Dratsabre Tsabala
2007-02-05, 08:07 AM
[A Foreword: Let it be understood that the underwritten is not what I EXPECT to happen, merely personal speculation which I found very interesting due to it's resistance to my attempts to debunk it's logic once I had concieved of it.]
Before we were given absolute insight into this aspect of her character, Miko's detractors had only guesswork and intuition to go on, but now we can all be certain that Miko has been rolling critical failures on her sanity checks. Her arrogance has been painted, BY THE AUTHOR, THROUGH THE CHARACTER'S OWN WORDS, as being of such an irretrevable degree that she actually believes that she has been elevated to a position of moral authority by the Twelve Gods themselves. Anyone who doesn't conform to her morality must be corrected. Anyone who willfully and repeatedly denigrates that absolute morality, or her as it's standard bearer, must be evil, or at least utterly immoral.
I could write out a three-paragraph long justification for what I think about Miko. In fact, I did, and deleted it-- there are RAFTS of Pro- and Anti- Miko analyses on the boards right now, and I'm sure you've chosen your side. Know this: I make as few solid judgements as I can about her state of mind, but in my uncertainty, I'm leaning very strongly towards the idea that Miko is not a servant of good. She serves her IDEA of good, which happens to co-incide with traditional definitions more often than not, but where the two deviate she does whatever she feels is necessary. This does NOT make her good. This makes her well-meaning. Some of the most effective movers and shakers in history (substitute "in literature", if even the MENTION of the real world trips a false positive on your "he's talkin' bout politics" alarm) have been calculating, pragmatic men who were WELL-MEANING enough to do things for their country, their people, or their ideals that would rate them a low Neutral at best on the D&D Alignment scale. No, Miko is no servant of good. She is a servant of self. It just so happens that what SHE wants is to enforce HER notions of good, which was not a problem up until recently because she believed that her definition of good was in harmony with that of the lord she served. The quickest ways to get to the top of her shi naughty list are to challenge her absolute moral authority or to humiliate her, something that the OOtS, and more recently Shojo, found out the hard way.
Before her recent... instability... Miko's worldview may have gone something like:
"The Justice of my liege must be done becuase it is the will of the twelve gods, because I know it is what is right and good."
Now, take note: the important elements in that sentence are "My liege," "twelve Gods," and "I know it is what is right." When presented with a situation in which the three were irreconcilable, Miko did what she does best: she rewired the information so that she could plug it into her brain without short-circuiting. The directive then became:
"Justice must be done because it is the will of the twelve gods, and I know it is what is right and good."
Now, we've all seen how Miko works. Reconciling her worldview to new developments is definitely not her strong suit. The twelve gods, in their way, have done to her precisely what the OOtS and Shojo have: they have humiliated her utterly, and they have challenged the righteousness of her actions by stripping her of her station. Note how she is NOT humbled at all by this, but rather frantic to vindicate her judgements. Unless she wises up fast, she's going to act and think according to type: the twelve gods have wronged her for her righteousness. Brooding sets in. Once again, her coda is put under the microscope, and part of it has to go. She cannot DOUBT her destiny, so the fault must, in fact, lie with the twelve gods. In the state she's in right now, I really don't think it's too far a step from:
"Justice must be done because it is the will of the twelve gods, and I know it is what is right and good"
To:
"Justice must be done because I know it is what is right and good."
Unless she can swallow her pride, which would be a drastic *180 turn on one of her central character traits, she is not going to atone. IF this occurs, her naughty list is now going to be headed by the OOtS, who have ruined her life, the late Lord Shojo, who was corrupted by the OOtS, and the twelve gods, whose denunciation of her absolute good in favor of the Evils represented by OOtS represents a fundamental flaw in the universe.
Upon realizing her potential enmity for the Gods, the case for Miko becoming a Blackguard becomes much stronger. You can deny it if you wish, you can cling to the fact that Miko, however far she falls, still believes she is doing good, but the fact of the matter is that it doesn't say "Must willfully embrace the concept of wanton evil" anywhere in the Blackguard's class requirements. It simply requires an allignment of evil, which, if she takes the track I've lain for her here, will be a very short ride. Evil characters do not necessarily do evil ALL the time... in fact, many do GOOD far more often than evil, out of a belief that what foul deeds they DO do are for the greater good, or to ingratiate, infiltrate, and corrupt. Allignment is not about what you USUALLY do, it is about what you're WILLING to do and why you're WILLING to do it. So far, Miko has been willing to summarily execute a known non-evil creature on a snap judgement. Given her situation, with the "rampant injustice that pervades the world" being rubbed in her face by the pressing reality of imprisonment, it's not likely that her indignation and her Judge Dredd streak are going to do anything but deepen. Her inevitable proximity to Sabine (and perhaps a few well-placed skill points at her next level-up) provide for the other few entry requirements. (Hell, if the MOTD counts as an outsider, she doesn't even need Sabine... she's made what could be considered "peaceful contact" already.) And to those who would point to the flavor-text on the Blackguard as distinctly un-Miko-like, just remember how fond The Giant is of twiddling with cliche'd character archetypes. Miko may WELL embrace evil... she'll just be so deluded that she'll fail to realize, even to the bitter end, that what she's doing IS evil.
... Regardless of whether she goes Blackie or not, if all goes according to my plan, the Twelve Gods will now be on her axis of evil list. Who do we know that can destroy Gods? The Snarl. Who do we know that KNOWS of The Snarl's existence and capabilities, needs a new thug, hate the OOtS, and are in all likelihood going to be quartered very close to Miko in the near future?
Who? :sabine:
Who could it be? :nale:
I can honestly see it happening. I can even, in an unlikely and dire future, see Miko being the BBEG that releases The Snarl, in the twisted, misinformed belief that she is doing good by UNdoing the evil of the gods.
Discuss. (Or gimme a big fat tl;dr. Either way.)
Before we were given absolute insight into this aspect of her character, Miko's detractors had only guesswork and intuition to go on, but now we can all be certain that Miko has been rolling critical failures on her sanity checks. Her arrogance has been painted, BY THE AUTHOR, THROUGH THE CHARACTER'S OWN WORDS, as being of such an irretrevable degree that she actually believes that she has been elevated to a position of moral authority by the Twelve Gods themselves. Anyone who doesn't conform to her morality must be corrected. Anyone who willfully and repeatedly denigrates that absolute morality, or her as it's standard bearer, must be evil, or at least utterly immoral.
I could write out a three-paragraph long justification for what I think about Miko. In fact, I did, and deleted it-- there are RAFTS of Pro- and Anti- Miko analyses on the boards right now, and I'm sure you've chosen your side. Know this: I make as few solid judgements as I can about her state of mind, but in my uncertainty, I'm leaning very strongly towards the idea that Miko is not a servant of good. She serves her IDEA of good, which happens to co-incide with traditional definitions more often than not, but where the two deviate she does whatever she feels is necessary. This does NOT make her good. This makes her well-meaning. Some of the most effective movers and shakers in history (substitute "in literature", if even the MENTION of the real world trips a false positive on your "he's talkin' bout politics" alarm) have been calculating, pragmatic men who were WELL-MEANING enough to do things for their country, their people, or their ideals that would rate them a low Neutral at best on the D&D Alignment scale. No, Miko is no servant of good. She is a servant of self. It just so happens that what SHE wants is to enforce HER notions of good, which was not a problem up until recently because she believed that her definition of good was in harmony with that of the lord she served. The quickest ways to get to the top of her shi naughty list are to challenge her absolute moral authority or to humiliate her, something that the OOtS, and more recently Shojo, found out the hard way.
Before her recent... instability... Miko's worldview may have gone something like:
"The Justice of my liege must be done becuase it is the will of the twelve gods, because I know it is what is right and good."
Now, take note: the important elements in that sentence are "My liege," "twelve Gods," and "I know it is what is right." When presented with a situation in which the three were irreconcilable, Miko did what she does best: she rewired the information so that she could plug it into her brain without short-circuiting. The directive then became:
"Justice must be done because it is the will of the twelve gods, and I know it is what is right and good."
Now, we've all seen how Miko works. Reconciling her worldview to new developments is definitely not her strong suit. The twelve gods, in their way, have done to her precisely what the OOtS and Shojo have: they have humiliated her utterly, and they have challenged the righteousness of her actions by stripping her of her station. Note how she is NOT humbled at all by this, but rather frantic to vindicate her judgements. Unless she wises up fast, she's going to act and think according to type: the twelve gods have wronged her for her righteousness. Brooding sets in. Once again, her coda is put under the microscope, and part of it has to go. She cannot DOUBT her destiny, so the fault must, in fact, lie with the twelve gods. In the state she's in right now, I really don't think it's too far a step from:
"Justice must be done because it is the will of the twelve gods, and I know it is what is right and good"
To:
"Justice must be done because I know it is what is right and good."
Unless she can swallow her pride, which would be a drastic *180 turn on one of her central character traits, she is not going to atone. IF this occurs, her naughty list is now going to be headed by the OOtS, who have ruined her life, the late Lord Shojo, who was corrupted by the OOtS, and the twelve gods, whose denunciation of her absolute good in favor of the Evils represented by OOtS represents a fundamental flaw in the universe.
Upon realizing her potential enmity for the Gods, the case for Miko becoming a Blackguard becomes much stronger. You can deny it if you wish, you can cling to the fact that Miko, however far she falls, still believes she is doing good, but the fact of the matter is that it doesn't say "Must willfully embrace the concept of wanton evil" anywhere in the Blackguard's class requirements. It simply requires an allignment of evil, which, if she takes the track I've lain for her here, will be a very short ride. Evil characters do not necessarily do evil ALL the time... in fact, many do GOOD far more often than evil, out of a belief that what foul deeds they DO do are for the greater good, or to ingratiate, infiltrate, and corrupt. Allignment is not about what you USUALLY do, it is about what you're WILLING to do and why you're WILLING to do it. So far, Miko has been willing to summarily execute a known non-evil creature on a snap judgement. Given her situation, with the "rampant injustice that pervades the world" being rubbed in her face by the pressing reality of imprisonment, it's not likely that her indignation and her Judge Dredd streak are going to do anything but deepen. Her inevitable proximity to Sabine (and perhaps a few well-placed skill points at her next level-up) provide for the other few entry requirements. (Hell, if the MOTD counts as an outsider, she doesn't even need Sabine... she's made what could be considered "peaceful contact" already.) And to those who would point to the flavor-text on the Blackguard as distinctly un-Miko-like, just remember how fond The Giant is of twiddling with cliche'd character archetypes. Miko may WELL embrace evil... she'll just be so deluded that she'll fail to realize, even to the bitter end, that what she's doing IS evil.
... Regardless of whether she goes Blackie or not, if all goes according to my plan, the Twelve Gods will now be on her axis of evil list. Who do we know that can destroy Gods? The Snarl. Who do we know that KNOWS of The Snarl's existence and capabilities, needs a new thug, hate the OOtS, and are in all likelihood going to be quartered very close to Miko in the near future?
Who? :sabine:
Who could it be? :nale:
I can honestly see it happening. I can even, in an unlikely and dire future, see Miko being the BBEG that releases The Snarl, in the twisted, misinformed belief that she is doing good by UNdoing the evil of the gods.
Discuss. (Or gimme a big fat tl;dr. Either way.)