My thoughts on vigilantism on Discovery.

[Corile]

First, please note the entirety of this post is an OPINION. You have to right to disagree, but do this in a civil way, please. I might be rambling in places.

Also, please don't change this into another \V/ feedback thread. It's not a good idea.

Vigilantes are usually people who enforce law or even "higher good" using all ways including violence and methods which are considered illegal from law point of view.

police should treat them as any other unlawful/criminal, and that is actually what they do...taking law in their own hands...killing and beating to satisfy their own justice.

Vigilante, what is it. Let's say Batman is a Vigilante, so is Spiderman - both hunted by the police. Why? Because they have no jurisdiction.

Some random quotes taken from \V/ feedback thread. All breaking down on the meaning of the word 'vigilante'. All failing to understand something that was said before ('faction name is arbitrary' repeated like ad nauseam). And if it weren't enough in and of itself, language evolves and in my honest opinion that word would probably mean something way different. Hell, over the last hundred years it changed its meaning very drastically, so what would happen in the next thousand?

There were and are various ways to interpret it. There's the one people consider valid and that is valid in the current days. We have to remember though that realities are changed in Discovery roleplay.

See, during the good old wild western times (that was over 100 years ago) the term 'vigilante' was incredibly broad because there was no actual law enforcement anywhere, so technically everyone who defended themselves could be called a vigilante. The thing is, you could by the same token call KKK vigilantes as you could call civilian people that know to use a firearm assisting the military because they felt that's something they wanted to do*.

I had known what \V/ were supposed to be but had never actually realised that until Spazzy wrote a post that quite frankly opened my eyes on some things that I feel are sometimes misinterpreted.

I never...actually realized just how medieval this game is. Just how bizarrely old the overall world is. Starting from something as simple as the value of a human life even.
Have you noticed this?
Just how quick we are to destroy a hostile target. The penalties for house space rules. The overall encounter between two sentient human beings regardless of their affiliation, age or experience. It is almost as brutal and straightforward as what we would usually tie to the generic ye-oldie setting.

Liberty is a house torn in a war between two other houses - Rheinland and Gallia. Also, it's getting destroyed from the inside by Outcasts, Rogues, Hackers, Xenos and Hellfire Legion. Why anyone in a sensible mind would even care about vigilantes in such place? In my honest opinion Liberty would need every hand they can get and hating a group of essentially free bounty hunters because of the fact that they sometimes shoot one SNAC too many makes literally no sense for me.

Imagine a situation from the middle ages. There's a merchant, let's call him Steve. Steve travels from one city to another and carries some goods to sell. Sounds familiar? To go from the first city to the other Steve needs to pass through a forest that is known to be a nest of highwaymen. He doesn't have the money or time to hire a mercenary, cannot ask an actual city guard or a soldier to assist him on the way so he kind of has to rely on his pure luck that he doesn't get robbed.

Now let's apply the same situation to Disco. Say you're a trader and you enter Liberty from Cortez (I'm kind of oversimplifying here because I can't be arsed to check actual prices for stuff). You need to get to Colorado. The chances you get pirated on the way are quite high because you didn't get an escort (because no money, nobody around, whatever) and there's no LPI online. You again need to rely on some pure luck that you won't get pirated.

Okay, so Steve left the town and is scared because he can't afford to stay to wait for someone willing to help him. But he, luckily, meets a white knight-errant in a shining armour that is going to willingly escort him because he's looking for some evil to slain and that forest really needs to be cleaned off scumbag wayside robbers. And he won't ask for any money, just maybe some supplies. What'd Steve do?

That's kind of my entire point. On Discovery, in a house that would, sensibly, need every sort of help it can get it would be quite dumb to throw off and outlaw people that are willing to help you and don't want anything for it. A charity police, if you will. Enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.

We often associate vigilantism with anarchy and unnecessary brutality. Remember it doesn't have to be that way. There are various ways you can take up the topic.

* - taken from K. May's novel Winnetou II

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