The Walking Dead Character Alignment Thread.
Back in the day we did not use a computer to play our MMOs...we cracked open these old ancient things called books and used dice and a bit of an imagination. The big daddy of rpgs was Dungeons and Dragons. D&D let you role up characters using dice roles to determine you stats. But you also got to decide your alignment. That is your moral compass that governed the way you would typically interact with the people of the game.
The alignment s were as follows.
Lawful Good. Not only were you good, but you were beholden to a higher set of ideals. You actively sought out evil and worked to destroy that evil. Paladins were holy warriors who typified this. Superman is Lawful Good.
Chaotic Good. These were good people who might cut corners to service the greater good. Not above using a little muscle to achieve a goal as long as it helped society. Aragorn from Lord of The Rings.
Neutral Good...These guys will give you the benefit of a live and let live contract, but you ever do then dirty, you better kill them. Captain Reynolds from Firefly fits this.
Lawful Neutral. They follow a code that may or may not allow them to help you. Basically good people who follow a tough path of self control. Starfleet Captain like Picard..follows the Prime-Directive.
True Neutral, takes no sides...just protects what matters to them. Aquaman in the Kingdom Come storyline is a great example.
Chaotic Neutral....Han Solo...this is the lovable scoundrel who is not above shooting poor Greedo in a Cantina. Will do anything to survive except harming the innocent...but would rob them.
Lawful Evil...They follow a set of guidelines that have defined goals that might be benevolent, but they will do terrible things to do them. Darth Vader...his goal was peace, if a few planets needed to die to insure the universe was safely in step..well so be it. Will torture...and kill, the ends justify the means. Negan and Carver...the Governor.
Neutral Evil. The Walkers typify this. The killing of the living is just a byproduct of their being. Nature can be cruel.
Chaotic Evil...this is the evil we all think of when we hear the word Evil. They bring pain and suffering, for no better reason than to see what the reaction will be. The Joker.
So now let us try to put the walking dead characters into the alignments. I will post my list later...just want to see your thoughts.
Comments
You realize plenty of people still play Dungeons and Dragons and understand alignments, right? It's also good to note that whilst alignments are specific, it's best to see them as ambiguous and just because a typically Lawful Neutral character slips and does something that may be considered Lawful Chaotic at a certain point, doesn't mean that at the centre they aren't a Lawful Neutral. Different alignments mean different things to different people.
Here are some I found on Tumblr that I agree with.
Just to note the Lee one can change depending on your choices (obviously), but I think since he always tends to protect/care for Clementine no matter what and isn't a total asshole no matter the options, he's still genuinely a true lawful neutral (just divulging into different alignments depending on the choices).
The rest I don't necessarily agree with but you can see them over here
I can't take these alignments seriously when they use the ideas of good and evil. Is there an alternate version of these that incorporates other concepts?
Like what...good neutral and evil sorta covers it all.
I do not agree with the walkers being chaotic evil...they have no agenda...they just are a force of nature that strikes.
Maybe I could make it work for myself by inserting morality in there instead of the parameter of good and evil. I just have a hard time believing that anybody in the three The Walking Dead games combined regularly do immoral acts just to cause pain.
As much as I love sorting characters into categories (Hogwarts houses, alignments, mb personality types, you name it) the one I'm always on the fence with is Kenny. You can argue he's a Chaotic Good, because he does do chaotic things for the right reasons (killing Larry, sacrificing himself to save Ben) but he also can be Chaotic neutral, because he does chaotic things to serve himself (killing Carver, encouraging Ben's first death, fighting with Lee to postpone his having to face Duck's death, letting the woman in the street be eaten alive). And, according to some people, they might even sort him under Chaotic Evil (beating Arvo up, killing Jane on a hunch). I think though everyone can agree he's chaotic something.
They destroy everything in their path. Their agenda is they want to eat, that's all they do. They don't care if you're good, bad, a child, a girl, boy, man, baby, they will eat, they want to consume, that is their one path in life. So yes they are a chaotic evil.
It is not their decision to not care who they are eating, though. They are not able to discriminate whether they are eating a benevolent person or the leader of a group of bandits. Can they really be held accountable for being driven by the only kind of thought—instinct—that they have?
I coincide with @Kennyshouldadiedins1 that they classify as chaotic neutral, but I am open to have a discussion about it! [wink]
I dont think walkers can be anything as they are not conscious of what they are doing. If your going to give them anything it would be neutral like all animals are.
The issue is well written characters never fit into one category, Id give Kenny chaotic neutral though overall, everything he does is about helping him or the people close to him regardless of what harm or good it does others. Kenny is definitely chaotic though
Is the reasoning really important, as opposed to the action? If there's a force, whether it understands or not, that brings about nothing but destruction and savagery then it should be chaotic evil.
I don't value the reasoning as much as I do when it comes to whether the actor had a choice that determines how it all turns out. I would certainly agree that a walker is chaotic evil if the person that they were pre-reanimation decided that they wanted to turn, but I would consider a walker to be chaotic neutral if the person they were before was devoured without time to commit suicide or ask for somebody to kill them.
The funny thing about the Walking Dead is that everything basically runs on gray and grey morality since every one wants to survive. However, I would argue that the line between good and evil isn't to blurred, since there are some individuals that are unmistakably good or evil based on their values and actions. I've been wanting to apply both the Alignment System and the MtG Color Pie to these pretty much everything and these games are not exception. So, with a bit of subjective information as a casualty, here is some of my readings:.
EDIT: Villains
Season 1
St. John's Dairy Farm
St. John Family
Terry Lawful Good?
Andrew Neutral Evil: Andy is a bit hard to read(as in too lazy to rewatch cutscenes featuring him), so I just chaulked him up to Neutral Evil since he seemed to be the ringleader at times and he accuses Lee of causing trouble while holding Duck at gunpoint.
Danny Chaotic Evil or Lawful Evil?: since he seemed to be sick before the outbreak and yet we also hear that he is a Momma's Boy and later practically begs Lee to keep him alive so the meat won't get tainted because, "That's how things work now!" So, yeah, his behavior crosses into Chaotic Evil but his thoughts are guided by Lawful Evil.
Brenda Lawful Neutral: Brenda seemed to still have some degree of morals if you pay attention to some of her behavior and dialogue while she is sitting on the porch and holding Katjaa hostage. And, should you attempt to reason with her, she appears to seriously consider it before seemingly giving out and having the Brothers capture everyone. So, I initially identified her as Lawful Neutral because she seems to be motivated by old family values and her own standards regarding the Walkers, rather than any active malice.
Save-Lots Bandits
Gary Chaotic Evil or Chaotic Neutral
Drew Chaotic Evil?
Linda Chaotic Evil?
Season 2
Gil's Pitstop
Pitstop Scavengers
Michelle Chaotic Neutral or Lawful Neutral? or True Neutral
North Carolina
Winston's Group
Victor Chaotic Evil? or Chaotic Neutral?
Ralph Chaotic Evil?
Winston Chaotic Evil
Tennessee
Howe's Hardware Community
Mike Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good
Tavia Lawful Neutral?: Combining her 400 Days appearance with her Episode 3 scenes gives her a relatively solid foundation as Lawful Neutral: following Carver(or his possible predessor)'s orders to go out and find survivors to bring back to Howe's and later taking charge of Rebecca, Sarah, Sarita, and Jane(and Nick, lol) as part of her guard duties, and yet appears even more lax than Troy since we never really see her have to assert her authority to much and doesn't really mind Sarah or Clementine stopping to take care of whatever it is they are concerned about. The Neutral is even more enforced when she is seen off on her own talking casually to Hank over the radio and tries to smoke a cigarette before Vince shows up to get her to stop and she chases after him to avoid getting in trouble with Carver. My first playthrough even seemed to indicate that she clearly had to have seen Clementine sneaking and skulking about for the radios during the later scene but due to either a lack of game over's in this sequence or just plain disinterest on her part, she just stares in that general direction for a bit before moving on, not even pausing her conversation.
Lowell Lawful Neutral?
Tyler Lawful Neutral?
Vera Lawful Neutral?
Tisha Lawful Neutral?
Jane Chaotic Neutral?
Hank Lawful Neutral?
Troy Chaotic Evil or Chaotic Neutral?: Though as much as a dumb hick he may be, Troy did seem to just mind his own business when he wasn't on active duty, since they seemed to be hinting that he may have noticed the group's plans and suspicious behavior but was more concerned about just getting them out of his hair as soon as possible. The Chaotic definitely applies to his tendency to be angry and verbally/physically abuse pretty much anyone beneath him. Neutral does seem to also apply since he was just as prone to picking on the prisoners as just dealing with or ignoring them when it suited him and while he admits to potentially enjoying the chance to beat Sarah, I always kinda took that as him talking tough in front of Carver, who seemed to have a good enough leash on him to make him freeze during the truck ride back to Howe's and also cause him to do nothing while he's beating Kenny despite his evident discomfort besides butting Clementine/Sarita with his gun when they try to intervene.
Carver Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil: I placed Carver as being Evil because he hurt people over the slightest thing and acted in a selfish and tyrannical manner. The Lawful alignment is all about obedience and rules, which implies that actively sought to control for his own selfish gain.
Reggie Lawful Neutral or Lawful Good
Johnny Lawful Neutral?
Russian Group
Vitali Chaotic Evil
Buricko Neutral Evil
Arvo's Family
Arvo Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil: I suggested he could be Lawful Evil because his only malicious acts, bringing his group to get back at Clementine's entire group and shooting her when Mike attempts to reason with her, seemed to be reactions to Jane sticking him up and Clementine/Kenny killing Natasha and taking him prisoner. There's also the fact that Lawful in general could apply to his initial jitteriness with drawing a gun on Clementine in self defense, getting angry with Jane for considering taking his sister's medicine, outright arguing for Buricko to back down when he realizes that AJ is present, and labeling of Kenny as pure evil in reinforcement of Mike, not to mention the whole eye for eye thing where justice and revenge are interchangeable. Any brand of Neutral would work since he didn't seem to want to cause or recieve any trouble, and his sister seemed to be his only true positive relationship.
Natasha Lawful Neutral?
Monroe
Rich Lawful Neutral?
Gabby Chaotic Neutral or Lawful Evil
Jonas Lawful Neutral
Joe Lawful Neutral?
Zachary Lawful Good
Janey Lawful Neutral?
Cam Lawful Neutral?
Norma's Family
Norma Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil
Randall Chaotic Evil or Lawful Evil
Walkers
Jon ???
Beth ???
Crawford Lawful Evil or Lawful Neutral
Jeff Lawful Evil?
Fivel Lawful Good?
Sandra Lawful Good?
Tess Chaotic Good?
Note: Sorry about the bad edits or perplexing inclusions. Need more time to post.
I'm going to argue that well written characters never fit into one category. True, being able to fit into more than one category - our none at all - does indicate complexity to the characters and a sense of character development, well-written characters can also be defined by a specific set of morals that do fit only one category. The joker and Batman are well-written characters whose strict alignments clash with the other, revealing complexity to both of them when dealing with their mindsets.
Great post! I agreed with practically every alignment.
I believe that these three are neutral.
I think Carver, Arvo, and Norma are definitely Neutral.
so is a tornado Evil? or a rabid dog? or are they just doing what they naturally do? Zombies can't be evil because it requires reasoning to be evil.
So fire is chaotic evil? Heavy amounts of rain are evil?
didn't carver beat a ten year old with a walkie talkie? doesn't sound neutral to me.
The good evil or neutral was just the descriptive of the morality and ethics of the character.
Carver is Lawful Evil.
Danny is Chaotic Evil...his killing of Jolene...the implied fact he wanted Clementine left alive...for what...we know not...but it can't be good.
Batman is Chaotic Neutral the Joker is Chaotic Evil.
Nice work
"beat a ten-year-old with a walkie talkie" Determinately, yes. But a neutral is someone who protects their people and will do whatever it takes to do so, and Carver's philosophy was basically just that.
They are neutral because they don't decide to inflict damage.
Once again, alignments work based on context, a very important word. Fire is evil? It can be. Fire can keep you warm in the dead of night, it can be used to cook your food. Fire can also torture you, it can burn you alive, burn your home, and your friends. Heavy amounts of rain can nurture you, give you the time to collect rainwater but it can also flood your home, drown you.
Plus that doesn't even make sense, considering fire, water, inanimate objects with no sentience can't be labelled down to alignments.
Yes, both of those things are pretty evil and bad. Once again, it depends on context and perspective. We are trusting that these are alignments based on how they impact interaction. A tornado usually interacts with things by destroying them (though like I said inanimate things with no sentience can't really be labelled by the alignment system).
A rabid dog? Yes. It's evil. It's not just "a dog" like Sam in Season Two, one that can be nurtured or possibly protect Clementine. You're describing a rabid dog, an animal that only wants to eat something, to attack them, so yeah it's evil.
That's an opinion.
Wait, what?!
I placed Carver as being Evil because he hurt people over the slightest thing and acted in a selfish and tyrannical manner. The Lawful alignment is all about obedience and rules, which implies that actively sought to control for his own selfish gain.
Arvo and Norma, on the other hand, are definitely more Neutral initially.
Spreading these out for the sake of not creating one long grey box of replies.
EDIT: Good Guys of S1E1-2
Season 1
Everett Family
Lee Most likely Lawful Good or Neutral Good: Whether we play him as a Good Guy, someone who has strayed from his morals, or an outright hilarious Scumbag, Lee Everett was a character of his own that had a life before we took control of him. And while some of his words and actions may contradict this at times, he still goes through the game as someone who does care about people, knows how to get things done, will help them with their problems, and takes care of Clementine. So, Neutral Good with a hint at Lawful Good would seem to be the canonical portrayal.
B. Lawful Good?
Suburban Georgia
Clementine's Family
Clementine Lawful Good or Chaotic Good(Season 1), Most likely Neutral Good(Season 2),
Ed Neutral Good?
Diana Lawful Good?
Clementine's Neighborhood
Andre Lawful Good
Chet Neutral Good?
Greene Farm
Greene Family
Hershel Lawful Good
Shawn Lawful Good
Kenny's Family
Kenny Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Good
Kenny Jr. Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Good
Katjaa Lawful Good: One of the main reasons I gave her Lawful Good was her reaction to learning that Kenny tried to convince Lee to let Beatrice get eaten alive and/or help him kill Larry, as well as her reaction to Lilly shooting Carley/Doug, in which case she flat out admits that she would have gotten rid of her herself.
Macon, Georgia
Beatrice Chaotic Neutral?
Irene Lawful Neutral
Everett Family Pharmacy Survivors
Glenn Neutral Good or Chaotic Good
Carley Lawful Good: Lawful just seems to be the most obvious since she seems to have an small emphasis on the truth.
Doug Neutral Good
United States Air Force
Lilly's Family
Lilly Lawful Neutral
Larry Chaotic Neutral or Chaotic Good or Lawful Neutral: Funny thing about Larry is that he is so hotheaded and yet so hard-nosed that he could go anywhere. Lawful would apply to his military training and distrust of Lee, who regardless of the fact that players like Lee and likely hate Larry, is a killer. However, Chaotic perfectly sums up his behavior, since he will outright ignore Lilly when he gets worked up despite knowing the consequences of doing so. The only thing I personally wouldn't identify him as is Evil: he clearly hates Lee and later the St. Johns because they is a criminal killer and cannibals, he does genuinely care about people's safety seeing as he tries to help save Lee and Katjaa at certain points, and however asshole-ish he may be, he clearly has enough of a soft spot for Lilly and children to occasionally call it quits, personally threaten Lee should anything happen to Clementine, and apologize for wanting to put down Duck when the truth comes out.
Air Force Base
Mark Neutral Good or Lawful Good
Stone Mountain School
School Students and Teachers
Ben Neutral Good or Chaotic Good: Chaotic implies that he can't always be controlled despite his humble nature and that he lets his emotions, namely fear, paranoia, and regret, rule his actions.
Travis Chaotic Good or Lawful Good
David Lawful Good
Spreading these out for the sake of not creating one long grey box of replies.
EDIT: Good Guys and Neutrals of S1E2-5
Jolene's Family
Danielle ???
Jolene Chaotic Neutral
The Railroad
Train Survivors
Charles Lawful Good
Christa's Family
Christa Lawful Neutral: I was keeping in mind the fact that she breaks down crying when watching Dr. Logan's tapes involving Anna Corea, rationalizes Vernon as someone who does what's best for his group when he steals the boat, and later gut-shot Michelle in spite of the latter dropping the gun, surrendering, and attempting to apologize for accidentally killing Omid. So, I'd say someone who follows the rules and is willing to forgive and forget unless it applies to her; kind of a parallel to Kenny, actually.
Omid Neutral Good or Chaotic Good
Savannah, Georgia
Crawford Residents
Molly Chaotic Neutral or True Neutral: Good and caring towards children on the inside, but Neutral and disrespectful to adults on the outside. I considered True Neutral because while she alternates between fighting for herself and wanting to help, she prefers to be on her own.
Anna Lawful Good
Logan Lawful Neutral
Cancer Support Group
Clive Chaotic Neutral
Joyce Lawful Good
Boyd Lawful Good
Vernon Lawful Good: This was a tough one to seriously consider: on one hand, him stealing the boat was definitely a treacherous move after what he and Lee's Group had been through. On the other hand, my second playthrough seemed to suggest that he is a moral and caring man worthy of the Good morality, since I managed to be on good terms with him, aside from accidentally letting Walker!Oberson drag down Ben and even then, he simply expressed subdued doubt that Lee is the type of man who would do such a thing. And like Christa said, he was primarily concerned with hiding and protecting his group, and yet he still risks himself by agreeing to go try and help Omid despite Brie and Clive's protests and seriously objects to the entire group but especially Clementine being put in dangerous situations. So, I just put both.
Brie Lawful Good
Spreading these out for the sake of not creating one long grey box of replies.
400 Days
Georgia Highway
Prison Bus Survivors
Vince Lawful Neutral or Chaotic Neutral
Justin Lawful Evil or Lawful Neutral
Danny Chaotic Good or Lawful Neutral
Bennett the Elder Cop Lawful Neutral
Clyde the Rookie Cop Lawful Good or Chaotic Neutral
Marcus Chaotic Neutral
Jerry Chaotic Neutral
Road Survivors
Russell's Group
Russell Lawful Neutral
Nate Chaotic Neutral or True Neutral
Wyatt's Group
Wyatt Lawful Good?
Eddie Chaotic Good or Neutral Good
Gil's Pitstop Outskirts
Bonnie's Group
Bonnie Lawful Good or Chaotic Good
Leland Chaotic Good or Lawful Neutral
Dee Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral
Gil's Pitstop
Pitstop Residents
Roman Lawful Neutral or Lawful Evil
Stephanie Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral
Shel's Family
Shel Lawful Good
Becca Lawful Evil or Lawful Neutral or Chaotic Good
Walt's Family
Walt Lawful Neutral?
Jean Chaotic Neutral?
Pitstop Scavengers
Roberto Chaotic Evil?
Spreading these out for the sake of not creating one long grey box of replies.
EDIT: Good Guys of Season 2
Howe's Hardware Refugees
Luke Neutral Good
Carlos' Family
Sarah Chaotic Good or Neutral Good: She'd probably be Chaotic due to her tendency to act almost entirely on emotion: initially fixating on being Clementine's friend regardless of her obvious discomfort and determinant refusal, responding to any stressful situation with fear or anxiety, locking up when something really bad happens, usually associated with death, having moments that make her come off as a bit creepy such as following up the news of Pete's death by revealing and playing with a gun, having little to no regard for rules or authority at times despite her insistence on" being good", yet also having a small but noticeable habit of charging in recklessly when Carlos or Clementine are attacked by Carver. Though Neutral as either an alignment and a morality could also apply seeing how her more extreme or OOC moments revolve around those two.
Carlos Lawful Good
Rebecca's Family
Alvin Jr. True Neutral(Season 2), Most likely Lawful Good(Season 3)
Rebecca Chaotic Neutral or Lawful Good: She is pretty hard to place, given her penchant for vindictiveness indicating Chaotic alignment and yet her caring nature towards Clementine, Sarita, Sarah, and Nick suggests Lawful. At the very least, she gets filed under Good if only in comparison to the likes of Carver(Lawful Evil with Psychotic overtones), Kenny(Chaotic Neutral with a default to Good, at least initially), and Jane(Some brand of Neutral with a few hints of Good and Evil).
Alvin Lawful Good or Neutral Good: He seemed to definitely be a nice guy who didn't mind talking against his wife as long as she doesn't find out about it.
Peter's Family
Nick Chaotic Good: Everything about what I know about Nick definitely gears him towards Chaotic Good: his guilt complex in regards to either failing to protect or trying to harm an innocent, his outward resentment towards Pete and later Luke despite the fact that he really admires them, getting depressed when things start going downhill, denying responsibility when called out on his wrongdoings if he feels like he's being blamed or accused, yet being prone to owning up to his mistakes if he is left alone to stew over it himself, and the fact that its implied that his charging out to find help for Luke and Sarah is what lead to his 2nd death because he did so while completely disregarding the fact that he had a bullet in his shoulder.
All in all, a character who lets his emotions control him in the immediate, but whose heart means he will try to make things right in the afterwards.
Peter Lawful Good or Neutral Good
Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia
Moonstar Lodge Inhabitants
Sarita Lawful Good or Neutral Good: Sarita unfortunately got very little to work with other than her attempts to save Kenny from himself, desire to keep Clementine and Sarah's 'innocence' in tact, and her surprising damning attitude at times when she feels that she and Kenny are being unfairly or ungratefully treated. So, while I want to her as Lawful Good, she has enough of a backlash prone attitude to qualify as Neutral as well.
Walter Neutral Good: Walter seemed to be trying to be a good samaritan at all times before finding Matthew's knife. So, while I want to classify him as Lawful Good, he has enough of an Agape prone attitude to qualify as Neutral as well.
Matthew Neutral Good?
Spreading these out for the sake of not creating one long grey box of replies.
EDIT: Other Characters
Randy's Family
Randy Chaotic Neutral?
Patricia Lawful Good
Gill Chaoticl Good?
Wellington, Ohio
Wellington
Edith Lawful Good
The Walking Dead: Michonne
Location Unknown
Michonne's Family
Michonne Chaotic Neutral
Dominic Lawful Good?
Elodie Lawful Good?
Colette Lawful Good?
Oceanside
The Companion
Pete Lawful Good
Siddiq Lawful Good?
Oak Lawful Neutral or Neutral Good
Berto Chaotic Good?
Fairbanks' House
Fairbanks Family
James Lawful Good
Alex Lawful Good
Samantha Chaotic Good or Chaotic Neutral
John Lawful Good
Greg Lawful Good
Sophia Neutral Good?
Fairbank's Residents
Paige Lawful Good
Season 3
Javier Most likely Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral(Prerelease info)
Animals
Maybelle True Neutral
Sam Chaotic Neutral or True Neutral
Walter ???
Thanks!
Well no I dont think it is..... What carver does in episode 3 is evil and he uses the law and order of the camp to do it, that's pretty solid lawful evil. I dont see how he fits into any other group better
Danny is the more...weird one of the group but hes still organized and works with his family so he could easily be lawful evil, though his odd behavior means he could fall into chaotic evil too . Andy and Brenda are both lawful evil also, they have routine and planning in what they do, they trick people and then kill them
Cant do Lee as he can be changed by the player
In season 1 clem is lawful good, everything she does is about right and wrong in terms of the law while being good
Kenny's chaotic neutral overall id say in season 1. Though chaotic good is still pretty possible
Id give Katjaa neutral good, I've always seen Kat as very specific to her family. She steals from the car, berates lee for bringing a stranger back etc. Shes a good person but shes still very much about her own interests. Not the law itself
I cant really place her, shes good but Shes a bit all over the place with lee telling the truth, her episode one character is so different.
Yeah neutral good, hes good but stays in the background.
Lawful neutral seems about right for her, shes all abut rules and about keeping the peace.
Eh I dunno about Larry, I didnt see enough of him really, he doesnt really fit anywhere
Mark is definitely neutral hes nearly always on about his own issues, though I'd give him neutral good as he does seem to care about others
Id give Ben chaotic good, hes not a bad guy but everything he does is reckless, feeding the bandits and removing the hatchet for example. I could also give Ben true neutral.