Making Compassion Badass

[Persell]

Well...that.


Compassion gets a bad rap. To be frank, it makes sense-thanks to a combination of not having obvious uses and the fact that some STs need to be hit with a hammergun*, it is generally regarded as a measure of how naive you are.


This thread is about taking that viewpoint, beating it up, dragging it to the sidewalk, and kicking it until it runs screaming.


Take my high-Compassion, low-Valor Malefactor, for instance (note: Laurel is a Scourge, and thanks to the backstory of the game both are actually from Earth).

It was at that point that whatever fear Raziel had, it was replaced with rage at this little, self-absorbed witch.


It was at that point that a strange transformation took hold of him. From the moment he got up and strode over to Laurel, picking her up by the collar, it was a different person at the wheels of his body-one that never knew fear.


"...Too weak?"


"You're standing there, talking about the Greater Good, and you have the temerity to call caring about people other then yourself weak!?"


"Well, let me tell you something Miss Oh-High-And-Philosophically-Mighty-Darwinian, I'll tell you what's "weak" about altruists. We're too weak to flee when faced with social problems. We're too weak to ignore the suffering of out fellow man. And above all, we're too weak to not improve the life of the world, since where do you think all the scientists, the social workers, the leaders of the world come from?"


"And you know what? I just thought of a way we aren't weak-namely, we aren't cowardly, conniving, and petty little rats like your precious Ebon Dragon, because unlike him, WE ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ON OUR OWN!"


He tossed the Scourge to the ground with all his might-admittedly, it wasn't very hard-and left in huff, disgusted with the miserable sycophant.

So, any other ways to make Compassion look like the "Virtue of Badass"?


*: By this, I mean sadists.

 

[Synapse]

Compassion is the Hufflepuff house.

 

[Teln]

Red Rage of Compassion is the only Limit Break in the entire Solar splat that negates wound penalties.


Let me rephrase: None of the Valor Limit Breaks let you ignore wound penalties; not even if you fail to control them. Even the mightiest warrior must know his limits. A Solar in the grips of the Red Rage will stop at nothing, will pay any price, to ensure that tomorrow is brighter than today. Do not speak of "necessary compromise" to such a being. Save your pleas for mercy, they fall upon deaf ears. You had your chance to make things better, and you blew it. You were too lazy--too weak--to hold yourself to the standards Sol Invictus demands of us all. This is His work I do, and His Will be Done.

 

[Dracogryff]

This always makes me think of high compassion.

 

[Quchu]

I'm thinking the end of Kung Fu Hustle. Sing has defeated the Beast fair and square with his ultimate kung fu secret and accepted his surrender. But the Beast takes this as an opening and attempts to stab Sing with a poisoned spike... only to be shown that Sing's Buddha's Palm Descending from the Heavens technique can be done with merely a motion. The Beast finally admits that he is a lesser martial artist. He asks how Sing learned the technique... And then he offers to teach it to him. With this Sing makes the most dangerous martial artist of China kneel to him.


Despite that the Beast attempted to kill his protectors and broke the honor codes of combat, Sing had enough Compassion to let him live, accept his moral failings and even help him grow as a martial artist. If there's any sense of honor left in a world, such display of mercy and good will should be more powerful than any weapon.