So, uh...

You know that thing where someone posts about something and then there's a lengthy back-and-forth in the comments that long exceeds your attention span before you can decide how you feel about it?

Yeah, that happened to me just now.

The problem with many philosophical debates - including debates of inconsistent canon of a television cartoon for little girls - is that there's never a real winner. When both sides have valid objective points that the other can't dispute away, the only thing separating what side you land on is personal opinion. And given I've riffed fanfiction since 2011, I can assure that personal opinions almost always suck.

Except that is a personal opinion, so we're right back to where we started. There is no right answer.

I'm not sure if this is directly relevant, but I feel like talking about it. For a collaborative RPG fangame idea, I came up with the idea of a villain - not the main villain, but as a higher lieutenant, perhaps the right-hand bad guy - that believes only that the reason anyone does anything is in part for personal benefit. That there's no such thing as altruism or heroism. There's also apparently no such thing as falsifiability - give him any situation and he will be able to determine exactly how the acting party personally benefits. Kill a dragon threatening some villagers? The one who kills it will claim its horde; you benefit. Sacrifice yourself in a desperate hope it would allow others to win? If it works; the others win and history vindicates you; you benefit. If it doesn't, you don't have to watch those others you likely care about fall; you benefit. Donate so much money to charity that you need charity just to feed yourself for months, if not years? Well didn't you feel good helping others with all that giving, even if just for a bit? Benefit. In fact, my idea is that he doesn't directly fight the heroes because he doesn't see it as benefiting him until the last minute, where his boss finally threatens his well-being if he doesn't. I had the idea in the last couple hours that this character, probably already being a form of rock monster earlier, would likely be made of jade.

I want this character as a villain because I want the heroes to prove him wrong. That there can be true giving, true altruism, that there is a situation where it can be verifiably determined that personal benefit has no part whatsoever in the instigator's motive.

Someone else has to write those heroes, because I'm the one that needs convincing.

Maybe it's just because my head's drowned in Tumblr, but I find it very hard to get worked up for anything in general. In order to avoid looking like an idiot like I've done in the past, I avoid expressing strong opinions of most anything, from the latest Pokémon games to the quality or lack thereof of season finales of MLP, to the reveal of the Cars 3 teaser. As consequence, I have difficulty forming strong opinions. To this day, I can't say I have any real headcanons about MLP's characters or setting, none that I'd be willing to debate out. The only MLP anythings I've been able to rewatch is "It's About Time" and Friendship Games, and the only song in the entire run of this show that I can stand without needing it being sung by Team Fortress 2 characters is "Glass of Water." Despite how I try to absorb as much about franchises I'm a fan of as I can in order to understand the more dedicated fans, I do it with so many franchises I'm pretty much going for breadth over depth. I have to work to care about something these days. Everyone just makes it look so natural.

Hmm, an urban fantasy about someone that has a jade heart would be interesting...