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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 8833234" data-attributes="member: 7023887">Warning: Beige Alert!I hate storylines that profess "Good and Evil must come to a balance, it's healthy for the world". I dislike the fact that Star Wars uses this, I think Dragonlance shouldn't have it, and don't enjoy this trope in the slightest. I think it's a bad moral for all stories to have, especially in interactive mediums (TTRPGs and video games). It reeks of "you must be tolerant of the intolerant" and is similar to real world excuses for why the status quo can't get any better and why bigots must be catered to in pop culture. People that profess "Good and Evil are equally valid moral opinions and must be balanced" aren't a force for good in the setting. They're not even neutral. They're actively taking the side of evil and enabling them. Dragonlance's "Neutral" gods are evil. They're complicit in an apocalypse that caused probably millions of innocents to die and they actively take the side of evil if good is trying to stop them. They're just slightly less evil than the "conquer the world" gods. The Lady of Pain is Lawful Evil, not Lawful Neutral, regardless of what the books say. She murders people just for worshipping her. People that think that "the force must be balanced" are bad and wrong in the context of the world. However, I will admit that it has a very handy use in the world. Saying "Good and Evil must be balanced" is a really easy excuse for why things never get better in the world and to always have plot hooks for the PCs to come along as "restore the balance". It's a quick justification for why things are messed up in the world and why the story needs to happen. That doesn't mean that I like it. I think it's an outdated trope of questionable morals at best, and that media in general would be better without it. There are better ways to justify why there's always conflict in the setting. "Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom" is just one example. You can provide infinite story hooks without compromising the morals of the so called "neutral" characters in the setting. Or, if you want to have the focus be on a balance between two different metaphysical concepts, Law and Chaos are way better. And there are tons of examples in support of this (the Blood War, Mistborn, etc). Those actually make sense in needing "balance" and it isn't morally reprehensible to want a balance between those two extremes. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right. Filthy neutrals. [MEDIA=youtube]k8ws_APXilE[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

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