
Ion Raven |

I've seen this line (or some version of it) countless times in stories, shows, movies, etc.
A balance must be maintained between good and evil.
Followed by some blabber of how the 'scale' has been tipped in favor of evil and the good guys must balance it. So following the previous mantra, does the scale ever tip in favor of good and for some reason must be balanced by evil. What good would come of it? What's wrong with the world being overflowing in some wholesome goodness?

Viktyr Korimir |

It really depends on how you define "Good". If you go by D&D standards of Good-- altruism, compassion, respect for life, and self-sacrifice-- too much Good leads to weakness. The weak and foolish are protected from their natural fate, and the strong and the wise sacrifice themselves for their sake; they neither change nor die, persisting in a state of vulnerability, unable to sustain or advance themselves. Good's compassion hinders their ability to deal with Evil ruthlessly, so that little Evils are allowed to become bigger Evils.
Good leads to stagnation; stagnation equals death.
That said, I don't believe in the balance of Good and Evil. Evil cannot bring balance to D&D Good; Evil can only destroy Good, like it destroys itself. Evil is as wrong as Good, and it is only necessary because Good is wrong. Good and Evil are like poisons that negate each other's effects; if too much of one is making you sick, the other is the antidote, but you would have been healthier to avoid both in the first place.

Irontruth |

This is a trope that doesn't hold up well to scrutiny. In this situation, Good and Evil aren't forces of morality, but rather elemental forces, like hot and cold. Too much heat and a region becomes a desert, too much cold and it's a tundra. This has nothing to do with morality and doesn't really hold up to a logical analysis of the situation.
If Good is good, than it can't be a bad thing. It's like saying you can eat too much of a healthy diet, which is impossible.
You could alter the idea that the balance is always maintained, no matter what. If a Paladin hits level 20, somewhere a new Pit Fiend is born. If that Paladin is killed, by circumstance that Pit Fiend also dies. In this type of situation, killing any powerful creature results in an overall reduction of powerful forces, making the world just that much safer for level 0 commoners.
It also works better if you're balancing non-moral forces. Like Light and Dark, or Summer and Winter. Too much Light and the world is constantly bathed in sunlight that only gets hotter and hotter until everything is consumed. Too much Dark and eventually everything starves to death.

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My guess is that some writer took an eastern notion of balance (with things you actually want to balance, like passion/reason, night/day, work/rest, etc) but, being a westerner, decided that the only forces interesting enough to be the central balance were Good and Evil.
And of course, once one author gets away with it...