Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Is a lawful good "antagonist" effective?

Stories can be told with protagonists and antagonists all over the moral spectrum and remain interesting and good stories. Some of the most interesting conflicts come between people who have views...

posted 5y ago by TimothyAWiseman‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T11:18:27Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43531
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar TimothyAWiseman‭ · 2019-12-08T11:18:27Z (over 4 years ago)
## Stories can be told with protagonists and antagonists all over the moral spectrum and remain interesting and good stories.

## Some of the most interesting conflicts come between people who have views that are only slightly different.

It is very common in both real life and in fiction for people who want similar, or even exactly the same goals but to come to disagreement over issues such as how to arrive there. TVTropes has a whole page on the [topic](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodVersusGood).

## Remember that people frequently disagree over what is "good" or "evil".

I'll sidestep the whole question of whether it is possible to provide an objective system of morality at all by pointing out that in any complex situation it can be hard to tell which side is good and which is evil and people regularly disagree. The ["Sword of Good"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/XuLG6M7sHuenYWbfC/the-sword-of-good) story takes this as its central theme.

In most historical wars the people on both sides thought they were fighting for "good" while their opponents were "evil".

It can also get muddled by questions of whether the ends justify the means. The Operative in Serenity provides a good example. He openly admits that he, personally, is a monster doing horrible things. But he believes that he is justified by the ends he is working towards and is thus on the side of good even if he is not personally good.

To reference TV Tropes again, [one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters)

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-03-14T21:48:36Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 0