A world without evil?

I believe in the possibility of utopia, and that a world in balance is a world free of evil, that evil is the guy showing up to the symphony uninvited with a bullhorn and tourette's syndrome taking a seat behind the conductor. I don't believe that it's within human capacity to achieve a state of utopia unaided, however, and the specific sort of aid I anticipate (or at least hope for, on my more frequent and less optimistic days) is of a supernatural/religious nature. But that's really beyond the scope of the discussion.

The Quixotic Paladin (Broadsword/WP Scrapper), bereft of human foes to vanquish, would travel the world building schools and orphanages, secretly hoping for a new batch of monsters to fight. He really defines himself in opposition, and he'd have the hardest time of all my characters with the end of his crusade. I can't imagine him ever hanging up his sword. True to his name, there's a good chance he'd imagine some new villains up and wind up institutionalized.

Euroclydon (Storm/Elec Defender) would return to his family castle in Scotland and do silly things like try to conquer Death with Magic. But he'd be clear witted enough about the process to avoid falling into the evil apotheosis trap, and likely die an old man without having made any significant progress. This is provided that someone else manages to kill his sister, who's stolen the family secrets and used them to make all sorts of infernal pacts. If he has to do the deed himself, as he has sworn to do if the opportunity arises, he'll drink himself into oblivion within a few months thereafter.

Pandemonika (Elec/Elec Scrapper) would probably make sure she didn't outlive the era of violence. She's the sort to look for a noble last stand to throw everything she's got into. If she did survive, she'd lead a life of quiet despair almost certainly ending in suicide. She fights to avenge her dead love and honor his memory as a fellow hero, and that's really all that's keeping her going. Interestingly, this would likely be enough of a shock to her Earth prime native counterpart, Lunaticia (Pandemonika is a Praetorian refugee) to get her to accept psychological treatment in prison and turn her life around.

Otto the XXIX (WP/Axe Tanker) would get sooooo drunk you guys, you have no idea. And then he'd get in fights. And then he'd be dragged before a warcrimes tribunal, because he's the sort of guy who's only a "hero" because some frat boys filled out his hero license registration for him as a prank. They would likely try to execute him, figure out quickly that no magic or technology exists on earth that can actually do the job, and eject him into some dimensional abyss in exactly the same manner he got kicked out of the fantasy universe he originated in.

Violentaur (SS/WP Brute, but a future candidate for Going Rogue) would carefully select a location for maximum aesthetic value, pose his robotic body into a monument to his own bad self, and power down for good. He just wasn't designed to have much function in peacetime, and doesn't believe he could adapt or alter his programming without ceasing to be himself. He would also assume that there could be a need for him later, and not want to deny future generations the option of powering him back up for a new era of mechanical *** kicking.

Sturmlanzer (Elec/Elec Blaster) is the one happy ending in this mess. Like many of my characters, he is an Mu-blooded sorcerer. Unlike most of them, he stumbled across the martial applications of his abilites as an accident, rather than a primary subject of inquiry. He developed his lightning magic abilities in an attempt to provide an alternative power source, but threw his hat into the ring when he discovered his theories were being stolen (or, as Doc Aeon claims, independently rediscovered) and used as part of the Cap Au Diable PTS system. Cleanly transforming magical energy into electrical power is a good thing, but siphoning that energy from an imprisoned sentient being against its will isn't (even if said being is a hostile demon). Post-villains, he'd return to his research to reduce global dependency on fossil fuels, hopefully without introducing a whole new host of magic-related environmental problems in the process.



The trend I'm starting to notice is that few of my heroes, as people willing to resort to proactive applications of violence (hunting the badguys down and beating them up, rather than just defending themselves and others), would have much of a place in a post-villain world. They all seem to wind up becoming targets for removal, if they don't take care of it themselves. This is a big part of why I don't believe in Utopia without divine intervention. The people who will work the hardest to create a perfect world can so easily become the sort of people who won't belong there when it's ready.

This thread reminds me of a quote from the Movie Excalibur. King Arthur when he believes all of his knights have brought peace and harmony to his kingdom asks Merlin where then does evil still exist?

Merlin's response : "Always where you least expect it"

I think aside from the natural disasters and such to rescue folks from, we would see in time a growing new evil rear its ugly head. Most likely from our own ranks as Merlin suggested and was in fact proven right.

Paragon would become like Stargate command and start portal jumping to do battle with evil.

Or it was just Scirocco's plan went through alright and now everybody is a brainwashed zombie that mimics the actions of "good" without having any real choice in the matter anymore because he used the power of the hammer of the gods to wipe out evil.

My answer is simple: Going Rogue.

Evil would never fall. if i see villains alike die off. ill hide to plan my revenge.

if Lord Recluse fell. id be the one heroes would fear.

and if i did die. id come back still for revenge. for you see...i always plan ahead.

you should ask your self...what if no heroes were alive..what if they were all dead...what would the world be like then . mauahahahaha

The society depicted in Iaian M Banks Culture novels is prety much Utopia for the vast majority of its citizens. I think it is possible because of two things - infinite resources, and a level of technological advancement that means that nobody has to do anything (work, for example) that they don't want to do.

There's a great little bit in one of the novels where a person from outside the Culture asks a citizen what would happen if a Culture citizen murdered someone. The response is "They'd probably get droned". The questioner asks them "Droned? What's that?", presumably expecting some bloody punishment. The answer they get is "A Drone follows you around for the rest of your life to make sure you don't do it again" (Drones being AIs in robot bodies with all sorts of force fields and stuff, basically a guarantee of no further malfeasance on the part of the perp). It's quite funny.

Eco.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow [The Incarnate System is] Jack Emmert all over again, only this time it's not "1 hero = 3 white minions" it's "1 hero = 3 white rocks."

*Yawn*

You all are a bunch of peasants. Evil will always triumph because Good is dumb.

The fact that you use Batman as your example make me cackle. The man with no powers who won't even pack a gun to fight mobsters and villains who can maim and kill in their sleep...Ah me.

Heroes are so very...very...brilliant from your point of view I assume. The only reason that most Super-Heroes are not mouldering in their graves is that writers constantly invoke that blasted Literary convention, Deus Ex Machina so that "Good" can prevail and the commericially driven media can continue, despite having their protagonists in a hole that they cannot believably escape from without destroying the minute fractal of suspension of disbelief they had to begin with.