i like it
Humanity is shit, magic is shit, I am shit, so let’s add more shit!
Very cool!
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cynicism isn’t when someone analyzes the consequences of something beyond what they see in comic books
1: this isn’t AU’s system
2: knowledge barriers still exist, even if everyone can tap into magic, not everyone has the knowledge, materials, time, or even legal ability to hone their craft.
3: there is no incentive for those in power to allow everyone to learn magic. this would severely destabilize their power structure and would be the opposite of what would be in their best interests.
it doesn’t matter if “everyone goes bad” or not (i don’t think i ever said this anyway, perhaps i said something analogous to “power corrupts”, which it does), all it takes is one person to misuse their UNFATHOMABLY powerful magic, and 80% of the population of the entire fucking planet is wiped off the globe. objectively magic was what caused that incident to occur. if it wasn’t for durza, someone else would’ve acquired the absorption curse, and they would have became durza.
you know what? magic would literally be worse than AU even allows. what was stopping durza from flying to some unknown remote area of the world, charging up his most powerful attack, and then killing the REST of humanity? NOTHING! he’s already done so IN A HEATED BATTLE. there’s NOTHING stopping him from doing this again aside PERHAPS from his petty obsession with obtaining all of the magic.
Theos and the peacekeeper BARELY won against darza. millions (or the arcane world’s equivalent of millions, :P) of people still died when he self destructed and obliterated 3 of the 7 seas. while I do recognize that good people will still exist under a magic system, they won’t be able to counterbalance the unfathomable evil figures like darza will be able to produce. it’s not just darza either. what about the kraken? the arcane government’s whole board of executives? sage?
we’re not talking about fucking comic books, we’re talking about how the AU magic system canonically fucked over humanity consistently AND repeatedly.
we’re talking about how if you apply any realistic social dynamics to the AU power system, you get mad max on steroids.
we’re not talking about what happens if you handwave every negative implication that superpowers have unless it’s important to the plot. jesus fucking christ
what is a “magic character” supposed to be? please clarify
do you mean characters in the AU? characters who have magic in general? specifically fictional characters?
yeah, if you handwave all the problems associated with magic, you won’t get a dystopian society (at least, not explicitly dystopian), but that’s not what this conversation is about
i don’t think i was being overly one sided and negative about it, i think it was appropriate considering how power affects people in the real world
if the illusion of power (governmental positions, wealth) messes with your brain enough to contribute to, or even directly cause all the horrible shit happening in the third world, then surely real power will be significantly worse, right?
nah, its pretty fun to debate, sorry if you don’t like it
Based perf
then i guess that’s the fundamental disagreement. my belief is that power itself affects morality. that holding power over others inherently degrades your morality, and that the less power specific individuals hold over others, the better society is
yeah I know :(
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Specify “degrades your morality” using less vague terms.
Damn bro didn’t know cynicism=negative
sure.
when i say that power degrades your morality, i mean that it:
influences you towards:
1: thinking yourself above others (you wouldn’t even be wrong, you would be above others) [worst case scenario, leading to incredible narcissism]
2: belittling the lives of those below you [worst case scenario, leading to dehumanization of those under you]
it also alienates you from the concerns and struggles of those with no power, leading to trouble understanding those below you, perhaps manifesting in the worst cases as disgust or even hatred.
tl;dr i think power can lead you to lose your humanity 
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sorry, but i don’t think this depends on the person
obtaining superpowers/magic is such a radical perspective change that every person, no matter how “pure” or “kind”, is going to be faced with temptation that will only grow with time.
as the person spends more time with their power, they feel more and more of a disconnect with the people below them, and more and more they feel like they can’t understand them at all. eventually, they will succumb, no matter how pure or kind. it’s just a matter of how often they use their power, or if they die before it happens to them.
at best they’ll be apathetically detached from everything, and at worst they wouldn’t give a shit over whether people live or die from their actions.
does this sound familiar to you? i hope it does, i’m describing the process real world politicians go through
doubt, some people may be able to do good things because of their power, but that doesn’t mean they’re better people because of it
even if i conceded this point to you, do you really think this would help people?
it took ONE durza to commit mass genocide, WHILE he was being fought by theos.
there won’t be ‘just one durza’, and the ‘good guys’ won’t outnumber the ‘bad guys’
all it takes is someone driven psychotic by the new powers they just acquired, to go city to city torching everything they see, and the heroes, who can only stop the threat after it happens, can’t do shit.
all it takes is another durza to charge up a giga-nuke in the middle of nowhere to cause a mass extinction event.
there is noooo shot in hell the world with magic is any way better than the current world is. there is NO way creating more power inequality (or, and i haven’t touched up on it until, giving humans more destructive potential in general)
POV: when you say that a_nerd and diamondkfc’s arguments are pointless
ummmmm… Yes?
yeah
Damn, didn’t know they were real people, also who the fuck says pk is good?
Also yes, Theos and Pk do think of themselves above others
They literally do whatever they want… you picked the worst possible example.
Mf just said “sources”
Have you even read the lore doc?
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