Was V's act evil? (Probable spoilers!)

[Jeff Wilder]

That's why I'm not a big fan of alignment by species. The idea of inherent evil gets screwy really fast. And you can't make exceptions, even though they do, because if your exceptions exist because of anything other than divine intervention, the original version of the monster must not have been inherently evil in the first place.

In 3.5, "inherent" evil is represented by the "[evil]" descriptor. Alignment for creatures goes to "Always evil," which is tempered by the description of "always evil," which says, in short, "well, not always." Just FYI.

 

[Betote]

Black dragons: always evil.
Slaying all the black dragons in the world: triple-ultra-plus-good.

 

[Grymar]

Unquestionably evil, in my game. Unless it is an outsider, alignment is a rough descriptor of what the person/creature has done and what they are likely to do in the future, but nothing is ever 100%. I have good goblins, evil gold dragons, and everything in between.

V just committed genocide.

Genocide.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

That's why I'm not a big fan of alignment by species. The idea of inherent evil gets screwy really fast. And you can't make exceptions, even though they do, because if your exceptions exist because of anything other than divine intervention, the original version of the monster must not have been inherently evil in the first place.

In 3.5, "inherent" evil is represented by the "[evil]" descriptor. Alignment for creatures goes to "Always evil," which is tempered by the description of "always evil," which says, in short, "well, not always." Just FYI.

 

[avin]

Are we talking about V from Vendetta? Or that other Alan Moore's book?

*possible spoiler*

If we are talking about the blonde guy, by the feeling I get from the comics I don't think he was acting evil at all.

He was wrong doing that, but he wanted the greater good.

On the movie this guy sound a little less intelligent...

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

This really should be a public poll so all the namby-pambies could out themselves.

Black dragons: always chaotic evil.
Slaying all the black dragons in the world: triple-ultra-plus-good.

You, sir, are not a namby-pamby.

This was an act of ultimate good for which all true heroes should strive.

It would be a good act even if there's some backwards namby-pamby campaign where there is an occasional "good" black dragon.

How many "good" black dragons are too steep a price to pay for wiping out an overwhelmingly evil force in the world?

One?

(cf Watchmen)

 

[Nymrohd]

Black dragons: always evil.
Slaying all the black dragons in the world: triple-ultra-plus-good.

By the 3.5 MM pg 305, Alignment, Always: It is possible for individuals to change alignment.

 

[jensun]

definately on the bad guy scale.

Killing this here Black Dragon which is trying to eat my family, definately a good thing.

Killing any old Black Dragon which might be lurking in some swamp, probably a good thing if its eating the locals. If not leave it alone, havent you people seen Dragonslayer.

Killing every Dragon (irrespective of whether they are good, evil, dont care or are generally not causing any nuisance to anyone) related to the Dragon you have just killed using epic evil necromantic powers granted to you by a bunch of fiends because you are pissed. I'm sorry, you have now boarded the evil bus, next stop damnation.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Black dragons: always evil.
Slaying all the black dragons in the world: triple-ultra-plus-good.

"Always" means "Well, not ALWAYS," as Jeff pointed out.

Plus, at least IMC, alignment is about what you do, not what you do it to. Murder for the sake of schadenfreude doesn't help you. If you torture Hitler, that's as evil as if you torture Mother Teresa. What's evil is the torture.

And the "end justifies the means" argument doesn't work well from my perspective either. I mean, that's kind of the argument for killing civilians in peacetime: if a few innocents get hurt, that is an acceptable price to pay for the continuation of our (good) plans and the death of some (evil) people.

But heck, in games where black dragons truly represent cosmic "i'm made of it!" evil universally?

Nah, even there, I'd say that turning someone into an undead bound to your will in order to make them watch while you murdered their family is Evil, Evil, Evil.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

This really should be a public poll so all the namby-pambies could out themselves.

I guess I'm a namby-pamby.

Killing an innocent willfully or with depraved indifference is, IMO, absolutely evil. (And for those of you who are wondering exactly what "depraved indifference" is? Lemme save you those 10 minutes in law school. Just reread strip 639 and note V's behavior. Textbook depraved indifference.)