Daniel Greene
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The Layers of Evil
🕑 Added 2019-02-18 20:37:51 +0000 UTCSo I know I said the next post would be a character profile, but this idea has been dominating my mind and I would love to hear feedback from you lovely supporters here.
It seems in 99% of narratives out there are "good" vs "bad" groups/people/causes. You follow one and root for them to defeat the ______ you are told to hate. Even in something like A Song of Ice and Fire, which is praised for having everyone in a grey spectrum, none of the people who are on the lighter side of things follow evil beliefs or serve evil masters. The good people push back and come to the realization that they need to rebel. That is not realistic. Good people get caught up and fully invested with horrible ideologies all of the time.
I have been purposefully looking into stories where we the audience are presented the ideology of an evil group as someone who actually buys into that ideology would be. No framing from the author that, "THIS BAD! HATE THIS!" Instead put the reader in the shoes of your average person. See the propaganda as your average person would. Frame it to the reader as convincingly as possible. Maybe, do it so convincingly, some readers actually start rooting from the evil side.
A question emerges with this objective right away. How can I get readers to back something like an imperial regime that roles over other nations and dominates them? I find the answer to be really simple, present the main characters in the same light as a Samwise, or Kaladin. Just because someone is on a side you disagree with, that does not mean you cannot connect with them. If you flip just a couple character switches very carefully, and reframe how this bad side is thrown at the reader, maybe I can make everyone who reads want the empires objectives to come true.
For example, if the empire wins this battle over this resisting group, then maybe the protagonist can be reunited with a love interest we have spent a lot of time developing. If all the reader has been exposed to is this love story, and not the plight of the resistance, why would they care for the resistance at all? We all want to see love interests come together right?
(This is purely an example and not reflective of any actual plot points I have written.)
Now forget everything talked about before here, and get ready to put yourself into a ridiculous scenario.
We all know what lawful evil is, correct? The prime example everyone looks to is The Empire from Star Wars. It is orderly, has codes it enforces galaxy wide. While its ends are evil, the empire as a whole does follow lawful codes.
Now are you familiar with natural evil? This is an evil that kills, mutilates, destroys, etc etc, because it is simply the creature's nature. Think the alien from Alien. You cannot entirely blame the alien for killing everyone, it is just doing what is in its nature. Bloody terrifying, but blameless.
Even though that alien is blameless for its own evil, you would not want to be in the same room with it. In fact, if I gave you the option of either being locked in a small room with five stormtroopers, or an alien from Alien, I would assume you would choose the stormtroopers every single time.
This is because while the empire is completely to blame for its own evil, and the alien is not, the empire can be reasoned with and the stormtroopers can be communicated with. The xenomorph would simply hunt you.
That is what has been dominating my brain while writing. I hope you all enjoy another bunch of random thoughts. Let me know what this makes you think. Do you disagree?
