So... The Newest Episode of Steven Universe came out and it dealt with something that is core to our RP, the most contested argument in the history of our X-Com Rps.
It was the Mercy or Death Debate...
Essentially, Steven universe is much like X-com in concept, a space faring race of sentient gem aliens have been going around destroying all life on planets, then uses that planet to grow more gems. However, one day a gem named Rose Quarts had enough and split from the main race to defend Earth. Roses Crystal Gems and the Homeworld Gems fought in a fierce conflict that left many gems dead, however, when she could Rose took the moral high ground and tried for peace, when she had to fight, she stunned and pacified the enemy gems, rather than destroy them.
In the Newest episode we are introduced to Bismuth, a gem who was the polar opposite personality to Rose, wanted to destroy the invading gems to give the Crystal gems a better chance to win and to save their friends, but rose thought that would make them as bad as the invaders. In a fight, Rose pacified Bismuth and locked her away... Rose protected her morals, but lost many more friends that she would have if she had just compromised her morals.
This debate is highly contested with all of our characters falling on one side of it. People like Marx and Atka believe that in order to wins, morals can't play a part, people like Cathy have a distaste for violence in general, if she was in charge Cathy would go for a much more lenient solution and advocate for simply throwing the Elders out of power on Earth, rather than killing them, and sparing the aliens under them, as they are being forced to be cruel.
This debate is shown at full strength when you compare SoD with LoE, with SoD ending more peacefully towards the aliens and in turn, ushering in an age of peace in the galaxy with the races living 'mostly' in harmony, where as LoE is all about just winning and doing whatever we can to get there, we are too far behind the aliens to spare them consistently in LoE, if we try, there is a much greater chance that we will simply lose.
I always found the debate interesting and it still rages on after so many seasons of this story.
Personally, I have always advocated for peace with the aliens... As such a lot of my characters fall into that idea... Ammy risking everything to spare Acedia is one example, I'm curious as to what you guys personally feel about it.
I usually like to keep my options open, regardless of what situation this applies to. This is the core reason I would advocate a less... shall we say "final" solution. Once a bridge has been burned, it may be impossible to rebuild and you will have locked yourself out of an option that one day you may have needed. Sure, they may be dicks, but what happens if they become the only thing that could have saved you from something else? That said, if a bridge really wants to be burned then I will indulge it. No sense trying to save something or someone that isn't salvageable.
If we're referencing characters to explain our views better, I'd probably say mine lie somewhere between Penny and Isaac. I'm of the opinion that there is no sense in giving up - even if there's a minute chance of getting what you want, it's still possible. If you don't, then you haven't lost anything. If you do... well, that's xcom baby. Try until you fail, essentially. But know when you have, so that you might control the damage.
Defense from invaders is what the Crusades were. Religiously charged, sure, but even the people that have tried to tell me it was utterly unprovoked never compared it to genocide. In summary,
Like, sure, I guess it looks bad if you discount the fact that Spain and much of Southern Europe had been taken over and just focus on the Jerusalem part, but it was all part of a wider offensive. (Crusaders did shit to their enemies, yo, but that was the standard for warfare at the time)
I will be posting a collab between Frost and myself after I get home from work. Then later tonight I have a solo. The two actually fit quite nicely together, a convenient coincidence.
I doubt many of you will see it until tomorrow, but I have posted the prequel to the mission me and Tax are currently in the process of finishing. The mission itself will be posted over the course of Sunday, as it's a long one and you absolutely should read it, but I don't want to overwhelm you with content.
Not bad. Not bad at all. Makes me wish I hadn't taken that break and could have been a part of it, but that was my fault, so c'est la vie.
Excellent action, and the banter between everyone makes it a really fun read. And I love the new enemy idea.
Kinda wish that medic was a little harder to intimidate, but seemed like Yakone rolled a 20 on her intimidation check. But then, that's probably because I just wanted to see Yakone hold him out a window by his ankle Batman style.
Not bad. Not bad at all. Makes me wish I hadn't taken that break and could have been a part of it, but that was my fault, so c'est la vie.
Excellent action, and the banter between everyone makes it a really fun read. And I love the new enemy idea.
Kinda wish that medic was a little harder to intimidate, but seemed like Yakone rolled a 20 on her intimidation check. But then, that's probably because I just wanted to see Yakone hold him out a window by his ankle Batman style.
Er, this has nothing to do with Chile so it wouldn't have mattered.
Yakone part with the Medic was written at 2 in the morning so I was just wrapping up things there. Remember that Combat Medics are volunteers that often get more than they bargained for, let alome facing down ax-crazy maniacs.
