# Off-Topic Thread vol. 2 **URL:** \ **Category:** Intergalactic Summit\ **Created:** [July 4, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/off-topic-thread-vol-2/171718 "2019-07-04T14:24:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 3380
**Author:** ![Arrendis](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/eveonline/user_avatar/forums.eveonline.com/arrendis/32/432594_2.png) [@Arrendis](https://forums.eveonline.com/u/Arrendis)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 8:49pm UTC](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/off-topic-thread-vol-2/171718/3380 "2021-05-28T20:49:31Z")
> [@So what did we learn? (One Duty)](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/so-what-did-we-learn-one-duty/313523/10): > > Even making a **bad** choice is less destructive than making no choice at all. That’s… a very interesting lesson to draw from that particular story, and I think I see how you get there… but I’m not sure you’re not unconsciously misreading things to support a position you know others oppose, specifically, endorsing the Proving. And I don’t want to muck up that thread, so I thought, hey, why not discuss your take on it over here? So… > [@So what did we learn? (One Duty)](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/so-what-did-we-learn-one-duty/313523/10): > > And what do they do with the opportunity? They squander it! Instead of wrestling with the difficult decisions and _making a choice,_ they are overcome by their own weakness and make no choice at all. See, they _do_ make a choice. They make the choice not to try to kill one another. You might argue that it’s a terrible choice, that they’re choosing indecisiveness, but in the story, they both see the other’s knife, and both choose to step back. It’s decidedly _not_ indecision that drives the decision made by the members of the Clan. We know this. We’re _told_ why the Clan splits: > [@Storytime](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/storytime/201045/65): > > But the clan, witnessing this, they see that each of them sold out the other. And with that realization, the clan is done The realization of betrayal splits the Clan, not the failure to follow-through on betrayal. Some might reject the indecisiveness as part of the third group, ‘who want nothing with either of them’, but that’s not the fundamental breaking point that shatters the Clan. And beyond that, because we know they clearly _do_ make that choice—we’re explicitly _told_ that they both _choose_ to put down the knives—I’m not sure you come to the take-away that they made no choice at all. They each made several, in fact: first, they chose to remain intractable in their position. Then they each chose to deal with a spirit (a terrible idea in the first place). Third, they chose to bring the daggers to a public gathering. Then each chooses to wield the dagger. > [@Storytime](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/storytime/201045/65): > > one of them takes out the dagger, and raises their hand… and then the other pulls out theirs. And they look at each other, and they realize what each has done, and they put the knives on the table. At this point, when they first see the dagger in the other’s hand, one of them _could_ have chosen to seek reconciliation. But they don’t. One of them could have chosen to see it all as the manipulations of the spirit, and ask forgiveness… but they don’t. It’s _at this point_ that they become passive. And yes, that passivity plays into the destruction of the Clan. But even that passivity is a choice. At least, that’s what I was raised to believe: in order to _do_ nothing… we have to _choose_ to do nothing. --- _[View the full topic](https://forums.eveonline.com/t/off-topic-thread-vol-2/171718)._