fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, November 29, 1st period]

Anakin stalked into the room and slammed the door shut behind him.

"Today we talk about wrath," he said. Ignore the pointed look he gave John Sheppard. Really.

"There's something very human about giving in to our temper," he said. "It's freeing, uncomplicated."

He paused. "At least at that moment. The repercussions are always waiting."

He waved a hand and the holoprojector flipped to life. Frozen in time was a young Jedi with two lightsabers at the neck of an older, clearly defeated enemy.

"This was me," he said, pointing at the young man. "And that older man was evil and threatened my family. It didn't make the choice I made--to kill him while he knelt there--any less wrong."

He looked around the classroom making eye contact with every student before continuing. "Wrath is very, very tempting. It urges you to listen to that dark little voice inside of you--to cut loose, live without consequences."

He pointed at the holo again. "There are always consequences. This moment has stayed with me, made me the person I am. It wasn't a positive influence."

Anakin stopped pacing. "What would it take for you to get to that hazy edge? And more importantly, how do you stop yourself from giving in?"

I Shall Not Walk Alone - Ben Harper

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"Why would I stop?" Victor asked. "If they've brought me to that line, they deserve whatever I do to them."

He would add 'and more,' but Victor had a pretty active imagination about what he would one day do to those who had truly incurred his wrath. There wasn't much more that could be done to them.

"And you bear no responsibility at all for your actions?" Anakin retorted. "They made you do it?"

"No, of course not," Victor said. "They merely deserve it. The act is my choice and mine alone."

"And you are to be the sole decision maker on who deserves something and how their punishment should be meted out."

Anakin didn't look at all convinced by the wisdom of that thought.

"No," Victor said. "Not in most circumstances. But if there's nobody else willing to make the decision or decide their fate, it's a role I will gladly take for myself."

He had a couple individuals in mind, yes.

"So in this situation that I've showed you--do you see where I went wrong?" Anakin pressed.

"You waited too long to kill him," Victor said. "By waiting until he was defenseless you lost all proper justification for you to consider yourself a hero. And if you're the kind of person who wants to believe yourself a 'hero' and have to give up that pretense, then the havoc you leave behind is no more than you imposing your will on everything. Which isn't a problem if you're okay with doing that."

Victor was okay with doing that, of course.

"And you think you'd be okay doing that?" Anakin replied, neatly avoiding the entirely correct assessment of his motivations.

"Yes," Victor answered simply. Here was a guy working on a PORTAL TO HELL so he could RESCUE HIS MOTHER'S BARTERED SOUL. He seriously lived for imposing his will on things.

The hair on the back of Anakin's neck stood up.

"Given the proper circumstances, of course," Victor added belatedly. Not that it improved the situation at all.

"That doesn't particularly reassure me."

"That's not my job as a student," Victor said. "All I'm doing is answering honestly."

"That's what I don't find reassuring," Anakin mumbled.

"You'd prefer I lie about this?" Victor asked curiously.

"Not at all," Anakin said seriously. "But I do hope you take my experience into account. I'm not doing my job as a teacher if I allow my students to make the same mistakes I did."

"That won't happen," Victor said.

If Anakin could pick up on any of the various layers of that sentence, he would probably want to smack Victor. It's not worth the paragraphs of narrative it would take to describe, but the basic point is that Victor is a jackass.

Anakin reached out and smacked Victor on the back of the head before rational thought caught up to his instinct.

"See that it doesn't," he growled just low enough for Victor to hear before stalking off.

Strangely, that made Victor respect Anakin a little more.

Oh, he would pay in time. He would pay for that attack. But still. A little bit of respect.

Sokka put a hand up in the air and pointed at Victor. "At what point," he asked Anakin, "do the future millions of people he's probably going to slaughter justify us killing him now?"

"If you wish me dead, feel free to try," Victor said. "Then it'll be self-defense when you die and not even the local authorities will have an issue with it. But if you're not man enough to go through with it, be quiet."

"No one's killing anyone," Anakin said sharply, glaring at the two boys.

"Fine. I'll settle for hospitalization if he makes any attempt on my life out of respect for you," Victor said. Strangely, he was being mostly sincere.

"Hey," Sokka said, holding his hands up, "I didn't say I was GOING TO. I just asked you, as the ethics teacher, if you thought it was a good idea."

"No," Anakin replied.

Ethics [Thursday, November 29, 1st period]

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