Alignment

[mythteller]

Anyone who has played some kind of Table Top game is familiar with the term Alignment. For those of you who have not thrown a 20-sided die in their lives, Alignment describes your personality and moral judgemnent in a general way. You are then given some freedom in how your alignment is expressed when you role-play.

With the myriad of RPGs out there, there are more than a few variations on Alignment, but the basic ones are as follows:

Lawful Good/Neutral Good/Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral/True Neutral/Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil/Neutral Evil/Chaotic Evil

You can read more about what each one means by visiting this Wikipedia Entry on Alignment.

sarahcarotte and I were discussing the alignment of various super-heroes (geeks that we are). She felt that Batman was Lawful Good, while I felt that he was Neutral Good. My argument was that, although Batman is definitely Good, he wouldn't be above beating a suspect to a bloody pulp before getting the answers he needed. She also felt that Superman was Neutral Good, while I felt he was Lawful Good. We both agreed that Spider-Man was Lawful Good.

On the other side of the tracks, I would characterize the Joker as Chaotic Evil and Lex Luthor as Lawful Evil.

So in Memish fasion, here's my task to you: take 5 random LJ friends that you know fairly well (or think you do) and assign an alignment to them that you think represents their moral fibre. If you want, include a short description on why. You might want to mention that you've done this by leaving them a comment about it.

Also, assign an alignment to yourself. If anyone disagrees with you, post their take on your alignment in your Journal.

So here's mine (okay, so I did more than 5. I have lots of opinions!):

jdhobbes: Neutral Good

ashforestwalker: Lawful Good
baronscartop: Chaotic Neutral
bastdanica: Chaotic Good
beautifulstars: Chaotic Good
concordantnexus: True Neutral
grrscary: True Neutral
kideternity: Chaotic Good
kino_kid: Lawful Good
kittyfinn: Neutral Good
knotty_mark: Chaotic Good
moniqueg: True Neutral
mousme: Chaotic Neutral
raynedaze: Chaotic Good
rbowspryte: Neutral Good
sandman7: Lawful Good
sarahcarotte: Lawful Good
satyrdance: True Neutral
scarletcougar: Lawful Good
serendipity8791: Chaotic Good
shakura: Lawful Good
silly_imp: Chaotic Neutral
taigathyme: True Neutral
talyesin: Lawful Good
tocityguy: Neutral Good
toughlovemuse: Lawful Good
twilightbunny: NeutralGood
ulfhildr: Lawful Good
will279802: Neutral Good
yukonflower: Lawful Good
zeuberwench: Chaotic Good

Comments

[jdhobbes.livejournal.com]

Super-heroes always operate outside of the law, so I'm not sure that following the laws of the land makes you *necessarily* Lawful. I take it to mean that you adhere to a strict code of conduct, whether you're good or evil (Luthor definitely does not follows the laws of the land).

Spidey would not go to extremes to see justice done and he tries to operate within the laws of the land, although he will occasionaly break them to serve the greater good. But he's not an anarchist (making him Chaotic).

Joker is definitely Chaotic Evil. He's a destroyer, a serial killer. If he was Neutral, he'd be trying to achieve some kind of balance between good and evil. He kills because he thinks it's funny, not because it serves any greater good.

I agree with you on Bats being more Chaotic than Neutral, but he's somewhere between the two.