[lonnarin]

Well, the anology is somewhat lost because you just substituted the most terrifying race in the world whose cruelty is reknowned thrice-over with an innoculous little kid. The little kid possibly might not be old enough to know right from wrong, the dark elf adult certainly does. People dont tuck in their children at night warning them to avoid angry little kids with knives, they do warn them about dark elves. It's like substituting a baby kitten for Rancor.

The examples given are in no way exaggerated. Dark elves are the epitome of evil. Worse than murderous muggers, worse than nazis. From the log it appears as though she was whipping one of the party members, with a whip, which are for pain and not for effective killing, hence torture. if I walk towards somebody with a whip, the implication isnt that I'm going to give them a cupcake here... especially when I start whipping somebody before anybody else attacked me. Attack somebody and expect to die. This is basic survival instinct, just as intrinsic to good as it is to evil.

But re-reading the log, it appears that at the root of the topic is that there was a assumption as to somebody's intent and moral disposition on no other basis than their facial expression at the time they were being observed by the enemy. This is wholley confusing the *emote* with the *emotion*.

An emote is an expression of freely observable behavior to all in the vicinity, while emotion is the internal psychological reaction itself which is undetectable to all in the vicinity who do not actively have psychic powers.

So what if he didn't sigh or cry? This means absolutely nothing that you can determine by looking. He might have even been purposely forcing the expression just so he wouldnt obviously look like a goody goody who'd get pegged for weakness and slaughtered by other dark elves, as is their way. But we assumed that he felt something based on his expression alone.

This is like assuming that every car dealer is your friend, every politician has your best interests at heart, every CSR and clerk honestly enjoys your company or that every puppy with a droopy face is clinically depressed. One cannot read minds from facial expression alone, one cannot determine intent or disposition from an emote. Indeed, it is told to us again and again that we are not to include our actual thoughts or anything other than what is outright seen immediately by those around us in our emotes. To make a judgement call as to what somebody's internalized emotional reaction was solely because they didn't overtly emote that they were saddened for all to hear is to essentially enforce metagaming as a rule.

The only way one can determine the emotion of a character is *asking the player of the character*. This was actually done in the log. He even expressly stated post-quest in the log that he was actively masking his emotions and did so since an early age to survive in the underdark, explaining that his emote was not his emotion. He was asked what he felt, he explained, and still the subjective, third-party interpretation of the facial emote in the heat of the moment was taken above his explaination of his own character's internalized reaction.

What we have here, with the evil point because he didnt openly show his emotion, was a forced emotion. His character's morality was impacted not because of what he felt, believed or thought, but what others could determine from a glance. That would be stereotyping, by definition. So what if he didn't fall to his knees crying, or healing the dying dark elf? If he did, the dark elves would kill him and his entire group of friends, possibly. But don't immediately assume that you know what's going on in the character's head, especially after when he was asked about it later and he explained that it wasn't. This isn't even about the good vs evil debate, but moreso that this character was being docked for feeling emotions that never existed in the first place. It's just the same as if I walked up to you in Hempstead and went...

A: Hi there, how's it going?
B: oh sorry, I'm in a hurry. I'll talk to you later.
A: *nods to the obviously rude and evil man*
B: hey! I'm not evil! Why'd I get an evil point?
A: well, good people would smile and stay and talk. Now you're more neutral.

Exact same issue. Forcing emotes, forcing emotions, metagaming. Ask the player. If the player says they felt this at so and so time, then unless there is some enchantment spell on them, or that the one ring is tainting their soul, then their explaination stands. If one is to warrant good and evil points, then let it at least be for OPENLY evil and good acts. Stab a baby? evil. Give CPR to a lepor? Good. Try to maintain a poker face while in the heart of the lion's den and trying your hardest not to give away that you're good? A facial expression alone doesn't tell us a thing. Ask.

Is Spock an evil man because he doesn't cry when the redshirt dies by stepping on landmine? Of course not, he is actively hiding his emotions. He is however a pacifist vegetarian who will try to risk his life to save anybody who needs help that he can, even sacrificing his very life to save the entire ship from a warp core meltdown. Even though he tries to suppress his emotions, he still does have them. He is more than just the sum of his facial expressions. He is a complex individual with a character development and a psychology not immediately read int he lines of his face.

Edit: the very fact that this log shows the dark elf woman whipped Alantha no less than 14 times without exploding into a hellball by her hands shows that perhaps she should have gotten good points for her *saintly* restraint. That's obvious torture; she was whipping somebody for obedience. Angela only dealt the mortal blow when the dark elf woman reached for her rapier, they only struck back when it was a matter of self preservation. That is Good, capital G. After this point it is even admitted in the postlog that showing compassion or overt goodness would have definitely caused problems. That's self preservation. Letting her die was the only way to survive without having to fight and kill even more dark elves than they had to. And honestly, after somebody whips one of my friends multiple times, and then attempts to murder them, it does not make me a bad person to simply not openly weep if they die. Most people if this had been your friend or wife, admit it, you would have not minded their deaths in the least. This was beyond thinking "the only good dark elf is a dead dark elf" mentality, or "cold blooded murder". This is seeing somebody who just tortured your friend with a whip and then tried to use a rapier to kill them getting killed in self defense. I wouldn't be crying over their deaths either, or even sighing sadly.