In regards to something involving the main cast

[Nilroreo]

Snip

So there's this game I played sometime back called Death Stranding, some of you might've heard of it I'm sure. So, something cute this game likes to do is discouraging murder of hostile npcs, as dead bodies essentially function as atom bombs if left on their own for too long, and so the game instead encourages other methods like guns with non-lethal rounds. Now, every time I entered an enemy camp with one of these things, I effortlessly mow them down, they fall flat, and I win... but somethings wrong. Sure I stopped everyone and I'm not in danger of being blown to bits, but this sensation doesn't really feel too different from killing anyone in any other game. For all intents and purposes, I've just murdered these men, and no amount of sugarcoating is going to remove that sensation.

This scenario with Y'shtola reminds me a lot of this. You can soften the blow for yourself by suggesting it's more like 'sticking your hand in there' all you want, but what I witnessed was functionally no different than watching a live animal violently writhing in pain as a result of her actions. How would it even know how to do that if it truly couldn't feel anything?

From my perspective, it's less about what you did and more the approach to how you did it.

I think the importance is more in how she reacts afterwards than how she acts at the time.

that the heroic characters both treat those around them better and typically have a benevolent (or at least neutral) end goal in mind.

So, to translate, Their words hold more weight than their actions. Consider this hypothetical. Assume Y'shtola had cheered upon the experiment turning out to be a success, then turned around to leave only to be reminded by the others that the nixie is still writhing on the ground, Y'shtola responds with "Ugh, fine," snaps her fingers and dismisses it. How would you feel in that scenario? After all, nothing about this situation is functionally any different. They've successfully determined the warding scales need some modifying in order to allow safe passage through the 13th, and they're now one step closer to discovering how to reliably jump between worlds. Her "Benevolent end goal" hasn't changed, so why would her demeanor suddenly be enough to alter the way you personally choose to perceive her actions?

[Cleretic]

So, to translate, Their words hold more weight than their actions. Consider this hypothetical. Assume Y'shtola had cheered upon the experiment turning out to be a success, then turned around to leave only to be reminded by the others that the nixie is still writhing on the ground, Y'shtola responds with "Ugh, fine," snaps her fingers and dismisses it. How would you feel in that scenario? After all, nothing about this situation is functionally any different. They've successfully determined the warding scales need some modifying in order to allow safe passage through the 13th, and they're now one step closer to discovering how to reliably jump between worlds. Her "Benevolent end goal" hasn't changed, so why would her demeanor suddenly be enough to alter the way you personally choose to perceive her actions?

Like I said. Context is important, and by changing the context you change our outlook on the action, which is exactly what I said. So, thank you for an example that proves my point, but I get the feeling that you weren't trying to.

In your example Y'shtola is being callous and not caring one bit for the living consciousness that she just risked and hurt. First of all that's completely inconsistent with Y'shtola as a character, who is a caring and considerate person even if she puts up walls sometimes. So you've essentially required us to invent a parallel, completely different version of Y'shtola--one that I'd say probably cares less about Runar, so I feel like she wouldn't be in this position of trying to find a way to visit him again, but we'll handwave that for the moment.

Parallel Y'shtola sounds like a jerk. Now that you've taken away her moment of sympathy and humanity, I don't feel that this Y'shtola has the empathy for living beings that I'd associate with a generally good and kind person, and so... well, she no longer seems like a good and kind person, and her goal no longer seems benevolent; overall beneficial, maybe, but I now get the feeling that her desires for it are more selfish, and I don't really see her necessarily as a heroic person.

And for clarification, the reason that I think the distinction of the nixies as an extension of her self isn't because the feelings of the nixies don't matter--they rather clearly do, at least to Y'shtola if not to greater reality. Rather, it's because in the long-term, Y'shtola didn't risk the life of an independent creation that could have lived a life of its own, she risked an extension of herself. This actually speaks more about Y'shtola's inherent kindness than if it were an independent being--not only did she specifically avoid risking something independent, she still gave care, sympathy and thanks to the nixie anyway.