What alignment is House?

[Storm Raven]

But if for him to be good, he should be doing better things. He doesn't; if you go back to the first season, he's literally doing nothing, and his team is working on crossword problems. He's avoiding helping people even though that's his job. That's not good.

Goofing off at work now makes you nongood?

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Goofing off at work now makes you nongood?

That makes me the eviliest guy around!

 

[Zimri]

No, he's a perfectly normal human doctor. Like crosswords?

No one has suggested that he should do his job and practice the daily medicine that improves people's lives in unexciting intellectually unstimulating ways to the detriment of his special cases, so why argue against a non position?

If you are assigning a D&D alignment a comparison to a D&D class seems appropriate.

Yes exactly like crosswords, soap operas, psp, and gameboy. With the exception of the soap operas (not to dis people that watch soaps) all are very mentally stimulating. They allow him both an escape and keep him mentally (and some could argue in the case of the game systems) manually acute.

The soap operas and the wrestling ... well let's just assume like any other person he needs to turn his brain off from time to time both as an escape from the physical pain and to combat mental fatigue.

People are saying he is evil and that just isn't the case at all. He's no Hitler, or Jeffrey Dahlmer, or Paul Bernardo. He's good he just isn't exalted about it.

edit

And this is the issue with all threads that discuss alingment. It's even iffy in the game world where it's easier to judge these things. Move it over into RL and it's all kinds of messy and no one will convince anyone to change thier position. In the end though ... well it's still arguing on the internet... full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

 

[ssampier]

That makes me the eviliest guy around!

Evil as...

Garland!

 

[Kahuna Burger]

If you are assigning a D&D alignment a comparison to a D&D class seems appropriate.

Yes exactly like crosswords, soap operas, psp, and gameboy. With the exception of the soap operas (not to dis people that watch soaps) all are very mentally stimulating. They allow him both an escape and keep him mentally (and some could argue in the case of the game systems) manually acute.

The soap operas and the wrestling ... well let's just assume like any other person he needs to turn his brain off from time to time both as an escape from the physical pain and to combat mental fatigue.

I believe most doctors call that time "not being at work" or "being on break". Not "Being at work and having people who need help but considering them beneath my notice because I wouldn't have fun treating them".

Again, since no one has suggested that House be shown never stopping treating patients until he collapses dramaticly and has to be carried to a bed then pushing past his worried handlers after only 2 hours of rest.... your point is not very helpful.

People are saying he is evil and that just isn't the case at all. He's no Hitler, or Jeffrey Dahlmer, or Paul Bernardo. He's good he just isn't exalted about it.

"Not Jeffry Dahlmer" is neither my standard for "good but not exalted" or even "not evil." If your entire argument is that he isn't evil, thats one thing, but that isn't what the "crossword instead of helping people" track of conversation is about, nor is it helped by setting a bizarrely high bar for evil (or possibly even nuetral).

 

[Ace]

I don't think he merits evil, although he might be neutral with some mild evil leanings. His "evil" acts were either under extreme circumstances or pretty minor.

The diseased needle bit was under severe duress and thus, IMO, doesn't count as strongly (although it would still make a major stir on his "alignment graph"). If he did it regularly, that would be another thing. The stealing ideas bit was a single incidence, and wouldn't be enough for me to give him a major shift.

I think he could eventually be one of those characters who skirts the line between neutral and evil if he didn't have compensating good acts, over time. I don't think he's reached that point yet.

I'd be ok with that assessment.

 

[Ace]

Not to deviate too far off topic, but... there is no chance that Dexter Morgan is Chaotic Evil.

I would place him as Lawful Evil.
I can even accept Neutral Evil, but you will have to give a pretty convincing argument to get me to buy into Chaotic Evil.

If Dexter is anything, he is absolutely methodical.
His "Dark Passenger" may have Chaotic impulses, but do to a life long (almost religious) adherence to the "Harry Code", Dexter lives a completely regimented life.
He even calculates out all of his minor interpersonal interactions, so that he can appear normal.

...and if you have not read the Jeff Lindsay novels that the show is based on, you should.
They do a much better job of conveying Dexter's "otherness". I feel that the show makes him too sympathetic.

Fair enough. I think Dexters Compulsion qualifies him for Chaotic but as you ably pointed out his behavior is Lawful

And Darkly Dreaming Dexter is on the reading list

 

[Felon]

I think it's interesting how people will see what they want to see in a person (fictional or nonfictional).

House acts like a jerk, but sometimes he's oddly sympathetic. So, folks who sympathize decide to see him as a maverick with a rough exterior and a heart of gold who will do anything to save a patient.

But it's been pretty clearly established that saving patients isn't what motivates him. He is interested in the puzzle, not the person. He often tries to shed deathly-ill patients if he deems their cases to be boring. He has no empathy for an HIV-positive patient with a "death-camp-like physique", or a mother of three kids, or a little girl dying of cancer. He makes fun of Cameron for possibly getting AIDS, and Chase for his father dying of lung cancer without telling his son. Clearly, House is a pretty selfish guy. He's also a doctor who's seen a lot of death, so I guess he deserves a little slack (most folks become jaded about pain and death if they're around it a lot). He's not mean enough to be evil, but he's too narcissistic to be good.

And did somebody actually label him as Lawful? Even more self-evident than his selfishness is his contempt for authority, and not just hospital bureaucracy either. He sends his staff to break into houses, he broke into his ex-wife's office to go through her personnel files, he got kicked out of college for cheating, he used a coma patient as a guinea pig....he's chaotic as all-get-out.

I'm not sure why folks would consider Foreman or Chase to be evil. I guess it's because they tend to look out for themselves, but last I checked that's the criteria for neutrality. But I guess it's boring to label folks as TN, because it's so middle-of-the-road. Sorry, it ain't the sexiest of the nine, but it is the most common alignment for a reason.

 

[Felon]

Dex is LN. Definitely has a code that he lives his life by ("the code of Harry"). Neutrality is fitting because, well, he's mostly dead inside, generally incapable of strong feelings.

If he actually sated his impulses without regard for his victims, then we'd be moving into evil territory.

 

[Hussar]

I wouldn't buy House as evil. He isn't going out of his way to hurt people. But, I also wouldn't peg him as good either. He isn't going out of his way to help anyone, and in fact, as was mentioned, ignores people in pain if they aren't interesting enough.

Yeah, pretty much exactly what I would picture CN to be. He actively rebels against any authority and has to be coerced into doing his job. Yup, that's pretty much CN to me.

Let me ask you this - would you trust House? I certainly wouldn't. Not that he would go out of his way to screw me, but, he wouldn't cross the street to piddle on me if I were on fire either.