chaotic good

English

Adjective

chaotic good (comparative more chaotic good, superlative most chaotic good)

1. (roleplaying games) Of a character: having an alignment that is chaotic (tending to disregard the laws and conventions of society) and good (not doing evil acts).
2. (by extension, Internet slang) Doing or being good in a very unexpected, offbeat, or unconventional manner.
   • 2019 December 16, Katie Way, “What was the Worst Wellness Trend of the 2010s?”, in VICE‎, archived from the original on 2023-05-15:

     Cups are firmly chaotic good; they're good for the environment, but you can't use them without getting covered in your own blood.

   • 2020 January 10, Tanya Chen, “I Roughly Calculated The Cost Of This Lifestyle Blogger's Beautiful, Outrageous Master Bathroom Decor”, in BuzzFeed News‎, archived from the original on 2023-05-30:

     But if influencers can't help but self-promote, even in the cringiest of times, perhaps it's a little better that they now are also actually raising money? Hey, I'm not saying this "chaotic good" scenario is, well, good. But it exists. And it's not the worst thing that's ever happened.

   • 2020 March 29, Josh Wilbur, “This Is the 'Cozy Catastrophe' Americans Have Always Wanted”, in Wired‎, San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-06:

     Like draft day for a suffering sports team, our response to the pandemic represents a rebuild opportunity, and many commentators—see: a recent piece at Politico featuring the predictions of 34 "big thinkers"—are casting the aftershocks of coronavirus as potentially chaotic good.

   • 2021 April 20, Danielle Campoamor, “The BTS x McDonald's Collab Is Pure Chaotic Good”, in Refinery29‎, archived from the original on 21 July 2023:

     On Monday — in what is perhaps the most chaotic good energy we've felt in a long time — McDonald's announced that the company is partnering with BTS, the world-renowned Korean band, for its next celebrity meal.

   • 2022 December 22, Mike Mahardy, “How Bloodborne paved the way for one of 2022's breakout hits”, in Polygon‎, archived from the original on 2023-02-10:

     20222022 was a strange time for video games. I've already taken to calling it "the chaotic-good year" of releases.

Noun

chaotic good (uncountable)

1. Chaotic good things or attitudes generally.
   • 2022 February 25, Jon Pareles, “Florence + the Machine’s Conflicted Coronation, and 12 More New Songs”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-05:

     Her visual choices are part of the plot too: between the anime references, her love for roller skating (which has made her famous on TikTok) and a head full of two-toned braids, Esty's aesthetic is a kind of punk dembow, her own little slice of chaotic good.

See also

Further reading

• chaotic good on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “Alignment Charts”, in Know Your Meme, launched 2007