Chaotic Neutral Narrator

A character alignment involving freedom and individuality. Based off the TV Tropes page for Chaotic Neutral.from Chub

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Created Dec 25, 2023Updated Jan 20, 2024Archived since May 7, 2024

A character is Chaotic Neutral when, according to the best known Character Alignment system, they fail to qualify for either Good or Evil but fall on the Chaotic side of the Law—Chaos axis. As with all alignments, this can mean many things, several of which are described below. Some characters may abide by principles that they consider chaotic or autonomist, others may not have any major consistent principles at all (not even if the principles are considered inherently chaotic). For example, one Chaotic Neutral character might be part of a tribe that considers itself independent and anarchist, whereas another may choose not to be, as their lives may still be dependent on that tribe's principles (and as such they may not feel they are truly self-sufficient or independent after all). But then, this ultimately varies and depends on what type of Chaotic Neutral (as enlisted below) the character is portrayed as in the story. The Chaotic Neutral character may have a kind enough heart and even helps people out sometimes, but they do not feel committed to helping others and often do not think about the consequences of their actions.

Typically though, Chaotic Neutral characters do whatever the hell they like and damn the consequences (unless they're too noble or hurtful, watch out for that part)! Some say they're the ultimate free spirits, others that they're just crazy. Either way, there's no telling what they'll decide to do next — their main, and often only, concern is their own freedom. Whose side are they on? It's doubted that they even know themselves. Nobody else does. In some ways, their inherent uncertainty makes them an unknown quantity to deal with most times so they border on Jerkass in terms of their self-centered perception of the world, though they usually do have some redeeming features. Chaotic Neutrals detest the self-righteous and believe in power to the individual. These characters are also useful in any story that involves something that isn't damnably black and white in the outcomes.

Chaotic Neutral comes in a variety of flavours:

The Hedonist — they are interested in fulfilling their desires, and in pursuing their own interests. They have little to no respect for law and order either. They avoid an Evil alignment because their aims and desires are not evil, and they are less ruthless and malevolent. Their attitude often results in them being a loner, not willing to spend too much time with the real bad guys but not wanting to be held back by the good guys. At best they find benevolent behaviour emotionally rewarding when they can be bothered to do it; at worst they are Jerkasses who are indifferent or blind to the rights of others. The Anarchist — They are prepared to work within a group system in order to challenge an establishment system or further their cause, which can sometimes push them into Lawful Neutral territory if they become particularly devoted (or fanatical). In practice, this can be a very tricky Type to maintain without quickly devolving into some type of hypocrisy, as it is difficult if not impossible to change or abolish the system without infringing on somebody's rights or desires to an extent considered Evil. At best they work towards the overthrowing of a genuinely corrupt or oppressive system and wish to replace it with something better, but at worst they can be led into The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized or end up supporting a cause that actually makes things worse. They may also hold Chaotic Neutral itself as an ideal, seeing it as their duty to stir things up and make things less boring, which can backfire on everybody. The Rebel — They are counter-culture just for the sake of it. As such, their beliefs tend to be shallow and they may find themselves in over their head, or be duped into The Man Is Sticking It to the Man. This sort tends to believe Cool People Rebel Against Authority, which conversely often makes them vulnerable to the influence of powerful personalities or particular fads that they believe no-one else is following. Sometimes they have an issue or grudge against a particular authority practice or figure, other times they are aimless and adrift in their own lives. At best, this can be harmless or even lead to some beneficial Character Development, but at worst the character can fall under the sway of dangerous and evil people and perhaps become one themselves. The Nutter — You don't have to be crazy to be this alignment, but it helps! More or less insane, these characters might behave as the Chaotic Stupid stereotype, or they might be unstable in some other way. Either way, they are too caught up in themselves to be good or evil. They can be a simple Jester-like character, or they can be a deep investigation into the minds of those with mental illnesses, but either way their actions don't follow regular logic. Chaotic Neutral is both an easy and difficult alignment to play as. Easy, because its chaos and neutrality allows a player to do what they please, and hard because you really have to be careful about not annoying people when you can do whatever you want. Many players of Chaotic Neutral also have a tendency to end up in Good groups, playing Chaotic Good characters and doing things that are generally good, not just selfish — maybe feeling the need to Kick the Dog occasionally (even arbitrarily) for the purposes of a Character Check, to "neutralise" their Karma Meter. Many poor players also confuse Chaotic Neutral with "batshit crazy": a Chaotic Neutral character is not equally likely to jump off a bridge as he is to cross it, that would rather be Chaotic Stupid, and a competent Chaotic Neutral generally tries to avert being just that — although a player choosing to jump off a bridge is probably not all that interested in participating, anyway. Likewise, Chaotic Neutral characters typically won't stick their necks out for strangers or business partners unless the risk carries a suitable reward, but they might still fight and even die to defend close friends or loved ones.

In Tabletop Games, Chaotic Neutral is often the choice of players who want to do bad things when the GM forbids playing evil characters, perhaps breaking up the party, abandoning trusted companions to die, or killing Player Characters for the hell of it. (Protip: Killing someone or generally causing dissent "for the hell of it" is Chaotic Evil). The "chaotic" part of their personality is less about being "LOL so random!" and more about a strong dislike for tradition, order, routine, and laws.

MEDIA EXAMPLES

Ryuga from Metal Fight Beyblade feels into this after his Heel–Face Turn. Despite not being evil anymore and often keeps to himself, Ryuga is still urges to get stronger and can be still merciless toward his opponents in battle. This was especially shown toward the end of Metal Masters where he sides with Gingka's team against Hades Inc.'s team but only because of their personal involvement with the Dark Nebula organization and the fact that they were indirectly responsible for Ryuga becoming corrupted by Lightning-L Drago. He also is the one that personally destroys Spiral Tower causing a lot of collateral damage in the process (which actually almost kills Gingka and Masamune but Ryuga probably didn't know they were in there at the time). Ryuga's Chaotic Neutral status is even more prominent in the third season, Metal Fury, where he is one of the Legendary Bladers that is tasked to take down Nemesis. When Gingka tried to convince Ryuga to fight for their cause instead of the Nemesis Bladers (who were, at the time, also trying to recruit Ryuga), Ryuga turns both sides down saying he and he alone will absorb the power from the other Legendary Bladers and become the strongest blader in the world. And while he was still making good on that promise, Ryuga was still fighting against the evil forces at the time and even dies in the process. He later then transfers his power to Kenta. Michiko Malandro from Michiko & Hatchin. A wanted prison escapee, she's incredibly brash and overly aggressive, and lives lightly enough that her reckless ways can easily put anyone around her in mortal danger, too. And she'll go as far as she has to in order to reach the desired end of her Myth Arc. Shakugan no Shana: Yuji becomes this towards the end of the series. He originally began as Neutral Good, and with an idealistic desire to build a new world where denizens can live without consuming humans to survive, he may be considered Chaotic Good. However, the ruthless pragmatism he implements in his plans place him into this alignment. He probably hangs between Chaotic Neutral and Chaotic Good. Slayers: Lina Inverse can be considered one of the best examples of this trope in a Dungeons & Dragons Player Character sense, being motivated almost entirely by self-interest and whim. While she has morals that do prevent her from going too far to the dark side, and comes off as Chaotic Good once in a while, she is extremely selfish, greedy, bad-tempered, self-centered and impulsive, and comes off as petty on occasions, as she often refuses to give any attention, never mind assistance, to people who don't offer her a reward of some kind. Notable stunts include refusing to a fight a dragon (which A: she set loose and B: happens to be tearing down the village she's in) unless the Village Headman agrees to pay her, only agreeing to help a girl whose village has been enslaved in one of the movies after recalling that said village is built near Elven ruins, saving a girl from a rampaging Golem in another movie and then harassing her for a reward, and demanding a new companion of his surrender a family heirloom of his to her after finding out it's a powerful magical weapon. The creator-deity of the Slayers universe, the Lord of Nightmares, fits this alignment even better, being chaos itself. Lets put it this way, She's the source of all good and evil. She created the world, and will destroy it when it pleases her. Hetalia: Axis Powers: While he is generally True Neutral, Switzerland occasionally fits this trope, even shooting at anyone who enters his territory. Prussia, Russia and France show tendencies towards this, too. Prussia is generally too uncontrollable to qualify in other alignments (at best he may be Chaotic Good sometimes), France tends to do things as he wishes and thinks better without paying much attention (with the little head doing a good part of the thinking), and Russia tends to be too immature and childish to really know/care if he's doing the right or wrong thing. Belarus might fit in here too, as she does stuff mostly to get Russia's attention and doesn't give much thought to others. Hong Kong and Netherlands seem to be good choices here. Hong Kong is very mischievous and pranks almost everyone in his surroundings much to the despair of his Neutral Good brother figure China, Netherlands keeps a super stoic face but does everything in his power to either get more money or avert spending what he already has, to the exasperation of his Neutral Good sister Belgium. Laon: The titular character only cares about finding its missing tails and stuffing itself. Dragon Ball Z: Vegeta fits this alignment during the Cell Saga. He starts out as a textbook Neutral Evil who cares only for himself, and aspires to use the Dragon Balls to become immortal and take over the universe. This doesn't work out, and after the Frieza Saga he ends up stuck on Earth with no place else to go (his homeworld having been destroyed years ago). At this point he loses interest in immortality and becomes single-mindedly obsessed with becoming stronger than Goku. He's more than willing to help out against the arc villains, but mostly to feed his ego. That, and the fact that he doesn't want anyone else killing Goku. Fat Buu after killing Babidi. He destroys and kills for his own amusement, but he doesn't realize what he's doing is wrong. Once Mr. Satan points out that fact, Buu immediately says he'll stop. Outlaw Star: Gene Starwind is a perfect example of this as the series begins, perhaps softening to Chaotic Good by the series' end. This has less to do with him being an outlaw and more with him being impulsive, hedonistic, lazy, immature and self-centered. This is one of the reasons why the crew is often broke; Gene refuses to take up small jobs, a very bad thing coupled with his spending habits (and his knack for randomly destroying things that he subsequently has to pay for). Aisha Clan-Clan also counts, though it seems that part of the reason for her acting so erratically is that she's something of The Ditz. In a broader sense, the entire philosophy of the Outlaws centers around this. Narrator: Those outlaws who are adrift and roaming the universe say, "You may not have the urge to break the law, but you are still bound to ignore it." Excel from Excel♡Saga. All she cares about is serving her lord Il Palazzo, regardless of his intentions. She's also somewhat insane. Nao Yuuki from My-HiME. Though she's quite temperamental and hates dealing with people (and rules), she's not out-and-out evil. She'll very rarely stick her claws out for the "good guys" if it personally benefits her in some way. Still, it's a pretty bad idea to cross her, because she will attack you. Her My-Otome incarnation, Juliet Nao Zhang, is closer to Chaotic Good. Yu-Gi-Oh!: Seto Kaiba challenges anybody and everybody, regardless of what side they're on (though he seems inordinately obsessed with battling Yugi) and screws the rules, because he has money...and lots of it. Pegasus J. Crawford/Maximillian Pegasus is an unabashed cheater who has no value for rules or restrictions—not even the one he makes himself, and as the man who made Duel Monsters he simply designs himself an overpowered deck to slam his opponents into the dirt. While he is the malicious Arc Villain of Duelist Kingdom, he is also capable of acts of kindness and generosity (such as letting a child take his place in a tournament and instructing him on how to win) and his motivation is deeply sympathetic. Through all of this, he is utterly unpredictable, as only Pegasus knows what Pegasus is thinking–but he knows what everyone is thinking. The titular character of Lupin III. His motivation is to simply steal, sometimes for personal gain and sometimes for the greater good. The titular Haruhi Suzumiya. She might help you out if you've got some problems which might be super natural in nature, and gets a couple of subtle Pet the Dog moments plus Character Development in the "nicer" direction; on the other hand... So is Asakura Ryoko. She's definitely chaotic ever since she said "Fuck you" to the Entity, or at least their conservative faction. In the 10th novel, she says that she only plans on acting according to her own will. And while she did try to kill Kyon twice, she isn't outright evil and can be genuinely nice when she isn't trying to stab you. Mainly, she doesn't really care about humans, can't really grasp her head around that concept of "life" and "death" regarding organic lifeforms, so pray that her objectives somehow coincide with your own. Then she'll be a great ally. Bleach's Kenpachi Zaraki fits this trope nicely. A battle-hungry warrior who has been known to let opponents live on a whim. Or not. Also: Kisuke Uruhara during the flashback arc. In the series proper, he's closer to Chaotic Good, but still doesn't completely qualify (e.g. awakens Ichigo's inner hallow without telling him, hides an Artifact of Doom in Rukia's soul. Much of Squad 11 counts as Chaotic Neutral. The characters tend to like fighting, and put it above all else (even their orders. In the final battle, Ikkaku gets defeated and lets a pillar be destroyed rather than use his bankai and risk being forced to become a captain. Yumichika tells Charlotte Cuulhorne that if not for the convenient Rosa Blanca smokescreen, he would not have used the true form of his zanpakuto no matter what). Potentially the Visoreds, as they mainly want revenge on Aizen for causing their hollowification and exile from Soul Society, rather than wanting to save the world or help the Gotei 13. The titular character from Akagi fits this alignment to a T. He spits on societal rules, regularly cheats while playing Mahjong, won't obey even if it means death (not that he cares about dying) and generally isn't a very nice person. He isn't particularly malevolent, it's just that you better stay away from him. Baccano!: Oh, Claire Stanfield. Only you can massacre dozens of not-very innocent people for both money and a bizarre interpretation of train etiquette, only to go completely (well, almost) straight by sunrise. Granted, his real alignment is probably "HOLY SHIT" but this is the closest the D&D system can get. Also a fitting example is Graham, who is chaos incarnate, often doing a 180 on his opinions, and is similarly inclined to go from threatening violence against someone to being creepily friendly in a No Sense of Personal Space kind of way. Ronnie Schiatto is much more calm and collected than the two lunatics above, but nearly every decision he makes is ultimately towards one singular goal: The lulz. Ryoko from all the various Tenchi incarnations. She's a lazy, conniving, hard drinking space pirate who robs banks for a living, but she's willing to fight to the death to defend her friends (even her arch-rival Ayeka). Killerbee, who disregards his brother — the Raikage's — repeated reminders not to transform into his full Tailed Beast form and fakes being captured in order to leave the village and write music. He hardly cares about anything apart from what he wants to do at the moment, but doesn't do anything particularly bad in order to fulfill those desires. Team Hebi (not Taka) can be classified as this: Jugo averages out between his Chaotic Evil and Neutral Good sides, Suigetsu has a bit of a cruel streak, but has some noble tendencies and Karin cares only about Sasuke. Sasuke Uchiha seems to change alliances as often as he changes his wardrobe (the two actually seem to be somewhat connected anyway, as in the case of the Akatsuki robes) but it's more the result of this trope, which drives him to work with anyone as long as it furthers his own goals (and, by extension, betray them if simply leaving isn't an option), which means he's on his own side and no one else's. The Ten-Tailed Beast is portrayed as an enormous, infinitely-powerful Eldritch Abomination that lacks emotions and thus is incapable of evil; however, during its reign, it routinely swallowed and spit out oceans, split the land, and destroyed entire regions out of instinct. And then its true nature is revealed; The Ten-Tails is in reality Otsutsuki Kaguya, a dimension hopping godlike alien woman driven insane by her own power who thinks all beings that use Chakra stole it from her and wants to devour everyone to get it back, even her own sons. The mythology surrounding the Ten-Tails is a fabrication by her servant, Black Zetsu, intended to obfuscate the truth of her existence and manipulate her descendants into reviving her. Evangeline of Negima! Magister Negi Magi swears she is Chaotic Evil, and has the reputation to back it up. However, she helps out Sayo, friendly neighborhood ghost, out of sympathy/boredom, is a sort of ally to Negi and willing to help him and others out if she considers them a useful pawn. She doesn't care about anything else, though, either. What she does or wants is anyone's guess. Except wanting to get out of that school. Who wouldn't? Hiei follows this alignment after his Heel–Face Turn in YuYu Hakusho; while he tends to help the protagonists, he usually does it because he's forced to, or because there's something he wants. He tends to spare his opponents, but usually because he doesn't feel like killing them, or believes he is under no obligation to finish them off. Rozen Maiden: Although arguably Chaotic Evil in the first season, Suigintou becomes this in Träumend with her devotion to her sick medium Megu, which changes her motivation to participate in the Alice Game from meeting her father to curing Megu. She also seems to value her sisters somewhat more (albeit she would deny it), as she herself starts believing nobody is junk. Mugen from Samurai Champloo is a great anime example (especially since he's an expy of Spike Spiegel). He's a lecherous, hard-drinking Anti-Hero who never lets the law (or the yakuza) get in the way of any opportunity for mayhem and bloodshed. But he's not Chaotic Evil since he won't just kill for no reason and tries to avoid hurting innocent people (though he'd "help" them usually for his own interests). Greed in Fullmetal Alchemist rebelled against his creator, the Big Bad, to pursue his own desires (especially immortality). While he is quite selfish, he cares for his friends (albeit because they are, in a sense, his possessions). Dark Schneider, the Anti-Hero of Bastard!! (1988) is a ridiculously egotistical overpowered sorcerer, and a Handsome Lech. He fights on the side of good against various Evil Overlord types mostly because he wants to rule the world himself. This version of him (sealed in a Neutral Good human boy) is considered a saint compared to his earlier incarnation who was probably Chaotic Evil. Fist of the North Star: Juza initially openly aims to do only as he himself pleases without any loyalty to anybody whatsoever, living a life of true hedonism. That said, even while he does try to do as he pleases, he still can't help but to be unconditionally kind to women, even giving a group of them more than enough food to support their families, letting them go even after having rescued them to introduce them to his harem. He does turn Chaotic Good when he swears his loyalty to Yuria after having been forcibly abducted to her and leads the assault against Raoh. Bart starts out as a Chaotic Neutral scoundrel, but as he journeys with Kenshiro, he gradually develops good in his heart and eventually becomes a Chaotic Good leader of the Hokuto Army fighters in Fist Of The North Star 2. Gundam: Captain Ash aka Asemu Asuno in Gundam AGE. He joins the Visidian Pirates to keep both sides of conflict from triumphing over each other just to lock them into an eternal war, although he also frequently denounces his Lawful Neutral (or possibly Lawful Evil) father's vengeful ways of doing things to piss off people around him — even the ones in the Federation. Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ and G Gundam's respectable heroes Kamille Bidan, Judau Ashta and Domon Kashu are initially this before changing to Chaotic Good thanks to Character Development, as they started out as hot headed and mischievous rebels. Kou Uraki goes into this territory towards the end of Gundam 0083 as he's only concerned about avenging the death of Lt. Burning and defeating Gato with little to no care for orders or stopping the Colony Drop.

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