Is it possible for a character to have an alignment with a conflicting drive?

[Aeromyre]

Ok so let's say this character is a young lawful good prince, who at 14 disrespected one of his father's generals in a war meeting, for suggesting they do something evil, (which is the norm in the country) it was tradition that bonded the prince to a duel, though he didn't know it would be with his father. His father scarred him and he was banished, until he brought back a notorious "criminal" (who is the Chaotic Good hero of the world)
His drive to regain his honor seems to make him act evil. But later he switches sides, and works with the hero.

So was he simply always Lawful neutral with evil tenancies/lawful evil and makes a dynamic alignment shift to good or has he always been good?
I believe he has always had good in his heart

[Flickerdart]

What, Zuko? He was always neutral.

[kamikasei]

Gosh, whoever do you mean?

Yes, it's possible to be good-aligned but pursue an evil goal because your social context makes you think it's the "right" option. Especially if you don't really do any evil in pursuit of the goal. Alternatively, you could be argued to be Lawful Neutral waiting to become Lawful Good when you realize the context in which you're trying to be Lawful is an Evil one.

(For the specific character you're referring to, maturity is also a factor - becoming Good in both nature and action was part of growing up.)

[Aeromyre]

What, Zuko? He was always neutral.

Yes I didn't think everyone would understand who I meant,

Gosh, whoever do you mean?

Yes, it's possible to be good-aligned but pursue an evil goal because your social context makes you think it's the "right" option. Especially if you don't really do any evil in pursuit of the goal. Alternatively, you could be argued to be Lawful Neutral waiting to become Lawful Good when you realize the context in which you're trying to be Lawful is an Evil one.

(For the specific character you're referring to, maturity is also a factor - becoming Good in both nature and action was part of growing up.)

Yeah I agree LN waithing to become good, perhaps LG perhaps NG.

[RndmNumGen]

Yes I didn't think everyone would understand who I meant.

Pretty much anyone who has seen the show would know who you were talking about. I caught on as soon as you mentioned the duel with his father... That was a pretty transparent description.

Back to the topic at hand, I would say that he was probably Lawful Neutral with Good tendencies early on (see references from his childhood for this) and he may have made the transition to Good when his uncle helped him see he was hurting others in an attempt to 'redeem' himself. He might have actually always been Good even as a child, but just confused by his father and sister to what Good actually was.

[Math_Mage]

Zuko went from LN with G tendencies in his childhood, to LE with NE tendencies after his banishment and throughout Season 1. Season 2 is about his struggle between LE and NG, but I'd be hard pressed to give one alignment to him. Season 3 is all about getting to LG.

[EENick]

Alignment depends on lot of the DM.

Batman could reasonably be Lawful, Netural, or even choatic good depending on the GM.

Lawful - because he has an incredibly strick personal code be abides by no matter what. As pointed out in the DCAU episode where he defeats the Ninja. His mentor notes Batman is more like a Samurai then a Ninja because of his strick code of honor.

Neutral - because he stays outside the law does and won't let red tape get in the way of doing what is right, the whole reason he became batman instead of super cop yet he is much more stable and disiplined then most heroes he doesn't take actions without consideration.

Chaotic - because sometimes his end justify his means. He'll torture, maim, steal and more if he feels it is nessessary to protect people.

I've seen arguments for all three and all three have valid points.

So to some extent it depends on if the GM views say, lawful as actually obeying the law of the land or mearly strictly adhearing to a personal code without fail or exceptions and chaotic is simply the lack of a strong personal code and more a general goal.

I mean for example Zuko was all about honor yet he was willing to free the avatar just to keep someone else from capturing him. That makes him seem a lot more neutral then lawful. It seems to me that Zuko cares only about having his honor in a title not about maintaining a personal code of conduct. However most in this thread would put him as Lawful so it really depends on the GM.

[hamishspence]

Chaotic - because sometimes his end justify his means. He'll torture, maim, steal and more if he feels it is nessessary to protect people.

"The ends justify the means" is more Good/Evil axis than Law/Chaos one- but the point is valid, and there is the famous Batman Alignment poster.

Though the CE one takes a scene out of context- at the time he thought the ice-cream was poisoned and he was saving someone from being affected by the poison.