Matthew Lewis wrote:

At 05:57 AM 10/29/98 -0700, David Johnston wrote:
<I wrote>

This is the essence of my challenge. Can you write a fic where right
and might have no relation?

Easily.  Just let the bad guys win.  Why would I want to?

This isn't a challenge at all.  People let the good guys win
because they want to, not because it's difficult to do it the
other way.

But is it interesting? Is it a good read? Is it something people
would want to read? That is an easy way to do it, true, but there
are other ways.

I don't know what you mean.  Some people like reading darkfics.  

        For instance, one has to define what is good and what is bad;
what if there are no good guys or bad guys? What if the characters
themselves are not sure who is good and who is bad? What if morality
does not enter into the equation at all?

<Scratches head...>  I'm having trouble thinking of a story I've written
or started where morality (or at least superiority of morality) enters 
into the equation in the first place.  For example in "Never Too 
Many...", Kochi is smarter than Ken.  Ken is a better fighter than 
Kochi.  Neither are significantly morally superior to each other, or to 
Ranma.  Actually I suppose in in "Knowing You" there's clear moral 
superiority.  In "Knowing You", "might" has "right" strapped down to a 
table, and "right" isn't going to beat "might" since the story isn't 
about who wins and loses.  The best "right" can hope for is escape.  

Maybe that's why this doesn't strike me as much of a challenge.  

        We let the good guys win because it makes us feel good, and we
like to feel good. As you say, because we want to. To just make the
bad guys win isn't enough for this challenge, because they would be
the ones telling the story, and wouldn't they paint themselves in a
better light?

They would?  You didn't mention that.  

        The idea behind the challenge is to make us more aware of what
we put into our stories and how we put our stories together. A challenge
to do something a bit different, a little off the beaten path. My main
thrust was to make ourselves more aware of what we write.
        The intent of the challenge was for a story which discusses in
some form or another the concept(s) of might-makes-right or right-makes-
might. 

Now to be sure, nobody's wasting any time considering the connection 
between might and right in these stories.  Mason's prisoner just knows
that she's physically helpless for now, in the hands of a more powerful
opponent, and Kochi knows that his brother and Ranma are tougher than he 
is.  This are simple facts that have nothing to do with the rightness
of their respective causes.  

Merely having the bad guys win doesn't quite fit into this

discussion, but I will concede that it is an useful tool for one to use
to convey it.