thinking about alignment and my faves

[anghraine]

The classic D&D alignments can be silly and reductive ... but they're also genuinely useful in some ways? Like, if I say "Darcy has Lawful Good energy, but is actually Neutral Good," you don't have to agree, but it gets across what I mean to people at all familiar with alignment without a long explanation. "I think some people see Cassian as X Neutral, but I think he's Lawful Good all the way through" is comprehensible in a concise way. So is "I think Leia is trying to stifle herself into living a Lawful Good life, but at heart is Neutral Good." I think that's also true of Éowyn, btw, while Jyn comes at it from the other side: living a Chaotic life, but also Neutral Good at her core (certainly not Chaotic Neutral or True Neutral).

And of course, the divisions aren't hard lines. I think Luke is probably not far from the Lawful/Neutral boundary, though still on the Neutral Good side, whereas Anakin has some of that Neutral or even Chaotic energy, but is ultimately Lawful Good -> Lawful Evil -> Lawful Good. 

(I am also Very Offended by bad alignment assignments, like the gifset that assigned Darcy to Lawful Neutral. WTF, seriously.)

Comments

[lokifan]

Haha, this is exactly how I feel about sorting characters into Potter houses. (JKR's transphobia has spoilt a lot of stuff, ofc, but still.) It can be a useful way into discussing them, and I def get offended by bad ones. The person who put Faith from BTVS into Slytherin...!

[anghraine]

I used to feel that way about Hogwarts Houses, too (Hufflepuff Luke Skywalker was my villain origin story!), though they're kind of ruined by association for me now.