What alignment is 24's Jack Bauer? My initial impulse is that either Good or Neutral fit him (good in the first few seasons, but definitely he gets more and more jaded as season 5-7 roll around), but I'm real curious on what people think on the other axis.
First, I just have to say that Jack Bauer is in no way lawful. Seriously, he breaks more rules than... a guy who breaks a lot of rules. Going by 3e alignment, I'd say he was Chaotic Good: do what is best for his country, even if the rules say he can't do it.
... Yeah.
Jack Baur don't care 'bout no laws.
... Yeah.
My opinion is *because* he's doing everything he does strictly for the betterment of the country, he's Lawful.
He doesn't have a blatant disrespect for the rules of society - he will obey them to the letter in all cases until, by his estimation, they just have no other choice. Like in Season 3... when that bad guy was going to unleash deadly viruses all over the country, and nothing they could say or do would convince him to give up his agents.
He exhausted every lawful option to prevent that, until he finally did the last thing he could think of - order the man's daughter to be exposed to the same virus he was unleashing.
The fact he was willing to throw his personal values out the window for his country and society (he wasn't at risk of viral contamination himself), is a very Lawful motivation... and the fact he, almost always, exhausts every legal option first shows much more respect for the institution than Chaotic would. Chaotic won't even consider the institution for a second and just do whatever the individual thinks is right.
Yay! Another chance to figure out if not knowing the character in question has an effect on the alignment .... In any case, from what little I know, he is unabashedly Lawful. His entire raison d'etre is preservation of the US government, yes? Then he's Lawful; a Chaotic person in the same position would have a different loyalty (ie, doing the job out of a personal loyalty to the president or whomever) instead of to the country as a whole.
I don't think so. Lawful has more to do with your respect for rules, codes, and such. Jack Bauer is more 'the ends justify the means' kind of a guy. CG
Neutral because he often does break the law, but has enough respect for it to follow it mostly - basically, he's too chaotic to be lawful, and too lawful to be chaotic.
Evil because he tortures people.
Being awesome on the awesome axis simply overshadows whether he is chaotic good, lawful evil, or somewhere in between.
What everyone fails to realize is that there are not two, but three axes in D&D alignment. The third axis is only a choice between two though, and no neutral allowed. You see, most characters on this axis simply register as "not", and are subsequently unaffected. Jack Bauer, much like Charlie Crews, Olivia Benson, Alan Shore, and Michael Westen, is awesome.
Being awesome on the awesome axis simply overshadows whether he is chaotic good, lawful evil, or somewhere in between.
I'm patenting the alignment: Lawful Awesome, to go with my companion alignment Chaotic Lame.
If you use this, you will need to pay me. Jack Bauer is now Lawful Awesome.
BTW: Big night tonight!
Show
I wonder if Tony's going to survive his little incersion, or die disarming the weapons of mass destruction. I could see Tony going that way.
He serves as an agent of the United States and acts its behalf, under the direction of the government. He frequently steps outside of that hierarchy when he feels that it is misguided or impeding him from getting to the truth of something (I always joke about how the answer to everything at some point each season is, "Take Bauer into custody!" On the other side he will obey a direct command by those he sees as a superior even if he feels strongly that it is a bad call, purely out of respect for rank and/or office (Ex: Opening the panic room on President Taylor's orders even though that meant giving her over to Juma and his men.
In the season opener as well as in conversations with Renee and the Senator leading the inquiry he has expressed acknowledgement of what he has done that has broken the law and a level of remorse (wishing that the situations had never come to a point that these things had to be done). He also expressed an acceptance of whatever punishment that the laws of the country may demand for those actions. He still stands by them as necessary to protect his country though.
He has no qualms about killing or the use of torture if nothing else works. While this can be viewed as purely evil I think the path that gets him to that point makes the difference. He does not move to torture as the first option, it is only after every other option has been exhausted or the situation is truly dire (time crunch, etc). He typically only uses such methods against those that do not give in other other interogation techniques, he seems to just as often use the 'threat' of violence or torture (whether against his captive or someone around them) just as often to get them to break.
He makes every reasonable attempt to minimize innocent casualties, sometimes to the extent of potentially jeopardizing the mission (Ex: Saving the guard at the shipping yard this season). The final point that I feel that keeps him from being truly evil is that he takes no true pleasure or satisfaction in doing these things. Even his comments to a foe to the contrary are a form of intimidation. Again he has expressed a regret that events came to such a point while holding to the viewpoint that once things that point came there was only one "good" bad choice.
I've found this season reminding me of the episode of ST:TNG where they came to the planet that had bred a rave of soldiers to protect them from a past foe. After the war was over the question of what to do with this race of people born and bred for violence became a problem.