I LARP. We've got a clan of expatriate nobles from an evil empire who settled in the area. The more cracked ones remind me of Dim. Good peoples, if very rather odd. In their own way.
Out of curiosity, what kind of government do you advocate for in real life? the Weedverse have exposed several times the ills of democracy and capitalism (Mister Marine's greed , or the Islands ' inefficient Parlaments ) and how things go better with a few enlightened autocrats (Alicorns) and their associates in charge of everything. How much of Dim 's view in this chapter do you agree with?
Oh, I think his views are atrocious and feudalism is a terrible idea. Dim is a feudalist in much the same way Flicker is a fascist, and I can't stand either one of them.
I'm so happy to see more of this. I wonder If Dim will live up to his knightly ideal or if the weight of his sins and his broken world view will drag him down the path of Darkness. I'm still waiting for Dim to casually call someone a disgusting primitive, something I think he takes as a fact and not an insult.
An interesting dilemma: both politic system fundamental flaw is to put too much power and authority in a few ones under the assumption of their superior moral, wisdom and competence will prevent social evils. In an fictional world where such statement is mostly true (alicorns are literal goddesses connected to fundamental elements of the World, vastly more experienced and competent than any mortal ruler and actually benevolents)... would Hobbes be right?
Dim's statement of the chivalric ideal as it applies to the duty of nobles to protect the commoners shows that, while he is an arrogant aristocrat, at least he has a fairly positive concept of his obligations as a member of the upper classes. When reading that, it struck me that -- much as he might horrify Twilight Sparkle in some aspects of his biography and deeds -- they'd be mostly in agreement on that premise.
The one thing about which Twilight Sparkle is arrogant is her duty to others (granted: at her level of knolwedge and power, few can do her job half so well as herself). Were it not for the experience of making friends from all walks of life, this arrogance would have been exacerbated (for instance, Twilight could no longer consider herself automatically superior to Earth Pony farmers after being good friends with the admirable Appejack, who is an Earth Pony farmer). Dim hasn't had the advantages of such experience with deep friendship.
In regard to your statement that Dim is neither good nor evil, I'd argue that he is both -- he has strong good and strong evil tendencies, which are at war with each other within his soul. This, of course, makes him an interesting character, and makes us care about his fate.
Which is the most important aspect of storytelling -- making us care about the characters.
It's occurred to me that you're probably also very much inspired by Hammer Films' version of rural Britain, Gormenghast, and the World of Darkness (White Wolf Games). Am I right?
What i will miss the most from this story being truncated is all the world building i will not get to see, because this is the only narrative in weedworld that is far enough off the beaten track to give an eyes-on view of the rest of the world beyond Equestrian assumptions.
Dim is neutral favoring good if it benefits him. I wouldn't say evil because while some of what he's done could be bad boarder line evil he''s been doing it to prevent larger evils
I think he'd qualify as Lawful Evil in terms of D&D alignment. Evil isn't so much about causing pain or suffering and taking pleasure in it. It's about putting yourself before others. Although he seems to be changing through his contact with the outside world, I would still say he's evil right now.
Oh, I think his views are atrocious and feudalism is a terrible idea. Dim is a feudalist in much the same way Flicker is a fascist, and I can't stand either one of them.
Feudalism and fascism are in some ways similar ideas, because both are strongly oriented toward the virtue of Loyalty (to a family and liege and vassals in the case of feudalism, toward a nation and leader and people in the case of fascism), and both succeed in appealing to followers on this virtue: they also both ultimately fail because they invite abuse by an unscrupulous liege or leader when he takes advantage of the loyalty of his followers. History is full of Bad Kings who abused feudal loyalties; and we all know the obvious example of an evil fascist leader: Adolf Hitler.
Both tend to persist as forms of government because they appeal strongly to an element of human psychology (which would also exist in the Ponies): the tendency to think of loyalty in personal terms to an individual rather than a system of government. The extreme supporters of Obama worked and of Trump work off this impulse: they think in terms of the interests of their Leader rather than of the Constitutional Republic (or parliamentary monarchy) to which the Leader's interests should ideally be subordinated. Constitutional Republics and Parliamentary Monarchies are better forms of government than either feudalism or fascism, but they are harder to maintain because they require more educationally-sophisticated populace.
Flicker is definitely, and Dim possibly, an example of the more sympathetic sort of fascist or feudal-minded people, in that both of them think ideaistically in terms of the virtues of ethical fascism and feudalism. The problem, of course, is that fascism and feudalism lack sufficient checks and balances to keep their leaders either ethical or restrained: when you get a John Lackland or an Adolf Hitler in charge, the results are thus not very pretty.
I don't actualy think Flicker is so horrible a Pony -- at least not as long as he accepts the guidance of some and feels the responsibility for the well-being of some other good Ponies whom he cares for. (I also cut him slack for his youth -- children are natural little fascists). On the other hand, I don't think Flicker's a very good independent ethicist -- if he'd wound up following somepony like (say) Sombra instead of Cadance, he'd give the evil Pony all the unquestioning loyalty he gives the good.
Competent but ethically-derivative people can be dangerous, because they will use their competence in the cause of evil as readily as good: this in turn is because they define "the good" as whatever their leader tells them to do. This is where the Third Reich got its brilliant generals.
You haven't shown enough of Dim yet for me to be sure of his moral balance. He shows idealism and goodness at times even when pursuing evil ends, and yet he also shows sadism and contempt for others. He is currently doing mostly good, but that's because he's in a milieu where most of those hiring him are doing so to help protect themselves from evil. Part of why I find him -- and his story -- interesting is that I want to see which way his destiny leads him.
Most fascist and feudaist systems are merely mediocre -- they are the norm in human history. Most of the depressingly large number of Latin American dictatorships, for instance, were not hideously evil or aggressive; they simply sat on their territory, governed moderately well or badly, and then passed into history. The same goes for the vast majority of kingdoms, duchies and so on in medieval Europe.
The reason we see them as bad is that we know of and enjoy better systems of government today -- constitutional republics and parliamentary democracies. This leads us to despise fascist and feudalist realms as evil because we take the good of our current world for granted. There is an exact analogy here with, say, modern medicine or mass transit -- we take for granted the luxuries of long life and easy long-distance transportation; we do not stop to think how favored we are by our current technological advantage. Think of constitutions and parliaments as "soft technology" advances, though the difference is that political (unlike technological) history tends to be cyclical.
Note: I am not advocating for or even defending fascism or feudalism in the modern West. I understand that they are the norm of human history, but I would much rather live in a free society, such as the one I live in today.
I'm just saying that they are not always terribly evil. It's not that they are so evil, but that what we have is so wonderfully good, if you see what I mean?
More o learn of dim the morei see potential in him as a characte.r Know this story is not getting the response you wanted but he could be included in future stories i feel.
He is a hardcore feudalist. And in a sense, it is true, the great pact of noble and peasant can seem ideal. Than again, so can Marxism, and Democracy, and a true Free Market. All of them are so good, so perfect. Not one of them has ever truly worked.
I have a feeling this is what Flicker was becoming, something he could have ended up as. Only he saw the light, and wasn't trained to hate it. Poor Dim here, i don't think there is a way back for him. Steps back? Yes. A full path? That seems impossible.
I like where this story is going. We have a protagonist who is having an "awakening" - he's neither good, nor bad (those are just arbitrary terms applied from others based upon their collective definitions), but he is not the most likeable pony in the world. I actually connect better with Dim than I did with Flicker, I think it's because Dim actually has more of a personality I understand.
I like how this story is going. Dim is born and molded into one thing, and then decides he hates it and can't stand it. Then he leaves, mainly to get away from rather than to go towards something. However, as he goes, he decides up on a destination to go towards. I'm not expecting him to be "good" or "evil" and I'm not expecting him to be "saved" by the end of the story-arc. But I do expect the story to be dark (no pun intended) and we've seen that already - and I like dark, foreboding stories. Not everything in the Weedverse is happy, and this is no exception, and I expect it to get darker still.
I'm expecting to see the return of his family, possibly his mother, definitely his bride-to-be, and I'm expecting that we will run across a few familiar (royal) faces that will not exactly welcome him in open arms, but who will welcome him.
...and then I expect the shit to this the fan and for things to really get interesting.
8118255 The biggest problem with Marxism is that the Government never truly followed the Rulebook. They were never supposed to skip straight to communism. You need time for the citizens to adjust to begin caring about others, to making citizens more equal.
The biggest problem in any society is accountibility. When you have too much power in one location it can be difficult to counter against corruption. The benefit of having loving, kind, and immortal Royalty, is that you don't have to deal with changes of regimes. You don't have to worry that someone's son, daughter, or grandson will fuck things up.
The great ideals have existed, but were only in certain locations, and most likely only in certain times. We have had examples even in Corporations where we have had a good or even great leader, but then have someone's offspring take over who is decent at best, or even cruel and severely corrupt at worst.
Cadence would have a field day sorting Dim out
"What is better - to be born good or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"
- Paarthurnax
I think he fits with this group of wizards not quite evil not quite good. http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Grey_Order
I am liking this story more and more as it goes on :)
I am very glad to see this continue. Dim is a fascinatingly complex character, and I quite like his self-examination at the end. Kudos, as always.
8117073
But I feel Trixie 's Granpa would had got along with him marvelously.
I LARP. We've got a clan of expatriate nobles from an evil empire who settled in the area. The more cracked ones remind me of Dim. Good peoples, if very rather odd. In their own way.
8117109
They're related.
Thus, a new Dark Knight rises...
"YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY!"
8117113
Out of curiosity, what kind of government do you advocate for in real life? the Weedverse have exposed several times the ills of democracy and capitalism (Mister Marine's greed , or the Islands ' inefficient Parlaments ) and how things go better with a few enlightened autocrats (Alicorns) and their associates in charge of everything.
How much of Dim 's view in this chapter do you agree with?
8117127
Oh, I think his views are atrocious and feudalism is a terrible idea. Dim is a feudalist in much the same way Flicker is a fascist, and I can't stand either one of them.
I'm so happy to see more of this. I wonder If Dim will live up to his knightly ideal or if the weight of his sins and his broken world view will drag him down the path of Darkness. I'm still waiting for Dim to casually call someone a disgusting primitive, something I think he takes as a fact and not an insult.
I really like this story..
I don't get why the stats are so bad.
8117138
An interesting dilemma: both politic system fundamental flaw is to put too much power and authority in a few ones under the assumption of their superior moral, wisdom and competence will prevent social evils. In an fictional world where such statement is mostly true (alicorns are literal goddesses connected to fundamental elements of the World, vastly more experienced and competent than any mortal ruler and actually benevolents)... would Hobbes be right?
Dim's statement of the chivalric ideal as it applies to the duty of nobles to protect the commoners shows that, while he is an arrogant aristocrat, at least he has a fairly positive concept of his obligations as a member of the upper classes. When reading that, it struck me that -- much as he might horrify Twilight Sparkle in some aspects of his biography and deeds -- they'd be mostly in agreement on that premise.
The one thing about which Twilight Sparkle is arrogant is her duty to others (granted: at her level of knolwedge and power, few can do her job half so well as herself). Were it not for the experience of making friends from all walks of life, this arrogance would have been exacerbated (for instance, Twilight could no longer consider herself automatically superior to Earth Pony farmers after being good friends with the admirable Appejack, who is an Earth Pony farmer). Dim hasn't had the advantages of such experience with deep friendship.
In regard to your statement that Dim is neither good nor evil, I'd argue that he is both -- he has strong good and strong evil tendencies, which are at war with each other within his soul. This, of course, makes him an interesting character, and makes us care about his fate.
Which is the most important aspect of storytelling -- making us care about the characters.
It's occurred to me that you're probably also very much inspired by Hammer Films' version of rural Britain, Gormenghast, and the World of Darkness (White Wolf Games). Am I right?
8117299
Hammer films, yes. Those were awesome.
What i will miss the most from this story being truncated is all the world building i will not get to see, because this is the only narrative in weedworld that is far enough off the beaten track to give an eyes-on view of the rest of the world beyond Equestrian assumptions.
I am much more enthused about this story now. A protagonist, (not) hero or otherwise without a purpose isn't much of one at all. Keep going.
I will say this:
This's staying in my favorites for a while. A look on what could have been.
Dim is neutral favoring good if it benefits him. I wouldn't say evil because while some of what he's done could be bad boarder line evil he''s been doing it to prevent larger evils
I like strange places.
I think he'd qualify as Lawful Evil in terms of D&D alignment. Evil isn't so much about causing pain or suffering and taking pleasure in it. It's about putting yourself before others. Although he seems to be changing through his contact with the outside world, I would still say he's evil right now.
8117138
Feudalism and fascism are in some ways similar ideas, because both are strongly oriented toward the virtue of Loyalty (to a family and liege and vassals in the case of feudalism, toward a nation and leader and people in the case of fascism), and both succeed in appealing to followers on this virtue: they also both ultimately fail because they invite abuse by an unscrupulous liege or leader when he takes advantage of the loyalty of his followers. History is full of Bad Kings who abused feudal loyalties; and we all know the obvious example of an evil fascist leader: Adolf Hitler.
Both tend to persist as forms of government because they appeal strongly to an element of human psychology (which would also exist in the Ponies): the tendency to think of loyalty in personal terms to an individual rather than a system of government. The extreme supporters of Obama worked and of Trump work off this impulse: they think in terms of the interests of their Leader rather than of the Constitutional Republic (or parliamentary monarchy) to which the Leader's interests should ideally be subordinated. Constitutional Republics and Parliamentary Monarchies are better forms of government than either feudalism or fascism, but they are harder to maintain because they require more educationally-sophisticated populace.
Flicker is definitely, and Dim possibly, an example of the more sympathetic sort of fascist or feudal-minded people, in that both of them think ideaistically in terms of the virtues of ethical fascism and feudalism. The problem, of course, is that fascism and feudalism lack sufficient checks and balances to keep their leaders either ethical or restrained: when you get a John Lackland or an Adolf Hitler in charge, the results are thus not very pretty.
I don't actualy think Flicker is so horrible a Pony -- at least not as long as he accepts the guidance of some and feels the responsibility for the well-being of some other good Ponies whom he cares for. (I also cut him slack for his youth -- children are natural little fascists). On the other hand, I don't think Flicker's a very good independent ethicist -- if he'd wound up following somepony like (say) Sombra instead of Cadance, he'd give the evil Pony all the unquestioning loyalty he gives the good.
Competent but ethically-derivative people can be dangerous, because they will use their competence in the cause of evil as readily as good: this in turn is because they define "the good" as whatever their leader tells them to do. This is where the Third Reich got its brilliant generals.
You haven't shown enough of Dim yet for me to be sure of his moral balance. He shows idealism and goodness at times even when pursuing evil ends, and yet he also shows sadism and contempt for others. He is currently doing mostly good, but that's because he's in a milieu where most of those hiring him are doing so to help protect themselves from evil. Part of why I find him -- and his story -- interesting is that I want to see which way his destiny leads him.
Most fascist and feudaist systems are merely mediocre -- they are the norm in human history. Most of the depressingly large number of Latin American dictatorships, for instance, were not hideously evil or aggressive; they simply sat on their territory, governed moderately well or badly, and then passed into history. The same goes for the vast majority of kingdoms, duchies and so on in medieval Europe.
The reason we see them as bad is that we know of and enjoy better systems of government today -- constitutional republics and parliamentary democracies. This leads us to despise fascist and feudalist realms as evil because we take the good of our current world for granted. There is an exact analogy here with, say, modern medicine or mass transit -- we take for granted the luxuries of long life and easy long-distance transportation; we do not stop to think how favored we are by our current technological advantage. Think of constitutions and parliaments as "soft technology" advances, though the difference is that political (unlike technological) history tends to be cyclical.
Note: I am not advocating for or even defending fascism or feudalism in the modern West. I understand that they are the norm of human history, but I would much rather live in a free society, such as the one I live in today.
I'm just saying that they are not always terribly evil. It's not that they are so evil, but that what we have is so wonderfully good, if you see what I mean?
More o learn of dim the morei see potential in him as a characte.r Know this story is not getting the response you wanted but he could be included in future stories i feel.
He is a hardcore feudalist. And in a sense, it is true, the great pact of noble and peasant can seem ideal.
Than again, so can Marxism, and Democracy, and a true Free Market.
All of them are so good, so perfect.
Not one of them has ever truly worked.
I have a feeling this is what Flicker was becoming, something he could have ended up as. Only he saw the light, and wasn't trained to hate it.
Poor Dim here, i don't think there is a way back for him.
Steps back? Yes.
A full path? That seems impossible.
This story is a strange sort of darkness that you don't see too often. Do continue, please.
YES!
As much as I hate Dim, he is a product of his environment.
And honestly, I can see where this is going. He is going to be reformed.
Him and Folklore would probably try to murder each other on the spot.
I love the angle ya going for here, hadta skip the first chapter though , flashbacks suck. The rest of the story is awesome though.
I like where this story is going. We have a protagonist who is having an "awakening" - he's neither good, nor bad (those are just arbitrary terms applied from others based upon their collective definitions), but he is not the most likeable pony in the world. I actually connect better with Dim than I did with Flicker, I think it's because Dim actually has more of a personality I understand.
I like how this story is going. Dim is born and molded into one thing, and then decides he hates it and can't stand it. Then he leaves, mainly to get away from rather than to go towards something. However, as he goes, he decides up on a destination to go towards. I'm not expecting him to be "good" or "evil" and I'm not expecting him to be "saved" by the end of the story-arc. But I do expect the story to be dark (no pun intended) and we've seen that already - and I like dark, foreboding stories. Not everything in the Weedverse is happy, and this is no exception, and I expect it to get darker still.
I'm expecting to see the return of his family, possibly his mother, definitely his bride-to-be, and I'm expecting that we will run across a few familiar (royal) faces that will not exactly welcome him in open arms, but who will welcome him.
...and then I expect the shit to this the fan and for things to really get interesting.
I'm digging it so far.
8118255 The biggest problem with Marxism is that the Government never truly followed the Rulebook. They were never supposed to skip straight to communism. You need time for the citizens to adjust to begin caring about others, to making citizens more equal.
The biggest problem in any society is accountibility. When you have too much power in one location it can be difficult to counter against corruption. The benefit of having loving, kind, and immortal Royalty, is that you don't have to deal with changes of regimes. You don't have to worry that someone's son, daughter, or grandson will fuck things up.
The great ideals have existed, but were only in certain locations, and most likely only in certain times. We have had examples even in Corporations where we have had a good or even great leader, but then have someone's offspring take over who is decent at best, or even cruel and severely corrupt at worst.