Ok, so, the last post I did went into some detail about my own personal coping strategy. This involved me creating a superhero universe made up of myself and people I know and retreating into it when things get tough so that I can personify the problem and take that problem down with my friends by my side.
Now, since that post, my Liz and I have been writing stories together involving the characters by taking on certain ones and coming up with perils in real time. Now, I very much enjoy this as it's a nice way to stay sane while completing my dissertation. Not only that, we're both giving each character a lot more depth than I could ever do on my own and, frankly, Liz is giving me some very wonderful ideas of how to carry on the story. I owe her a lot for doing this. However, last night, something happened in the story that really interested me and I couldn't stop thinking about it until I finally fell asleep at about 3am. We came up with a VERY interesting moral dilemma that I'd love to hear your views on.
The dilemma is thus:
Liz's character, Othergirl, is a super-soldier from the future and used to belong to an Earth-based army known as 'The Black Triangle'. Now, far in the future, Earth goes to war with a planet called Eden. (The homeworld of my character, Speedfreak). In this war, the Black Triangle were merciless killers, conquering planets and slaughtering the inhabitants. In fact, last night, we settled on that number being 27.6 trillion beings across the galaxy. Now, after 4 years of war, the United Nations of Earth and the Edenic Elders created an armistice deal that ended all hostilities. However, this did not please Commander Garrett of the Black Triangle and he decided that the United Nations had failed the planet by surrendering. So, he decided that that Black Triangle would attack the Earth, take over the Government and subjugate the planet under martial law. Every soldier in the Black Triangle supported this except for Othergirl who, by this point, had her brain-washing cyber-programming corrupted. Part of this corruption allowed her to develop a conscience, which was outlawed in the Triangle, and realise that what was about to happen was wrong. So, she runs away and defects with the intention of returning to Earth to warn the planet about the onslaught. She runs away from her 'brothers and sisters' to make sure that the Earth was safe.
My character, Speedfreak, is an alien speedster from the planet Eden but grew up on Earth after the planet fell into a war with their twin planet, Auria. Because the war was so substantial, Eden pulled in soldiers from across time to help them, including Speedfreak. Now, because of Speedfreak's stance on war (as well as his connection to planet Earth), he refused to fight for one single side. So, he set up a team that would fight both sides and endeavour to save as many people from the horrors of the war. This meant that Speedfreak and his team went up against the Black Triangle a lot and, eventually, led to Speedfreak meeting Othergirl on the planet Arantia, thereby kick starting her origin story. (It is in fact Speedfreak that ends up corrupting her programming). At the same time that Othergirl is starting to run away from the Black Triangle, Speedfreak hears news of the Black Triangle's intentions and races to Earth to try and intercept them. In doing so he contacts the leader of the Black Triangle, Commander Garrett, with an ultimatum. "Reconsider your plans to attack Earth or suffer the consequences". Garrett, who doesn't see the need to back down, calls Speedfreak;s bluff and refuses to reconsider his current course. So, in the name of protecting the Earth and billions of lives, he sets off a series of devices designed to trigger localised black holes. All 10,000 Black Triangle ships and all 30,000 Black Triangle soldiers end up falling into the black hole and it's all assumed that they all died as they fell into the event horizon. The only exception was Othergirl, who fell into a temporal schism created from the impact and the leftover material from the singularity. The war ends with the Black Triangle falling into the black holes (which later turn out to be a temporal prison and means that the deaths are still occurring rather than being instant as planned).
Now, this is where the story gets interesting.
In our run of stories, Othergirl has just discovered that Speedfreak did this to the Black Triangle and has, understandably, gotten very angry about it. A man she trusted on her first few months on Earth, and one of her best friends, has transpired to be the one who ended the war in this way. This has led to a split in the team. One side is sympathetic to Othergirl and the other half are sympathetic to Speedfreak.
The half sympathetic to Speedfreak argue that the Black Triangle were about to attack the Earth and kill billions. In killing what was left of the Black Triangle, Speedfreak saved the planet from unnecessary death and is ultimately in the right. Not only that, the Black Triangle themselves killed 27.6 trillion people across the galaxy, so 30,000 Black Triangle soldiers isn't even a dent in the death toll compared to that of the Triangle. Given that the Triangle were known across the galaxy as ruthless killers, it doesn't seem such a bad thing that they were destroyed in the final day of the war. They accept that the method was probably over the top but, fundamentally, Speedfreak was right to do what he did for the sake of peace and for the sake of future planet Earth.
The half sympathetic to Othergirl argue that Speedfreak was wrong to do what he did because, at the end of the day, the Black Triangle were, by all accounts, the main family Othergirl had. Although the Black Triangle oppressed their soldiers heavily, it's all she's ever known apart from the few months she's been on 21st century Earth. Not only that, they argue that the Black Triangle have brain-washed their soldiers into complete submission so they did not have total control over what they were doing. After each assault, each Black Triangle soldier's memory is downloaded and then wiped the from the unit in case they develop a conscience. However, due to the corruption in Othergirl's programming, she remembers everyone she killed. The number Othergirl gives as her own kill number is 4,931, but argues that she didn't have the self-control in order to stop herself from killing those people while Speedfreak killed the 30,000 Black Triangle soldiers on his own accord, free from mental control. (Which he also freely admits). So they argue that, while Othergirl didn't have a choice, Speedfreak did.
After we both went to bed, this particular moral question kept going through my head. It fascinated me how we'd created this moral argument and how both of us were passionately arguing points through the story. But here's the funny thing. There are flaws in both arguments.
- Speedfreak claims he made the kills because they were about to attack the Earth, subjugate it and kill billions. The operative term here being "they were about to" not "they had attacked". While it's accepted this was Commander Garrett's plans, there's no way to tell if, should the attack have happened, it would've succeeded. At no point in the story was it explained how good Earth's defences were and whether the Black Triangle's weaponry would be able to counter those defences. So there's no actual way to tell whether the attack and the consequent coup d'etat would've been successful. Therefore, it could be argued, Speedfreak killed the Black Triangle on a possibility rather than on solid information. Bringing the timing of the kills and the notion of genocide back into question.
- Othergirl, although admitting that the Black Triangle were ruthless killers, claims that they were her family and her "kind", meaning that Speedfreak took everything from her. While it could be argued they were her family on an individual level, it's also mentioned that Black Triangle soldiers were forcibly taken from their parents as kids and were viciously experimented on in order to turn them into perfect weapons, There is a shared kin among Black Triangle units but this is the same as brothers in arms. The idea of family, as far as Othergirl's concerned, is a vision of family that most people would deem warped. Also, given the fact that she defected from the Black Triangle herself, it could be argued that she deep down felt that the attack on Earth was wrong and is more annoyed at Speedfreak for the deaths of the Black Triangle and the fact, in her eyes, he's trying to absolve himself by using the greater good argument to justify his actions.
- Another character in the story 'Visionarie', who is a psychic, appears to completely turn on her friend, Speedfreak, upon the revelation of what happened during the war. Now, it could be argued that she takes Othergirl's side due to the fact that they are very close, but it could also be argued that she's seen something in Speedfreak's mind that's scared her. Possibly a much darker motive as to why he killed the Black Triangle than to the motive he's admitting to.
- One more character in the scene, Sarah Jones, takes Speedfreak's side and tries to argue that everyone else would've done the same thing as Speedfreak if they were in his position and if the Earth was at stake. However, when she tries to ask Othergirl what she'd do were the roles reversed, she refuses to answer. This could mean that she agrees with what happened deep down or that she doesn't want to answer because it might cause her to face something she doesn't want to face.
I've absolutely loved this moral argument, and I know where I personally stand, but I'd love to hear comments about who you think's in the right.
Until next time!
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