Good Vs Evil: High Fantasy
If you want to see my other thoughts on good vs evil, click here for my other posts.
The fantasy genre in general often revolves around the concept of good against evil. Evil has risen in power and is trying to dominate, control, corrupt, or destroy the world, and good must answer the challenge. High fantasy, in particular, largely revolves around this situation. So, how do high fantasy stories portray this epic idea of good vs. evil?
The first important thing to note is that high fantasy often presents a very strict idea of what/who is good and what/who is evil. There is a clear demarcation between the sides, and the reader knows for certain who is meant to be seen as the good people and who is meant to be seen as the evil people. In fact, there is a large sense that the concepts of good and evil are defined as a very large universal constant. Everyone, including the reader, understands what makes good-good and what makes evil-evil. There is hardly any gray area or concern over what choices good might make. Whatever they choose to do will be good. Whatever choice evil makes, they will be evil. Redemption is a concept but is only reserved for a precious few who truly show that they are truly worth it.
At the start of the story, good and evil has become unbalanced. Evil has risen from their natural place in the world through some sort of opening or trickery. In return, the side of good is at a disadvantage, but must find a way to restore the balance between them. Good will never destroy or banish evil. The world needs both sides in order to function. Instead, good must find a way to restore the original balance by bringing that evil back to its normal level or by good rising to meet the power level of evil. Of course, this is easier said than done. Once evil has strengthened itself, good no longer has the level of strength needed to recover alone. Luckily, the side of good is much better at working together than evil is.
A common element of high fantasy novels includes a large epic journey that the main character, or main group of characters, must make before they are in a position to defeat evil and restore balance. This journey may happen because of a prophecy that foretold this rise in evil and explains how to defeat it. This journey may happen by a series of events, or it might happen by a god’s interference. Many different things may start the path that our hero(s) go on, but only they themselves can make the results happen. In fact, the result of the adventure is never guaranteed. Not even the gods can fabricate the outcome they desire. Instead, they hold their breath and nudge their people in the direction they need to go. Everything else relies on the mortals who are following the path to its end, and everyone hopes they will make it. Sometimes the hero(s) doesn’t even know what it is they are moving toward, and must figure it out as they go along.
Here are some examples:
*Just a note: There could be some spoilers included in these examples
Dragonlance-
In the Dragonlance series, the Goddess Takehisis, who is a goddess of evil, finds an opening into the world of Krynn and starts to mobilize the evil in the world to a higher level. To match that, Paladine, the god of good, comes to the world in order to counter her. This starts off with keeping the sides as balanced as possible. Then Paladine creates events to happen to send the group of friends meeting in the Inn of the Last Home on a journey that leads them to banish Takhisis. This journey sets them up to be in a spot to banish her from the world that would otherwise not have happened. He does give some help in little bursts as well as some nudges, but mostly he leaves the saving up to this group of people. Throughout the tale, it is very clear what group is evil and what group is good and even if some good characters do things that seem questionable, we know that in the end they will make the right decision and overall be a good person. Then, when evil has been pushed from the mortal realm, Paladine also leaves to keep that balance between the sides.
Lord of the Rings-
Evil has been able to grow and coordinate based on a ring that was made that allowed one particularly evil person power. Even once he was destroyed, he was able to collect his power and to take steps to try and control the good in the world. So, when this ring ended up in good’s hands, a journey started, and many characters were involved in this journey to help the central person. Some helped in close proximity and some helped at a distance. In this particulate case, the good side knew what needed to be done and made the decision to set out to do that thing. Once the evil person’s power was destroyed and fully killed, balance was restored as the evil creatures dispersed. Evil was not truly defeated, instead the coordination and power that evil had grown and concentrated was minimized and dispersed.
The Belgariad-
In this story, there is a god who becomes corrupted by power and greed that upsets the balance of good and evil. There is a prophecy, two in fact, that tells how to restore this balance many, many, many years in the future. One prophecy lets evil win and one lets good win. So, each side is following their own list of things to complete in order to be the side that is victorious. Both sides are completing a journey, or an epic quest of sorts in order to pull ahead. In the end, good is the side that wins and is able to kill the corrupted god and restores balance. This balance comes from the fact that with this god gone, evil is no longer motivated by the will of that god. Plus, he was not a god that was originally meant to be evil or to influence evil, so without him, evil settles and good settles too. It is more like good merely removed the thing giving evil more power which results in a more equal playing field by both parties.
What are your thoughts on good and evil as portrayed by high fantasy? Do you have any thoughts that I missed, or have you seen other trends than the ones I mentioned? I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic as well.
If you want to see the class I did on good vs evil in the Academy, click here.
