High morals won't do you much good if you are lying dead in a ditch. If your encounters have no qualms about killing you, what choice do you have but act in a similar way in a critical situation? The only other choice is to die. Maybe much, much later when Rudeus is an OP character, should he ever be, he can afford to ignore lowlifes trying to kill him or those in his company. But that day is still far off.Originally Posted by DarthEnderX
Then how did high morals ever come into existence in the first place if trying to act better always meant death?
No, there's actually a LOT of other choices. Like subduing people, or running away, or bargaining.
They might not all work, but to assume everything is kill or be killed is a false dichotomy.
When a society develops and gets stable enough, when there are enough officials and the order of law is strictly enforced. Revenge is institutionalised, which means courts of law are dealing out punishments to criminals, not those who were wronged personally. We can't have modern, productive societies if every single person needed to keep themselves trained and equipped to fight for their lives every single day. So, we have the police forces do it instead, while the majority of the population can study and do other work and business. It requires the vast majority of the population subscribes to this order that people can stick to high morals and consider ethics to function in everyday lives.
When the order is removed, like when a neighbouring country attacks, people have no choice but to kill before they are killed.
Btw, I already said it, but I'm not trying to sat Rudeus should become ruthless and kill every wrongdoer. I'm merely saying he needs to be ready to take a life, when there's no other realistic choice. Unfortunately the situations are usually such that you don't have more than a fraction of a second to make the decision. Similarly, he can't become shocked stiff when he sees people lose their lives. Because he's going to keep seeing it, no doubt.
Except...those things are the RESULT of attempting to live with higher morals. Not the cause.
People don't just spontaneously develop laws in a kill-or-be-killed civilization. Someone has to actually look around and decide "You know, maybe we can do better than this kill-or-be-killed" thing. It happens when people strive to be BETTER than their current situation should allow.
I was about to be like "They JUST told us there's one god for Men, one for Demons and one for Dragons." But that was Dragon Quest this week.
Last edited by DarthEnderX; Tue, 03-16-2021 at 10:18 AM.
I have the opposite opinion. People can afford to have high morals when they are safe and among their own kind. Society is necessary for achieving things greater than individuals alone can create. Of course rulers as well don't want their subjects to slaughter each other, thus reducing tax income and manpower available. The early civilizations already had the basic laws to make sure a society can be productive and capable of warfare. However, until the very recent centuries, people remained savage. Public shaming and executions were popular spectacles. Torture was commonplace. Foreigners from far away were all considered savages, not necessarily even humans. And so forth.
How could you EVER be safe if you live in a kill-or-be-killed world and NOBODY tries to rise above it?
You can't have society until someone decided NOT to kill every potential threat or competition for resources, because everyone around you is always those thing.
Uh... I just explained it in the post. It's not a kill or be killed world if laws forbid random killings and the culprits, if caught, are heavily punished. You don't need jolly morals for that part. It's the primary necessity for humans to live in a functional group. It's pure practicality.
The thing is, this wasn't a critical situation at all.
Even Rudeus was super calm after he got kicked, because he knew there would be no follow up and him getting hit was him being careless.
The situation escalated with them killing their leader.
No need to make it sound like they stabbed them in the back either, lol.
They apprehended them, that's all.
I'm talking about the bigger picture. Rudeus hasn't accepted, at all, that he might need to kill people in self-defence and that people might die as a consequence of his actions. Just compare Eris and Rudeus's reaction to the dude dying in this episode: Eris knows it's a rough world and people die, Rudeus believes he can retain the part of being a perfectly peaceful Japanese, even in the new world with considerably less order and civilization. I'm not blaming him for finding it difficult, but it's something he needs to come to terms with.
It's obvious there was no need to kill the guy in this case. I've said it already earlier.
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