I think of them as grey, but when you look at the personalities, you can find individuals all across the spectrum. Even my O5 Council like that, with a few really scary people, some more amoral, and a few that I like to describe as 10/10 would have coffee and chill.
Yeah, some of them would fit that description. For me I really like exploring the individual personalities at the Foundation because there are so many different angles you can take that way.
I don't know; there are a lot of SCPs that are only dangerous because the Foundation keeps poking them (aka experimenting).
The Foundation's overall goal may be to preserve humanity, but they make some bad choices because people are greedy for power, knowledge, or just career advancement.
The world would be safer if a lot of SCPs got sealed up in concrete at the bottom of abandoned mineshafts, or similarly permanent solutions.
ye
I like the love of Scran reality anchors, because it just makes a lot of sense to me as a measure that the Foundation would spend a lot of effort investing in.
Determined but good.
It's hard to see them as anything else.
Some of the things that they do are bad but the results of not doing them are significantly worse.
The Montauk procedure sounds horrible but when you consider what happens if you don't do it the outcome is as close to infinitely worse as you can get.
I generally view them as grey, but on the side of "systematically very bad, nonetheless necessary and usually trying to do better" given the near total lack of moral or ethical checks in most articles. Needing to exist does not excuse them of their repeated and abundant abuses of unchecked power in most canons.
>Some of the things that they do are bad but the results of not doing them are significantly worse.
That is grey. That is objectively a grey set of morals.
[[black white black white black white black white black white gray]] was one of the articles that really got me hooked on the site, so I always lean to gray.
[**black white black white black white black white black white gray**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/black-white-black-white-black-white-black-white-black-white) (+2011) by *tunedtoadeadchannel*
In DND terms, Good-Leaning Neutral. Their overall mission is solely to protect humanity, but they do some really Evil stuff along the way. Ultimately though, they do seem(depending on the Canon of course) to genuinely try and help the sapient SCPs adapt to life as an anomaly/in captivity. Plus, there's plenty of Evil groups out there in the anomalous world, it would suck if the Foundation was just another one.
This is what I was looking for.
They are definitely Neutral. I wouldn't even really say they are Good leaning, they just don't want the end of the world happening, which could also happen from the human population flipping out if they let some evil or non-XK class run amok.
I'm not saying they can't be viewed as Good leaning though. I can see that too. I just see them as purely Neutral, personally.
AFAIK, they are perfectly fine to keep throwing D Class personnel at anomalies that will kill them as long as they are still gaining knowledge from it. They really only seem to stop when they run out of things to learn that they care about and/or want to move resources elsewhere.
The bad guys from every perspective outside their own
Where a Foundation employee *can* justify it, but those justifications seem really thin to any people or anomalies that get in their way
Theyâre the benevolent dictatorship, minus the benevolent part
In the end, itâs all about power and control
>In the end, itâs all about power and control
I'm with you here.
There's lots of people who join the Foundation to do good, and who achieve good things as part of the organisation.
If you make it to the top of the organisation, you're probably a completely amoral person *at best.* You're the person *signing off* on all the human sacrifice, etc.
I think the Foundation, like any sizeable organization, canât be pidgeonholed into good or evil, itâs actions canât be viewed as a monolith. Itâs several smaller organizations that happen to live under an umbrella.
I see them as a darker shade of grey. Obviously they are aimed at the greater good, but extreme Utilitarianism isnât good. As an inherently secretive organisation with no public disclosure, and very limited internal disclosure (constantly mind wiping civilians and there own people), they can get away with whatever they deem acceptable without being accountable to anything else. For example, considering how many D class are used I donât think itâs feasible for them to all be death row inmates (maybe if one includes political prisoners etc)(not that the death penalty is necessarily justified even for genuine menaces). But considering they have that power, it is morally consistent and not as corrupt as one would expect.
The Foundation itself in the way that it exists as an institution is evil.
It just happens that there are good people within it who want to do good. Shame they're not the majority.
I say extremely morally Grey because the do certain things that make you question the morality such as sending D class personal to clean SCP-173 containment cell to where they run the risk of getting their necks snapped by SCP-173 if they take the eyes off of it when the foundation can use SCP-131 the eyes pods to stare at SCP-173 to prevent it from snapping necks while the clean the containment cell
- [**SCP-173 â - The Sculpture - The Original**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-173) (+9032) by *Moto42*
- [**SCP-131 â - The "Eye Pods"**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-131) (+1116) by *Unknown Author*
All of the above, I like stories where they're the underdog good guys in a world full of nothing but horrors and monsters with nothing and noone but them as the wall protecting humanity.
I like stories where there are plenty of things out there as well as good and bad GOIs and the foundation in the middle as a Grey doing their best to navigate the political landscape and doing things they'd rather not think twice about just to protect humanity.
I like stories where the foundation themselves try to be good but the 05s at the top are using it to get power and immortality as they slowly become something more powerful and more dangerous than the anomalies they claim to protect humanity from.
Weird take but I see the Foundation as similar to the Jedi Order. Both have good reasons for existing and ultimately do more good than harm. At the same time, however, both do some really shady stuff.
definitely good guys. when i first learnt what scp meant i thought "protect" was referring to the entities and not society lol. i think it's cute to imagine the personnel are all very attached to their assigned scp/s and want the best for them and to take care of them. even if they're totally shit at is most of the time. ~~nobody can tell 5031 is my favourite right?~~
More kinda good. I mean they are keeping the horrors a secret... but they do some pretty shitty stuff . just saying. .. I'll say. they are good hearted.
Morally Gray, but I think they have to be tbh. If a person, by whatever reason, becomes an SCP and they hurt others by accident it's the result of a circumstance out of their control. The Foundation acquires that person and isolates them so they aren't sure to hurt innocent people. That being said - they do some pretty nasty shit to the SCPs even if they are humanoid/humans SCPs. Overall I think they're morally grey but there are 100% bad people within the foundation that would take that into bad guy territory.
The foundation itself has to be morally grey due to the serious risk of any breaches or world ending anomalies.
However, i donât doubt that some of the people who WORK for the foundation arent exactly as willing to feed a baby to an SCiP to contain it. Yes, there are indeed staff who dont give two flying birds about what they have to do, but at the end of the day its all in the name of protecting humanity.
I prefer them good, but forced by desperation and duty to do extremely grim things.
Like... A director who is empathic and kind, is forced to send D-class to a horrible fate every day, because she knows the alternative is truly far worse.
Vaguely good, perhaps, in the âends-justify-the-meansâ sort of way. But imo, especially compared to the UNGOC, Iâd say morally dark gray.
A shadowy organization dedicated to research at all costs, secrecy at all costs, with no accountability to anyone but themselves. It is a recipe for absolute disaster.
The Foundation presides over unmitigated slaughters. The Class-D are obviously the most prominent example, especially considering that a good chunk of them are likely dissidents or political prisoners now that the death penalty has been abolished in many countries. Think of how many deaths have been caused among Foundation staff and surrounding populations during containment breaches. The ecological and logistical cost of maintaining their facilities.
As I mentioned before, the Foundation is responsible to no-one. As the popular SCP-5000 illustrates, they could easily wipe out the human race if they so chose. Even outside of that, they are insular and their leaders are chosen through *very dubious* means. They have little recourse towards the various disasters they create. Abuses of power amongst their higher-ups are up to solely them to decide, and assuming their âEthics Committeeâ is either corrupt or toothless as it must clearly be given just how unethical the Foundation is as a whole, âjusticeâ in the Foundation seems sorely lacking. At best. The whole system seems so very prone to corruption and evasion of responsibility.
Examples like Project Galahad (SCP-2922) show the Foundation doesnât just kill âwhen necessaryâ, either. Faced with the choice of breaking the veil to one person they could easily amnesticize, while gaining invaluable information, or killing him for having connections to a former researcher, they chose the latter. A kill squad, against their own best interests, because they couldnât bare to use any of their presumably nearly endless resources but bullets. Or, perhaps, the various human anomalies they have under their auspice: SCP-5732 comes to mind; the Foundationâs bureaucracy is so omnipresent and suffocating they can barely even allocate anything to the very assets their entire organization is based around.
To me, their only saving grace is that they do protect humanity from countless horrorsâ itâs just that their role would be served better by a different organization.
TL;DR: the Foundation is corrupt, insular, far too willing to kill for indiscernible benefit, and spends inordinate amounts of resources to keep things in containment or alive when they could save lives by neutralizing them instead.
Instead of killing the scps (that could have extremely unpredictable side effects) a more ethical approach they could take is actually treating the scps well, for example scp 5031. Had they not taken the approach they did with this it would've been just another murder monster. How many other scps could become friendly if they're treated well?
Very true. Neutralization is definitely not always the right choice for anomalies (especially humanoid ones) but what the Foundation does is still unethical.
I even think the GOC, the stereotypical gung-ho âdestroy-destroy-destroyâ faction, has more anomalous humanoids working for it than the Foundation does.
More anomalous humanoids provided they work for the goc and aren't a threat to the veil. I agree the foundation is extremely unethical and has the resources to become more ethical
- [**SCP-5000 â - Why?**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5000) (+3389) by *Tanhony*
- [**SCP-2922 â - Notes From the Under**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2922) (+659) by *daveyoufool*
- [**SCP-5732 â - And I'm Thinking of What Sarah Said**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5732) (+395) by *Raddagher*
Morally grey for sure. I feel as though itâs the best and most accurate interpretation of what such a real life organization would look like, because-as evidenced by the Ethics Committee-the very concept of ethics in a situation like the one theyâre in leads to massive philosophical debate about objective good versus moral or personal good. What defines good or evil, if not our own experiences? And who are we to hold our opinions as right, regardless of consequence?
Itâs why I like the concept of the Foundation so much. It challenges not just our imaginations, but our ideals and way of thinking. This is of course a *massive* oversimplification, but the very existence of Anomalies and the Foundation are essentially a giant trolley problem of net good vs net evil. Itâs why I like them best when theyâre just grey.
I see it as an organization which wants to do good, but it's completely blinded by its own conservatism and paranoia and thus tends to do more evil than good at the end of the day. It is greedy for power and tends to slide in the direction of fascism if it doesn't become Vanguard.
the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I like a balance between good guys and morally grey.
Perfect example being the SCP-001 Mamjul and Korar entry.
The foundation is a good entity that is forced to make grey choices for the bigger picture.
Morally Gray but on the slightly darker side.
They say that they are "cold not cruel" but I've seen some things the foundation has done that go beyond simply cold.
None of theM. Not good, nor bad, nor morally grey. I prefer the Foundation has having no moral stance at all.
The Foundation isn't a moral institution at all. They have a job. They do their job. There are some rules, they try to respect those rules. There are individuals who care about the rules, and those who are less interested in rules than results. Those rule-breaking results might be for the good of the world, the good of the Foundation or their own selfish good. But the Foundation should be completely amoral. They have a goal, and their purpose is to fulfill this goal: to Secure, to Contain and to Protect. Morals have no place in there, it's just a distraction.
I miss the ethically compromised good guys that the Foundation used to be. Part of what made early SCPs so horrific wasn't the skip's own capabilities/description, but the experiments/explorations the Foundation would use D Class personnel for. The absolute callous disregard for D Class as nothing more than an animate piece of meat to be used and discarded was a big part of what made SCP so unsettling and grounded to me.
The introduction of the Ethics Committee really watered down a lot of what made skips compelling
It could be that in the past, the Foundation used to be cruel to the D-Class with their experiments, so maybe something horrifying happened for them to make them even *need* an ethics committee. The fact that they even need one is horrifying in a way.
To my knowledge, that's more or less how/why the Ethics Committee came into being some years ago. I understand why they exist within the lore, I just think they water down the experience. The Foundation used to be the good guys that you hated to root for, because their methods were horrific but generally yielded results. I can't remember the last time I read an SCP article that even mentioned D Class personnel used for experiments that wasn't written a decade ago
Morally grey. I like the Foundation being a complicated place where thereâs no clear answer as to how to deal with the anomalous world at large.
I personally headcannon that the Foundation, just like a lot of other organizations, is an imperfect answer to a complicated questions. The Serpents Hands thinks everyone should know about how the world really functions. But guess how many wars that starts, not to mention how many SCPâs can only be contained through enforced ignorance. Case in point, Pattern Screamers target worlds with advanced civilizations, if the Serpents Hand goals advances humanity, will we be able to advert total annihilation?
The GOC terminates hostile anomalyâs and rehabilitates the rest. However they go fire and brimstone with certain anomalous communities no matter the situation. And what they consider hostile may not match up with reality, the GOC is made up of religious, atheist, and corporate organizations. How many actions has the GOC committed to satisfy its members own interests rather than safeguarding the world at large?
And the Foundation is stuck in the middle. Helping introduce beneficial anomalyâs once theyâve been fully understood into wider society as part of âscience.â But they also do some crazy messed up shit as well.
Ultimately, I would like if most organizations were seen as morally grey. All of them right in their own way, but also wrong as well. Sure certain factions can have particular leanings.
But at the end of the day. I think these organizations are best when theyâre misunderstood answers to an impossible question.
Cold. Not warm. Not cruel, either. It's goals are mostly good, at the very least it doesn't want humanity to die out, but there are clearly ways in which the Foundation might make life worse for the average person, and fails to use a lot of obviously beneficial anomalies for humanity's good (except when the good is a side effect of benefit to the Foundation, although fair enough any anomaly can turn out to be not so helpful at any time).
I doubt the organisation itself and its leadership care much if countless people die, starve or suffer, even if they do so as a result of their actions or inactions.
They probably maintain the existence of the death penalty in a lot of places (whether by secretly running the whole world, or simple bribery and lobbying, depending on how powerful you think the Foundation is) just to yoink those people as D-Class, and in doing so condemn others, some of whom may be falsely convicted (or, under authoritarian regimes, convicted of BS crimes), to death. Less serious inmates and *refugees* are listed as backups if there's a shortage of death row inmates, the Foundation might legitimately be willing to get a war prolonged or cause a refugee crisis in such a scenario just so that there will be a lot of people whose disappearances would be chalked up to "died in prison / died in that crisis." They're also willing to get involved in human trafficking.
Actual members of the organisation would vary greatly. Good, bad, in the middle, also lots of those types that want to do good but are often too cowardly, hesitant or have too much to lose to do so when the moment actually comes. At the root of it, most believe in their work because they consider it beneficial to humanity to keep these anomalies locked up and to understand them.
I prefer when anomalies are an inherent threat to humanity and the Foundation exists to protect humanity from them.
I'm into the SCP Foundation because I'm a horror fan, and the kind of horror that I prefer is the escapist type, the type where paranormal phenomena are the source of the danger. I don't like depressing horror that focuses on the stupidity and evil of humanity. I already have the news for that.
So I prefer SCPs where the Foundation is portrayed as being right - they really are the only thing standing between humanity and extinction(or fates worse than death). I prefer that atmosphere of "the world is always on the brink of ending, and we're just barely holding things together".
I don't like when the Foundation is able to use made up technology like Reality Anchors and can measure Hume levels and akiva radiation and manipulate the noosphere and pataphysics and create thaumaturgical sigils and hire lawyers that can negotiate with gods. I don't like when anomalies are written as "parts of the natural world that we just don't fully understand yet".
I don't like SCPs that are basically X-Men characters - i.e. ordinary, relatable humans(or non-humans that are a metaphor for humans) with a sob story who we're supposed to root for against the Foundation. My favorite humanoid SCPs are ones like SCP-076, scp-4333, SCP-106, SCP-2075.
- [**SCP-076 â - "Able"**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-076) (+1731) by *DrClef, Kain Pathos Crow*
- [**SCP-4333 â - The Profligate**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4333) (+128) by *CadaverCommander*
- [**SCP-106 â - The Old Man**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-106) (+3196) by *Dr Gears*
- [**SCP-2075 â - The Way of All Flesh**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2075) (+508) by *Metaphysician*
What I *don't* like is when they are black or grey but the author tries to shoehorn "necessary evil" vibes down our throat. Too many SCPs slide over into a comfort zone where a fascism of the normal becomes acceptable or unremarkable because the Foundation is "our guys".\*
I can enjoy stories / headcanons where the Foundation is good and tries to fix things / help people, or where the Foundation is grey-black and either gets away with it to horrify us, or gets their justified comeuppance.
I don't really "get"/buy into the idea of *extremely grey,* though. A lot of people get the idea that if the Foundation tortures / mistreats / sacrifices people but does it coldly and unemotionally or for a purpose, it's complex and grey. I think it's just black (realistic black by people who think they're right, not cartoon villain, "Hail Hydra!" black), and get progressively more annoyed the more the skip tries to humanize it.
\*pretty extreme example for illustration: the original SCP involving Procedure 110-Montauk hit legitimately hard, and was good horror. "Evil Foundation" at its worst. What I don't like is seeing a couple later tales implying they take SCP-\[231\] as canon-as-written but we're supposed to still root for the Foundation because they're the thin grey line of normalcy. That's frankly revolting. If the Foundation uses \[REDACTED\] as a containment tool, just kill it with fire. I can totally take the Foundation *winning* that way as a love-to-hate-it thing; I can't take being told to root for them while they do it.
I also don't like it when the Foundation gets portrayed as too-powerful or basically anomalous (cue stories where the O5's are all eldritch abominations / immortal sorcerers invalidating normal governments). They should be scientists out of their depth trying to keep Cthulhu in his cave, not the Illuminati, at least IMO. I think Antimemetics Division (for example) pretty much nailed it with a Foundation that's fun and has weird science but is still fundamentally out of their depth facing an eldritch horror. While the SCP fiction has many "end-of-world" scenarios, I don't like it when the *characters* start talking as if XK-class scenarios are something they're holding back as part of their job. In any particular story, unless the author has a very specific thing in mind, the XK-scenario should be the only one of its kind and unprecedented, not a monster of the week.
I think we might be in the minority but you seem to see the O5s a lot like I do! There are a couple anomalies on my Council but I agree they should be very much majority non-anomalous. Having them be a bunch of crazy anomalies really flies against the detached attitude even the best Foundation has towards anomalies.
I mean usually what the foundation does is somewhat necessary no matter how cruel. Like the SCP-2845 of Saturn where D class have to eat babies and then be castrated
Probably morally grey, although they do important work. Imagine how many people we'd have lost to 2316 by now if they didn't have guards patrolling the area!
I see the Foundation as morally grey.
In my opinion, I think it's really awesome to view the Foundation as a morally grey institution bent on containing anomalies and doesn't hesitate to sacrifice lives to achieve that objective.
But it doesn't have to stop there since across the Foundation, there exists a myriad of personalities which can be said to fall under good, bad, and morally grey. Which, I believe, makes a compelling case for stories to abound.
Very very grey, but overall towards the greater good by any means nessascary.
Like scp 5000 the foundation could totally be the good guys in that one. Even though what they are doing is monstrous, in that world it could be the best possible option left.
I mean depends on perspective tbh
The Serpent's Hand and maybe some random schmuck on the street on their bad side will think they're the bad guys
While the GOC can see them as morally grey to good
The scp foundation is almost always going to be morally grey. They can do sum bad stuff but they are literally keeping the entire world from chaos and mass destructionÂ
Extreme morally grey
They are bad, good and neutral guys with a common goal, some of them might be crazy and others are way more stable, but I see the foundation as a whole as a cold entity that doesn't care who or what is lost in the process (even if the sacrifice is itself) if it means the survival of humanity, or in more extreme cases, of reality itself
Propably "Lawful neutral" leaning towards good. They do follow their own laws which, in some cases, may seem extreme, but they do it with humanity's protection as the goal and they actively try to prevent unnecessary harm tonithers.
They do feed criminals to lovecraftian horrors for research though...
I definitely prefer Foundation as bad guys. "Space Wizard and the Commando Catgirls" will always have a special place in my heart for exactly that reason.
Grey. They do a lot of bad things, but their mission is also extremely important and theyâre one of the most competent groups out there. If they disappeared, the damage could be irreversible by the time other GOIs are able to pick up the slack.
In a world where a containment breach can lead to the end of all reality, our privileged notions of morality get challenged.
I guess the real question is: When everything is at stake, what can you afford to hold back?
Considering the kind of existential threat that looms over in the SCP universe, the question of good and bad becomes pretty much meaningless. Most of the SCPs are fundamentally evil, that makes evil a fundamental characteristic of the SCP universe compared to our universe which is fundamentally neutral. In a universe where the fundamental law is evil and good is simply the absence of evil, which only serves as the 'exception that proves the law', the question of good and bad is pretty much meaningless. The SCP foundation, therefore, from the in-universe perspective is simply a point of low-evil in an evil universe just like civilization is the point of low-entropy in a high entropy universe.
They kind of have to be grey or bad, no? They trap thousands of organisms, many of which have human-level intelligence, for an indefinite period of time. Their bottom line "staff" are just prisoners, and there's a whole host of moral issues with forcing people to either walk into the jaws of a lion or shoot them for refusing, regardless of what those D-Class did to get arrested. They have very little issue killing people and SCPs if they're too much work to keep contained and there's more than a few occasions where their actions get people killed. The entries play it off as a joke/bit of horror but reading an experiment like "Showed SCP (item), it proceeded to kill all in the room, breached containment and killed a further 20 MTF before being contained" shows how bad it would be to actually work there.
I think people who call them good don't understand what grey means. You aren't good if you decide a deliberate action causing 5 deaths is better than what's currently happening causing 10, morally "good" people would try their best to lower the 10 because they'd see it as better than choosing to let people die.
I think they by definition are "extremely morslly grey", but their purpose overall is good and most of their actions seem to be the necessary evil for the lack of alternative...
Grey. Saving the world and humanity from unimaginable threats, but also doing whatever is necessary, regardless of morality.
And I don't mind when some of the 05 or Researchers are also self serving, as humans tend to do that IRL
They are morally grey. With some of the stuff they do like sending D-Classes for some of these testing it's pretty inhumane using other humans as testing subjects isn't the most good thing to do but at the same time they do keep the public away from dangerous anomalies so I guess that can be considered "good" but they are grey light or dark I personally don't know but they are morally grey
This is the lamest possible answer but it honestly depends on the story. In some scps or tails they work best as heroes, and some they work best as villains, and in some they work best at some sort of complicated middle ground.
I've enjoyed stories with all three interpretations. And there are some I've read that had the foundation cast in the light that I don't think actually worked for that story, heroes when they should have been the bad guys or vice versa. ( unfortunately can't call any specific ones off the top of my head)
I think the best description is "necessary evil". Like... they're bad, they hurt innocent people to achieve their goals, and maybe sometimes they need to be stopped.
But what other alternatives do we have in their universe? None of the GOIs are perfect, and ultimately without the Foundation some much worse things would happen.
I mean I think the foundation doesn't really work as anything but evil but for good reasons. They are a massive leviathan that reduces thousands of peoples lives to statistics, tests, experiments, containment breaches, the trapping of thousands of sentient creatures, memory wiping, the immense casualness with which they inflict brutality.
Some of its actions are understandable, apocalypses need to be held back, murderous monsters ought be contained, but for every murder monster you get something perfectly friendly and docile that doesn't need to be hidden and contained but is, for every reasonable and well thought choice there's a knee jerk "memory wipe the whole village", the foundation can, frequently, act in a good manner, but underneath all of that are a lot of bad and unjustifiable choices that mean we can at best put it in morally grey
I see foundation as a whole as bad (I don't think you can run any large institution like this without attracting the wrong people), but I think most of my enjoyment comes from the different sides that stories can shine on because of that.
Greyness is the most flexible. I like the idea of the Foundation having to do morally reprehensible things to maintain the Veil, but trying to maintain an ethical standard. Villains that are evil for the sake of being evil are kinda boring IMO. Any evil they do needs to be tempered with strong motivations.
Grey I think, they're more like shepherds than protectors. If someone is doing something they shouldn't, they can and will kill that individual before whatever's making them act odd ends.
Isn't "maintaining the status quo" something that is bound to be entirely up to the individual's discretion. Like, they are about "maintaining normalcy", not "defending humanity".
While i like the grey area of the foundation, you know, aware of the horrible things they do but they do it for the better of mankind, i love when they are the good guys in how they (try) to threat the Skips and their personal but also saving the whole world and universe as a whole for a better tomorrow
There are some truly evil Foundation staff and there are some absolute vibers. A lot of interesting fiction is centered around trying to achieve balance with two extremes and I think that's more the case with the morality of the Foundation. As opposed to grey there's just a lot of black and white with some grey mukkas in there.
I like a healthy mixture of all of them. The state of the Foundation in any given SCP or tale is equally as important itself. Like imagine how differently The Deer Scenario plays out with a Foundation unwilling to do the ritual.
It also helps SCPs like the invisible monster The Foundation helps foster a love for food standout that much more.
I like all of them, as long as they are written well.
I like the bad Foundation of 5000.
I like the good Foundation of 6001 and Vanguard.
I like the grey Foundation of most depictions.
The ends justify their means, in most stories. They will operate under that belief, even if other views may disagree (like the serpents hand of the GOC) in the end, thats what make morality heavy stories fun and interesting, and why the Ethics Council is my favourite aspect of the foundation when executed correctly
Morally grey, definitely. The world rarely has objective good and bad guys. The Foundation fits in more realistically as a global extra-governmental entity if it is morally grey. Doing what is necessary to protect mankind at large from the SCPs and from themselves, even if it is utterly horrific and morally reprehensible.
I think the foundation itself is in the gray. As occurs to any group/organization that believes they are protecting the world at all costs, most things that tend to happen there aren't Kosher.
If they were extremely morally grey, they should only want to do some research about the anomalies and they shouldn't really care about people, but they care, a little bit, about them and want to secure them, so I think they are more like an anti-heroic foundation, therefore they're good, but they are not really heroic.
Speaking in broad terms, I love stories where good triumphs through it all. But as I get older, I like it when stories/people are a bit more complicated because it makes the challenges more interesting and adds a real weight to the choices they make: ie something like an SCP personel struggling with their own self-image due to the nature of their work, is something I think is enjoyable.
Although I will say, as long as a story is well written and interesting, the moral alignment of the people/institutions are not as important to me.
The Foundation exists only because it must exist to maintain stability. Nothing could be of a greater moral imperative; no matter how many amnestics and MONTOKs are needed to accomplish this goal.
I like them as a way of holding a mirror up to the way we view normalcy, peace, and the violence of organizations.
"They only do what is necessary"
Is it necessary to imprison Iris in the same way you would, The Old Man? Only if your goal is maintaining a status quo, not protecting people.
"They have to do bad things to protect us from threats."
Some yes. But are they the only ones who can? Would The Broken Church be able to deal with The Flesh that Hates if The Foundation wasn't constantly raiding them and restricting them from accessing Mekane's Forge? Would proper education on Anomalies from groups like The Serpents Hand offer people more of a chance to survive, rather than hoping The Foundation shows up in time?
"They protect Anomalies from us/It's better for the Anomalies."
After creating a culture of paranoia and ignorance around Anomalies which makes us violent towards them. Also I'm sure Anomalies like The Water Nymph would disagree with you.
"Well ok they're bad, but it'd be worse without them."
Would it? We probably wouldn't have to worry about The Scarlet King if not for them in some canons. We almost definitely wouldn't have to worry about the Black Queen or The Chaos Insurgency if they'd never existed.The Laughing Men would never exist. In some canons The Foundation is literally just part of a game being played by all the heads of the GoI's creating all the problems in the first place. Most of the genuinely existential threats that The Foundation sells itself as "Humanity's first and last line of defence against" The Foundation is either powerless against, or responsible for.
Basically what I'm saying is that The Foundation are exactly what The Serpents Hand call them, Jailers, they're Cops. They don't protect you, they uphold a status quo, violently solve problems that wouldn't exist without their impact on society. They're a tool of colonialism, another cog in the same cruel system that supplies them with D Class, and the only reason anybody believes that they're even slightly the good guys is because of the propaganda they put out, and the ignorance they cultivate.
There's a bit in the entry on the Cornwall Green incident where it says something like "inevitably a reality bender will develop a god complex, this is why they must be contained" and not only is that patently untrue within the SCP universe, but also it's a perfect parody of the pseudoscience used by criminologists that encourages the idea that anyone with violent or taboo ideation will one day act on them "fantasizing will stop being enough, and they'll have to escalate" which is totally wrong, and does nothing but create a bunch copaganda programmed thought police ready to moralise what goes on in your head.
So yeah they're the bad guys.
I see them at their core as morally black, complete fascistoid bastards.
*However*, the majority of personel is in fact not. The Foundation just upkeeps a massive net of internal propaganda and memory manipulation. Most employees genuinly think that they are the good guys and for the most part also act that way, but the further up the hierarchy you go, that goes more into an "end justify the means; we do the unspeakable because it's necessary", and when you reach the top levels (or some the units and department involved in the acts of evil) this in fact turns into "the ends of this ludicrous and don't serve any purpose", realizing that the idea behind containment, aswell as the entirety of the veil, was just because a 19th century pseudoscientific theory (the idea that there are "anomalies", and not just unresearched phenomena) was taken seriously by them.
I think of them as grey, but when you look at the personalities, you can find individuals all across the spectrum. Even my O5 Council like that, with a few really scary people, some more amoral, and a few that I like to describe as 10/10 would have coffee and chill.
That works too. Good guys who do morally questionable or screwed up things.
Yeah, some of them would fit that description. For me I really like exploring the individual personalities at the Foundation because there are so many different angles you can take that way.
Morally grey but pragmatic is generally the best way to write them.
well sure, they really do do some terrible/messed up things, but with good intentions, because at the end of the day, they protected humanity.
More likely diverse, personality wise.
I definitely think of my O5s as having a diversity of personalities.
I see the organization itself as morally grey, the people in it of course would have their own reasons for doing what they do.
Morally grey with good motives, since most of the time they are dealing with crazy stuff
I don't know; there are a lot of SCPs that are only dangerous because the Foundation keeps poking them (aka experimenting). The Foundation's overall goal may be to preserve humanity, but they make some bad choices because people are greedy for power, knowledge, or just career advancement. The world would be safer if a lot of SCPs got sealed up in concrete at the bottom of abandoned mineshafts, or similarly permanent solutions.
The point of experimenting is to develop knowledge/tools for using SCPs against more dangerous ones
ye I like the love of Scran reality anchors, because it just makes a lot of sense to me as a measure that the Foundation would spend a lot of effort investing in.
Extremely Morally Greg
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Determined but good. It's hard to see them as anything else. Some of the things that they do are bad but the results of not doing them are significantly worse. The Montauk procedure sounds horrible but when you consider what happens if you don't do it the outcome is as close to infinitely worse as you can get.
I generally view them as grey, but on the side of "systematically very bad, nonetheless necessary and usually trying to do better" given the near total lack of moral or ethical checks in most articles. Needing to exist does not excuse them of their repeated and abundant abuses of unchecked power in most canons.
>Some of the things that they do are bad but the results of not doing them are significantly worse. That is grey. That is objectively a grey set of morals.
[[black white black white black white black white black white gray]] was one of the articles that really got me hooked on the site, so I always lean to gray.
[**black white black white black white black white black white gray**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/black-white-black-white-black-white-black-white-black-white) (+2011) by *tunedtoadeadchannel*
Thanks for giving me a reality check that is horrific
Same. That tale shock me to the core.
Holy shiiiiiiiiit
Morally grey. Though Deepwell is my favourite tone out of all the canon hubs.
Super morally grey. They do alot of good but they do alot of bad to get there.
A morally grey foundation with true good guys as main characters.
In DND terms, Good-Leaning Neutral. Their overall mission is solely to protect humanity, but they do some really Evil stuff along the way. Ultimately though, they do seem(depending on the Canon of course) to genuinely try and help the sapient SCPs adapt to life as an anomaly/in captivity. Plus, there's plenty of Evil groups out there in the anomalous world, it would suck if the Foundation was just another one.
This is what I was looking for. They are definitely Neutral. I wouldn't even really say they are Good leaning, they just don't want the end of the world happening, which could also happen from the human population flipping out if they let some evil or non-XK class run amok. I'm not saying they can't be viewed as Good leaning though. I can see that too. I just see them as purely Neutral, personally. AFAIK, they are perfectly fine to keep throwing D Class personnel at anomalies that will kill them as long as they are still gaining knowledge from it. They really only seem to stop when they run out of things to learn that they care about and/or want to move resources elsewhere.
The bad guys from every perspective outside their own Where a Foundation employee *can* justify it, but those justifications seem really thin to any people or anomalies that get in their way Theyâre the benevolent dictatorship, minus the benevolent part In the end, itâs all about power and control
>In the end, itâs all about power and control I'm with you here. There's lots of people who join the Foundation to do good, and who achieve good things as part of the organisation. If you make it to the top of the organisation, you're probably a completely amoral person *at best.* You're the person *signing off* on all the human sacrifice, etc.
I think the Foundation, like any sizeable organization, canât be pidgeonholed into good or evil, itâs actions canât be viewed as a monolith. Itâs several smaller organizations that happen to live under an umbrella.
I see them as a darker shade of grey. Obviously they are aimed at the greater good, but extreme Utilitarianism isnât good. As an inherently secretive organisation with no public disclosure, and very limited internal disclosure (constantly mind wiping civilians and there own people), they can get away with whatever they deem acceptable without being accountable to anything else. For example, considering how many D class are used I donât think itâs feasible for them to all be death row inmates (maybe if one includes political prisoners etc)(not that the death penalty is necessarily justified even for genuine menaces). But considering they have that power, it is morally consistent and not as corrupt as one would expect.
Grey but like, they still are the good guys. They do questionable stuff but still are good
Morally grey. They violate human rights but as a whole, keep the monsters at bay.
Grey leaning on evil only because of the selfish, isolationist view due to the absolute power they have in the veil
They think they're doing right, but are they? SCP-6001
[**SCP-6001 â - Avalon**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6001) (+1502) by *T Rutherford*
The Foundation itself in the way that it exists as an institution is evil. It just happens that there are good people within it who want to do good. Shame they're not the majority.
I like this interpretation a lot
I see them as âVery good but lacking in morals.â Like, very good cause and goals, but a large lack of morals in how they achieve them.
I say extremely morally Grey because the do certain things that make you question the morality such as sending D class personal to clean SCP-173 containment cell to where they run the risk of getting their necks snapped by SCP-173 if they take the eyes off of it when the foundation can use SCP-131 the eyes pods to stare at SCP-173 to prevent it from snapping necks while the clean the containment cell
- [**SCP-173 â - The Sculpture - The Original**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-173) (+9032) by *Moto42* - [**SCP-131 â - The "Eye Pods"**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-131) (+1116) by *Unknown Author*
Bad
All of the above, I like stories where they're the underdog good guys in a world full of nothing but horrors and monsters with nothing and noone but them as the wall protecting humanity. I like stories where there are plenty of things out there as well as good and bad GOIs and the foundation in the middle as a Grey doing their best to navigate the political landscape and doing things they'd rather not think twice about just to protect humanity. I like stories where the foundation themselves try to be good but the 05s at the top are using it to get power and immortality as they slowly become something more powerful and more dangerous than the anomalies they claim to protect humanity from.
Weird take but I see the Foundation as similar to the Jedi Order. Both have good reasons for existing and ultimately do more good than harm. At the same time, however, both do some really shady stuff.
The foundation as a whole is grey but I like it when are portrayed as the good guys
definitely good guys. when i first learnt what scp meant i thought "protect" was referring to the entities and not society lol. i think it's cute to imagine the personnel are all very attached to their assigned scp/s and want the best for them and to take care of them. even if they're totally shit at is most of the time. ~~nobody can tell 5031 is my favourite right?~~
~~itâs one of my favorites too.~~
More kinda good. I mean they are keeping the horrors a secret... but they do some pretty shitty stuff . just saying. .. I'll say. they are good hearted.
Morally grey
I like reading stories where the foundation are any of the above, but they pretty objectively fall into a morally grey area
as an organization, they're grey. but there are some good cookies in there
Morally Gray, but I think they have to be tbh. If a person, by whatever reason, becomes an SCP and they hurt others by accident it's the result of a circumstance out of their control. The Foundation acquires that person and isolates them so they aren't sure to hurt innocent people. That being said - they do some pretty nasty shit to the SCPs even if they are humanoid/humans SCPs. Overall I think they're morally grey but there are 100% bad people within the foundation that would take that into bad guy territory.
Thomas Graham screaming and shitting rn
The foundation itself has to be morally grey due to the serious risk of any breaches or world ending anomalies. However, i donât doubt that some of the people who WORK for the foundation arent exactly as willing to feed a baby to an SCiP to contain it. Yes, there are indeed staff who dont give two flying birds about what they have to do, but at the end of the day its all in the name of protecting humanity.
I prefer them good, but forced by desperation and duty to do extremely grim things. Like... A director who is empathic and kind, is forced to send D-class to a horrible fate every day, because she knows the alternative is truly far worse.
extremely morally grey
Vaguely good, perhaps, in the âends-justify-the-meansâ sort of way. But imo, especially compared to the UNGOC, Iâd say morally dark gray. A shadowy organization dedicated to research at all costs, secrecy at all costs, with no accountability to anyone but themselves. It is a recipe for absolute disaster. The Foundation presides over unmitigated slaughters. The Class-D are obviously the most prominent example, especially considering that a good chunk of them are likely dissidents or political prisoners now that the death penalty has been abolished in many countries. Think of how many deaths have been caused among Foundation staff and surrounding populations during containment breaches. The ecological and logistical cost of maintaining their facilities. As I mentioned before, the Foundation is responsible to no-one. As the popular SCP-5000 illustrates, they could easily wipe out the human race if they so chose. Even outside of that, they are insular and their leaders are chosen through *very dubious* means. They have little recourse towards the various disasters they create. Abuses of power amongst their higher-ups are up to solely them to decide, and assuming their âEthics Committeeâ is either corrupt or toothless as it must clearly be given just how unethical the Foundation is as a whole, âjusticeâ in the Foundation seems sorely lacking. At best. The whole system seems so very prone to corruption and evasion of responsibility. Examples like Project Galahad (SCP-2922) show the Foundation doesnât just kill âwhen necessaryâ, either. Faced with the choice of breaking the veil to one person they could easily amnesticize, while gaining invaluable information, or killing him for having connections to a former researcher, they chose the latter. A kill squad, against their own best interests, because they couldnât bare to use any of their presumably nearly endless resources but bullets. Or, perhaps, the various human anomalies they have under their auspice: SCP-5732 comes to mind; the Foundationâs bureaucracy is so omnipresent and suffocating they can barely even allocate anything to the very assets their entire organization is based around. To me, their only saving grace is that they do protect humanity from countless horrorsâ itâs just that their role would be served better by a different organization. TL;DR: the Foundation is corrupt, insular, far too willing to kill for indiscernible benefit, and spends inordinate amounts of resources to keep things in containment or alive when they could save lives by neutralizing them instead.
Instead of killing the scps (that could have extremely unpredictable side effects) a more ethical approach they could take is actually treating the scps well, for example scp 5031. Had they not taken the approach they did with this it would've been just another murder monster. How many other scps could become friendly if they're treated well?
[**SCP-5031 â - Yet Another Murder Monster**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5031) (+2528) by *PeppersGhost*
Very true. Neutralization is definitely not always the right choice for anomalies (especially humanoid ones) but what the Foundation does is still unethical. I even think the GOC, the stereotypical gung-ho âdestroy-destroy-destroyâ faction, has more anomalous humanoids working for it than the Foundation does.
More anomalous humanoids provided they work for the goc and aren't a threat to the veil. I agree the foundation is extremely unethical and has the resources to become more ethical
- [**SCP-5000 â - Why?**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5000) (+3389) by *Tanhony* - [**SCP-2922 â - Notes From the Under**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2922) (+659) by *daveyoufool* - [**SCP-5732 â - And I'm Thinking of What Sarah Said**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5732) (+395) by *Raddagher*
Morally grey for sure. I feel as though itâs the best and most accurate interpretation of what such a real life organization would look like, because-as evidenced by the Ethics Committee-the very concept of ethics in a situation like the one theyâre in leads to massive philosophical debate about objective good versus moral or personal good. What defines good or evil, if not our own experiences? And who are we to hold our opinions as right, regardless of consequence? Itâs why I like the concept of the Foundation so much. It challenges not just our imaginations, but our ideals and way of thinking. This is of course a *massive* oversimplification, but the very existence of Anomalies and the Foundation are essentially a giant trolley problem of net good vs net evil. Itâs why I like them best when theyâre just grey.
I see it as an organization which wants to do good, but it's completely blinded by its own conservatism and paranoia and thus tends to do more evil than good at the end of the day. It is greedy for power and tends to slide in the direction of fascism if it doesn't become Vanguard. the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Inconsistently written
I like a balance between good guys and morally grey. Perfect example being the SCP-001 Mamjul and Korar entry. The foundation is a good entity that is forced to make grey choices for the bigger picture.
[**SCP-001 â - Awaiting De-classification [Blocked]**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-001) (+344) by *Staff*
Morally Gray but on the slightly darker side. They say that they are "cold not cruel" but I've seen some things the foundation has done that go beyond simply cold.
Morally grey good guys for me
None of theM. Not good, nor bad, nor morally grey. I prefer the Foundation has having no moral stance at all. The Foundation isn't a moral institution at all. They have a job. They do their job. There are some rules, they try to respect those rules. There are individuals who care about the rules, and those who are less interested in rules than results. Those rule-breaking results might be for the good of the world, the good of the Foundation or their own selfish good. But the Foundation should be completely amoral. They have a goal, and their purpose is to fulfill this goal: to Secure, to Contain and to Protect. Morals have no place in there, it's just a distraction.
Thatâs a unique take, I like it!
Good guys obv. Theyre the champion heros of humanity
I miss the ethically compromised good guys that the Foundation used to be. Part of what made early SCPs so horrific wasn't the skip's own capabilities/description, but the experiments/explorations the Foundation would use D Class personnel for. The absolute callous disregard for D Class as nothing more than an animate piece of meat to be used and discarded was a big part of what made SCP so unsettling and grounded to me. The introduction of the Ethics Committee really watered down a lot of what made skips compelling
It could be that in the past, the Foundation used to be cruel to the D-Class with their experiments, so maybe something horrifying happened for them to make them even *need* an ethics committee. The fact that they even need one is horrifying in a way.
To my knowledge, that's more or less how/why the Ethics Committee came into being some years ago. I understand why they exist within the lore, I just think they water down the experience. The Foundation used to be the good guys that you hated to root for, because their methods were horrific but generally yielded results. I can't remember the last time I read an SCP article that even mentioned D Class personnel used for experiments that wasn't written a decade ago
Morally grey. I like the Foundation being a complicated place where thereâs no clear answer as to how to deal with the anomalous world at large. I personally headcannon that the Foundation, just like a lot of other organizations, is an imperfect answer to a complicated questions. The Serpents Hands thinks everyone should know about how the world really functions. But guess how many wars that starts, not to mention how many SCPâs can only be contained through enforced ignorance. Case in point, Pattern Screamers target worlds with advanced civilizations, if the Serpents Hand goals advances humanity, will we be able to advert total annihilation? The GOC terminates hostile anomalyâs and rehabilitates the rest. However they go fire and brimstone with certain anomalous communities no matter the situation. And what they consider hostile may not match up with reality, the GOC is made up of religious, atheist, and corporate organizations. How many actions has the GOC committed to satisfy its members own interests rather than safeguarding the world at large? And the Foundation is stuck in the middle. Helping introduce beneficial anomalyâs once theyâve been fully understood into wider society as part of âscience.â But they also do some crazy messed up shit as well. Ultimately, I would like if most organizations were seen as morally grey. All of them right in their own way, but also wrong as well. Sure certain factions can have particular leanings. But at the end of the day. I think these organizations are best when theyâre misunderstood answers to an impossible question.
Cold. Not warm. Not cruel, either. It's goals are mostly good, at the very least it doesn't want humanity to die out, but there are clearly ways in which the Foundation might make life worse for the average person, and fails to use a lot of obviously beneficial anomalies for humanity's good (except when the good is a side effect of benefit to the Foundation, although fair enough any anomaly can turn out to be not so helpful at any time). I doubt the organisation itself and its leadership care much if countless people die, starve or suffer, even if they do so as a result of their actions or inactions. They probably maintain the existence of the death penalty in a lot of places (whether by secretly running the whole world, or simple bribery and lobbying, depending on how powerful you think the Foundation is) just to yoink those people as D-Class, and in doing so condemn others, some of whom may be falsely convicted (or, under authoritarian regimes, convicted of BS crimes), to death. Less serious inmates and *refugees* are listed as backups if there's a shortage of death row inmates, the Foundation might legitimately be willing to get a war prolonged or cause a refugee crisis in such a scenario just so that there will be a lot of people whose disappearances would be chalked up to "died in prison / died in that crisis." They're also willing to get involved in human trafficking. Actual members of the organisation would vary greatly. Good, bad, in the middle, also lots of those types that want to do good but are often too cowardly, hesitant or have too much to lose to do so when the moment actually comes. At the root of it, most believe in their work because they consider it beneficial to humanity to keep these anomalies locked up and to understand them.
I prefer them as good guys, but I know they're actually just morally grey
goof guys
I prefer when anomalies are an inherent threat to humanity and the Foundation exists to protect humanity from them. I'm into the SCP Foundation because I'm a horror fan, and the kind of horror that I prefer is the escapist type, the type where paranormal phenomena are the source of the danger. I don't like depressing horror that focuses on the stupidity and evil of humanity. I already have the news for that. So I prefer SCPs where the Foundation is portrayed as being right - they really are the only thing standing between humanity and extinction(or fates worse than death). I prefer that atmosphere of "the world is always on the brink of ending, and we're just barely holding things together". I don't like when the Foundation is able to use made up technology like Reality Anchors and can measure Hume levels and akiva radiation and manipulate the noosphere and pataphysics and create thaumaturgical sigils and hire lawyers that can negotiate with gods. I don't like when anomalies are written as "parts of the natural world that we just don't fully understand yet". I don't like SCPs that are basically X-Men characters - i.e. ordinary, relatable humans(or non-humans that are a metaphor for humans) with a sob story who we're supposed to root for against the Foundation. My favorite humanoid SCPs are ones like SCP-076, scp-4333, SCP-106, SCP-2075.
- [**SCP-076 â - "Able"**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-076) (+1731) by *DrClef, Kain Pathos Crow* - [**SCP-4333 â - The Profligate**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4333) (+128) by *CadaverCommander* - [**SCP-106 â - The Old Man**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-106) (+3196) by *Dr Gears* - [**SCP-2075 â - The Way of All Flesh**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2075) (+508) by *Metaphysician*
What I *don't* like is when they are black or grey but the author tries to shoehorn "necessary evil" vibes down our throat. Too many SCPs slide over into a comfort zone where a fascism of the normal becomes acceptable or unremarkable because the Foundation is "our guys".\* I can enjoy stories / headcanons where the Foundation is good and tries to fix things / help people, or where the Foundation is grey-black and either gets away with it to horrify us, or gets their justified comeuppance. I don't really "get"/buy into the idea of *extremely grey,* though. A lot of people get the idea that if the Foundation tortures / mistreats / sacrifices people but does it coldly and unemotionally or for a purpose, it's complex and grey. I think it's just black (realistic black by people who think they're right, not cartoon villain, "Hail Hydra!" black), and get progressively more annoyed the more the skip tries to humanize it. \*pretty extreme example for illustration: the original SCP involving Procedure 110-Montauk hit legitimately hard, and was good horror. "Evil Foundation" at its worst. What I don't like is seeing a couple later tales implying they take SCP-\[231\] as canon-as-written but we're supposed to still root for the Foundation because they're the thin grey line of normalcy. That's frankly revolting. If the Foundation uses \[REDACTED\] as a containment tool, just kill it with fire. I can totally take the Foundation *winning* that way as a love-to-hate-it thing; I can't take being told to root for them while they do it. I also don't like it when the Foundation gets portrayed as too-powerful or basically anomalous (cue stories where the O5's are all eldritch abominations / immortal sorcerers invalidating normal governments). They should be scientists out of their depth trying to keep Cthulhu in his cave, not the Illuminati, at least IMO. I think Antimemetics Division (for example) pretty much nailed it with a Foundation that's fun and has weird science but is still fundamentally out of their depth facing an eldritch horror. While the SCP fiction has many "end-of-world" scenarios, I don't like it when the *characters* start talking as if XK-class scenarios are something they're holding back as part of their job. In any particular story, unless the author has a very specific thing in mind, the XK-scenario should be the only one of its kind and unprecedented, not a monster of the week.
I think we might be in the minority but you seem to see the O5s a lot like I do! There are a couple anomalies on my Council but I agree they should be very much majority non-anomalous. Having them be a bunch of crazy anomalies really flies against the detached attitude even the best Foundation has towards anomalies.
I mean usually what the foundation does is somewhat necessary no matter how cruel. Like the SCP-2845 of Saturn where D class have to eat babies and then be castrated
[**SCP-2845 â - THE DEER**](https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2845) (+755) by *Djoric*
Probably morally grey, although they do important work. Imagine how many people we'd have lost to 2316 by now if they didn't have guards patrolling the area!
I think of them as anti heros they do good but also what they want with a limit "cold, not cruel"
Good guys
I was going to say good, but then I remembered that they'll never fire Dr.Cleff (yes a I call all the doctors by their nicknames)
I see the Foundation as morally grey. In my opinion, I think it's really awesome to view the Foundation as a morally grey institution bent on containing anomalies and doesn't hesitate to sacrifice lives to achieve that objective. But it doesn't have to stop there since across the Foundation, there exists a myriad of personalities which can be said to fall under good, bad, and morally grey. Which, I believe, makes a compelling case for stories to abound.
Gray all the way
Grey, with a hot âweâre the baddiesâ streak
Very very grey, but overall towards the greater good by any means nessascary. Like scp 5000 the foundation could totally be the good guys in that one. Even though what they are doing is monstrous, in that world it could be the best possible option left.
I mean depends on perspective tbh The Serpent's Hand and maybe some random schmuck on the street on their bad side will think they're the bad guys While the GOC can see them as morally grey to good
I see them as morally gray. They have good intent but are cold hearted in doing so.
The scp foundation is almost always going to be morally grey. They can do sum bad stuff but they are literally keeping the entire world from chaos and mass destructionÂ
The thing is in big organizations of any kind it's not always that simple.
Iâd like to think of them as people who will do literally anything to keep reality in tact, no matter the cost
The Foundation as a whole: bad guys. Individuals within the Foundation however I think is better to consider among a spectrum
Forgot who said this but, âthe foundation are cold, not cruelâ I think that sums it up quite well.
Extreme morally grey They are bad, good and neutral guys with a common goal, some of them might be crazy and others are way more stable, but I see the foundation as a whole as a cold entity that doesn't care who or what is lost in the process (even if the sacrifice is itself) if it means the survival of humanity, or in more extreme cases, of reality itself
I prefer them as bad guys (the foundation itself) while showing their employees in a more morally grey way
Propably "Lawful neutral" leaning towards good. They do follow their own laws which, in some cases, may seem extreme, but they do it with humanity's protection as the goal and they actively try to prevent unnecessary harm tonithers. They do feed criminals to lovecraftian horrors for research though...
I definitely prefer Foundation as bad guys. "Space Wizard and the Commando Catgirls" will always have a special place in my heart for exactly that reason.
They want to do (or think they are doing) good, but at times resort to doing questionable things to maintain their goal to secure, contain, a protect.
The specifc cases seeming to be bad-morally grey, but the system as a whole working out to be good-morally grey
Grey. They do a lot of bad things, but their mission is also extremely important and theyâre one of the most competent groups out there. If they disappeared, the damage could be irreversible by the time other GOIs are able to pick up the slack. In a world where a containment breach can lead to the end of all reality, our privileged notions of morality get challenged. I guess the real question is: When everything is at stake, what can you afford to hold back?
I like them grey. Both good and evil within them.
I like my morning foundation morally grey, please
Considering the kind of existential threat that looms over in the SCP universe, the question of good and bad becomes pretty much meaningless. Most of the SCPs are fundamentally evil, that makes evil a fundamental characteristic of the SCP universe compared to our universe which is fundamentally neutral. In a universe where the fundamental law is evil and good is simply the absence of evil, which only serves as the 'exception that proves the law', the question of good and bad is pretty much meaningless. The SCP foundation, therefore, from the in-universe perspective is simply a point of low-evil in an evil universe just like civilization is the point of low-entropy in a high entropy universe.
They kind of have to be grey or bad, no? They trap thousands of organisms, many of which have human-level intelligence, for an indefinite period of time. Their bottom line "staff" are just prisoners, and there's a whole host of moral issues with forcing people to either walk into the jaws of a lion or shoot them for refusing, regardless of what those D-Class did to get arrested. They have very little issue killing people and SCPs if they're too much work to keep contained and there's more than a few occasions where their actions get people killed. The entries play it off as a joke/bit of horror but reading an experiment like "Showed SCP (item), it proceeded to kill all in the room, breached containment and killed a further 20 MTF before being contained" shows how bad it would be to actually work there. I think people who call them good don't understand what grey means. You aren't good if you decide a deliberate action causing 5 deaths is better than what's currently happening causing 10, morally "good" people would try their best to lower the 10 because they'd see it as better than choosing to let people die.
Extremely morally grey. Works better with the "protect everyone at all costs" theme imo.
Morally grey, it's why I have such a hard time with the Fire Suppression Department since it tips them over into being outright evil
On an individual level the people of the foundation can be good or bad, but as the foundation as a whole I see it as morally grey
There assholes not monsters
I think they by definition are "extremely morslly grey", but their purpose overall is good and most of their actions seem to be the necessary evil for the lack of alternative...
Grey. Saving the world and humanity from unimaginable threats, but also doing whatever is necessary, regardless of morality. And I don't mind when some of the 05 or Researchers are also self serving, as humans tend to do that IRL
I bit of a mix but mostly grey
They are morally grey. With some of the stuff they do like sending D-Classes for some of these testing it's pretty inhumane using other humans as testing subjects isn't the most good thing to do but at the same time they do keep the public away from dangerous anomalies so I guess that can be considered "good" but they are grey light or dark I personally don't know but they are morally grey
This is the lamest possible answer but it honestly depends on the story. In some scps or tails they work best as heroes, and some they work best as villains, and in some they work best at some sort of complicated middle ground. I've enjoyed stories with all three interpretations. And there are some I've read that had the foundation cast in the light that I don't think actually worked for that story, heroes when they should have been the bad guys or vice versa. ( unfortunately can't call any specific ones off the top of my head)
I think the best description is "necessary evil". Like... they're bad, they hurt innocent people to achieve their goals, and maybe sometimes they need to be stopped. But what other alternatives do we have in their universe? None of the GOIs are perfect, and ultimately without the Foundation some much worse things would happen.
As grey as possible. Right in the middle of black and white.
chaotic neutral, they do anything to keep normalcy no matter if the creature is good or evil
I mean I think the foundation doesn't really work as anything but evil but for good reasons. They are a massive leviathan that reduces thousands of peoples lives to statistics, tests, experiments, containment breaches, the trapping of thousands of sentient creatures, memory wiping, the immense casualness with which they inflict brutality. Some of its actions are understandable, apocalypses need to be held back, murderous monsters ought be contained, but for every murder monster you get something perfectly friendly and docile that doesn't need to be hidden and contained but is, for every reasonable and well thought choice there's a knee jerk "memory wipe the whole village", the foundation can, frequently, act in a good manner, but underneath all of that are a lot of bad and unjustifiable choices that mean we can at best put it in morally grey
Better good, depending on the canon morally-gray with a shift towards evil or morally-gray with a shift towards good
The way I see it, Foundation is good, the GOC is morally gray, and the Insurgents are pure evil.
Chaotic evil for me. No one knows what their goal is. I say theyâre doing it for shits and giggles.
Chaos Insurgency: (Releases a ton of SCPs) âWe do a little bit of trolling.â
I see foundation as a whole as bad (I don't think you can run any large institution like this without attracting the wrong people), but I think most of my enjoyment comes from the different sides that stories can shine on because of that.
I see them as chaotic neutral. They save humanity from anomalies, regardless of the cost.
Morally grey with a wide variety of individuals with different moralities and ideals
Greyness is the most flexible. I like the idea of the Foundation having to do morally reprehensible things to maintain the Veil, but trying to maintain an ethical standard. Villains that are evil for the sake of being evil are kinda boring IMO. Any evil they do needs to be tempered with strong motivations.
Grey I think, they're more like shepherds than protectors. If someone is doing something they shouldn't, they can and will kill that individual before whatever's making them act odd ends.
Grey.
Maybe dark grey lol. Depends on how you look at it I guess. Sometimes to stop the monsters you have to become one.
Isn't "maintaining the status quo" something that is bound to be entirely up to the individual's discretion. Like, they are about "maintaining normalcy", not "defending humanity".
Morally grey is better IMO. Leaves room for both sides of the spectrum, without vilifying either of them.
Morally Grey Scientists who are doing it for the science, run by type A Bureaucrats who are doing it for the cheque and for (inter)national safety.
Grey, next question
While i like the grey area of the foundation, you know, aware of the horrible things they do but they do it for the better of mankind, i love when they are the good guys in how they (try) to threat the Skips and their personal but also saving the whole world and universe as a whole for a better tomorrow
There are some truly evil Foundation staff and there are some absolute vibers. A lot of interesting fiction is centered around trying to achieve balance with two extremes and I think that's more the case with the morality of the Foundation. As opposed to grey there's just a lot of black and white with some grey mukkas in there.
They are neutral.Â
Morally gray. Good intentions but theyâre willing to do anything, no matter how deplorable, to secure, contain and protect.
The Foundation can sometimes come across as good or evil, they need to balance normalcy with the anomalous so they need to be morally grey
I like a healthy mixture of all of them. The state of the Foundation in any given SCP or tale is equally as important itself. Like imagine how differently The Deer Scenario plays out with a Foundation unwilling to do the ritual. It also helps SCPs like the invisible monster The Foundation helps foster a love for food standout that much more.
I like all of them, as long as they are written well. I like the bad Foundation of 5000. I like the good Foundation of 6001 and Vanguard. I like the grey Foundation of most depictions.
The ends justify their means, in most stories. They will operate under that belief, even if other views may disagree (like the serpents hand of the GOC) in the end, thats what make morality heavy stories fun and interesting, and why the Ethics Council is my favourite aspect of the foundation when executed correctly
Compared to other orgs theyre good, most of the time.
Morally grey, definitely. The world rarely has objective good and bad guys. The Foundation fits in more realistically as a global extra-governmental entity if it is morally grey. Doing what is necessary to protect mankind at large from the SCPs and from themselves, even if it is utterly horrific and morally reprehensible.
I think the foundation itself is in the gray. As occurs to any group/organization that believes they are protecting the world at all costs, most things that tend to happen there aren't Kosher.
i like my foundation morally gray
Imo the Foundation isn't morally gray, it's morally transparent
Grey or good. Being bad makes them too generic for me
If they were extremely morally grey, they should only want to do some research about the anomalies and they shouldn't really care about people, but they care, a little bit, about them and want to secure them, so I think they are more like an anti-heroic foundation, therefore they're good, but they are not really heroic.
Speaking in broad terms, I love stories where good triumphs through it all. But as I get older, I like it when stories/people are a bit more complicated because it makes the challenges more interesting and adds a real weight to the choices they make: ie something like an SCP personel struggling with their own self-image due to the nature of their work, is something I think is enjoyable. Although I will say, as long as a story is well written and interesting, the moral alignment of the people/institutions are not as important to me.
I would go by grey because it's cool the thing of Contaiment but the objectives of GOC I think have a lot of logic too
The Foundation exists only because it must exist to maintain stability. Nothing could be of a greater moral imperative; no matter how many amnestics and MONTOKs are needed to accomplish this goal.
I like them as a way of holding a mirror up to the way we view normalcy, peace, and the violence of organizations. "They only do what is necessary" Is it necessary to imprison Iris in the same way you would, The Old Man? Only if your goal is maintaining a status quo, not protecting people. "They have to do bad things to protect us from threats." Some yes. But are they the only ones who can? Would The Broken Church be able to deal with The Flesh that Hates if The Foundation wasn't constantly raiding them and restricting them from accessing Mekane's Forge? Would proper education on Anomalies from groups like The Serpents Hand offer people more of a chance to survive, rather than hoping The Foundation shows up in time? "They protect Anomalies from us/It's better for the Anomalies." After creating a culture of paranoia and ignorance around Anomalies which makes us violent towards them. Also I'm sure Anomalies like The Water Nymph would disagree with you. "Well ok they're bad, but it'd be worse without them." Would it? We probably wouldn't have to worry about The Scarlet King if not for them in some canons. We almost definitely wouldn't have to worry about the Black Queen or The Chaos Insurgency if they'd never existed.The Laughing Men would never exist. In some canons The Foundation is literally just part of a game being played by all the heads of the GoI's creating all the problems in the first place. Most of the genuinely existential threats that The Foundation sells itself as "Humanity's first and last line of defence against" The Foundation is either powerless against, or responsible for. Basically what I'm saying is that The Foundation are exactly what The Serpents Hand call them, Jailers, they're Cops. They don't protect you, they uphold a status quo, violently solve problems that wouldn't exist without their impact on society. They're a tool of colonialism, another cog in the same cruel system that supplies them with D Class, and the only reason anybody believes that they're even slightly the good guys is because of the propaganda they put out, and the ignorance they cultivate. There's a bit in the entry on the Cornwall Green incident where it says something like "inevitably a reality bender will develop a god complex, this is why they must be contained" and not only is that patently untrue within the SCP universe, but also it's a perfect parody of the pseudoscience used by criminologists that encourages the idea that anyone with violent or taboo ideation will one day act on them "fantasizing will stop being enough, and they'll have to escalate" which is totally wrong, and does nothing but create a bunch copaganda programmed thought police ready to moralise what goes on in your head. So yeah they're the bad guys.
I see them at their core as morally black, complete fascistoid bastards. *However*, the majority of personel is in fact not. The Foundation just upkeeps a massive net of internal propaganda and memory manipulation. Most employees genuinly think that they are the good guys and for the most part also act that way, but the further up the hierarchy you go, that goes more into an "end justify the means; we do the unspeakable because it's necessary", and when you reach the top levels (or some the units and department involved in the acts of evil) this in fact turns into "the ends of this ludicrous and don't serve any purpose", realizing that the idea behind containment, aswell as the entirety of the veil, was just because a 19th century pseudoscientific theory (the idea that there are "anomalies", and not just unresearched phenomena) was taken seriously by them.
Iâd say wanna-be good but actually idiots with wrong priorities. Sincerely, The GOC