Walk the Line summary

There's been a lot of questions about WtL, which inspired some thoughts on it...

Say you're a cowboy, hunting down a killer of men. Now, you've sworn that you'll never shoot a man in the back. Doing so makes you As Bad As Them. After a long hunt, you catch up to your prey. In that time, he's killed four of your friends, and he made them scream before they died. You hate this man. You REALLY hate him. You also know that if he sees you first, he's gonna kill you. Even if you have a clear draw, you're not sure you can take him down. And when you catch up to him, he's got his back to you. You have a choice, right now. You can draw and fire, shoot him in the back. You'll live. A monster will die. Or you can call him out, and pray to God you're faster than he is. One way you probably lose your life, the other you definitely lose your soul.

Some gamers, now, want to make that choice themselves. But to me, that seems too easy. That's just like saying "I kill the dragon". There's no risk. No element of uncertainty. Sure, you have to risk your life if you choose the moral action, but that's an old school risk. It's been done.

Others will say, I need to make that choice for my character. But has your character ever been in that situation before? Have you? I don't know if I'd pull that trigger, so how the hell am I supposed to know if my character would? You NEVER know what happens until you're tested. You can live with a man for a year, and then take him up to the edge of the volcano - and on THAT day, you meet the man.

And that's the risk of Walk the Line - not risking your life, but finding out who you really are. You ready for that?