Originally Posted by Auric
Originally Posted by Rahaya
...your argument was literally 'it's not character assassination because WOTC character assassinated them first!' And the continuity thing is equally bizarre as you basically said that people aren't allowed to be upset with the Star Wars sequels or other modern attempts at 'continuing' franchises like Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters, etc when they retcon or make things up.
That's not what I did at all, as I don't see it as a character assassination in the first place. Sarevok even redeemed still had his entire history of evil under his belt. You know how often people that get out of cults and the like (in real life I mean) slip back into that sort of thing? It's sadly very common. Viconia on the other hand has not only always been faithful to the greatest source of evil in all of Faerun, but she had an extra hundred years between games to be manipulated into giving ground to Shar's darker asks of her to say nothing of the easy contextual read that maybe she did just have her memory manipulated and doesn't talk about it. Maybe because she doesn't know it happened or because Tav never had a chance to Talk no Jutsu her, it's just speculation but it's very easy speculation to think about. But I mean when the immediate response to "I don't think it was character assassination" is "I don't care what you or anyone says" it's not exactly worth carrying that on is it.

A more interesting angle of dissatisfaction is how the changes to Divine Portfolios has affected lore since the edition of DnD the old games were made around. The portfolios used to be rather rigid definitions of influence and power under which different types of worship and different sects of worshippers could revolve around. That's mostly gone these days in 5E and they're more like a broad border to their primary types of influence. As a result it's kind of understandable that while Viconia used to pretty rigidly follow an aspect of those portfolios while ignoring others as the portfolios themselves became less important so too did her narrow scope of worship end up widening. That's a lot more fun for me to think about than "the character isn't what I expected therefor it's wrong."

Originally Posted by KillerRabbit
Selune wanted "earth" to support life and that meant creating a sun. Shar wanted to maintain the status quo - darkness and moonlight. No life, no stars . . .
It's been a minute since I really dug into Shar's whole schtick but isn't there a little wiggle room for what life COULD still exist in those conditions? She wants complete darkness, but I don't remember it being a necessity that ALL life be extinguished.
WOTC retconned a lot in their written works, or made bizarre decisions that made no logical sense, like saying the Bhaalspawn from BG1 was a lvl 3 fighter. So you're already starting out at a deficit, and then you followed it up with that 'good luck finding a better continuity' comment. You answered a 'the canon is bad' with 'but it's canon.' That is a non sequitur that doesn't address it being bad.

Sarevok: Saying he is 'Evil' is an Faulty Generalization that lacks nuance. His history of evil begins and ends with resentment towards Bhaal. Someone who will stab people on the train is probably not a good person. However, it would be entirely unreasonable and more importantly, fallacious to argue that someone who lobbies to change the law to benefit only them will also randomly stab people on the train because they are both Evil.

Viconia: And this is an Appeal to Ignorance, or as I like to call it, the 'Maybe There is a Wizard Behind the Curtain' argument that supposes an impossible to prove wrong conclusion by saying 'anything could happen' in a time frame. By this logic, Viconia could have shacked up with a random farmer, had 3 half-drow babies before being killed and replaced with a doppelganger because Shar was still pissed at her and I would have just as much evidence for it as you do for yours. That is why this is a logical fallacy.

Last edited by Rahaya; 17/10/23 12:39 AM.