What alignment is Baltar?

[wingsandsword]

Neither action actually hurts someone. Just because you give a sword away does not make you evil.....the act had more lawful vs chaotic morals than good vs evil. He is not resposible for how that sword was used....giving the sword away was an unlawful act...not an evil one.

No, those are pretty blatantly evil acts, although the weapon is a much worse one.

The human race is on the brink of extinction. The Cylons have killed billions and are hunting the last few thousand survivors. Handing a nuclear weapon to an infiltrator among the survivors, it's crystal clear what that weapon will be used for: killing human life, and possibly genocide of the entire human race if possible. Just handing over a weapon to somebody isn't inherently evil, handing it over when you know they want to kill your entire species, have already killed 99.99% of it, and knowingly handing over an extremely powerful weapon to an enemy spy/saboteur among the survivors, is.

 

[Mallus]

Baltar makes a hash out the alignment system. He's clearly done evil, heck, he might be in service to evil, but he doesn't do evil for evil's sake. He's weak, not malign. And that distinction isn't well served by the alignment system.

And fwe can't be sure yet if human = good and cylon = evil. The toasters could still be the good guys in the absolute moral sense.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And fwe can't be sure yet if human = good and cylon = evil. The toasters could still be the good guys in the absolute moral sense.

So helping another race to wipe out (as in extinct, as far as he knew) his race, if his race was evil, would somehow be good?

He's aiding and abetting genocide, including the death of the sick, the wounded, of children and other non-combattants, indiscriminantly.

 

[Ozmar]

Then there is my personal theory, that he is one of the unknown models of cylon, possibly even the high commander. He just doesn't know it and most of his actions are programed in.

Interesting theory. But that would, IMO, be unsatisfying, because it would let him off the hook for the evil he has done. If evil only needs for good men to do nothing, imagine how much more evil can be done when N/NE people like Baltar actively underimine everything good people are striving to accomplish.

Put me down for CE. When they write up his character sheet, that's my prediction for alignment.

 

[Mallus]

So helping another race to wipe out (as in extinct, as far as he knew) his race, if his race was evil, would somehow be good?

If his race was capital "E" evil, in the PHB sense, then yes. Besides, doesn't he still believe an agent of the transcendent God is telling him to do this stuff? (I've only seen up to the 2nd season DVD)

He's aiding and abetting genocide, including the death of the sick, the wounded, of children and other non-combattants, indiscriminantly.

Pretend that Gaius is killing orc babies.

You see why I think that Baltar makes a hash out of alignment?

 

[3d6]

Baltar is chaotic evil. He's erratic and self-centered, and willing to place his own interests above the interests of the whole of the human race.

Spoiler

Going back to the asteroid mining episode early in the first season, he pretended that he knew the correct site to bomb in order to save face (he's the "cylon expert"). As I recall, bombing the wrong site would create a chain reaction that would destroy the asteroid, leaving Galactica critically short of fuel. He's willing to risk the entire human race in order to look competent.

Another example of the same phenomenon is his early work on a "cylon detector". He had no idea what he was doing, and simply led Galactica's command to belive that he was making meaningful progress on the detector. Again, he's putting the entire human race at risk (by making command belive they had a valuble asset that they did not actually have) in order to save face. After #6 helped him construct a function cylon detector, his decision to give every one a clean bill of health, cylon or not, simply becuase he apparently doesn't feel like having security guards in his office is taking self-involvement to an almost rediculous level.

Finally, he gives a nuclear device to a mentally unbalanced suicidal cylon with dreams of vengence in a fit of pique because he felt snubbed and insulted by the President.

Chaotic evil. The only reason he hasn't got everybody killed is because he's so lucky. Half the time I believe #6 when she says that she's an angel of God, and God has chosen Baltar as his servant.

 

[hexgrid]

Baltar is chaotic evil. He's erratic and self-centered, and willing to place his own interests above the interests of the whole of the human race.

If this is evil, then what's neutral?

 

[Garnfellow]

This discussion is why I love BSG -- the complex nature of the characters. They are all very hard to peg into the alignment system. Can we agree that Admiral Cain is probably Lawful Evil?

 

[Mallus]

He's erratic and self-centered, and willing to place his own interests above the interests of the whole of the human race.

Didn't Adama do the same while searching for Starbuck? He put his own personal issues against the good of the remaining human race.

BSG is all about human frailities, which the D&D alignment system doesn't even consider (edit: and I'm not saying it should. It does what it does well, it just that what it does doesn't do it for me...)

 

[Mallus]

Can we agree that Admiral Cain is probably Lawful Evil?

Absolutely.