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I have a pretty good grip on my understanding of the Alignment system for Rifts (and the rest of the Megaversal system), but I was thinking it might be useful to have some ready examples of characters from pop-culture (movies and video games) to reference when discussing alignments and what they really mean. For example, I would argue Star Wars' Han Solo is Unscrupulous, maybe even leaning towards Anarchist at times (I believe he's shot people in cold blood before?). I'd be interested in people's take on this; I'm looking for examples of all the standard alignments, plus the Taoist alignment that only appeared in Mystic China, but I have no real issue with letting folks use outside the MC setting.

PalladiumBrony wrote:For example, I would argue Star Wars' Han Solo is Unscrupulous, maybe even leaning towards Anarchist at times (I believe he's shot people in cold blood before?).

I think you mean "Unprincipled" for the alignment, which is listed right by Anarchist, and is exactly where Han is mentioned as a reference or possible inspiration for an alignment. Both editions of Fantasy have character references for Principled, Scrupulous, and Unprincipled, a couple general character types for Anarchist, and nothing but the descriptions for the 3 evil alignments.

What are you after with assigning a pop culture reference to each? In my experience so far, I find them more of a hindrance than help, due to people getting hung up on thinking that the reference mentioned is all you can be with that alignment.

The biggest problem with trying to assign an alignment to complex fictional, or even real-world people. Just think of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Are you talking about the Animated Series or murder hobo Batman from the Snyder movies? The alignment system is also a little narrow so it's hard to nail it down to just one category.

Boba Fett

Anarchist? Aberrant? Other?

Kraynic wrote:

PalladiumBrony wrote:For example, I would argue Star Wars' Han Solo is Unscrupulous, maybe even leaning towards Anarchist at times (I believe he's shot people in cold blood before?).

I think you mean "Unprincipled" for the alignment, which is listed right by Anarchist, and is exactly where Han is mentioned as a reference or possible inspiration for an alignment. Both editions of Fantasy have character references for Principled, Scrupulous, and Unprincipled, a couple general character types for Anarchist, and nothing but the descriptions for the 3 evil alignments.

What are you after with assigning a pop culture reference to each? In my experience so far, I find them more of a hindrance than help, due to people getting hung up on thinking that the reference mentioned is all you can be with that alignment.

I'm pretty sure Unprincipled has been called Unscrupulous in some of the older books. I know I've heard it used. Although it's been a while, so it was definitely the older books if so.

Warshield73 wrote:The biggest problem with trying to assign an alignment to complex fictional, or even real-world people. Just think of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Are you talking about the Animated Series or murder hobo Batman from the Snyder movies? The alignment system is also a little narrow so it's hard to nail it down to just one category.

darthauthor wrote:Boba Fett

Anarchist? Aberrant? Other?

As for Boba Fett, depends on source. Strictly movies, he's either Anarchist, Aberrant, or Miscreant. We really don't see that much of Bounty Hunter #1 (from the original EsB credits), so we can only guess. He keeps his word, this time, but it's clear from Vaders words on the Star Destroyer that he doesn't always. Nor does he have any issue with Vader, who right in front of him, screws over someone he had a deal with. He has no issue with torture, even if he never directly engaged in it, and the death of his target was only a concern on how much he got paid by Jabba. I'd likely go with Miscreant based solely on the movies.

Some of the other source however, have tried to paint him as merely Unprincipled (don't buy it) and others as Diabolical.