I hear your words Sir Eddy of Umara.
I believe the difference in your theoretical however lies in it's scale and impact. An orbital bombardment will affect more than just the target. The environment itself damaged.
Pankrati has strict rules.
Fencing has been a legal sport for much of History as humans, false blades and scoring via touch. Sport made of war. Art made of war.
Words can lead to indiscriminate violence. Lest we forget those across the Dawnline and the precursor to our modern day... ally of sorts of Union.
Art has been used to shame, destroy, dehumanize, villainize, and propagandize. But you would not ban a painting or a sculpture as a concept would you? Your armor you wear is an art. The streets and cities we walk on. The faces we see in the mirror, no matter how they are seen or not seen are art.
Art is capable of great violence. Poetry, writing, film, painting, charcoal, every medium.
Pankrati is no different. It is sport made from Mechanized Violence. But it is a sport. It is a performance, a dance, and one that has taken several steps to protect both performers and those spectating.
My argument was not to say that people may not choose to dislike an art I enjoy, nor to silence opposition. I asked for an art form to not be called horrid, awful.
I do not enjoy how some houses partake in the sport, how their ignobles are treated. But if you wish to enjoy art without dealing with a single soul who's actions are not greatly flawed? Then you are without luck and will cease to see the beauty of many a thing.
Good art can came from vile places. And art one does enjoy can come from some of the greatest.
I ask people to look at a dear joy of mine with an open mind.
I am aware of the darker side of what I partake in. I am aware that my chassis that I use are weapons first and foremost. My house is full of veterans of war. My beloved Han Jae served in the first interest war and is dying because of the injuries he suffered then. Kalev Landsknecht served Harrison Armories and saw firsthand the evils of combat by mechanized frames. Mac sits here in my home still with the scars from a deployment that he was a part of far too young. I have seen what war does to the people I cherish greatly.
A diplomat who doesn't know war is either lucky, lying, or a poor diplomat. These are not mutually exclusive.
But if you want to decry the treatment of Ignobles I believe you have better targets to fire at than sport and art. Order. Sand. Glass. Stone. Promise. Smoke. Moments. Remembrance. Dust. Water. At some point in all our histories we have done things as houses poorly to the lower classes. Some more frequently than others.
There are better fights to spend breath on Sir Eddy of Umara.
/Suzerain Arvantiel Sarthis of the House of Promise\