As we showed you a few months back, the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) alignments are making it to real life. So this time, let's take a closer look at a particularly funny one.
It's called chaotic neutral (and it even has its own subreddit). To put it simply, the term describes an individual who has no good or evil intentions, they simply do what they please, what they think is the best option at the moment.
The spontaneous nature of their actions means they can result in chaos and unpredictability but who can blame them if nobody gets hurt? After all, freedom is what matters!
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Thanks, I Hate Nouns That Are Adjectives
When a player creates a character in D&D, they decide where to put that character on a moral axis. Are they good? Evil? Or morally neutral? Then they have to choose where their character fits on a law-abiding axis. Do they always obey the rules? Or do they believe that laws are meant to be broken?
The best way to wrap your head around this concept is to imagine a grid, like "Hollywood Squares" or the opening credits of "The Brady Bunch" — nine squares in total, three on each side and one in the middle. The square in the upper left hand corner is "lawful good." That's Superman — the Boy Scout who cares about saving the planet. The next square over on the top row is "neutral good." For example, take "Star Trek". Captain Kirk is neutral good, because he is willing to break the rules if he thinks they're preventing him from doing as much good as possible. Now if we go to the last square on the right — "chaotic good" — we get someone like Robin Hood, who can never be tied down to any organization. These folks think the only way to do good in the world is to upend the social order.
Ketchup
Prolly Why I'm Not Allowed To Have Any
Micky D’s
In the middle row, we have morally neutral characters. "Lawful neutral" would be a mindless bureaucrat or a brutal enforcer like Javert from "Les Miserables" who hunts down the heroic ex-con Jean Valjean. "True neutral," in the center square, is a character like the Oracle in "The Matrix," who accumulates wisdom from witnessing everything but rarely chooses a side. The far-right square in the middle row is a really fun character. The star of our show, "chaotic neutral."
According to writer and graphic novelist Sam Sattin, that's someone who can be swayed based on who has the power. A good example could be Omar from "The Wire", the lone wolf who robs drug dealers, valuing his freedom and his survival equally.
Rise Up
Could Be
I hate it when I sponteously create teeth. Especially while kissing..
7 Year Olds Just Be Like That
I should be sleeping right now but instead I'm laughing at these.
When Sattin holds writing seminars, he asks his students to figure out where their characters fit on this grid, and he encourages them to create characters who are conflicted. (They wish they belonged to one alignment, but they're something else.)
The writer believes that storytelling takes off when characters of different alignments play off each other. "The most important part of writing is the way in which characters interact with each other," he explained.
Good Repost
Thought This Belonged Here
Shut Up And Take My Money
Taking Nimby To A Whole New Level
As we can see, these alignments appear in the real world as well. Patrick O'Connor, a sci-fi and fantasy fan as well as an assistant district attorney who prosecutes gang-related homicides in Brooklyn, imagines the gang members he prosecutes could be categorized as neutral evil on the character alignment spectrum.
In his own life, O'Connor always tries to follow the straight and narrow path. But that doesn't mean he’s drawn to lawful good characters in comic books. That's just boring!
His favorite character is Punisher, the Marvel vigilante who kills criminals because he doesn’t believe in the legal system.
Language Is Hard
Slightly off topic. Reminds me of my linguistics classes. I'd often be the only European (everyone else was Korean and Korean American, mostly), so sometimes I'd have to read phrases in languages I can read, but am not fluent in, such as German, for example. I can read it pretty well, though, because I studied it, and was good too, but I forgot it all.
Welcome To Our Gander Reveal Party!
Big Cnergy
Hmm
There used to be a weird tradition around here of leaving cabbages with angry faces carved into them as a prank. So any sort of face would make that watermelon much more interesting.
Comics have been filled with battles between good and evil, but audiences are also interested in watching characters on the same side fighting each other.
In season two of "Daredevil" and in the movies "Batman v. Superman" and "Captain America: Civil War," superheroes really duke it out.
These stories are about a conflict between personal ethics and the law. "That's how a lot of people feel, that they have these government forces they can't control, that are doing nefarious things," O'Connor said. "They feel marginalized, and they feel they can't trust the system. And so they take things into their own hands."
Chaotic Neutral Finds A Lost Wallet
It's NY and they got everything but their cash, wallet and metro card back. They're very lucky
Beautiful Chaos
One The Best I've Seen
Chaotic Egg
Michael LaBossiere, who teaches philosophy at Florida A&M University, takes a more holistic approach and argues that each of us can embody the different character alignments at any point in our lives. It all depends on the situation.
"Sometimes we're more good, sometimes we're more neutral, or in some [cases], we fall into bad behavior," he said. "A person can be decent but have those neutral evil moments when they're selfish and take that last piece of pie."
Squirrel
Lowkey Genious
Sooo.. This Fits Here Right?
I was thinking chopsticks, but really those plus a spork would really cover the bases and still reduce toolage by 25%. Niiiice.
Load More Replies...wait so you DON’T wash your cutlery after every use? that’s just gross...
Load More Replies...I live alone and just bought more cutlery because it allows me to go longer without washing it.
i am mainly offended by the lack of spoons like does he not eat ice cream?!
How many spoons do you need to eat ice cream? Are two not enough?
Load More Replies...Hahaha be careful what you wish for. It can be a real PITA most of the time.
Load More Replies...This wouldn't do for me because it would force me to wash them after each use. Rather do a handful at a time.
This was was me but then i had to buy more last year when i got a boyfriend. Plates and cups too but we are not together anymore so seems like it was a waste of money lol
But they're in the wrong positions! They go for, knife, spoon, soup spoon.
But they're in the wrong positions! They go fork, knife, spoon, soup spoon.
I’m confused and somewhat annoyed by the positions of the knife, fork, and spoons. I would assume (and yes that’s where I go wrong!) that the positions would be decided based on the most frequently used cutles going in the bins that are the easiest to access based on his right or left handedness. So either this friend uses his knife and fork more often than either spoon, (unusual) Said friend does use the spoons more often but is ambidextrous, (possible) Someone else put the cutles away the last time, (possible but unlikely) Or…this friend doesn’t care enough about kitchen drawer optimization to bother with creating and maintaining a policy for these tools. Yet cares enough to use a divided tray to keep them in. (maddening and incomprehensible). Yes, I do live alone and find it hard to get much of anything accomplished, what a clever observation.
I don’t know why this posted twice. I did edit it to correct some spelling but I wasn’t trying to repost the same comment. My error but an accidental one.
Load More Replies...i see bo problem here: guests get the knife and fork and i use the spoon. . . . . . .
A whole drawer. They even took the time and paid for a real cutlery compartment too. Impressive.
Who uses 2 spoons but not 2 forks NOR KNIVES!?!???!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!
It has to be fork, knife, spoon and teaspoon! In this order from left to right! No wonder he is single..
Made A Bookshelf For My Brick Collection
London’s Tower Bridge Was Completely Shut Off Today Because A Man Decided To Sun Bathe On One Of Its Support Beams
Want To Grow A Beard?
It's About Meeee Baby
The Actual, Real World Embodiment Of Chaotic Neutral
Feels Pretty Chaotic Neutral To Me
Whatever Works
An Uninteresting Title
You're Lying If You Said You Never Thought About Doing This
Trying to explain it to the lockpicker: "Uhmm, you see, it's not my door..."
Passive Aggressive Chaotic Neutral
I Found This Subreddit To Post This
Pure Cn Behavior
This Is What I Call A Pro Gamer Move
No, No, Yes
I Feel This Belong Here
Thanks I Hate Shakespeare’s Quote Of The Day
I Make Horrible Things. Here’s A Paintbrush You Can Lick People With
Oh, How The Tables Have Turned.
[x-Post From Me_irl]
Woah
There's A Lack Of Quality Cn Recently So I Thought I Might Post One
I Dont Even Wanna Confuse Search Algorithms, I Was Wanna Do It!
Or google "why are google stocks suddenly going down" and enjoy the chaos.
Hmmm
Grass Ain't Gonna Cut It'self
The Peel Is Where All The Nutrients Are
Good question, I've only had it with the peel once and it wasn't too good so I eat mine without the peel
Abject Chaos
It’s Called A Can Opener, Not A Can’t Opener.
Note: this post originally had 108 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
Whenever I make a dnd character, I always make them chaotic neutral. It’s the closest you can get to evil without being evil!
I really need to start carrying a sharpie everywhere I go ,it's just like the comments section in real life!
Whenever I make a dnd character, I always make them chaotic neutral. It’s the closest you can get to evil without being evil!
I really need to start carrying a sharpie everywhere I go ,it's just like the comments section in real life!