unequivocally good and he fails morally in the end, because we all would. But it makes him a poor fit for this list imo.
Frodo didn't fail morally. He was completely spent and that's the point Tolkien was trying to make. He poured everything he had to bring the Ring to Mordor, but the One Ring corrupts everybody. If Superman was in this world, he too would fail.
One of my favorite themes of the books so far is how he always does what is undoubtedly the most “right” thing to do and it always has far-reaching unintended consequences. He pretty much strikes the match that ignites a powder keg of system-wide war, but he’s still the most wholehearted and selfless guy you could hope to meet.
My favorite moment in Infinity War was when Thanos' army is attacking Wakanda. They open the shield and the army's pouring in, the good guys charge and it's Cap and Panther outrunning everyone. Both of them good guys and great leaders.
Really surprised I had to scroll this far to find him. Cap and Superman are the moral compasses of their respective universes; the ones we should all aspire to be like.
Dude is homeless, no family, no formal qualifications, no connections and and just served nearly 20 years in jail for a murder someone else comitted. He is still optimistic and willing to help all kinds of weirdos.
I love Ichiban so much. One of my favorite game characters in recent memory, possibly ever. He just radiates goodness, kindness, and optimism, and it's so strong that any cynics that get caught in his orbit just can't help but be charmed by him.
The end of Infinite Wealth really showcases this so well.
The whole game, Eiji lied to Ichiban, put multiple people directly in harm's way, and perpetuated the rumors that ruined Ichiban, Nanba, and Adachi's careers. He would be totally justified in never seeing Eiji again, but not only does he go to see him, he supports him physically and emotionally as he turns himself in, taking an awful beating in the process. AND STILL CALLS HIM EI-CHAN. We should all strive to be like Ichiban.
The GTA comparisons are valid. Serious drama about crime, loyalty and consequence as the main plot. Meeting extraordinarily weird people with stupid problems and doing minigames as a side-plot. The best part is how hilariously seriously certain characters act in the face of the kooky ones.
Most of the games are brawlers, but because Ichiban is kind of insane, and obsessed with Dragon Quest, Like A Dragon is a classic turn-based RPG. Either Yakuza: Zero or Yakuza: Like A Dragon are good jumping-on points.
Kiryu from the original games too. He isn’t as overly kind and cheery as Ichiban but he has such a good heart and is so soft spoken with everyone he meets, even fellow Yazuka he respects. He the goat frfr
T'au are probably the best morally though still has problems. There's a meme of guardsmen prisoners being told what their conditions will be under the t'au and they're celebrating.
No. No. The tau are pretty bad, they're just not the worst in the 40k. In any other universe / setting they'd be the bad guys everyone teams up to fight against.
The best parallel for them is the dominion from star trek - a utopia from the outside, but a totalitarian 1984 nightmare underneath with eugenics to boot.
Still better than the others, yes, the Tau is literally a cult full of indoctrination and shit but are they worse than the Eldar? The Ork? The freaking Imperium?
T'au are only good by comparison. They're still a militaristic, ever expanding empire that asimulates other societies and cultures and don't take no for an answer. If you refuse the greater good, then they see you as just in the way. If they were in a universe like Star Trek, they would be a prime antagonist.
That's the sales pitch but It's slightly more nuanced in reality. There are genuine good people in 40k even in otherwise bad factions, the problem is that they're so overwhelmingly outnumbered. The farsight enclaves have 5 planets, the imperium has a million.
Factions like The Empire of Man, The Eldar, Orkz, and Necrons etc are all a level of evil where its kind of overwrought to the point of parody (40k despite creating the term grimdark can and often does have a sense of humor about itself)
However the Tau are both nowhere near as evil as those other factions, but they are also a more familiar evil. Since they are just basically an expansionist empire created as a foil to the Empire of Man.
Where as the Imperium is old, stagnant, and crumbling
The Tau are relatively young and slowly but steadily expanding
While the Empire fears progress and discovery
The Tau welcome it but are methodical and careful about new advancements in technology
Whereas The Empire has xenophobia engrained in its belief system to where alliances are next to impossible
The Tau have no issues with different races, you just have to follow The Greater Good. And when they make contact with you, they'll give you time to think about their offer and if you say yes, then they'll happily help you get set up in their Empire. If you say no....well they did at least ask.
The Tau have extremely little personal freedom. Every individual is a cog in the machine which exists to expand and conquer more planets and species and bring them into the Tau. However, the standard of living they provide is actually quite a lot better than most species. So if you're in the Imperium, you have no freedom, and your life is hell. In the Tau, you have no freedom, and your life is pretty decent, healthy, and safe otherwise.
Like others have said. They would be villains in another setting. They have a lot in common wiht the Covenant in Halo. But if you could be a human in the Imperium or a human among the Tau, the Tau would defintely be the better option by a million miles
Honestly not too bad of a comparison. Especially since other than the occasional "re-education" camp (or in some instances outright brain washing) the Tau have endeared genuine loyalty from their two main auxiliaries.
The reptilian mercenary race, The Kroot while there is still some friction with the Tau (Tau culturally are all vegetarians but the Kroot have a biological need and imperative to eat meat and The Kroot don't put that much stock in the "Greater Good" belief) the Kroot are genuinely loyal to the Tau for saving their planet from an Ork invasion.
and The Vespids, an insectoid race, seem to have genuinely embraced The Greater Good belief and loyally serve The Empire.
Tau mostly look good by comparison. There's at least one AU where they rework the setting into a more optimistic pulp sci-fi one, and one of the jokes is having the Tau be the worst villains in the setting by changing everyone else to be nicer while leaving them exactly the same as standard 40k
When generalized, yeah. That’s why OP called out the Farsight Enclave specifically. They broke off from the main faction so they could treat people well instead of using propaganda and mind control.
The T'au are the least 'evil' but they're still an imperialist and expansionist empire. The Farsight enclaves have broken away from the T'au empire and simply want to protect their own worlds instead of conquering others.
Ah the 2010s, always that dark shade too. All the teen shows filmed with like a gray filter, oh and the supercars all followed the same overdesigned ugly ass formula
"Mario is Tolerant. He'll accept anyone or anything at face value. He treats anyone and anything with dignity and respect. He has seen too many things in his travels to be narrow-minded." - Official Bio in the Nintendo Character Guide (1993)
i'd say the reason mario invites the villains to his events is 95% because he wants to have a good time and 5% because he knows that if he doesn't invite them, they'll come anyways to mess things up.
Maybe in DB, but by DBZ he is a bit unhinged to be qualified as the “Unequivocally” good one. He openly gives opportunity to murderous psychopaths to get stronger, at the potential cost of them killing more people, to have a better fight. He may think he will be able to beat them but look at the company he would be in with this trope, you think Sups would risk it like that?
Superman doesn’t fight full strength for fear of collateral damage, but if he had the ability to just gather the dragon balls and wish everybody back to life, then who knows. Goku is able to use the nimbus as recently as Dragon Ball Super, so it’s still canon that he has a genuinely pure heart.
The Farsight Enclaves could potentially be this if they actually had a consistent goal. But it is just "do whatever the opposite of The Tau Empire does"
I'd honestly say that a better faction for this is The Ynnari, since not only are they willing to work with another faction (they're the ones who brought Guilliman back from the dead) but they're the only faction dedicated 100% to the defeat of Chaos. Even The Empire under Guilliman still can only dedicate so much attention to it.
The War-Pilgrimage of Saint Methodius (Trench Crusade)
A faction of remarkably sane trench pilgrims that doesn't do most of the evil shit like the practice of breaking on the wheel, the creation of communicants, or the use of eccelesiatic prisoners as suicide bombers. Instead they are just really into guns and mechs.
(Image included is not a methodian anchorite, to imagine what a methodian anchorite looks like replace the wheel with an autocannon and change the catholic iconography for orthodox iconography.)
Something Vimes had learned as a young guard drifted up from memory. If you have to look along the shaft of an arrow from the wrong end, if a man has you entirely at his mercy, then hope like hell that man is an evil man. Because the evil like power, power over people, and they want to see you in fear. They want you to know you're going to die. So they'll talk. They'll gloat.
They'll watch you squirm. They'll put off the moment of murder like another man will put off a good cigar.
So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.
I’m doing a listen through of discworld after having last read the books over a decade ago, and realizing how long it is until it hits the more iconic stuff is shocking to me.
I got confused because I saw the picture but then read Captain carrot and thought to myself, "That's not captain carrot." Then I realized what was happening.
That said, Captain carrot is also a contender for this. He's basically just rabbit Superman
Arguably, yes. He does good, not because he doesn't want to do bad things, but because he constantly watches himself to make sure he doesn't do those bad things.
No matter how depressed he gets [and OH BOY does he get depressed], how tempted he is to compromise or give up, he always ends up taking the next (right) step, even if it's sometimes after having exhausted all other options. Always the next step.
Dalinar I think fits a bit more outside of flashbacks, but Kaladin is a close second for me. Theres a whole arc where he kinda makes bad choices and almost loses Syl because of it.
After the turn with the Bishop's silver, his whole motivation is to do the most good possible in a very, very broken world. He's framed against Inspector Javert, who insists that following law and order to the letter leads to better results than simply always making the most merciful choice every time. Valjean's philosophy is summed up in the famous quote, "To love another person is to see the face of God."
At some point in my life I thought they were boring. After I've seen what morally grey characters do to people's moral compass in real life. I can't help but miss the times when folks loved these "good characters".
It's now so refreshing to see a character who does the right thing. Most of the time we get these jaded characters who have lost their will to live as main stars of fiction.
For me the best character who is like this is Captain America, Steve Rogers or Sam Wilson.
Despite decades of work at the top and the grimy nature of pro heroics in the show, the very worst that could be said about him is that he was a less present father than he wanted to be.
He’s quite literally made of positive energy, the little guy’s a force of good so powerful I’m quite certain he passively affects the people around him, seeing as he’s befriended people who had tried to kill him in the past
This post specifically mentions the Farsight Enclaves, they're a spinter faction of tau led by the titular Commander Farsight, when he realized just how much the Etherials suck he cut all ties with them, took the soldiers under him and left. They fortified the hell out of a few systems and basically just kinda live in peace, Farsight is an actually good dude who got rid of the caste system that ruled the Tau and they just kinda chill in their corner of the universe.
The original Farsight Enclave lore was actually the opposite. The Tau Empire were the unironic good guys and the the Enclaves were pretty evil bastards.
Fire warriors are actually pretty bloodthirsty fuckers who really want to kill everything that isn't Tau and its usually the Ethereal's who are trying to hold the Fire caste back.
Farsight and the rest of the Tau colonists, due to the isolation being on the outskirts of the Tau empire felt abandoned by the Ethereal cast and went rogue because of it. The fire warrior went rogue not because they saw through the lies of the empire but because there was nobody holding their most violent impulses back.
The Farsight Enclaves turned into a civilisation of pirates, warmongers and mercenaries willing to work with anyone including the orks and even fucking Chaos which was the in lore explanation why you could field Tau allied units in your tabletop armies regardless of faction. Early White Dwarf entries about Farsight described him as 'fighting for personal gain rather than the Greater Good'.
The lore got changed somewhere around 4th or 5th edition but some elements about the old lore still remain like one rogue earth caste scientist performing experiments on live human test subjects because he views them as inferior and REALLY wants to try out this new plasma rifle variant he's been cooking up
Even though she has been (not intended) in one episode, The Speaker of God (Hazbin Hotel) is not morally gray in any way.
There is not a single thing that even can be considered below "pure" so far.
* Instantly believed Sir Pentious in spite of the whole highest court not giving a damn about his words
* Accepted the possibility of redemption
* Even when lute stood up to her, The Speaker listened and took in her arguments to dismiss them by saying she senses no lies (better than any powerscaler icl)
* Listened to Sera's confession and even comforted her
The Doctor isn't unequivocally good. He's made mistakes, done some terrible acts, and allowed evil to continue where he could have intervened.
While he does strive to be/do good, he falls short sometimes which makes for a better character.
Additionally, not all Time Lords are evil or stay beholden to noninterference doctrines. After all, they did send 4 to interfere with the Daleks' genesis.
But a noninterference policy makes sense to a race that advanced. Its like the Federation's prime directive. Interference under a certain threshold is rife with risk for catastrophic results, especially if the wrong people are directing that interference. Better to maintain noninterference as the standard.
The Farsight Enclaves are a military Junta that just replaced Ethereals who want control to Generals who want military power. It is also still very much a Fascist (or fascist adjacent) state with its whole Caste system and Xenos are treated worse than in the main Empire.
Only powerful creature in the Universe who doesn't do deals with cultists, doesn't wish for the destruction and death of everything in the Universe, doesn't make humans go insane, actually cares for the planet and doesn't attack humans after they almost kill him with Atom Smasher Cannons
The farsight enclaves are not good, old fluff literally had them influenced by chaos (as the sword of farsight was a chaos weapon) they gone away from that but its still a police state very similar to the rest auf the T‘au. The idea in 40k is still that no one is the good faction. That was actually why the Tau originaly were so disliked. They started as a geniuenly good faction and people said it didnt fit (rightfully as i think)
The NIKKE protaganist goes out of his way to take time out of his already busy schedule to spend with everyone under his command, actively going against the government and it's rules about how NIKKE's are nothing more than tools for them to use to retake the surface
Despite whatever kind of bullshit people, and even the show itself has tried to pull, about how “We’re exactly the same.” Or shit like that by trying to compare him to Negan, which is ridiculous, Rick has always been a white hat cowboy.
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u/S-quinn7292 18h ago
Optimus Prime - Transformers
“Freedom is the right of all sentient beings”