I hope you’ve seen them around the internet. They’re one of my favorite memes, as they mix two of my favorite things (nerdy rpgs and pop culture)– the Dungeons and Dragons alignment charts featuring your favorite movie and tv shows.
Your pal Citizenbot has collected some of his favorites of the D&D alignment meme and created a few of his own for some of his favorite things.
For those of you unfamiliar with alignment, in Dungeons and Dragons you must choose whether your character is mostly good or evil, and whether she/he/it chooses to obey the laws and norms of society (lawful) or to willfully rebel against those laws (chaotic). Characters can also be neutral in not being entirely good nor evil, or having their own moral compass that doesn’t necessarily follow society’s rules but it sometimes does.
So your basic alignment chart looks like this:
And so around the internet people started populating them with awesomeness.
Here’s a couple of my favorites:
For those less familiar with alignment, here’s one to start with– TV show casts.
I might’ve also included any of the Star Trek casts for Lawful Good, The Practice or Mad Men for Lawful Neutral, but the rest of these are pretty spot on.
Next up is my most recent favorite: Downton Abbey.
Because nothing says England a century ago than Dungeons and Dragons. Also, if you’ve seen the second season it makes you wonder a bit more about Bates being named Lawful Good. Eh? EH? Or perhaps confirms it more.
Next, the best one of these on the entire internet: The Muppets.
It’s just absolutely perfect.
And now: Community. Human beings rejoice!
Kind of eerie these characters so perfectly match D&D alignment. Either showrunner Dan Harmon is a huge geek (we know he is) and write it this way on purpose. Or archetypes are just that strong.
And so, with all of these favorite things being grouped into alignment, I thought to myself, what ELSE deserves one of these? I went looking for a Parks and Recreation one, but everyone has them so wrong. They keep confusing where Tom should be with Andy or Ron. . . not happening.
But then I thought, “What about us? What about BigShinyRobot?” which also led me to create an alignment chart of some local affiliated broadcasts, the Geekshow Podcast and Radio From Hell. Really, I don’t know if anybody else will think these are fun except for me. I’m not sure if this is all too meta and otaku for most people, as this is really into the weeds of geekdom. Like slashfic of Dune meets old Doctor Who obscure. But enough kvetching– more pictures, please!
Geekshow (which I hope you’re subscribed to and listen to every week) ended up being impossible to do. Because everyone can’t be just the chaotic squares. I actually put one together that was just pictures of Shannon in every square, because that’s just what a wildcard will do! But here’s what I came up with:
Sorry, Geekshow. Had to kind of stretch on this one, so we included Kerry’s dogs, Dan the Laptop Man and Pete Ashdown, and awesome fans of the show OJ and Egg Fou.
Radio From Hell, however, I think turned out pretty well.
If you don’t know who these people are, then you should really listen more often– KXRK Provo Ogden Salt Lake City, 96.3 FM and x96.com.
And finally, us.
DRUMROLL PLEASE. . . .
We had a lot of fun developing this and sending drafts back and forth on facebook. Hope you like it. And yes, I know that this means that Swankmotron is in 2 of the three alignment charts, and Jerkbot is in all three, but they deserve it. And yes I know they’re differently aligned in different charts.
The major problem was we just have too many great writers (seriously, I love all you guys) and we just can’t fit ALL of us on here. And there were two of us who are just. . . well, they deserve their own chart.
In case you’re wondering about your own alignment, there are quizzes out there on the internet, but this is the official one.
Do you like this meme? Want to do one of these on your own? Here’s a blank one you can right click on, download, and then make an alignment chart of Beverly Hills Cop, Garth Ennis’s Preacher, Disneyland rides, cocktails, Led Zeppelin albums, Phineas and Ferb, or, yes, comics, tv shows and movies like most of them out there on the internet. (hint– no one’s done a kick-ass Avengers one using shots from the new trailers and promotional stills from the May movie)
Happy meme-ing, and yes, I’m sure you have complaints or disagreements– leave a comment in the forum and let’s argue about things!! Oh, and since in arguing, people are incredibly likely to tell each other they are wrong or mistaken. Here’s a new meme I’d like to popularize more: Correcting Palpatine.
