Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Patryn of Elvenshae" data-source="post: 1913162" data-attributes="member: 23094">Fusangite said:I have never said that.  In fact, I have said exactly the opposite - that you cannot look at an action (or, to use your terminology, a "behaviour") and say, "This is a Chaotic behaviour."It's still, and will always be, the wrong question, and a bass-ackwards approach.The question should be, "Why would a Chaotic person exhibit such behaviour?  What would motivate a Lawful person to do X?"Or, to skirt a modern political line which shall not be crossed, Bob - a hardcore Republican, Suzy - a hardcore Communist, and Stacy - a hardcore Green, all voted 'Yes' on Proposition 42.*"But don't they all have differing ethical values?," you ask.  "Shouldn't their alignments change because they all acted in a 42-ish manner?  How many times must they vote 'Yes' before their alignments are effected?"Of course not, I say.  Stop being silly.  Instead, ask, "What was it about Proposition 42 that caused three radically different mindsets (as in, three different alignments) to exhibit the same behaviour (voting 'Yes')?"Until you grasp this relatively simple concept, the "mysteries" of alignment will remain forever beyond your no-doubt formidable academic reach.* Any resemblance to any Proposition, living, dead, or improper, is strictly coincidental.Congrats on grad school, BTW.For the rest of it, swrushing's doing a pretty good job of arguing my point of view.  I tend to place more emphasis on character intent than he might, but that's about it.So, imagine your Chaotic individual has decided to behave, for awhile, in a Lawful manner in order to achieve some greater Chaotic aim.  Doesn't the fact that he's forcing himself to tie his shoes the same way every day, eat his meals one food at a time, act like a part of the group, accept common consensus, etc., grate on him, day after day?  Doesn't it make him feel uncomfortable?So long as the above remains true, his soul is still Chaotic.  As soon as he accepts conformity as being desirable in and of itself, he's likely begun the slide to Lawful.Until then, he's just uncomfortable.Would you "force" a character to change from Good or Neutral to Evil because, as an undercover "operative," he was forced to harm innocents?  Even though afterwards he always arranged for some form of compensation?  And spent the solitude of each night silently weeping his prayers to his God for forgiveness? Even though his voice of reason was usually enough to restrain those among whom he was hiding?  And argued so, knowing that it might give him away?Maybe you would.I wouldn't.</blockquote>

Verification