I did play the whole series as a Paladin, and it was a thoroughly challenging and enlightening experience. Because, unless i’m sadly mistaken, a paladin is not someone driven by a single polarity in his existence, but TWO polarities instead : Law
and Good.
When most people read Lawful Good, they see « Lawful » first. Try reading it the other way, Good Lawful, for instance
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What happens whenever a Lawful Good character is confronted with tyrannical laws, or absurd bureaucracy ? Does he submit to them and tells everyone « well, that's the law and i’m sworn to uphold it » ? Where is « Good » in this ?
When the law is bad, you change the law. If you don't even want to consider this possibility, then you're not Lawful Good. You're Lawful Neutral. Period. Lawful Neutral would only change laws to make them more efficient and foolproof. Lawful Good will take care that the laws are or become as just and fair as they can be.
Striking against unfair laws is not Chaos, unless you want no laws at all. Striking against unfair laws to make them change, to strive for improvement, is « good » because in this LG perspective, laws are made
for people, and not just for themselves. Hence « Lawful Good » and not « Lawful Crybaby ».Sometimes it is necessary to sacrifice many, so that many more would gain in this. Not because of self-delusions about godhood or conscience, but because when you’re the Prophet, there is simply no-one else to make this choice, between offering a
possibility of doing it better, or simply to perpetuate the same old lie.
Uther was right in trying to oppose Fate, in this regard, even if he was only playing his part according to what he was allowed to see. I feel sorry about the millions i saw die, some of them still hoping i would help them.
Some of them dying in hope they could make a difference , although in fact, they too were doing what Fate expected of them. Uther, Merudoc, Llarien and the poor Evernorn, who certainly paid the worst price there was to pay (years of hope, loneliness and madness until his final betrayal... for nothing since until the very last - and only - choice i had to make, everything was set in stone).
Yes, as a story that was beautifully done, because it was very saddening. Was it delusion to strive for a « greater good » while allowing all those hopes to be crushed before your eyes, by your own hand ? Was it really worth it to betray the hopes of scared children, the fears of a long lost friend and everything else ?
But the choice was far easier to make, by considering things from a different angle.
If i chose Fate, all the dead would remain dead. This world would heal, people would eventually forget or build legends about the Century of Sorrow, but those who had already died would remain dead, those who had survived would live the rest of their days with their suffering, their loss, their pain and their memories, just because it is so written.
Until they too died, and new generations would arise to play their own part, as slaves and pawns of Fate. Fate which has its own meaning, its own purpose, without consideration for anything else.
That is not « Law ». That is just a self-perpetuating tyranny, complete with false hopes, false dreams and
absolutely nothing else but puppets playing their own charades.
If you are Lawful Neutral, then, law is in itself an absolute and that is fine. But if you’re Lawful Good, law must have a purpose, or it must be changed to get one.
Do you really think that freewill means Chaos ? I don’t.
Because people can still make laws, organize society, strive to improve together. There is a possibility they will make it right. There is
hope and, potentially, success. Without Fate, those laws, those societies made by mortals would be
their own. Good or bad, people would be responsible for their actions. Responsible for their own failures, and their own successes.
Freewill means uncertainty, but it can provides lots of good things, even good laws. You fail, or you succeed, because of what you do, even if you’re misguided, you do not just « play » your part, you really DO it.
Fate do not provide everything except her own self-sustaining eternal tyranny. There is no room for improvement, for « good », in this. Only the pursuit of illusion. Laws that are illusory because everything is already written are not worth anything, they do not allow people to be anything at all. Not good, not bad, not respectful, not rebellious. NOTHING.
Who could you congratulate, accuse, miss or hate if there is absolutely no choice ? What would be the purpose of feeling pain, sorrow, hope, love and all the rest if they do not really exist – not even for yourself- but are just predetermined special effects provided with the script of everyone’s fate ?
There is no virtue in doing the right thing if you’re not really doing it, but just playing your part. Where is salvation, where is hope, where is the meaning of law (or the meaning of chaos as a matter of fact) if everything is set in stone and everyone is just playing his part in the script ? How do you feel sorry, hopeful, angered, happy or sad when you realize you
do not feel at all, but are just playing your part ?
So, i chose to rebel. Not for myself, since as the Prophet, i was effectively the only one to really feel anything under Fate’s yoke.
I did it because i realised that everyone else's suffering wasn't really suffering. Whatever they hoped, felt, said... was not their own. It was just what was written by Fate.
I felt sorry for all of them, because i knew that all the pain they endured... wasn't really pain. They felt it nonetheless as real, but it wasn't real, because they had no say,
not even once, in their suffering.
They were only doing what was written. I saw them die. In choosing to oppose Fate, i
made them die, but in the end, i was the only one to really do, and feel, something true.
This Law of Fate is not life. This is illusion and what can be worse than a law that decrees everyone is not real but just there for the show ? That
not one thought, not one feeling, not one moment is anything but a special effect for the audience ? And what about this audience, as a matter of fact ? Yes... what about it...
As a paladin, i did rebel because this was the only way to change the law, to give it a purpose, and
hopefully a good one. To break the Law of Fate and offer something new instead.
Freewill, also known as the Law of Consequences.
Modifié par Le Pénombre, 17 octobre 2011 - 01:08 .
