A Dungeons and Dragons Approach to my 23 Favourite Fictional Male Characters

Cards on the table, I've never played Dungeons and Dragons. While I would have certainly liked to try, I think it's probably not too popular in Malaysia, though there was a Club for it while I was at college. And before you go all, "Dungeons and Dragons, what a loser" on me, please keep in mind that the greatest Power Forward of all time not only is an avid Dungeons and Dragons fan, he has a tattoo of Merlin and a jester face on his back.

Tim Duncan is a 6"11' wizard

And check out the Punisher brace:-

Baller

Anyway, I recently came across a super cool concept from the Dungeons and Dragons game called the Alignment system. Copying off Wiki, it basically is a categorisation of the ethical and moral perspective of people, creatures and societies.

The first criteria of the Alignment system is that of Lawful versus Chaotic. Lawful implies honour and respect for society's rules; Chaotic implies the opposite; and Neutral means neither. From there, the second criteria is Good versus Evil. This is done in the most traditional sense but there is also a 'Neutral' which means a character is neither Good nor Evil. A 'Neutral' character tends to be one that cares mostly about himself or herself. 

From here, we pair the first criteria with the second criteria. This way, we get a combination of 9 potential Alignments. This is seen below, through the lens of Community:-

I kind of disagree with the Dean as Lawful Evil but whatever

Right-o. In a previous post, I performed a psychoanalysis of my favourite fictional male characters, using a Myers-Briggs system. Similarly, in this case, I will consider my 23 favourite fictional male characters using the Dungeons and Dragons Alignment method. Again, as is a favourite of mine, I'm going to mix up the order of the characters through pure randomness. 

So random!

Okay, so the setup then is clear. Well, here we go.

15. Severus Snape

Lawful versus Chaotic: Considering he spied on Voldemort and was a triple agent (badass), I'd say Chaotic.

Good versus Evil: Neutral! Bet you thought I was gonna put Good, didn't you? Well, the only reason he swapped sides was because Voldemort wanted to kill Lily, the love of his life. If Voldemort had spared her or had not targetted her, he would have remained loyal to Voldemort. So, he was only going for his own motives.

Final verdict: Chaotic Neutral

23. Magneto


Lawful versus Chaotic: Chaotic. Duh.
Good versus Evil: This is a toughie. I don't really think he's Evil. But I can't call him Good either. And Neutral seems too much of a copout because he certainly wasn't Neutral. I'm going to go with Evil - he was going to push for Mutant Domination, not Cohabitation.
Final Verdict: Chaotic Evil


14. Ozymandias


Lawful versus Chaotic: I'd say killing millions of people, even for the greater good, is pretty Chaotic to me.
Good versus Evil: He was good. He was looking for a radical solution towards world peace. Yes, he did kill millions of people, but he was looking towards the Greater Good.
Final Verdict: Chaotic Good


17. Tom Sawyer


Lawful versus Chaotic: Chaotic. If he weren't, he would never have had to face Injun Joe.
Good versus Evil: Neutral. He was just doing whatever he felt was the most fun for him at that point.
Final Verdict: Chaotic Neutral


10. Michelangelo


Lawful versus Chaotic: Mikey followed rules when he needed to, disregarded them when he needed to. A real Neutral.
Good versus Evil: Puh-lease. He is a Ninja Turtle.
Final Verdict: Neutral Good


9. Eric Cartman


Lawful versus Chaotic: Anybody who schemes as many illegal things as Cartman does can't be considered Neutral, what more Lawful. Definitely Chaotic.
Good versus Evil: Did you ever watch that one episode where he ground the parents of a kid who's been picking on him into chili, then fed it to said kid and licked that kid's tears after informing the kid that the bowl of chili was filled with the body parts of the said kid's parents? Yeah...
Final Verdict: Chaotic Evil


3. Ben Hanscom


Lawful versus Chaotic: It's a tough call between Good and Neutral, but I think Ben was probably a bit more Neutral than he was Good. I think he would've followed rules only if they made sense to him.
Good versus Evil: Considering he battled a Giant Evil Spider to save his friends and his town, I'd say he was Good.
Final Verdict: Neutral Good


21. Dr Manhattan


Lawful versus Chaotic: He followed the laws of the American government, working for them and with them as their own personal WMD. He was Lawful.

Good versus Evil: To quote Doc Manhattan himself, "The world's smartest man poses no more threat to me than does its smartest termite." People, to him, were generally inconsequential. To him, life and death didn't matter as the number of molecules were the same in a body either way. A Neutral.

Final Verdict: Lawful Neutral

2. Sherlock Holmes

Lawful versus Chaotic: A Neutral. He didn't care how he solved the case as long as he solved it. In some cases, it meant cooperating with Scotland Yard. In some cases, it meant breaking and entering to gain critical evidence.

Good versus Evil: Good. Duh.

Final Verdict: Neutral Good

5. Superman

Lawful versus Chaotic: The Big Blue Boy Scout as a nickname should give us a hint. Lawful.

Good versus Evil: Not only is he Good, he inspires the Good in humanity as well.

Final Verdict: The quintessential Lawful Good

1. Gandalf

Lawful versus Chaotic: Gandalf was Lawful. He did not break the code of the Maiar (he was not allowed to use magic powers to force or coerce people into doing anything). Also, he first sought the Head of the Order of Wizards, Saruman, after first discovering the One Ring for certain. That's Lawful to me.

Good versus Evil: He led the forces of Good against the Penultimate Evil, Sauron. A pretty Captain Obvious pick here.

Final Verdict: Lawful Good

6. Scrooge McDuck

Lawful versus Chaotic: He was actually super Lawful. He filed all documents he needed to (claims, debt, taxes etc). He wanted to make his money square. 

Good versus Evil: Neutral. He only really cared about making his money (though he did care for Hewey, Dewey and Louie later, as well as Donald, Webigail etc etc).

Final Verdict: Lawful Neutral

7. Angel

Lawful versus Chaotic: Chaotic. Never one to really follow the law. At all.

Good versus Evil: Well, we're speaking of Angel, not Angelus. In his never-ending quest for redemption, he was Good.

Final Verdict: Chaotic Good

8. Feanor

Lawful verses Chaotic: Neutral. As long as the Law didn't bother him, he would follow it. As long as something bothered him, he would have no problems breaking the Law.

Good versus Evil: A Neutral. Yes, he fought Morgoth, the Ultimate Evil, but it was because he wanted to retrieve the Silmarils. He only really cared about that. 

Final Verdict: True Neutral

4. Bill Denbrough

Lawful versus Chaotic: I'd say Neutral. I don't think he's thaattt Lawful, but neither is he Chaotic. So, Neutral by default.

Good versus Evil: Pure Good. From the words of Richie Tozier, a key member of the Losers Gang, "And there was something else: Bill was good. It was stupid to think such a thing (he did not, in fact, precisely think it; he felt it), but there it was. Goodness and strength seemed to radiate from Bill."\

Final Verdict: Neutral Good

22. Darth Vader

Lawful versus Chaotic: Lawful. He first tried to live by the strict Jedi Code, got seduced by the Dark Side and followed the laws of Palpatine thereafter. He did whatever the Emperor told him to do. Until the end, of course.

Good versus Evil: The big baddie of the universe descended from Good to Evil, and ultimately found redemption again. But overall, Evil.

Final Verdict: Lawful Evil

20. Count Dracula

Lawful versus Chaotic: Pretty sure biting people's necks and sucking their blood is the complete opposite of Lawful.

Good versus Evil: Again, biting people's necks and sucking their blood is also the complete opposite of Good. BUT, he needed to eat for survival, so there's some Neutral there. Counterargument: He could've just eaten some animals.

Final Verdict: Chaotic Evil

18. Indiana Jones

Lawful versus Chaotic: Considering all the damage and crap he did along the way, I'm gonna say Chaotic.

Good versus Evil: Well, he fought the Nazis, fought the Soviets, fought an Indian cult. In pursuit of rare artifacts but still. He never would've sided with the Nazis.

Final Verdict: Chaotic Good

13. Michael Corleone

Lawful versus Chaotic: As a Mafia Don, it's hard to call him Lawful. But at the same time, he never would have let things get out of control in his deeds and actions. I'm going to say Neutral (Sonny Corleone, on the other hand, would have been Chaotic).

Good versus Evil: While he did kill his own brother, he really only cared about the family business. And making sure that the profits kept rolling in. But he did kill his BROTHER. I don't know. So tough.

Final Verdict: Neutral Evil. I can't Not-Evil someone who ordered his own brother's death.

16. Jake Chambers

Lawful versus Chaotic: Lawful. Followed Roland's orders to a T. 

Good versus Evil: Good. Not only did he bring out the best in Roland, he sympathised with disabled kids, sacrificed himself for the team, and fought like a true champ, his 'incident' in The Dark Tower (Book 7) left me catatonic for ages.

Final Verdict: Lawful Good

19. Don Draper

Lawful versus Chaotic: A Neutral. He really did not give a shit either way.

Good versus Evil: "People do things." I wouldn't even say Don was morally ambiguous. I'd say he was morally vacant.

Final Verdict: True Neutral

11. Jughead Jones

Lawful versus Chaotic: He lived his own life with his own rules. If they coincided with the Law, fine. If they didn't, fine. A real Neutral.

Good versus Evil: Juggie is a Good one. After all, he's revered all the way in the future with his own wing in the Time Police Headquarters.

Final Verdict: Neutral Good

12. Robin Hood

Lawful versus Chaotic: Stealing, even for a noble cause, can't be Lawful. As a bandit, even a noble one, has to be somewhat Chaotic.

Good versus Evil: Nevertheless, he did have the purest of intentions - to help the poor and oppose the tyranny of Prince John the Worst.

Final Verdict: Chaotic Good

There you have it. Another form of psychoanalysis of my 23 favourite fictional male characters. I'd recommend you do it as well for characters you like or people you know. It's a lot of fun. Trying to figure people out is always an enjoyable experience. And, should I have more methods of psychoanalysis in the future, you can be sure that I will psychoanalyse these characters again.