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The Tainted Times - May 2015 (NEW EDITION!)


Leyrann

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Tainted Times - May 2015

 

Huh, what? Didn't we have May 2015 already? Yup, we had one. But stuff's changed. Or, well, got added. Welcome to the first edition of the new Tainted Times. Oh, and the first-of-the-month release date is the new standard too. Last 20 days month (it just sounds better, even if it isn't true), Aiel Heart's mafia game was played and got to a 2-man (1-man-1-woman) conclusion, Mawthtex returned, 300k-post thread activity dwindled even further, and more.

 

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Eldrick4221

Tim_L

 

Welcome to the Black Tower!

 

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I'm sorry, none. I think that the points page will soon be updated though, and promotions will most likely accompany it.

 

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Games

 

Aiel Heart's Pokemon Mafia game has both started and come to a conclusion this month, ending in a narrow win for the mafia team, who managed to snug in two members in the generally-agreed town reads. Town gave it their best though, and the game went down to 2 members before it was concluded. The next mafia game, hosted by Csarmi, is in sign-up phase.

 

Also, the Wheel of Time elimination game is still going on, though it is reaching it's close. Choose your favorite from the remaining six scenes!

 

Contests

 

We have several new (and ongoing) contests:

 

First of all, from today on, I will keep track of the amount of posts per person in the 300k post thread. Points may be awarded for this, though I should warn this has not yet been discussed with the staff.

Longest thread of the month (excluding game-threads) already gets points, but that's now coupled with an honourary mention in the Tainted Times. This month, the winner is Chaelca, with her thread to Zander.

 

And then there is this one-time-only contest:

 

40 points (personal pool) will be awarded for siggy-sized pictures to use in the new Tainted Times:

 

-Games

-Contests

-Food For Thought

-Other

 

Food For Thought

 

A totally new section in the Tainted Times! What is this for?

 

From this month on, there will be a short article in the Tainted Times, discussing a fantasy- or Wheel-of-Time-themed subject, that we can then continue discussing in the comments. I would love to see members writing this part and sending it to me beforehand, but if no one does, I'll write an own, just like I do this month, about the nature of Evil. (oh, by the way, I am not responsible for sleepless nights or crashing browsers due to too many opened tabs. Read links at your own risk)
 
(warning: There is a minor Wheel of Time spoiler for A Memory of Light, but I don't think it will hurt reading experience for the books, if you hadn't already figured it out)
 
What makes Evil evil? Should there be an "Evil" in a story, or should everything fall in a morally grey area, different shades optional? I'll start with the second question. I personally believe that, yes, any party should be "grey". "White" is nearly impossible to hold onto, mostly in fantasy, as it's nearly impossible to not kill anyone if you're a hero in a fantasy story, and while "Black" is often used, it makes villains unrealistic. Often, it can be handwaved by a god of pure good and a god of pure evil, but if that is done, it should be done well. That means, that no humans or other races capable of understanding good and evil will join, except by lies, threats or to advance their own means, and none of those options should make them loyal. Indeed, all should make them very suspectible to betraying their master or (in the first two cases) joining up with the heroes when they have the chance.
 
And now, what makes Evil evil? Of course, books have been written about this - half of the fantasy series (if not more) at least touches on the subject. Is Ambition evil? There is good ambition too, look at Elayne, for a Wheel of Time example (I won't go into details because it might spoil, but I don't doubt people will understand it). Is Selfishness evil? Mat's incredibly selfish, yet he's one of the ta'veren. Is Chaos evil? That's what Sauron was fighting: He wanted order. Then why are these people on the sides that they are? Maybe the answer's right in Wheel of Time: The bad guys are trying to tamper with free will. The Dark One wants to remove free will so that everyone is forced to be evil, and Sauron wants to remove free will to bestow order upon the world.
 
But that would mean, if we would go with that, that killing harmless innocents is not evil? So there's more to it. Killing innocents is wrong, of course. But what if between those innocents are enemies, or what if you had information that made you think they weren't innocent? It's hard to draw a line between good and evil. In fact, I think that the line can only be drawn at "evil does not care about the cost of it's actions, while good does".
 
Oh, and once again, you are welcome to write and send in something akin to this. Points await. Just keep it Wheel of Time or fantasy based, so that everyone understands what you're talking about.



 

Other

 

Goal: 300,000 replies

Current: 230,605 replies

This month: 148 replies made (of which something like 90 are mine?) Remember, points may be awarded for this in the future.

 

General Discussion: 802,974 replies (6,137 this month)

The Black Tower: 659,157 (3,339 this month)

We can do better than that!

 

should really post more in the 300k thread though...

 

Anyway, that's it for this month, I hope I didn't forget anything.

 

UPDATE:

 

Related to Food For Thought (and only not there because I totally forgot about it), we want to add Member Contributions. This is much wider in it's topics and it's writing goal - while it can invoke discussion this does not need to be the case, and it can also be written just to inform people or explain something to them, think of an article about other social groups or the basics of mafia. It needs not necissarily be Dragonmount or fantasy-related, though wide topics are preferred if it is something different, as the normal life of the fruit fly is a bit boring for 99,5% of the people. These, too, will earn points, though Food For Thought is something like the "Best Topic of the Month" and will gain more points.

 

Also, if you happen to have any ideas for stuff that could be added to the Tainted Times, make sure to PM me and you might get some points in return.

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I like your points. I especially appreciate the links to TV Tropes. 

 

From a DnD perspective: Chaos and Order are different things from Good and Evil. They're unrelated. As far as good and evil go, I believe it essentially comes down to this: whether you are willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of other people, or whether you are willing to sacrifice others for your own good.

 

Also, I disagree that Mat is selfish. He certainly enjoys making himself appear shallow and selfish, but when the chips are down, so to speak, he tends to get between whoever is in trouble and whatever is causing said trouble.

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I like your points. I especially appreciate the links to TV Tropes. 

 

From a DnD perspective: Chaos and Order are different things from Good and Evil. They're unrelated. As far as good and evil go, I believe it essentially comes down to this: whether you are willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of other people, or whether you are willing to sacrifice others for your own good.

 

Also, I disagree that Mat is selfish. He certainly enjoys making himself appear shallow and selfish, but when the chips are down, so to speak, he tends to get between whoever is in trouble and whatever is causing said trouble.

 

I see it more like, he's selfish, but he can't stop himself from helping others. Though, maybe you do have a point that he's doing part of it intentionally. If you'd ask wheter he'd realize that, I think I'd say he wouldn't, though.

 

The 40 points can come from my infinite (or nearly so) pool if you like.

 

I was actually planning on asking that. Guess we'll do it that way then.

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He can't stop himself from doing it because he knows that it's the right thing to do and he wouldn't be able to live himself afterwards if he just turned his back on someone who needed him, especially one of his friends.

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He can't stop himself from doing it because he knows that it's the right thing to do and he wouldn't be able to live himself afterwards if he just turned his back on someone who needed him, especially one of his friends.

 

Basically. Except he tries to tell everyone (himself included) that it's not the case.

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But then there were all those portal flicker realities where he apparently betrayed rand and went full on evil.

 

So apparently, the potential is there. Maybe in those lives he had to save the girls one time too many and his image WAS stronger than his consience, leading to jumping off the slippery slope. Or maybe just sliding off it.

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all the boys had evil or bad or just plain

loser alternate selves. like it was just luck

and probability and

a dice roll that saved them.

 

No, it wasn't. The story that is written down, is written down because it is the one where everything goes right. If Rand would never leave Two Rivers, there would not be a story. If they went evil, they would in the end die (because the Dark One can't win as long as at least one still opposes him, which would for certain be the case), thereby making it a much blacker story than RJ wanted. And so on. The portal worlds are all equal, but the story told is the one where all the choices go right, for every choice spawns a branch, and therefore every branch exists.

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then yes it was.

 

a step

right instead of left.

 

this choice instead of that.

 

the action of the taveren to bring it all together.

 

mat's dark ones own luck.

 

meeting the exact right people at the exact right time. showing up at just the right spot just when they need to.

 

it's a coin flipping heads a million

times in a row.

 

he put the portal

worlds

in and all the I win again

lews therins because he wanted to

show that too.

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Too many line breaks for me to be able to read comfortably lol.

 

I've once thought of it this way: When a character makes a choice, a world splits off. Those where a "wrong" choice is made (randomly killing the guy next to you, for example) degenerate quickly and disappear, either because everybody dies, or if you look from the character alone, that character. If it's not clear (think of Anakin's choices), it may take longer, may even continue (where else can your evil come from?), and those and the right choices continue to make the story.

 

And yeah, RJ cheated with his ta'veren influencing chance.

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Yeah the fact that they're Ta'veren is basically the lynchpin of the entire thing. They cause those tiny chances of people being in the right place at the right time to become certainties.

 

From a writers point of view, I'd say, it's a great solution to the question that is always there: Why them? Of course, if you're only talking about one person, it's easy to answer: Because the story is about the Chosen One. Had someone else been the Chosen One, that someone else would have been the main character. However, Robert Jordan wanted to make multiple people from Rand's hometown important, and then you need another solution.

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  • 2 weeks later...

UPDATE:

 

Related to Food For Thought (and only not there because I totally forgot about it), we want to add Member Contributions. This is much wider in it's topics and it's writing goal - while it can invoke discussion this does not need to be the case, and it can also be written just to inform people or explain something to them, think of an article about other social groups or the basics of mafia. It needs not necissarily be Dragonmount or fantasy-related, though wide topics are preferred if it is something different, as the normal life of the fruit fly is a bit boring for 99,5% of the people. These, too, will earn points, though Food For Thought is something like the "Best Topic of the Month" and will gain more points.

 

--------------------------------

 

I will also edit the original post to include this.

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