TV Characters Alignment Chart

Can We Decide Once And For All If Dwight Is Lawful-Good Or Lawful-Evil?

Originating from the Dungeons & Dragons, an alignment chart is a method for neatly categorizing characters based on their morals and personalities.

Classifying a character is a simple two-step process: first, decide if they are good or evil. According to the D&D player's handbook, good corresponds to compassion, decency, and a desire to help others while evil corresponds with imoral, dishonorable, and hurtful behavior. A neutral character is someone who doesn't out of their way to help or hurt someone (absent the right motivation) - you don't fear them, but you also don't expect them to ever have your back.

Next, decide if the character is chaotic or lawful. Lawful characters boast “honor, trustworthiness, obedience to authority, and reliability.” However, they also can be close-minded, lack adaptability, and follow tradition too blindly. Meanwhile, chaotic characters are free-spirited, adaptable, and flexible, but also reckless, irresponsible, resentful towards authority, and arbitrary in their decision making. Someone who is neutral on this axis “feels neither a compulsion to obey nor a compulsion to rebel.”

Although initially created for a roleplaying game, the alignment chart has evolved into a popular meme. A quick Google search will surface examples for politicians, cities, sandwiches, fonts (yes, fonts), and more:

There's also plenty of alignment charts for characters from most popular TV shows - and rarely do any two completely agree with one another. Arranging fictional characters is inherently a subjective task and I suspect will lead to opposing answers more often than not. Together, we can test this hypothesis.

Let's Crowdsource An Alignment Chart

Here are nine shows I've enjoyed watching at one point or another. Collectively, these shows give us 82 fictional characters to rate.

If you haven't seen any one of these shows, click 'Skip To Results' to see how other readers judged the characters. Otherwise, read on to learn how to contribute.

Instructions & Chart

1. Click any show name below to see its characters
2. Next, drag characters into the empty alignment chart to categorize them.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you've finished evaluating all the characters and shows you know. Remember, you don't need to evaluate every character or show - just the ones you're familiar with.
4. Click the 'Submit Answers' button once you've gone through all the shows - not once per show.

Who Stands Out?

Here are the highest-ranking characters for each of our four traits, based on several user-submitted ratings:

Our Crowdsourced Alignment Chart

Finally, here are the nine characters who best represent each category, according to Cultureplot readers:

Lawful Good

Neutral Good

Chaotic Good

Lawful Neutral

True Neutral

Chaotic Neutral

Lawful Evil

Neutral Evil

Chaotic Evil

Although Summer Smith wins the distinction of being the closest to True Neutral, there are plenty of other characters who also sit near the center of the alignment chart, such as Stanley Hudson, Lip Gallagher, and Queen Maeve.

The Characters We Disagreed Over The Most

Now the real fun begins...how disagreeable are the ratings for each character?

Each character's average placement is shown above, but that only tells one part of the story. Equally interesting is how much readers agree on any given individual. For example, the majority of readers placed Andy Bernard of The Office in the 'Chaotic-Good' section, although there's plenty of disagreement on just how “good” he actually is. Use the dropdown menu below to see the distribution for other characters.