Dear Bad Guys - How Evil Are You Really?

[Jsc]

Let's give the bad guys some credit.

Some of them aren't really THAT evil. To be fair. (Yes, fair to the bad guys.) Okay. It's actually pretty common around the Dark Side to get a few things right. Scratch that! They get a lot of things right. Here. Let's list them,

• The bad guys can run a pretty fabulous Navy and always have a magical way of opening of new positions for promotion.
• The bad guys have a pretty good eye for fashion sense. Especially when it comes to trench coats and the color black.
• The bad guys have a knack for collecting the best technologies ever and don't actually enjoy using slave labor. (It's stinky)
• The bad guys have an iron fist for keeping public order, always have glamorous restrooms, and enjoying keeping the streets clean for the tourist business. (almost bloodless concrete in the summer time.)

Come on now CHAOS. Can't we just call it like it is? Some of the bad guys around here suck at actually being evil. Nah. They're actually pretty good at their careers, goodly parents, dedicated to their families, donate often, purge seldom, and keep their mass murdering down to a surprisingly small minimum while at the beach. I mean. Sure. Littering might incur the death penalty on most Sith planets. But really? It's a small price to pay for clean sidewalks. Let's be real.

Sharing time.

Q: Dear Bad Guys. (And tell it like it is now.) How evil are you really?

 

[Grrwunhoooll Agaburry]

Q: Dear Bad Guys. (And tell it like it is now.) How evil are you really?

A: If you have to say how evil you are then your not really evil. xD

 

[Ariealla Vareldi]

*laughs* What is evil?

 

[Jen]

Every week or so I see a new ooc thread from you, [member="Jay Scott Clark"]. And everytime you manage to confuse me a tiny bit more and more. It's great.

 

[Zak Dymo]

Come on now CHAOS. Can't we just call it like it is? Some of the bad guys around here suck at actually being evil. Nah. They're actually pretty good at their careers, goodly parents, dedicated to their families, donate often, purge seldom, and keep their mass murdering down to a surprisingly small minimum while at the beach. I mean. Sure. Littering might incur the death penalty on most Sith planets. But really? It's a small price to pay for clean sidewalks. Let's be real.

Sharing time.

Q: Dear Bad Guys. (And tell it like it is now.) How evil are you really?

It's a subjective question, determined as much by the given facts in a scenario and personal bias.

Let's take Hitler. Through the lens of history, I'd say 99% of people are going to agree he was one evil son-of-a-queen. But, I spent a summer in high school volunteering in a retirement home and had an opportunity to have some conversations with a woman who had grown up and lived in Germany during World War II. To her, Hitler was a hero. The man who'd ushered in economic success and returned national pride to German people after World War I. She'd agree the Nazis did some terrible things, but if you were to ask her, the good outweighed the bad.

Now, on the scale of evil you have a broad spectrum of behaviors that might be classified as evil, from anti-heroes such as Frank Castle or Wolverine, to Darth Vader and the Joker. Now, the latter is a complete sociopath who is going to kick puppies for the sake of kicking puppies. Beyond that aspect of behavior, though, you rarely have the guy who is one-dimensionally evil (Freiza, Cell, what's his name from Hunter x Hunter's Chimera Ant arc, etc). You certainly have them, but they're just evil. That's it. One dimension.

More often, and here on Chaos especially, I think most of our characters are more akin to Darth Vader in that they commit acts based on personal motivations, inadequacies, fears, etc.

Take my own character, for example. He volunteers in homeless shelters, refugee camps, food pantries, soup kitchens, etc. He's very protective of weak and vulnerable populations, particularly the homeless because of his own personal experiences with such. That sounds like a good guy, right?

The reverse of that is, he's an assassin and thief. He makes money killing people. Frequently, unarmed people. In a few threads, people have even tried to bully or mug him and Boo's massacred them. If he's fighting for a cause he believes in, he's even sacked entire cities. Not so good, right?

The end of it all is that my character has a personal code of conduct, guided by the words of the Sith, which guides what I'd generically term "Lawful Evil" behavior as an archetype. He's discerning about who he kills (and thus is picky about the work he takes as an assassin), and uses his personal beliefs to try and empower what he perceives as disadvantaged minorities (such as recruiting freed slaves to rise up against the city he was sacking, etc).

So, to answer the question, he's less evil than some and more evil than others depending on what the comparisons are, the situation, or the scenario he's being roleplayed in. And for any character that has more than just one-dimension to them... I think that's always going to be the answer.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

No one in the history of the world except those with mental conditions ever think they are evil.

I assure you every dictator and tyrant thinks they are justified. So from that perspective SWRP is pretty good in not having moustache twirling villains.

 

[Enyo Typhos]

I'd like to second what [member="Boo Chiyo"] and [member="Valiens Nantaris"] said.

More often, and here on Chaos especially, I think most of our characters are more akin to Darth Vader in that they commit acts based on personal motivations, inadequacies, fears, etc.

Very true.


Take Enyo, one of my new characters. Her story is basically about her descending into evil without knowing it. In her eyes, she's the hero of the story. She firmly believes that she's doing the Galaxy a great service by 'helping Archangel make the galaxy a better place' and one day eliminating Siobhan Kerrigan, who in her opinion is a megalomaniacal, brutal warlord and a monster.


Now...Enyo is not entirely wrong. Siobhan has lots of blood on her hands and is accustomed to trampling over other people to get what she wants. In a way, she's closer to the people she opposes than she'd like to admit. Indeed, Enyo has been useful to deconstruct her a bit, since she's been visiting her old battlefields such as Gehenna. But Enyo has received a stereotyped, one-sided image.


I'd compare her mentality to that of a young zealot who was schooled in a group like the Hitler Youth because she's been indoctrinated by Archangel propaganda since her birth. Physically she's an adult, but in many ways still a child mentally since she's a clone and only about a year or two old. She's still unaware of the fact that the 'benevolent HRDs' actually are a genocidal cult who want to eradicate organic life, but she's willing to do reprehensible things to get her revenge (she believes Siobhan created her as a disposable host). She's not a sadist, she has a personal code and can feel empathy for victims and the downtrodden since she thinks she's helping them...but will kill without remorse. And though she'll deny it, she's strongly motivated by jealousy.


Equally, the scary thing about Archangel's HRDs is the fact that they neither believe nor understand that they're evil. Moira Skaldi is a Totalitarian Utilitarian who genuinely believes ridding the Galaxy of organic life and replacing it with a society of well-ordered machines is a good thing. There will be no more hunger, no more war, famine or religious conflicts between Jedi and Sith! It just requires all the 'undesirables' to be purged.


Of course, she and Maelion Liates will be in charge! And the irony is that both are deeply influenced by their backstories as humans, despite being 'logical' machines. In Moira's case she used to be a freedom fighter on her homeworld, which was ruled by a tyrant, and eventually ended up a Republic wet works agent, who helped prop up a terrorist insurgency against a fascist regime on Contruum.


Siobhan is a loving wife and a doting mother who'd do anything for her family. She donates to orphanages, is very compassionate and her family mostly consists of waifs and strays she adopted. She also moved heaven and earth to help save Kaeshana's Eldorai from extinction when a massive asteroid came hurtling to the planet. In a way, she's also very self-sacrificing and has probably saved a lot of people by fighting Sith, Bando Gora, drows and slavers. I'd say that's good, yes?


Equally she's a brutal, ruthless warlord who's killed stars know how many people, isn't averse to using torture or brainwashing. I had plenty of fun pointing out the parallels between her and the so called 'goddess' of the drows in a Firemane faction thread. She has a moral code she sticks to...but has also adopted a her might makes right philosophy and a bit of a goddess complex. She's gotten used to power and expects to be obeyed without question.

 

[Zeran Varix]

Im not evil though!!

 

[Loray Tares]

Q: Dear Bad Guys. (And tell it like it is now.) How evil are you really?

A: Well, Loray is effectively beyond redemption and is fine with that. He's not super complex which is sort of the point, he passed the moral event horizon a long time ago. So, I would say he is pretty evil and seeing as he has mental issues, he knows it and doesn't really care.

He is a complete monster and has virtually no admirable or redeeming qualities, except that he sticks to a contract until the requestor breaks said contract or the contract is finished. He has allegiance to two people and beyond that, no one is truly safe in his view.

 

[Subject 37]

 

[Raien Keth]

[member="Jay Scott Clark"]
3 Quarters this evil.

 

[James Justice]

Well some have called James evil. And I like to play the line with him and make you question what is good and evil.

He kills. A lot. And most of his victims are innocent. He's acquired a knack for torture and hired [member="Thraxis"] to continually do things even he is unwilling to do. He steals. He pirates. He smuggles drugs and guns.

But he also hires the poorest of the poor. He frees slaves and employs them. He took a crime town and made it a place to raise your kids. He does relief effort to the poor and makes it easier on war refugees. He funds my alt Lumi Snow (through secrecy) to provide medical relief effort and research ways to fight deadly diseases--pro bono.

I love threads like this.

So..... What is evil? We shall never know. People aren't evil, actions are.

 

[Darth Centax]

I like to think someone can be considered evil as a whole, if they drop so far off to become unredeemable that almost everyone you meet agrees that yeah, they'd be better off dead.

Because what's a label but a way of defining someone. Who picks what that label means, the person using it. If everyone is in agreement, then to most people you're evil.

Does that make you evil to you, no. Though a sociopath or psychopath might well know he's evil and enjoy it, a bully might for that matter, so its not all at the extremes either.

 

[Jsc]

[member="Raien Keth"]

Now that's just evil.

[member="Jen"]

It's just funny to me how many Jedi characters go about the website doing pretty scandalous things while so many Sith Lords actually have their kark together. So sometimes I sympathize with bad guys on the board. That's all.

*except Kaine. No hope for that guy.*

 

[Thraxis]

Q: Dear Bad Guys. (And tell it like it is now.) How evil are you really?

A: Well finally, a question I can answer. I, like to think I am the greatest evil ever conceived, I once drowned a bag of puppies. Then fed... to their parents. I tortured [member="Lady Kay"]. And everyone knows that she is the nicest person on this Website. Then I tortured [member="James Justice"]. Because James got emotional and attacked me in a bar. Now, I am torturing some Dancer. On top of that. I have killed just a ton of things. From Children, to pregnant ladies.

 

[Kenrath]

I am not evil I am just a misunderstood soul who occasionally indulges in deviant behavior during moments of weakness.

 

[Kay-Larr]

[member="Thraxis"]

At least [member="James Justice"] was able to stop you. One of these days, I will too.

 

[Cyrus Tregessar]

Let's give the bad guys some credit.

The bad guys can run a pretty fabulous Navy...

Oh thank you.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

*Butchering intensifies*

On a more serious note, Kaine is a megalomaniac who believes that the true nature of the Force is conflict, as throughout history the duality between the Light Side and the Dark Side has led to decades, even centuries, of war between the two differing ideologies and actively seeks to perpetuate war to fulfill what he believes is his lot in life. He doesn't believe himself to be neither good nor evil, but rather a primal extension of the Force and a physical embodiment of the violence he seeks to spread throughout the galaxy.

Many would label him a villain, as evil, but Kaine doesn't recognize such terms.

He simply is what he is.

 

[Rusty]

Evil is a relative term. Rusty, by some standards, could be considered evil. He creates weapons that will almost certainly cause death and destruction, especially if they're used properly. He's not all that particular about who he sells them too, either. He's spent plenty of time in the shadows, and has a body count that could pass as a zip code. Granted, he's also been in the game for several centuries, so his average kills per year is somewhat less than impressive, but he is undoubtedly a killer. He's also engaged in torture when the situation called for it, and will do terrible things to protect people he cares about or to reach a goal.

At the same time, he has an altruistic streak that has gotten him in trouble on occasion. He answers distress signals from downed ships. He'll fight to protect those that can't protect themselves, and he's been known to route weapons shipments to groups that desperately need a way to defend themselves, even if they can't pay. He's also recently created a medical supplies branch of RCFC devoted to saving lives, knowing full well that it likely won't turn anything near the profit that his weapons business makes. Many of those supplies will be directed to battlefields regardless of whether or not anyone can actually pay for them.

Does the good cancel out the bad? Do the lives he saves make up for the ones he takes? He doesn't know and frankly, he doesn't care. All he can do is be himself, and whether or not people call him good or evil is utterly irrelevant.