Lawful evil? Chaotic good? There’s a bold contrast and duality to his personality, what say the rest of ye?
I love a good alignment debate…
I would say Lawful Evil. He has strong Magneto vibes.
(Lucio is Chaotic Good)
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He’s too wholesome to harm. It’s like watching J.D. from Scrubs rob someone with a chainsaw.
kinda hard to pin down but i would say lawful evil as well?
chaotic neutral seems be more like billy the kid from those old emilio estevez billy the kid 80s movies
Rama’s a revolutionary, so isn’t he by definition excluded from being Lawful?
(I’ve seen some say “Lawfulness” can be regarding a personal code, but I feel at that point the distinctions between Neutral/Lawful just become meaningless.)
This summarizes one side of the debate wonderfully! Thank you!
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Ack. That raises the classic conundrum of whether or not a Paladin in an evil society is compelled to follow that society’s laws!
I tend to see lawfulness through the lens of a personal code; otherwise, you only have lawful evil villains in a lawful evil society, which seems limiting. Ram is pretty close to Magneto morality wise (replace “mutant” with “omnic”), and Magneto is generally portrayed as having a moral code/honor.
But, all that said, alignment is a slippery subject. I’m definitely not asserting that my take is the correct take.
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Lawful Evil. Man is killing everybody for the sake of his race.
Which is a no-no.
Agreed. Dunno about Lucio (never got into his lore, only know barebones and don’t particularly care right now) but Ram is definitely Lawful Evil at rest and Chaotic Evil at best.
I think he swaps between his intensity on the Evil side of the chart. Cause on the one hand, his terrorism isn’t exactly lawful, but on the other hand, he just really wants his people to be respected and not hunted down. I think. Maybe? Maybe. My brain is fried. I’m sorry. I’m broken. Please fix me.
as a character… good intentions but bad “ends justify the means” approach.
i still hate Doom players.
I don’t see how that’s the case, or at least you certainly wouldn’t have to write it that way.
I think of the Space Pirates from the Metroid Series (specifically the Prime games where you get some broader insight in their culture). They have laws, rules, and a general code of conduct, but morally speaking, they’ll do terrible things to each each other for the simplest justification of “you broke the rules” or “Looks like you didn’t meet your quota jim; guess your new job is Experimental Weapon Target”.
But they still have troublemakers and definitions of “undesireable behavior”.
But if one of those troublemakers is espousing “good” behavior and breaking those rules (e.g., assisting Jim in escaping Experimental Weapon Target duty), does that make them chaotic?
It just seems like if chaotic is measured by comparison against a particular system, then chaotic isn’t an “alignment” that is part of a person’s character, it’s a way of describing their interaction with a system.
My simple version is, lawful means you keep your word. Chaotic means you give your word, knowing you have no intention of being bound by it. Neutral means you give your word, but will break it if there is a compelling reason.
Mostly, Ram seems pretty cool for a villain, in part because he seems like he would honor a ceasefire or other commitment. Contrast with Maugau, whom I hate the most of the entire cast. That guy is an odious bully.
That’s more a problem with attempting to fit an entire personality and value system into a 9-square grid.
A character’s reaction when confronted with the a particular value system would say a lot about the character to me. The “conundrum” of a Lawful Good character in an Evil society I would just call “a story”, because conflict of law and morality is a classic plot-device.
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I would not flip the table and walk out if you were my DM and that was your take. 