First off, there's some things I need to clarify. First off, the video(s) I'm actually talking about.
These two videos are the backbone of this entire essay and I personally consider them to be required watching in order to understand this. I will also be using his tiering system, but with some slight edits. I will be offering any concise reasons for tier changes, if need be.
This section mostly acts as a quick reference guide for what I'm talking about to the unintiated. Someone outside the fandom's bound to find this interesting, anyways.
Bloontonium: Commonly assumed to be the main power source of Monkeyopolis and other major monkey population centers. Also explicitly mentioned in the weaponry and/or descriptions of some towers.
TSG/VTSG: Acronyms for Super Monkey's 5-0-0 (True Sun God) and 6-0-0 (Vengeful True Sun God). I feel it worth to mention that VTSG's name is fanmade, but Ninjakiwi uses the terminology as well.
Paragon(s): A new kind of tower/upgrade Ninjakiwi introduced in update 27.0. Yes, they will be mentioned.
Bloon Hierarchy: NK has officially stated that the bloons follow a caste system, with red bloons at the very bottom and the B.A.D at the top. Any details beside that are unknown.
Monkey Society: Davey Gunface says that he's 'unaware if the monkeys use slaves' but with the release of BCS it shows that monkey society is roughly analagous to ours[4].
I will be the first to say that I do mostly agree with these rankings, but the guilty tier is where it fails for me, namely with Benjamin and Gwendolyn. Adora, Obyn, Ezili and Sauda I will get to later.
My main problem with Benjamin's ranking here is the reasoning. He states in the first video that he's a war criminal under 'cyber warfare' laws, which 1: don't even exist yet and 2: would probably not include his niche in the game[1]. I might come back in, say, 10-20 years when these laws actually get passed but for now he's innocent until further evidence is given, either in universe or otherwise.
Clarification: I looked into the lore surrounding Benjamin and what he does and I will happily give him innocence. Sure, it is stated in game that he hacks in money for the player, but it's also been said by NK that he has standards. Assuming that there is some framework involved in canon so that he doesnt overstep any boundaries, he's fine. Rest easy, Benjammin enjoyers.
Gwendolyn, however? That opens up an entirely new argument, one that I also happen to have some thoughts on.
You read the name of this part right. NK has officially stated that bloons can feel pain, but it does not affect their ultimate goal of getting to the end of the track[3]. It seems like only death will stop the bloons, and even then that could take a while.
Some may choose to argue that setting the bloons on fire or, in the Bloon Solver's case, dousing them in acidic glue does count as 'prolonged and unnecessary suffering', but I choose to say that the bloons qualify as an existential threat, and any measures are liable to be taken. But, well, if we're going to be pedants, then they're right. I'll go more in depth about what can count as prolonged and unnecessary suffering or superfluous injury when it comes up.
On a small side note: what exactly are lead and ceramic bloons qualified as? Some might say it's a different kind of bloon entirely, but I say that it works as armor, thereby making Obyn innocent as his lead popping brambles are simply armor piercing.
The videos mentioned are reasonably out of date, only mentioning things up to update 27.0. Therefore, in this section I'll go ahead and talk about some of the recent hero additions, those being Geraldo, Rosalia, Corvus, Jericho and Amelia.
First up is Geraldo, and from a look at his stock I unfortunately have to say yes. This mostly comes from the Stack of Old Nails and Blade Trap shop items. The Stack of Old Nails are shown as rusty, not only putting them under the same jurisdiction of 'superfluous injury/prolonged and unnecessary suffering' as the Spike Factory, but also making them biological weapons given the risk of tetanus (assuming that the bloons can even get tetanus but I digress..). The Blade Trap explicitly states: "Place this on the track and watch the first Bloons to touch it get shredded by the great whirling blades!" which given that it's essentially a portable Blade Maelstrom/Super Maelstrom at lv 15 and above, this qualifies it as a booby trap. So, yes, Geraldo goes to jail. I apologize to Vines in advance.
Next is Rosalia, and this is a solid maybe. The lasers can be worrying, but it doesn't pop lead or purple so it probably isn't as hot as Adora's darts and the like. The missles don't have frag or anything, but the grenades under certain circumstances could be considered a war crime as the fragments couldn't be tracked by x-ray[5]. Given that you don't use the grenades, she's innocent.
Now we have Corvus, and this is an immediate yes. For the abilities alone, Soul Harvest and Dark Ritual are both crimes in their own respects. Soul Harvest summons a scythe to swing in his range and immediately kill any bloons in range, turning them into mana for his own usage. This very easily qualifies as desecration of the dead, and if taken far enough could fall under mass genocide. Dark Harvest summons a firey ring around himself in range, that pops bloons and also harvests mana. It's the same as stated before, but with some incendiary things added in if you so desire.
Now, the spellbook. Ember and Soul Barrier are what I want to talk about here, with a small mention of Nourishment. Corvus' Spirit is the one that performs the spells, and in this case is the criminal. With Ember, the Spirit will leave fire droplets on the track that burns any bloons going through it, acting like a wall of fire and therefore qualifying it as incendiary. Soul Barrier sacrifices a portion of your current mana pool to use instead of lives. Given that lives are a meaningless videogame number, Corvus sacrificing the souls of bloons to replace this metric is certainly something, but I'm unsure of what it is. He goes to jail for just generally being unsettling and unethical. Somehow.
Jericho is fine. I can't really find anything that says 'war crime' and he's my blorbo.
Amelia. Oh boy. Her ability with 18 Bloontonium is Grand Dissapearance, which forcibly removes a monkey of your choice, regardless of side. She literally just fucking kills someone. Guilty on charges of murder.
Some explanations for placements: Adora's sacrifices are explicitly shown as blood sacrifices, but if this weren't the case she would still be a war criminal for the usage of plasma based weaponry. Sauda's bloon bleed ability counts as prolonged and unnecessary suffering. Gwendolyn isn't a war criminal because she is a child, but she is a war criminal because of her usage of napalm and blatant disregard of most things around her.
This is going to be much more involved than our previous part, so I'll be taking this tower by tower. This list will act as a table of contents in case you want to jump to a specific tower or category.
While I do agree with his placement for the top and bottom path, Plasma Monkey Fan Club is where it fails. Davey argues that the PMFC falls under 'unethical experimentation' due to the supposed lack of monkey consent. As proven by NK, any monkey that you place down wants to be in the military, is commited to their role[6] and, in the PMFC's case, is a consenting party and agrees to the transformation. Besides, if you had the option to turn into a super saiyan, I can bet you would.
Verdict: Innocent.
The argument for midpath being a war crime is directly debunked due to the official statements on monkey consent[6]. Bottom path stays as is because the fact that I am a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard enjoyer makes me saying that Australians deserve the death penalty even funnier.
Verdict: Top and midpath are innocent, bottom path gets the death penalty. amen
I agree, but with an asterisk.
Verdict: No change.
It's okay, yeah, but the fire from Ring Of Fire and above is clearly controlled and it's not like it'd hurt anyone. Who the fuck would go near something spewing fire, anyways?
Verdict: Top path could be a war criminal, but only in certain situations. No changes otherwise.
Top path is fine as is, and I do appreciate the idea that midpath is fine since it's not illegal to dump thousands of gallons of glue on your enemies. Bottom path should get a bonus point as it also damages bloons as well as sticking them.
Verdict: Definitely a war criminal.
No changes, really. Maybe the shrapnel can be a problem, but I say it's fine.
Verdict: No change.
So, the reactors used in the bloontonium reactor/energizer is specifically built to only hurt the bloons, therefore never causing the adverse ecological effects he claims.
Verdict: Not a war criminal, but top path is a tad egregious imo.
Again, no real changes. I think the Military class is the least controversial one here.
Verdict: Innocent if you don't use the objectively correct crosspath.
Since there's a couple up for debate here I say that Ground Zero and above are fine for the same reason as the Energizer.
Verdict: Suprisingly enough, innocent.
The verdict on the top path is fine, but I feel the midpath should be innocent for the same reason as the Energizer. No use in beating a dead horse, after all.
Verdict: Debatably innocent.
Honestly, yeah. Nothing to complain about here.
Verdict: Top path is debatably innocent, midpath is innocent and bottom path is guilty.
I include Ice Monkey here on principle. No complaints though.
Verdict: Innocent for now.
Alright, what the hell is this? Midpath is fine, I agree there, but Necromancer and above isn't a war criminal! Davey cites the fact that he uses reanimated servants as his attack but here the whole 'soul harvesting' thing is excusable since 1: he isn't doing it himself (unlike Corvus) and 2: the reanimated bloons do not have emotions or feel pain. It's the unconcious, unfeeling flavor of zombie.
Verdict: Top and midpath go to jail, but bottom path is innocent but on thin ice.
Controversial take: Grand Saboteur is debatably guilty. His ability to cause MOAB class bloons to spawn in already cracked is a direct example of prolonged and unnecessary suffering, as using said ability only causes them to die faster.
Verdict: Innocent except for midpath.
Midpath is innocent on the grounds of monkey consent, top path no. Hell, I say he goes in the Adora tier of 'why the fuck do you keep killing people??'.
Verdict: Innocent, but top path gets the death penalty. I don't care if you're the sun god's specialest little boy, we're putting you down on mass homocide charges.
There's no defending this guy they all go to jail.
Verdict: Guilty. So fucking guilty I mean jesus christ you guys. AMD is the only one that's innocent here Thats Not Good
I say innocent on the grounds of 'magic is just Like That'. amen
Verdict: Innocent
Overall, she's fine, but the bottom path goes to jail for mind control. Sorry girlie we love u tho
Verdict: Innocent, bottom path is guilty.
While Davey argues that the top path is guilty, I say it's innocent. The skulls on the mines are there as a warning to the monkeys, not the bloons.
Verdict: Innocent
Who the fuck said that Primary Expertise was technically commiting war crimes? My boy didn't do shit!
Verdict: Innocent
All of it is fair, but I will go ahead and say that midpath is innocent. I know that top path alch isn't, but midpath village is and it's just weird to say that all buffing towers are war criminals.
Verdict: Top and bottom path are war criminals, midpath is innocent.
He's fine, no real harm done.
Verdict: Innocent
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