Forums » Elder Scrolls

Video Game Powers: Becoming a Hero

    • 694 posts
    December 21, 2015 3:45 PM EST

    I think CHIM is definitely on the table, and a good look! I hadn't considered it. 

    Voice of the Emperor is definitely a good call too. I like that it circumvents that morality issue too, really good suggestions Matt! 

    • 558 posts
    December 21, 2015 3:46 PM EST

    You think there is potential for a single government that could bring about world peace, but I guess that is where our opinions differ. I don't think we'll be able to persuade each other to believe the other way, but I'll try and show you some of my view points. People have tried to create world peace before and it has failed horribly. Have you ever heard of Woodrow Wilson's "League of Nations"? The LoN was supposed to be an alliance of countries (that solved each others problems, basically a global govt.) in WW1, but Woodrow Wilson's country didn't even want to be in the LoN in the first place so he never joined (lol).

    After WW1, Wilson had a plan to eventually have world peace. Before the LoN was a thing, Wilson devised the "14 Point Plan", which would get the ball rolling for WP. Only a few parts of the plan became reality, but they royally fucked over Germany in the Treaty of Versailles (so Germany could "never come back"). We all know how well that worked in the end... That was one attempt at WP that failed.

    The UN is basically the LoN but the UN still around. It is also a failure because countries in the UN have been warring with each other and are warring even now.

    World peace hasn't worked in the past and it doesn't work now. I just can't believe that it will work in the future, either.

    If you are born to a struggling family, that isn't really my problem. Sounds rude, but if your parents don't care about you, neglect you, beat you, whatever, I think you should take it into your own hands to get some help (although sometimes the child is too scared to get help... still not my problem). I'd love to see abusive parents in jail, but if you don't do anything about it, I guess it doesn't bother you much. I'd send the kids to orphanages or other family members so they could get some help... I'm not rooting for abuse.

    This system I envisioned is about parents wanting to work hard for themselves and their children. If the parents don't care, they and their family will die. At this point in time, saving every person would do more harm to the human race than good...

    The "hobo" kids will have to get creative to survive, just like the actual hoboes during the 1920's in the US. But yeah, I don't think everyone should get helped, the Earth dying is sadder than anything else dying.

    I don't want my surgeon to be paid as much as the burger flipper at McDonalds (nothing against those who work at McDonalds, a job is a job). Surgeons are worth more than that, and that's why I can't support communism. I have never heard of a communist country doing well, either.

    Also, that cultureless, hateful, and ignorant stuff about world peace is basically a direct reference to how George Orwell thought that world peace would be the worst thing to happen to humanity. 

    • 177 posts
    December 21, 2015 4:43 PM EST

    You are right, I don't think either of us are coming out of this debate with different opinions, but it is always interesting to hear another way of thinking!

    As for the LoN, I agree, it was a bad idea. But my position differs in the fact that I believe it failed because it was rushed, and not nearly expansive enough. It was an attempt to get everyone together in a short amount of time with no incentive to get together, it could't have worked. And even if they had, so much ground was still left uncovered. And, to tie back to my point about an open-minded society, Wilson and the other world leaders at the time were not exactly bastions of acceptance and equality, as to quote the man

    "Segregation is not a humiliation but a benefit, and ought to be so regarded by you gentlemen.”

    Some things like this, as well as numerous other things said by numerous other people, shows, to me at least, that the world was not ready enough for world peace. Hell, even today we may not be ready. We may not be able to get people to agree on the greater good while people are stabbed to death for dressing like their true gender or thrown off buildings for their sexuality. 

    I think that world peace should be an overall goal for the human race, a "pinnacle" of sorts. We should not try to rush it or dive headlong into it, we will only hurt more innocent people that way.

    As for the abuse thing...I just can't agree with you there. I don't think brushing off someone being born to a doomed family with a "I don't care" is right at all. I know it may make me sound like a preachy, soft person, but in my viewpoint brushing off an abused child or person is almost as bad as abusing that person yourself.

    And, not to sound rude, your point about "if you don't do anything about it, I guess it doesn't bother you much" is just incorrect. Many children (Like some of my childhood friends) do try to do something about. Usually though, they are just beat half to death, or run away from home and end up becoming a prostitute or gang member. Childhood abuse is not a simple thing, and should not be treated as such. (Also, please know I'm not trying to get sympathy or anything here, I have gotten more sympathy from people in the past than I ever wanted, it honestly gets annoying sometimes.)  

    The system of parents working hard for their family may be good overall, but I don't think it's worth the cost. I don't think poor children should have to die and suffer so those with entitled birth stations succeed. I don't believe that sins of the father, so to speak, should damn a child who has no say over were they were born or who their parents were. 

    As for communism, I agree to a point. I feel that it is on the right track but a bit...too much. It just lends itself to autocracies and militarism, so I don't think it can ever truly succeed. I do however believe that a socialist government or something similar could do some good for the world.  

    • 41 posts
    December 22, 2015 12:58 AM EST
    I want the power to pause and load a previous save. Instant win.
    • 41 posts
    December 22, 2015 1:44 AM EST
    Oh. And I've already mastered soul trap. I'm a red head :p
    • 393 posts
    December 22, 2015 3:05 AM EST

    As much as I see a point in your words, I must say that your theory is kind of naive. Do you seriously think that people who don't want to work will die without welfare? I can tell you from what I've seen myself, that they won't. They will become criminals.

    Also I can tell you, that growing up in an orphanage isn't as cool as you probably think. No one will help children there, they only break them further, and then those children grow up, they are left alone in a world no one taught them how to live in. Yes, they can work hard, and if they are very smart or very lucky, they will get a job. But most of them still become criminals.

    And, as one living in a country where surgeons earn less than a janitor in McDonalds, I can tell you, that capitalism on itself won't change anything if a country's government is all f**ked up. 

    • 1595 posts
    December 22, 2015 4:49 AM EST

    This is another tough one Edana. Of all the powers or spell effects available and I am only limited to one makes it a hard decision. I've been thinking about it for a day or so and I keep coming back to Heal Another or Healing Hands. Now it's in my head nothing else seems to compare with that.

    Edit: The heroism aspect as it relates to this discussion is pretty self explanatory but for the purpose of contributing a little more substantially a hero need not be someone who is the biggest badass in the room but someone who does things which genuinely make life better for people. A power like healing could be a huge money maker of course if used perversely, but imagine what you could do with that power? There is talk in this discussion about changing the world and I think healing could genuinely do that.

    It would be exhausting and more of a responsibility than one person could bear but wouldn't it be nice to try?

    • 1467 posts
    December 22, 2015 5:13 AM EST

    I felt like doing a little Pein/Nagato quoting here, but I think I'll skip out in favour of a more serious answer.

    Personally, if I could be give any power from Skyrim, well I'm not really sure to The concept of doing good varies from person to person, time to time. If I say, healed a military general, he would see me as a good person or a hero, but the families of all the people he continued to kill would see me as a horrible person, the cause for all the death. I could alternatively take the bring Peace through Pain approach and take on Lightning Storm/Runes as my power, again same scenario. In a more civilian sense, I really don't see anything outside of Healing being that profound really, I mean, Conjuration, Destruction, Alteration, I can't really see any everyday uses for these powers. I guess Bardic Knowledge could help me drop some sick beats but I don't think that'd make me a Good person exactly (a sick power though.)

    Overall I think the answer would be Pacify, or Calm in general. Being able to flick my wrists and calm people down would help in so many ways (assuming it does literally calm anyone down, not just people who want to beat the crap out of me with pieces of metal). On one point I could help stop Wars, assaults and various other crimes, I could also help calm people down when dealing with more psychological issues (Anxiety, PTSD and so on.) which would definetly be a boon to society.

    I think in the end, regardless of what power I pick I'm still limited by my own human boundaries. Unless I can cast Pacify on the entire world and have it last forever then it's kind of pointless in the long run. 

    • 1595 posts
    December 22, 2015 5:29 AM EST

    Ethics can be very emotive but I tend to think small scale. If someone needs help and you have the power to heal them, shouldn't that be the only factor to consider over and above whether you should? I think doctors actually have a code which says they cannot be judge and jury to the sick or injured.

    On a small scale, that I could make a big difference to a few individuals but only a very small difference to many is something I'd accept.

    • 41 posts
    December 22, 2015 10:39 AM EST
    @Phil Yes they do. They are also not allowed to NOT help somebody if they can. (Though it's not necessarily legally enforced, I believe it's in the oath.)
    • 558 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:02 PM EST

    All drugs would be legal for recreational use, manufacture, and sale. But gangs would be illegal (if you're in a gang, you get the death penalty. Incentive much?).

    Those two things would reduce crime immensely. There is just too much incentive on finding a job. And once all the jobs are taken, what could criminals turn to for money? Mowing lawns?  They could still steal stuff or become hitmen/hitwomen I guess, but being harsher on prison sentences (if you got five years for stealing a candy bar, would you steal a candy bar again?) would scare those who are not as desperate. People starve in the most communist help everybody countries even today, so I'm not too worried about some criminals scraping by on some corn they took from the farmers market.

    If I was a vampire, I would become the government.

    • 558 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:14 PM EST

    I think we are pretty much done, but here is my last point:

    • Saving everyone will only speed up overpopulation.

    And because of overpopulation, I don't think there is a possibility for a long-lasting world peace. It may seem (actually it is) cruel to have some starve just because of where they are born, but IMO overpopulation is the biggest threat to the human race (and Mother Earth).

    Thanks for the debate, anyhow. You opened my eyes on a few subjects.

    • 743 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:20 PM EST
    I agree with most of your points, Steezy. But this "overpopulation" bs sounds like something come to life by a NWO conspiracy theorist.
    • 558 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:24 PM EST

    Nah, that's one of the few I came up on my own. It's not so much the overpopulation, but the resource wars that stem from it. Isn't that how Fallout started?

    • 393 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:28 PM EST

    Drugs would be legal?????

    Oh, thank goodness, that you are not the government.

    From all this conversation about heroes, I gather one thing. The main thing that differs a hero from a villain is that the latter is convinced that he knows what is right.

  • December 22, 2015 2:35 PM EST
    I wouldn't worry about Mother Earth, she'll been fine. She's been through worse than anything we can throw at her.
    • 558 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:38 PM EST

    What's so bad about legalizing drugs? It's not the drugs fault it's getting abused. I say if you want to ruin your life, then I won't stop you, because it isn't my problem whether you do them or not. I just don't want my tax dollars going to some dumbass in jail because he was caught with some cocaine. I'd rather my tax dollars go towards something useful, like fixing the roads or something.

    • 177 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:38 PM EST

    Yup! Thanks for the debate Vlad, 'twas fun and let me think about a few issues! You're rather good at debate, I enjoyed our little verbal sparring! 

    • 558 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:39 PM EST

    True, Matt. Very true.

    • 393 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:46 PM EST

    Don't know about you, but would be really upset if my child of my sibling or my friend was ruining their life. And I wouldn't want to live among drug addicts.

    • 558 posts
    December 22, 2015 2:56 PM EST

    People do drugs illegally anyways. This way, they can get help without being too scared that they'll get in legal trouble.

    I think if drugs became legalized, more people would know the harmful effects of them. Everyone knows what alcohol and tobaccy can do to you negatively, but I bet that only very few know the harmful effects of MDMA.

    • 393 posts
    December 22, 2015 3:14 PM EST

    Once again, I wouldn't like my child become a drug addict. Telling a child that something is harmful isn't enough in the most cases.

    And I wouldn't like seeing drugged people on the streets around me.

    • 130 posts
    December 22, 2015 11:21 PM EST

    Aside from just getting some Destruction spells and trying to stop crime/become a superhero, I don't think there's anything I could do that would help humanity. I thought about running into hospitals and casting Grand Healing, but then we'd have massive overpopulation. I think Illusion is just too risky to use on the government, and anything else would only really benefit me and those around me, which doesn't seem to be what you're asking for. 

    • 558 posts
    December 22, 2015 11:24 PM EST

    Yay overpopulation buddy! High five!

    • 52 posts
    December 24, 2015 4:55 AM EST

    As one of my last comments before the holiest of holidays dawns - I've have been following this all this week and I really found it educational! The exchanges of opinions, Everyones views, Even though that were all online, it brings us one step closer to knowing one another as the special individuals we are. Its quite an honor. As usual Edana, you've blown my mind away AGAIN with these discussions. My goodness, what goes on in that cool head of yours to come up with these powerful, deep subjects? I mean really! 

     

    Now down to the question - What power would I have?

    Simple as 1,2,3 - The most unique out of them the all. Being Myself!

    Everytime that I go to work, to go out with a friend, comrade, it doesn't matter, I use this power. ( Not to boast, as I'm not that type of person ) Being a good listener, I've saved lives and saved several of events all over from being a total "Fallout/Resident Evil" Moment.  Being a good Teacher, I've changed lives and inspired people to obtain new heights in their life.  Being a scientist and researcher, I've discovered new methods and strategies for accomplishing several of feats as well as making the stress of everyday life a little easier. Why would I want a power when the power that makes me who I am, is always all around me through good times and bad times? Sure, it would be nice to change the world but little that we know, we do so everyday no matter how large or small the change is, we do. After all, we are all put on here for a reason. We only have one only ONE chance to change the world. Why not use the powers we already have to do so.

    Happy Holidays Everyone!