Alignment system part II

I promised a Poisonwood Bible alignment system post, but as I started writing it, I realized a large part of it was explaining some other additions to the original/canon alignment system. So now I'm making a dedicated post for the additions, titled "Alignment system part II"!

The Word "Stupid"

One way to modify an alignment is by adding the word "stupid" (isn't this fun? ^o^). Used like this, the word isn't referring to the character's intelligence (not directly anyway); instead, it means the character is adhering to his alignment so strictly that it becomes irrational and/or hurts himself or those he cares about.

For example, remember that one time in one of the Inspector Gadget movies when he arrests an old lady for driving something like 3 miles over the speed limit? That's an example of Lawful Stupid. If I was so opposed to jaywalking that I walked half a mile out of my way to cross an empty, traffic-less street at a crosswalk, that would also be Lawful Stupid. To give it a specific definition, the alignment refers to anyone who is irrationally consumed with following (or enforcing) the law. Sometimes these characters also confuse laws as morals-- for example, believing jaywalkers are horrible people who need to be punished, etc. Most of my information here is from TVTropes.org; see their articles on Lawful Stupid, Chaotic Stupid, Stupid Good, Stupid Evil, and Stupid Neutral (the site has occasional strong language, but is generally informative and funny on all things anime, manga, comics, TV, film, and even literature).

The Word "Always"

When adding the word "always," it makes the alignment refer to a group of people (usually a race, in the sci-fi sense or the word) who are ALWAYS the said alignment. We often see this in TV shows or video games, where the hero knows that EVERY Klingon/robot/nondescript Goomba/Decepticon/person with pointy teeth/Alien/Giant/whatever is evil, and therefore the hero can kill him/her/it without hesitation. Races stereotyped like this are usually called "Always Chaotic Evil" by convention. Always Chaotic Evil races are included for simplicity (as in the aforementioned example, the author doesn't have to prove a character is evil by anything other than their race/appearance; therefore, the hero is still good because he's only killing evils) or dramatic effect (because you're so intrigued when ONE of them turns out to be a good guy!). Sometimes we also see "Always Lawful Good" in the form of angels, fairies, etc. "Always Chaotic Evil" and "Always Lawful Good" are the most-referenced "always" alignments, but the word could technically be attached to any alignment (or even in conjunction with the word "stupid").

Intermediate Alignments

Not all characters fall exactly into one of the 9 alignments in the 3x3 square, so there are also "halfway" alignments. If there was a character that was a little too lawful to be True Neutral, but not quite lawful enough to be Lawful Neutral, we could call this character Slightly Lawful Neutral. Likewise, if there was a character that was a litle bit chaotic and a little bit evil, we could call this character Slightly Chaotic Evil (where the word "slightly" applies to both "chaotic" and "evil"). If we had a character that was definitely good but only a little lawful, we could call him Neutral Good with Lawful tendencies. Usually these are written differently-- the previous examples would be Neutral (Lawful), Neutral (Chaotic Good), and Neutral Good (Lawful), respectively-- but personally I like the first way better because I think the parentheses are awkward.

Turns out, someone already solved this problem by naming the intermediate alignments, turning the 3x3 square into a 5x5 square.

Slightly Lawful = Social
Slightly Chaotic = Rebel
Slightly Good = Moral
Slightly Evil = Impure

Lawful Evil	Lawful Impure	Lawful Neutral	Lawful Moral	Lawful Good
Social Evil	Social Impure	Social Neutral	Social Moral	Social Good
Neutral Evil	Neutral Impure	True Neutral	Neutral Moral	Neutral Good
Rebel Evil	Rebel Impure	Rebel Neutral	Rebel Moral	Rebel Good
Chaotic Evil	Chaotic Impure	Chaotic Neutral	Chaotic Moral	Chaotic Good

I like the expanded system a lot, but I think it's a little too jargon-y to use here. (This section is based partly on this website and partly on Google Images/random meme stuff from DeviantArt et cetera.)

One note on morals

I have to put a bit of a disclaimer here-- morals are oftentimes kind of arbitrary, especially with respect to religion, and I really don't want to be arbitrary (bad) or offensive (even worse). (I would have just ignored this, but The Poisonwood Bible features religion prominently, so there's no way around it.) For example, things like what words you're not allowed to say, what people (especially women) are allowed to wear, etc. are morals to some, but not to others. So the least arbitrary way I could think of to determine what's a moral and what isn't is by asking whether a caveman would consider it a moral or not. For example, a caveman wouldn't care whether the other cavemen (and cavewomen) wear clothes or not, so therefore anything related to clothing is a law and not a moral. Hopefully this will keep me from stepping on anyone's toes :)

Thank you for reading! My post on The Poisonwood Bible is coming soon!