D&D General "True Neutral": Bunk or Hogwash

[Brendan Byrd]

Of course to the people writing 1E, or at least Gygax, "Good" meant something very different, both narrower and broader than what Good means to most 1990s and later D&D players, specifically in that he explicitly considered "Kill em all and let [the gods] sort 'em out" (i.e. "just kill everyone in the area the evil guys are in, don't stop and try and work out who is good and who bad") and "Nits make lice" (i.e. specifically "make sure to kill the women and children") to be cool, Good-aligned sentiments.

Which perhaps explains the weird pro-genocide theme on earlier Ranger designs ("racial enemy" always seemed messed up to me, always).

When I took a university level course on Medieval History decades ago, among the first things the Professor addressed was the romanticized version of knighthood that was so very common at the time.
[The Hell’s Angels of the Middle Ages; fully capable by the age of 13 of robbing a neighbour’s church, especially the younger sons.]

 

[Epic Meepo]

I don't know that I'd agree with that from either angle. One, I wouldn't agree that Mira embraces blind hatred; both she and Au and two, that "hatred" of demons, such as it is presented in the film, comsically feels like/aligns itself with the classical Ranger's "Favored Enemy" ability; Rangers of course originally required to be of "Good" alignment.

You make a fair point about Favored Enemy mechanics. That would probably be a feature of any hypothetical Demon Hunter class. But I'm not sure a Demon Hunter class would just be a copy of the D&D Ranger. It would probably also have some Bard and Paladin class features. And as a new class, it wouldn't have any historical connection to any one D&D alignment.

Either way, I'm not convinced Mira's hatred of demons stops at merely having Favored Enemy: Demons. At one point, she expresses enthusiasm for condemning an entire category of sapient beings to eternal suffering, without judging any of them on their personal merits. Based on that, I'm inclined to say Mira bought into Celine's intolerant world view. (Despite Celine's good intentions, she's so intolerant, I can't accept her as being Good herself. She seems very Lawful Neutral.)

In contrast to Mira and Celine, both Rumi and Zoe (who also have demons as a favored enemy) are willing to consider the possibility that not all of their enemies are irredeemable monsters (which also happens to be true on a cosmological level). That, to me, places those two characters clearly in the Good camp. Presumably, by the end of the film, Mira is also in that camp. Celine probably isn't.