What alignment are the cops on The Shield?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Okay, so I have the first four seasons on DVD. Are you telling me they've gone ahead and make a fifth season AND it's on the air AND I've been missing it?!

You missed it and should probably stop reading this thread, since there's a huge spoiler in it.

The good news is that the fifth season with Forest Whittaker is awesome.

The 5th season DVD set will be released March 27 in the states.

 

[Storm Raven]

Vic - Amoral Evil

Shane - Chaotic Stupid

Lemansky - Chaotic Optimist

Ron - Forgettably Neutral

Aceveda - Pragmatic Chaotic

Dutch - Lawful Insane

Wims - Rigid Good

Danny - Willfully Ignorant

Julien - Foolish Good

 

[TheYeti1775]

Vic - Amoral Evil

Shane - Chaotic Stupid

Lemansky - Chaotic Optimist

Ron - Forgettably Neutral

Aceveda - Pragmatic Chaotic

Dutch - Lawful Insane

Wims - Rigid Good

Danny - Willfully Ignorant

Julien - Foolish Good

Sounds like the best example of the bunch so far.
Honestly, accept for the 1st season with the killing of the other cop, I've been fine with his tactics.

 

[Mistwell]

Vic is not evil. My best estimate is true neutral. In the olden times, I would add "True Neutral, with chaotic tendancies".

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Vic is not evil. My best estimate is true neutral. In the olden times, I would add "True Neutral, with chaotic tendancies".

He committed premedated murder against another law enforcement offical for no other reason than to cover his own tracks. He uses blackmail extortion and theft to cover his tracks, he constantly breaks the laws that he has sworn to uphold in order to, wait for it...cover his tracks.

Make no mistake, even though we understand his motivations for his actions and in some cases empathize with them, it in no way excuses those actions. Vic has some good in him (he cares for his friends and family), but by no stretch of the imagination a good guy. The fact that his willing to in some cases arbitrarily murder people to cover his tracks makes him evil. Stealing from drug dealers is still theft and blackmailing and intimidating his fellow officers for personal gain is not the act of a good man. He's selfish and lets that selfishness motivate his actions, not as much later on in the series but very much so early on.

Vic is a textbook anti-hero. Anybody who claims he's a hero -- in the sense that he's got morality on his side -- should be seeing a shrink.

Yeah I agree with Jeff on this one. Seriously. Some of the posts on this thread are kinda scary but typical of the conversations that I've had with many a role player about morality and what it means to actually be a good or evil person. I agree that alot of times there are areas of gray, but it's in the extreme cases where that kind of morality is a little easier to define. Vic is definitely an extreme case as presented.

A show a little more nuanced, detailed and better written like THE WIRE in some cases it makes a characters morality a little harder to call.

 

[Storm Raven]

He committed premedated murder against another law enforcement offical for no other reason than to cover his own tracks. He uses blackmail extortion and theft to cover his tracks, he constantly breaks the laws that he has sworn to uphold in order to, wait for it...cover his tracks.

Make no mistake, even though we understand his motivations for his actions and in some cases empathize with them, it in no way excuses those actions. Vic has some good in him (he cares for his friends and family), but by no stretch of the imagination a good guy. The fact that his willing to in some cases arbitrarily murder people to cover his tracks makes him evil. Stealing from drug dealers is still theft and blackmailing and intimidating his fellow officers for personal gain is not the act of a good man. He's selfish and lets that selfishness motivate his actions, not as much later on in the series but very much so early on.

This is, in my opinion, totally and completely accurate. Vic is an evil man who does evil things. Sure, he loves his kids, and is nice to prostitutes he feels sorry for, and so on, but he is also a violent, vicious criminal who has killed, maimed, tortured, stolen, framed, and otherwise screwed people up on a regular basis. Sure, some of his victims were bad guys, but being a bad guy doesn't mean, for example, that it is okay for someone to frame you for stealing the Armenian money train, and then kill you, and put your body in an incenerator.

Realistically, most of the people here would be appalled by a real police officer who did even a tenth of the things that Vic has done on The Shield. He not only should be locked up, but be locked up forever in a special prison where he can be executed every day. He is a monster. But the power of the series, and why I think it is one of the best written programs on U.S. television today, is that you still find yourself rooting for him. You still want to see him wriggle out of yet another situation and get away with his crimes for just one more episode.

I think Vic belongs in jail, and then later in the "special hell" (or something similar) discussed in Firefly. But I still watch every episode rooting for him to make it just one more week.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Actually, the most horrifying part of The Shield is that a lot of it is inspired by actual scandals coming out of the gang-best Rampart Division in Los Angeles. A surprising number of plot elements line up one-to-one with real-life incidents.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

I think you need to ask yourself why he's in so deep. Lem strikes me as the kind of guy who got as deep as he did due to loyalty to Vic and Ronnie. He may just be good, remember that the horrible stuff he's done is nowhere as deep as what Vic or Shane have. He doesn't know about some of the worst. Considering what he was willing to do last season for the guys I'd put him at NG. Not a very 'strong' neutral good.

Maybe Neutral neutral good?

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

I've only watched the season currently playing on Spike. I don't even know what season it is. But right now they're dealing with the problems caused by the money train paying off.

Detective Vic Mackey: Chaotic Neutral.
Captain David Aceveda: Lawful Evil.
Shane Vendrell: Neutral Evil.
Julien Lowe: Lawful Good.
Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach: True Neutral.
Detective Claudette Wyms: Lawful Good.

 

[Twowolves]

I absolutely love this show. When does the new season start?

Vic started down the quick and easy path, with good intentions the whole way, and it rapidly started spiralling out of his control. Everything he did originally was for what he saw as the greater good. He was trying to make the streets safer. One shortcut led to another, until he was full-on dirty. But he's not just for sale, he's got his principles.

At any rate, here's how I rank them

Vic = CN
Shane = CE
Lem = NG
Ronnie = ?? (he'd have to talk before you could rate him)
Dutch = LN
Wyms = LG
Acaveda = LN
Julian = LG
Danny = CG