The Path to the Dark Side

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Acts of Evil


Evil is not always easy to recognize. An innocent act may ultimately result in great suffering. An act of revenge may save the lives of millions of people. The pure at heart can lash out in anger. Evil may lurk beneath a mask of virtue. Whether an act is evil or not often boils down to a question of motivation, and motivations can be hard to identify.

Fear
"Fear is the path to the dark side . . ." -Yoda

All sentient creatures experience fear at some point in theirlives; it is a defense mechanism designed to impel creatures away from danger. Characters feel fear when they believe they may lose something valuable to them. Fear for their own lives is the most common motivator, but the fear can be for the lives of friends or loved ones, or even for something as trivial as the loss of a possession or an opportunity. A character acts out of genuine fear when he abandons reason and logic in order to eliminate or escape a threat.

Unreasoning fear is characterized by desperation and frantic attempts to escape the danger at any cost. Characters who use the most lethal weapon available, attack all-out without first determining the actual degree of danger, or abandon threatened allies to save their own lives are almost certainly acting out of fear. Their journey to the dark side has begun.

Anger
"fear leads to anger" -Yoda

Like fear, anger is almost unavoidable for sentient beings. It is symptomatic of frustration-stress without a suitable means of release. Such tension results in violent behavior, aimed at relieving the frustration all at once. It can be brought on by a variety of factors, but most commonly relates to fear. The fear of the consequences of failure can create tremendous surges of anger in sentient beings.

Characters acting in anger lose the ability to show mercy; the target of the character's anger must feel his wrath. A character gripped by anger often takes unnecessary risks in order to punish or destroy the target of his ire. Victory is not good enough if the foe is still moving. The character does not wish to address the situation when he is more rational; he needs to vent his fury now, while his blood is boiling and his enemy is within reach. Such a character deliberately gives his anger free rein, and thus gives in to the dark side.

Hatred
"anger leads to hate" -Yoda

Stress can also result in a more subtle kind of anger: hatred. Hatred is a simmering resentment, the outward expression of which may start small but gradually escalates into full-scale acts of violence. Hatred festers inside a character until eventually she comes to believe that the target of her hatred some-how has less right to exist than she does. In her own mind, she reduces her enemy to a nebulous menace, the source of all the things she despises and of all the ills that plague her. To her thinking, the object of her hatred consciously attempts to thwart her. But it is not a personal vendetta; her enemy clearly threatens all that he touches. She has a right and even a duty to destroy him and, what's more, to undo all that he has wrought.

Hatred is often identifiable by an accompanying sense of righteousness; the character feels that she is morally bound to eliminate the thing she hates. For her, considerations such as perspectives and mitigating circumstances are not a factor. Lenience is not an option. Justice is hers to administer, and she does so with the assurance that anyone can plainly see the correctness of her decision. But whether she is right or wrong, the very fact that she chooses to act on her belief and nothing else brings her one step closer to the dark side.

Suffering
"hate leads to suffering." -Yoda

Hatred often springs from a position of inferiority; what one cannot control, one frequently hates. But when a character has the power of life and death over the object of his hatred- a single individual, or even an entire galaxy-he can cause suffering. Mental, verbal, and physical abuse are his tools; through these methods, the character denigrates and depersonalizes his victims-making them no more significant than objects, to be used or destroyed as he likes.

Pride
"You underestimate my power!" -Anakin SKywalker

Some characters build their self-image and their ego on uncertain foundations. Their sense of self-worth is predicated on beliefs that may or may not be true. When others challenge those beliefs, these characters feel their self-worth deteriorating, and they do whatever they feel necessary to protect the founda-tions of their fragile selfimage. Wounded pride can be just as dangerous as a wounded animal.

Pride runs the gamut of fear, anger, and hatred, because a character whose pride is at stake fears the judgment others, becomes angry at those who attack her self-image, and grows to hate those who force her to face unpleasant truths. She feeds her pride when she becomes defensive, and gives in to her pride when she becomes quarrelsomebecause if denial isn't good enough, she must silence the source of her frustration. Simple denial isn't particu-larly dangerous, but the way to the dark side passes through aggressive pride.

Aggression
"A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack. " -Yoda

Sometimes characters act out of a desire simply to see blood. This is definitely a trait of the dark side.Such a character may be overcompensating for a perceived personal weakness, because he believes that by taking the offensive, he masks his poor defenses. The faster and harder he strikes, the less chance that his opponent will discover his weak spot.

Aggression manifests as an eagerness to fight. The character has no patience for more peaceful solutions, and consciously engineers situations so that he can respond with his favorite element: violence. He may not always strike the first blow, but the provocation can almost always be traced directly back to him. He is most dangerous when he encounters another being who is also motivated by aggression, because both feel the need to test themselves. Once the fighting starts, an aggressive character can easily fall to the dark side.

Vengeance
'At last we will have our revenge." -Darth Maul

A combination of hatred and anger, vengeance impels a character to administer what she considers "justice"- though ultimately, that justice only serves herself. The character acts out of a need for compen-sation, often to redress wrongs she feels she has suffered. Whether she actually has or not is immate-rial; to her, the scales must be balanced. But she may overcompensate, inviting vengeance directed at herself. Vengeance is a dangerous motivator because it frequently replicates itself, continuing the cycle.

Acts of vengeance are usually obvious. The character suffers a blow to her pride or her person and seeks to visit an "equal but opposite" blow on the perpetrator. What constitutes "equal" is generally open to the character's interpretation, but "opposite" is always clear. Without practicing forbearance, the character demands that the loss of pride be repaid with the loss of pride, the loss of limb be repaid with the loss of limb, and the loss of life be repaid with the loss of life. When she takes revenge, the character takes a step farther toward the dark side.

Greed
"Greed can be a powerful ally ... if it's used properly." -Qui-Gon Jinn

Sometimes a character refuses to be satisfied with what he has already attained. He wants whatever there is to be had, and if he cannot have it, he becomes bitter and resentful. His greed drives him to acquire anything that seems valuable, even if he cannot perceive its value himself. He can be persuaded to part with his acquisitions-but only for something of greater value. This character has no real concern for how his avarice affects those around him. To him, other sentient beings are merely ambulatory showrooms, to be picked clean or disdained according to his whim.

Greed manifests as a desire to take what cannot easily be earned. A character acting out of greed may make a token effort to acquire some coveted object by conventional means, but resorts to more extreme means if he is thwarted. He is often unconcerned that he cannot actually use what he gains. His real goal is exclusive ownership; if someone else values it, he must have it. His obsession may override his sense of fairness, and thus lead to the suffering of others-the summit of the dark side.

Jealousy
"Liar! You're with him!" -Anakin Skywalker

Where the greedy character covets material things, the jealous character covets intangibles. She resent the attention or honor afforded to others, and whether she has earned the same treatment or not, she feels she is worthy of it. She may in fact be deserving-but her jealousy dictates that she receive more recognition, greater accolades, or more support. Deprived of this attention, her hatred festers within her, until she decides she should simply eliminate her competition.

A character moved by jealousy acts to weaken the opposition. She attacks whatever makes the other person her "rival." It may be the other's skill, or beauty, or reputation, but the character simply wants her own qualities to seem better by comparison-and reducing the other is easier than improving herself. The character may steal a ship or weapon, attempt to disfigure her rival, or attempt to besmirch her rival's good name. How she attacks is not so important as what she attacks, for it reveals her jealous nature and empowers the dark side.

Love
"I'm haunted by the kiss you should never have given me." -Anakin Skywalker

While not itself of the dark side, love can create an opening for the dark side to insinuate itself in a character's heart. Love is delicate, and can be upset by the merest touch of doubt, anger, or jealousy. When a character feels love, he feels fulfilled. If something intrudes on that feeling of well-being, he fears losing the fulfillment-the absence of which is an aching emptiness. All alone in that void, he can give in to anger, hatred, suffering, pride, or vengeance-any emotion that fills the emptiness and takes the pain away.

Characters acting out of love are in no danger of falling to the dark side. But a character who acts out of the need for love risks everything.