a question of morals

[roieco]

 

my character has, through extreme risk to both life and limb, saved the world from a dragon upraise that would have, in all likelihood, caused the enslavement or destruction of the humanoid cultures in tamriel.
she has put a decisive and long lasting end to the bloody and self destructive civil war that was ripping skyrim apart and saved the realm from falling as prey into the hands of vampires.
she is the arch-mage of the college of winterhold, an esteemed bard and a thane in every hold (!) of the realm.
on top of that, she is the savior of Solstheim and has personally assisted or saved countless individuals from all sorts or perils and misfortune, often out of the kindness of her heart an in return for negligible or no reward, and has taken several unfortunate orphans to raise as her own.

at the same time, though, she is the head of a ruthless, nation wide criminal organization, stealing and extorting money from civilians of all classes. she also heads an assassins cult bent after a dark god and has made many shady deals with evil daedra princes, to some of which she has even promised her soul after death.
she is a ruthless and cold blooded killer, having slain over 1300 people with her own hands unshaped, often in gruesome and cruel ways, rarely hesitating to kill, use underhand methods or terror to advance her own goals.
in addition, she is promiscuous and unfaithful, and often cheats on her multiple spouses, all of whom are unaware of each other or her many lovers.

so my question is: what is this?? who acts like this? have you ever met anyone so polar in their moral behavior?

is she a good person? is she bad?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[HadToRegister]

Question, were the 1300 people innocent victims?
Were they killed for fun, or were those victims deaths justified because of THEIR actions and Deeds? (AKA, a child molester, child killer, etc..)

 

It's a slippery slope, one like Ra's al Ghul did kill bad people but he was so focused on doing that, that he lost all objectivity and could only see black or white, there were no grey areas for him.
That while his target is supposed to die, his target has also done good things as well, so in the end, Ra's al Ghul would end up killing people that could've been given a reprieve because of their good actions outweighing their bad.
Forgiveness

 

Interesting topic, because I play what I think is a 'good' character, yet she also is in the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood, and apparently she has blinders on and rationalizes that the people she needs to kill must have done something to deserve it
(Aka the guy in the tent, or that poor guy across the river who's missing his sister)
And at the same time, she's also disturbed and a little appalled by the banter in the Dark Brotherhood when they're talking about the people they've killed and laughing about it.

 

I've seen youtube videos where the person turns the premise that you're the hero of the game, into being you're the psychopath who is actually the Monster of the game, because it's your character running around doing all of the killing.
Which is an interesting take, because it IS true.

[Baer2x4]

I'm not religious or even usually a goody two shoes, but I I've never been able to bring myself to do the Boethiah Calling quest. I've only joined the thieves guild once & same for the dark brotherhood. I only let myself get suckered into the House of Horrors quest once, and then I never brought the priest back. Humm... maybe I am a goody two shoes.

[jjb54]

I have a friend that is an actor. Not a big name, but small part rolls in some major films.

 

He put it this way.

 

Jj, the game allows you to pretend to be something / someone else without really changing who you are in your heart. It's called ACTING - Pretending. Now he stated, there are some lines he will not cross, as he never understood how they tell the story .... ( basically sex / nudity ). As he put it, it's what he was told: Sex Sells. Well, he doesn't need to go there. But characters like Vamps, Tough Guys, Bad Guys, Hero and so on .... have fun and pretend.

[roieco]

thanks all for your insight and for sharing your thoughts!

 

@HadToRegister, @jjb54

fair enough. but lets pretend for a moment that she is indeed a real person, that behaves in the ways i described above.

and lets assume that many of the 1300 did not have it coming - they were obstacles between her and her goals, and she knows that.

 

how would you describe her, from a moral point of view? is she evil? is she good? would you consider befriending such a person?

 

@Baer2x4

you truly are good :)

[HadToRegister]

thanks all for your insight and for sharing your thoughts!

 

@HadToRegister, @jjb54

fair enough. but lets pretend for a moment that she is indeed a real person, that behaves in the ways i described above.

and lets assume that many of the 1300 did not have it coming - they were obstacles between her and her goals, and she knows that.

 

how would you describe her, from a moral point of view? is she evil? is she good? would you consider befriending such a person?

 

@Baer2x4

you truly are good :smile:

 

Well, in that case, I would say she is evil then, and saving the world from Dragons wasn't a benevolent act, because it would benefit her in the end anyway, so it was more her own self-preservation she had in mind, while saving the world in the process, and if 'many' of those 1300 were guilty of nothing more than 'being in her way' to achieve her goals, then she's truly evil

[jones177]

so my question is: what is this?? who acts like this? have you ever met anyone so polar in their moral behavior?

 

You do.

 

Now you know.

 

There is no fantasy.

 

The actions of your avatar are yours.

 

Your characters alignment is Lawful evil.

 

Mine are Lawful good. That means that I can never play GTA 5. So sad.

[Daermonster]

Buddha has said " Which would you prefer? A steaming pile of dung, or a fresh bush or roses?" Your life is based on this concept. There is no s#*!. There is no roses. They manifestations of the one divine aspect within all creation. Look up the two wolves philosophy, you've fed both wolves equally your character is an unfortunate truth of how life is. Balanced.

[roieco]

@HadToRegister, @jones177

so if i understand you correctly, you're saying that there's no redemption for her.

doing good things, no matter how many or great, does not compensate for her evil deeds?

 

@Daermonster

if i got what you mean, you think the opposite of @HadToRegister, @jones177's opinion above?

[Daermonster]

I think of good and evil differently than most yes. A begining grasp on philosophy will bring you to conclusions such as the above suggestions. When you delve deep, I mean deep beyond what you learn in school then things can be shown to your little lightbulb so you can glow brighter.

 

If your lightbulb is plugged into the power plant of the universe without proper engineering of said lightbulb it would explode... You must walk before you run. You build upon what you know until you learn that you knew nothing and empty your cup to fill it again. If you are to understand the following you must empty your cup.

 

What you call reality, is a video game for souls.

 

When you kill vorraciously in skyrim whom are you hurting? When you save someone in skyrim whom are you helping? nobody. You help and hurt nobody because it's a game. This is a game. You are playing it right now as you read this. Many people have come in the past and said this, but they had to say it in a way that those people's lightbulbs would not explode with knowledge. Why would you choose the pile of dung of the roses? well because you need fertilizer to make roses. Nothing is good nor bad bacause our perspective is off entirely.... What should our perspective be then?

 

Good and bad do not exist. They are concepts that grow from fear. My religion is love. Naught else exists but love. Fear is the opposite of love and thus everything made of fear doesn't exist because love is the only reality.

 

What is love? this is a question that's haunted mankind forever. Love is reality, fear is illusion. Love is knowing the "I AM". Bible thumpers push "God" at threat of brimestone and fire. The reality is that you play this game in an infinitude of variations in form because you wanted to experience your creation. The "I AM" the bible speaks of, is you. How Jesus said "I and my father are one" refers to his knowing that he was god. You just don't know that you are god yet so this whole trip we call life is really confusing for you. You see things in life that make you question morals, that's good it means your waking up to your inner divinity. Love is all, all is love. You are love incarnate, and you are learning your way back to whom you were before you crossed the valley of the shadow of darkness.

 

We live in the valley of the shadow of darkness. The shadow of darkness is forgetting that you are love, it's forgetting that you are god and what you do to others you do unto yourself because they are god too. We are all literally just reluctant messiah's procrastinating to become christ.

 

If you hurt someone or help someone in skyrim, it's neither good nor bad really because it's a video game. Jones177 is correct when they say that your actions in skyrim directly represent who you are on the inside.

 

Do not be scared of the demons inside of you, rather embrace them as you embrace everything including your chivalrous side. Fearing your inner demons is still fear. Love your demons and learn from them and all animosity starts to fade, all struggle starts to fade and you become unbreakable. What you do in skyrim, whom you help and kill is a method of releasing pent up thoughts and emotions that prevent you from harming other lightbulbs in our world. In closing kill away in skyrim or help away matter not because it's all a learning experience... Learning is enlightment, enlightenment is change, change is constant. Namaste