#we're playing fuckin ideology rock paper scissors here

[felikatze]

ch17 making me think how i was wrong in assigning values to characters but also not?

like i always assumed roland was morality. but by the end of the game, his is the utility choice. roland starts out idealistic. he values the good of the people above all. but the weight of the crown breaks him. he has lost faith after witnessing how deep his kingdom's corruption runs, and how powerless he is to fix it. he simply cannot see the ideal moral world anymore, and will settle for the best he can see within reach. even if the few will suffer for the many.

i thought benedict stood for utility, but his last choice is one of freedom. throughout the game, benedict proposes the most efficient strategies with the least scruples. put aside your emotion, your regard for collateral, and choose the path with the greatest chance of victory. but after symon's death, and even before that, more and more it is not truly victory that matters, but the safety of wolffort. and by extension, by his late friend's wish, sereona. therefore, benedict will choose what will let serenoa be free of his dutybound chains.

frederica starts out unsure, with little agency of her own life. as she claims her own liberty however, as she finds a secure place within wolffort, she becomes enraged. with her personal freedom secured she can turn her gaze upon others and see that the world as it is cannot stand, and that freedom for all must be obtained, at all costs. she has been looked down upon her whole life, and to let others suffer the same and worse would go against every moral she ever held.

i really like that for these three, values aren't fixed either. they change with time. by the end of the game, they're very different people than the ones they started out as

triangle strategy's writing is just really good 👌