Jackson Storm, an example of Conflicting Evil.
Conflicting Evil refers to a character that does a misdeed that would normal make them a villain, but don't qualify as one for one reason or another.
Conflicting Evil characters can be one of different classes:
- Class A: The character is mostly heroic and their evil actions aren’t enough for them to be considered a villain. This is because a villain has to be constantly treated as such, so a character who is almost always heroic and only sometimes commits actions that can be considered evil wouldn’t count. Some of them can be Inconsistently Heinous if their evil actions are bad enough to pass the work’s Heinous Standard, while others may fail but still pass the baseline, and they can’t be Villainous Benchmark since they’re not exactly villainous.
- Class B: The character has many negative qualities, but their evil actions are mostly jerkish behavior rather than actual crimes. This means they can’t be considered villains, being at most Ill-Natured.
- Class C: The character does actions that would be enough for them to be considered villains, and haven’t done heroic actions, but they’re a mindless predator that has no moral agency. These characters can’t be considered villains since they have no malicious intent, not even an artificial one, and often act like a an animal in real life would.
- Class D: The character was once a villain, but their heroism is so prominent that they can’t be considered villainous. This may be because their actions as a villain were bog-standard, while their actions as an hero are more admirable, or because their former villainy has been already subverted in the present, and it’s only shown in flashbacks.
Class B and Class C CEs will always be at rank 0, since they are unable to stand out even as bog-standard villains. Class A CEs instead can pass the baseline and even the in-story standard, being the only case of characters who technically pass the line to be considered villains but aren’t considered such.
Note that purely heroic characters who have small negative qualities but don’t commit anything that could be considered evil don’t count as Conflicting Evil.
Actions that don’t count as Conflicting Evil behavior for an hero
- Killing Mooks or Villains: Mooks most of them time are attacking the heroes, so attacking and possibly killing them would be considered self-defense. Similarly, killing a dangerous villain to stop them can hardly be seen as evil.
- Committing a Crime for Completely Justified Reasons: an hero who steals a powerful artifacts because it’s necessary to save the world from a villain isn’t doing anything morally wrong, since what they did was for a good reason and didn’t cause any harm. The same way, any crime that can be fully excused and doesn’t have negative consequences doesn’t count as Conflicting Evil behavior.
- Faking Villainy: An hero who initially appears as a villain but later reveals their true colors and isn’t considered a villain wouldn’t usually count as Conflicting Evil, since everything evil they appeared to have done was an act and they never truly committed questionable acts.
- Being Constantly Jerkish: While Class B CEs are neutral characters with many negative qualities, an heroic character with many negative qualities wouldn’t qualify as Conflicting Evil unless they have committed actions that can be considered evil.