"if you kill a killer, the number of killers in the world remains the same"

I like that one.

Originally Posted by _Vic_


That is why I do not particularly care about that kind of black-white morals even tho it could make a useful tool for worldbuilding. Saves you a lot of time.



I like both. I like Star Wars with its the light and dark sides of the force and I like the Watchmen. The original idea and its dismantling.

You're right, there is a fundamental difference between fantasy and reality. I was only trying to say that I do find it interesting to understand the mechanisms we use in fantasy to make killing acceptable. Thinking back to the original Star Wars. We, the audience, cheer when the heroes shoot storm trooper after storm trooper. Why doesn't all this killing make the heroes villains? 1. We don't see the faces of the storm troopers 2. We have already seen the storm troopers kill people with faces 3. We think the other side initiated the violence 4. There is no other alternative available 5. The names and imagery invoke the nazis which is the closest thing we have to evil in the modern world. 6. The heroes are fully fleshed out with love interests, financial concerns etc

And I think we can use lists like this to understand why people support killing in the real world.

On the trend to move away from eeevol towards "grey" morality in fantasy I'm finding that as Tolkein's orcish evil is eliminated it's replaced with an equivalent. So now we've had one too many good orc stories, can we really believe that orcs are inherently evil? I mean how many people played orcs in WoW? So I'm seeing demons show up more often in fantasy because we can still believe that demons are inherently evil. And then, of course, writers will want to do the same thing with demons that they did with orcs -- the demons will become humanized. And then, slowly, they will become less interesting. Demons will become eventually just another visual template, demons characters have red skin, horns and fire resistance but are otherwise human. And then we will need to find a replacement for demons. Cue the corruptors. Or the void tainted. Or the deathlings.

And that's why I think there should be some fantasy settings that sets the standard. And does it really well -- the Lord of the Rings movies reminded us of how great Tolkein really was. In D&D, the demi human gods created followers, the monster gods created slaves. Gruumsh, the orc god, enslaved the souls of those he created to win his battle with Corellon and Gruumsh's slaves are all that is not good and all that is not elvish. Elves are refined, orcs are crude. Elves are lithe, orcs are stocky. Elves only kill when they must, orcs are born to do battle.

And of course this can be done with a sense of irony / humor / absurdity. "make way evil, hero coming through"!