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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EP" data-source="post: 2918346" data-attributes="member: 41744">(cracks fingers)The theory behind House being chaotic is that he subverts authority and while there's no question about that, his entire life is not revolved around disputing authority.  Even with the 2E version of lawful neutral, order and organization are the key belief of this character, no matter their fairness to the common populace.So why is it that science is not a form of law?The rules for alignment were designed to account for fantasy characters and generally reduced to social law, government, and faith.  Since science has replaced faith for so many people in this modern day, it's entirely possible that science has become a source of faith and so falls under the guidelines for lawful neutral provided.  House believes that science is indisputable and should be the top consideration in treating patients and curing diseases.  To House, science is a strong, well-ordered government.  There is action, reaction, precedence, and research all pointing to the signs of cause and effect.  Personal limitations interfere with a doctor doing his job.  Using government as a comparison, a tax collector cannot allow personal emotions to interfere with his duty to collect taxes, even from the poorest people who cannot afford them.  The government requires taxes from its citizens and the tax collectors believes this is crucial to a properly working system, regardless of who's in charge.  House is no different.  It doesn't matter who is running the hospital, how many lawyers are on staff, and whether or not Cameron's emotions get in the way of her job, because science is the absolute of medicine.And House has been put in his place because the facts worked against him.  If a mistake is made and the evidence points towards it, he doesn't dispute it for the sake of it.  But he will turn to that same evidence to seek an answer or to counter that point if he can.  He lives by fact.  It's his code.  That makes him lawful.  And since he is willing to do whatever is necessary based on that code, no matter that a patient or two may die as a result, he is lawful neutral.  The fourth episode of the first season had House diagnosing two medicines for dying babies, realising that one of them could die so that the other sick babies could live.The definition of chaotic is someone who lives by their own emotions and free will.  Doctors are like modern day paladins (all lay on hands jokes aside) - they have a code to follow.  A chaotic paladin doesn't work without tweaking the entire class.  House detests anything that resembles the chaotic alignment and lawful is the natural opposite to chaotic.It's one thing to judge a character's alignment based on behavior, but it's their intent behind the actions that drives and determines their alignment.  As I mentioned before, he may come across as reckless and rebellious, but there is far too much discipline and reason behind his actions to refute his lawful alignment.</blockquote>

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