So many people think that good and evil are the lynchpins of classic action fantasy.
Good and evil are the fructose corn syrup of action fantasy.
Addictive, and so sweet it warps your senses to what sweet should taste like.
Good and evil are the fructose corn syrup of action fantasy.
Addictive, and so sweet it warps your senses to what sweet should taste like.
What really makes action genres of all sorts work is this contract:
Violence can solve problems.
In RL, violence sets these terrible chains in motions and hurts far more than helps...
But in action fiction you CAN punch the right person and solve a wide array of problems.
Violence can solve problems.
In RL, violence sets these terrible chains in motions and hurts far more than helps...
But in action fiction you CAN punch the right person and solve a wide array of problems.
It's this contract that action fiction rests on.
If we are going to move past colonial fantasy and to newer, better things, we have to hold this in the fore of our minds.
If we are going to move past colonial fantasy and to newer, better things, we have to hold this in the fore of our minds.
What makes action cathartic is the fact that I can unravel complex legacy systems of hatred and brutality by slashing/punching/spelling the appropriate representative of those systems.
I can't EVER solve problems like that in real life.
I can't EVER solve problems like that in real life.
People who don't understand how action fantasy works (there are a lot) feel adrift in all this supposed weight of moral complexity that kills conflict...but really, minimizing or abolishing mechanics around good and evil doesn't change much.
In fact, it makes finding motivations for your antagonists easier! All you need to do is make a problem, and figure out who is in charge of that problem, and start events into motion.
Honestly there would be a lot left boring fantasy tropes of we could do it this way.
Honestly there would be a lot left boring fantasy tropes of we could do it this way.
What I'd love folks to understand when we talk about how icky evil races are is that evil races means applying the language of violence to groups of people (aka genocide) that strips away the cathartic property of action fantasy away for many many people.
I don't usually put much stock in explaining this to folks who don't get it, bc if they haven't understood things as we've walked to this point, they are likely invested in NOT understanding and therefore not worth my time.
Tbh, I am also afraid that, in the rush to make changes that will make people stop complaining, that folks at WotC will be incentivized to look at just making more "good" orcs, rather than building a core for D&D fiction that can truly modernize it for years to come.
