From Twitter 10-01-2010

• 11:58:53: Bother. Forgot my weekly LJ cartoon posts this morning.
  
• 13:50:55: #DoctorWho is definitely science fiction. The call center worker has his own desk.
  
• 19:49:57: #AKOTAS updated: what happens when you can't open the can of worms? http://tinyurl.com/akotas/2326.htm #webcomics #kingarthur
  

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comments in others' journals

At su_herald there's a link to a poll by ms_scarletibis about how evil each BVS character is in Season 6. Introducing the poll ms_scarletibis asks,

Of the two, which was more morally reprehensible?

*Drusilla killing Kendra, or Professor Walsh's attempt to off Buffy?
*Spike killing the Magic Box shop keeper, or any other hapless victim for a meal, or Warren attempting to shoot Buffy dead?
*Angelus killing Jenny Calendar to make sure his soul didn't come back, or The Mayor selling his soul for immortality so that he could one day become a big ass snake demon to eat people?
*Spike attacking Buffy in the bathroom, or Warren using the cerebral dampener to control Katrina in order to be his sex slave?

or, on that same token--

*Warren using the cerebral dampener to make Katrina his sex slave, or Willow using her spells to erase Tara's memories of a fight, and later has sex with her?
*Giles smothering Ben to stop a hell god, or Buffy shanking Faith, to save her boyfriend?
*Angelus, clearly insane, wanting to suck the world into a hell dimension, or Willow, clearly insane, wanting to obliterate life?

Were any of the above fair comparisons? And that's not rhetorical, by the way. Some would say yes, while I am sure there are some who would say no.

I replied:

I think the questions you asked before the actual poll are more interesting.

In the first set of four, each question is comparing an act by a demon or soulless creature with a human being. So does the last question in the second set of three. My answer for each would be, the action by the human is more morally reprehensible because, while the act by the demon may be just as evil by some quantifiable standard, the demon by nature has no morals to exercise but the human does.

For the other two questions in the second set of three: Willow's reprehensibility may be mitigated somewhat relative to Warren's because Willow's intention was not to thwart her subject's will and personality entirely but Warren's was. Giles' action, whose intent was to rescue humanity from a world-dangering evil, may be slightly better than Buffy's, depending on whether Buffy was motivated by saving her boyfriend or by rescuing a souled being (who happens to be her boyfriend) in danger of his life from the actions of a demon (the mayor); that is, a party falling into the category of those the Slayer is charged with protecting.