What alignment is House?

[Hussar]

But look at why House is mean to patients. They lie, or cover things up, need thier memory jarred, or need thier attention got so they'll make a choice. He needs to get to the truth and "nice" won't often get you beyond "polite fiction".

The problem is, IMO, you are taking a single example of behaviour and then extrapolating from there. There is a danger of not seeing the forest for the trees. You're quite possibly right that his meanness sometimes stems from situational need. But, certainly not always. His staff usually don't need to be jarred, yet, he is consistently insulting and mean to them.

Alignment usually breaks down in the specific. Alignment is best when it is used in pretty broad strokes. House rarely, if ever, acts out of altruism. He helps people when it suits him. If someone was dying of leukemia, he would have zero interest in helping and zero sympathy as well. He has to be coerced into doing his responsibilities (working in the clinic). His drug addiction leads him to perform acts that are contrary to what he wants to do.

He's not evil. He doesn't hurt anyone particularly. But, I certainly wouldn't call him good. His only really strong alignment characteristic is chaos - a complete and utter disregard for authority and order.

 

[Glyfair]

His staff usually don't need to be jarred, yet, he is consistently insulting and mean to them.

He slips amphetamines into his closest friend's coffee, just to find out why he's yawning!

 

[DM_Matt]

I'd just like to say that I was wrong in calling Chase NE...he's N.

Regarding Foreman, hes a reluctant, borderline NE/NN. It is now being made clear that he himself thinks he's either a bad person or becoming one, and is triyng to change.

 

[Zimri]

The problem is, IMO, you are taking a single example of behaviour and then extrapolating from there. There is a danger of not seeing the forest for the trees. You're quite possibly right that his meanness sometimes stems from situational need. But, certainly not always. His staff usually don't need to be jarred, yet, he is consistently insulting and mean to them.

His staff and everyone else in the hospital WORK better when they are opposed to him, so does he. He can't have "yes men". He berates them 1) So they won't cave when he is wrong. 2) So they'll learn to be critical of themselves. 3) To make them better doctors/administrators.

Foreman is there, just about. There was that error a few weeks back and he crumbled. Thats why House wants him to stay but can't say so. House needs him there to stand up to him and Foreman is almost but not quite ready to go.

Now House may or may not be acting the way he does specifically for these ends but his actions do lead down this road. Can't judge the book by it's cover house has layers like a parfait or an onion.

 

[Felon]

His staff and everyone else in the hospital WORK better when they are opposed to him, so does he. He can't have "yes men". He berates them 1) So they won't cave when he is wrong. 2) So they'll learn to be critical of themselves. 3) To make them better doctors/administrators.

And 4( he's a selfish jerk who likes to alienate people. We get plenty of scenes of House in situations where he could let his heart of gold shine on through, and he passes up the opportunity. How about that episode that started with him at the race track, and the actress that played Maggie in "Sex and the City" went into convulsions? Since he finds epileptic seizures boring, he sat back and hoped someone else would intervene because he wanted to watch his race ("is there a doctor here?"). He only stepped up when he spotted a fascinating skin lesion on her writhing stomach. I don't think he thought tough love was going to snap her out of her conniption.

 

[Nightfall]

House is my all time hero!

I don't care if he's CE, NE, CN, or CG. He's just plain AWESOME!

 

[Wolv0rine]

What I think is genuinely comical is that here sits a 4 page thread (regardless of the fact that I found it sitting on the 7th page of threads) about House... and as far as I can tell no thread in Media about the season finale.
*chuckles*

 

[Atavar]

Neutral evil. MAYBE True Neutral with Evil tendancies.

Chaotic by nature/usual behavior, lawful by design/training, so overall Neutral on the Law/Chaos axis.

Despite the good works/results he does as a doctor he almost always seems to do these things for selfish reasons. The good benefits for others are (usually) incidental to him. Even evil bastards can have pangs of regret, remorse, and sympathy. Does his selfishness and other negative character traits put him at the level of "evil" for D&D alignment purposes? I say yes, but I can easily see an argument for an overall Neutral on the good/evil axis.

Just my two cents....

Later

Atavar