In literature, demonic characters have been the pinnacle of antagonists, ranging from Dracula to Hades, witches to evil sorcerers. But what really defines a 'demonic' character? What makes a character demonic?
What if I proposed that every character/element that makes a choice that is even slightly evil or bad or not nice is somehow a demon? Let's first look at cancer, then we can look at bounty hunters and evil dragons and other stuff.
Cancer isn't a good thing, really. I mean, it kills people, right? So in a story about a little girl struggling with cancer, could cancer be considered evil? Well, it's not necessarily a person or even close to being a sentient being. However, with cancer killing people and suppressing that little girl until her extremely sad death at the end, isn't cancer the bad guy? So wouldn't cancer have the characteristic known as 'evil'? So since cancer is evil, can't it be a demon?
Boba Fett is a bad-ass bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe. He wears armor reminiscent of the Mandalorian Wars during the Knights of the Old Republic times, carries a comfortable range of weapons capable of killing his targets in different glorious fashions, and has a demeanor that is just plain intimidating. Now sure, the guy doesn't have horns protruding from his head of helmet like Darth Maul or the Tusken Raiders, but can we consider this bad guy a demon? He kills people for a living, and I'd say he quite enjoys it. He gets those lovely credits from taking out targets and generally is living a life he would say is pretty good. He's characterized as an evil dude with guns blazing to take down the good guys, so he's definitely not good, nice, and other synonyms of this word! He could be considered demonic; maybe not on the outside, but the personality and soul of this character could be seen as a demon in his final state. Sure, he lost his father figure and became evil from that and other events, but in the end he's just another bad guy. Yes, it can be said he's a demon.
Dragons. Dragons certainly can be portrayed as more demonic than your traditional human characters. I mean, they breathe fire and have scales and can have horns and be red! Look at Smaug from The Hobbit, having that scary voice and wanting nothing but to sleep with vasts amounts of gold, going so far as to destroy two entire settlements just to get to the gold! He killed so many Humans and Dwarves! Obviously he's a bad guy and evil! Not only is he portrayed from the outside to be quite demonic, but his intentions could be that as characterized by a demon, rampaging for greed and taking satisfaction in innocent people's deaths.
Saying that just because Mandalore from The Sith Lords doesn't look like a demon or that just because Plankton from the show Spongebob Squarepants certainly doesn't look like a demon doesn't mean that either of them are any more demonic or evil or with bad intentions than that of a more traditional demon character. Evil antagonists who are out to destroy the well being of others for their own benefit are all sort of 'demonic', evil, and just plain bad. Even cancer can be a demon to the little girl battling it!
... But wait, don't good guys want to destroy the well being of the bad guys for their own benefit? If Darth Vader wanting to kill the rebels and squash their puny resistance for the benefit of the Empire makes him evil, wouldn't Luke wanting to destroy the Empire for the benefit of the New Republic make him evil? That requires a difficult answer.
You can say any tyrannical rule that faces enemies classifies those enemies as terrorists. The Rebels seemed like terrorists, right? They blew up military compounds and disturbed the peace! What??? You say the Empire never attacked civilians for no reason at all?? The Death Star destroyed an entire world! So as you can see, the Galactic Imperial Empire have to be bad guys because they attack unarmed civilians, not even giving them a chance to stand up. If you've never seen the movies and heard that a giant weapon killed a bunch of innocents, you'd know that the creators of that weapon are evil.
However, the Galactic Empire brought order, something the Republic and Jedi Order never did. There were so many wars and controversies during the Republic years, including the Clone Wars against the Confederacy of Independent Systems (who, by the way, had a large population that actually wanted to be separate from the Republic, though there were those bribed and intimidated into joining the Sith alliance) and shady enterprises such as the Hutts. So with the Empire, everything being in order (maybe not peaceful), isn't that better than the good guys?
To every bad guy, the good guys look bad. To every good guy, the bad guys look bad. In the movie Inglorious Bastards, with Americans and Allies shooting Nazis in the face we rejoice and go "That's badass!" But if the roles were reversed, with Nazis shooting Americans and Allies in the face we recoil in disgust and go "That's not cool, those Nazis have to burn in hell." While I'm not saying that Nazis are good, I still think we have to wonder from time to time who the good guys are.
The Vietnam War is one instance where there aren't any good guys. In the Vietnam War Americans and South Vietnamese killed many innocent North Vietnamese villagers, including men, women, and children having nothing to do with the war. The North Vietnamese soldiers killed many innocents as well, including their own neighbors. There were no good guys. To the average Vietnamese villager, anyone with a gun marching into your village is a bad guy, but meanwhile the soldiers glorify the war and Americans (early on) support the full war effort while not knowing what's really going on there. We pasted labels on the enemy and any territory they held, including the innocents in those territories. It wasn't until publicity came out about the treatment of the Vietnamese citizens that we decided to end support for the war.
Before putting labels on the faces of those on the other side, think about what they see you as. If they see you as someone invading their home, then what do you see them as? If they see you as a target selected by their boss, wouldn't you be pissed off? But, if they see you as a monster killing their families, wouldn't you think twice about invading their homes?
Damn. I feel I repeated myself too many times... and I really took a twisted turn into a different subject than my original thesis... but eh, I consider everything in this blog here a rough draft. Thank you much for reading!
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