Dragonball M: A DBZ RPG Sign-Up and Discussion Thread II

[grampagen]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_vegetarianism

According to this it says that in the Theravada. the Buddha allowed his monks to eat pork, chicken and fish if the monk was aware that the animal was not killed on their behalf.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/b...t-good-and-bad

The Wikipedia article also says this:

The first precept in Buddhism is usually translated as "I undertake the precept to refrain from taking life".

If Althena is a carnivore by nature such that it is ultimately necessary for her to eat meat - read: other sentient life - to survive, why would she or her ancestors ever get this idea in the first place?

If being a predator is part of her primal nature, why would Buddhism be the religious framework you're trying to work off of here?

In fact, I thought the Toadians were pacifists which is why Althena and Praxat's fighting style is based on counters. Then again, I recall Praxat had a fear of thunder despite her racial(?) affinity for electricity.

If these elements were retconned in, it's not a very smooth transition. It's ultimately inconsistent and a little confusing.

In simple terms Karma is the Law of Cause and Effect.

Althena doesn't kill for sport . She just eats meat for food as a survival factor. It's the same thing a lion, tiger or bear does. Althena can't survived on a plant base diet. She has to eat meat to stay healthy.

Praxat and Qaztoh can eat plants , because their digestive systems are different than Althena's digestive system.

Aoem is base on Buddhism , but it's not a complete carbon copy since it's views differ. and one of these views is on eating meat. In Aoem killing a animal for meat is not consider bad if it's for survival and instinctive. Killing a animal in Aoem is only consider bad if it's done out of malice. Eating meat in Aoem isn't consider bad, because when it was created Toadians had to eat meat to survive.

However modern Toadians don't have to eat meat to survive, they can solely survive on just eating plants, and the views of Aoem are adaptable . They can change with the times.

Reducing the notion of 'Karma' to a matter of mere 'cause and effect' is a little dismissive because as a concept it cannot be taken in isolation from the other tenants of the religion - namely samsara, worldly suffering, and dharma, rites of proper behaviour. If that doesn't ultimately matter, I'm not sure what the point of bringing up a real-world belief system is Aoem is supposed to be its own seperate thing?

Consider that Althena went hunting on an alien planet (Earth) when she was living in a place with a fully stocked kitchen (the Lookout). She didn't need to do that to survive, so why did she go hunting?

Basically Althena killed those two wild animals out of instinct, But had no intention of killing them.

This is a contradiction. If Althena is a sapient creature, and one that is lucid enough to consider her actions, she ought to be self-aware enough to control her urges to impulsively kill wildlife, especially if her philosophy is some variant of 'all life is sacred.' If this premise can be thrown out as soon as she gets hungry, it is not a strong backdrop to build a philosophy on.

...moreover, it is notable that all this is coming up just now. I don't know how much planning, if any, went behind this, but where Althena intersects with Praxat's story, the logic seems rather inconsistent. Like, this religion wasn't story element that was in play when the Toadians were first established, was it?

My point is, while this goes some way to fleshing out the Toadian belief system and cultural background, its emergence right now seems to contradict what has been established about them so far.