This is what I love (and hate) about alignment - i find law & chaos to have better defined boundaries than good & evil.Karaptis wrote:I kinda wish the odnd alignments were good, evil, neutral instead of law, chaos, neutral. The boundries are so much more defined that way. ( wait does that make me a minion of law?)
Law/Chaos always felt natural to me because the two speak about and are defined by the actual behaviors of characters, while Good/Evil always seemed ephemeral and fleeting because the two speak about and are defined by the motivations for behaviors.
One could attempt to justify a murder on the good/evil axis - taking one life is evil, but saving many lives with the act makes it less (or even entirely not) evil in the opinion of almost everyone I have ever spoken to. It is even this idea that caused our legal system to establish a difference between killing a man in the street for his watch and killing a man in the street who demanded you give him your watch.
I see no justification based "wiggly room" in law or chaos.