The Necessary Balance Between Light and Darkness

It’s sort of fun when you start looking at a lot of the really great writing, that there’s a certain level of balance about the characters. That is, the best heroes have a bit of darkness in them while the worst villains have a bit of the light.

A Sailor and A Husband

Consider if you will Odysseus and Darth Vader. Odysseus was a great person: He was loyal to his wife; he was able to maintain a love for his wife over 20 years. He was able to figure out clever solutions to hard problems, and there’s no doubt that his crew was willing to follow him no matter where he would lead them. There’s no question the guy was a hero.

But for all of his loyalty, for all of his leadership capabilities, and for all of his problem-solving capabilities, he still had some serious issues when it came to straight, good old fashioned ego. Every time he screwed up, it was because of his hubris; his arrogance sometimes got in the way of making the right decision. He also had a pretty solid reputation for sadism; he once framed a man he had a grudge against, resulting in the man’s death.

So even though we recognize him as a hero he’s got some serious darkness in him.

A Man with a Force of Will

Conversely, Darth Vader in any other context would be a hero. He’s honorable; he even questions certain courses of action when they break bargains made or when they cause unnecessary death. He does what he can to make sure that his followers can follow his orders, and there’s no question that he’s definitely somebody who’s there to make sure things get done. He is unswervingly loyal to his emperor.

All of these are normally admirable qualities.

However, Darth Vader fully embraces his arrogance and anger. Whenever he is mad, it’s because somebody just questioned him on something, and he does what he can to punish that person. His promotion plan, based on killing those that question him, is famous. He’ll fly into the battle, regardless of how intelligent, just to show that he’s the best pilot around.

It’s this inability to control his anger and ignore his pride that makes him a villain.

Sides of the Same Coin

We recognize the good and the bad in a person even as we define them as heroes and villains. For heroes, it is their ability to overcome their flaws that make them heroic; by overcoming the demons within they can take on the demons without. For villains, it’s their inability to overcome their flaws that make villainous; it’s the very fact that we recognize that we could have followed them down that very dark path that makes them so scary.

So we need to remember as writers that our best characters are those characters that stared into the darkest parts of their souls and either backed away from it, fearful for what they could have become, or ran right into its embrace, not worrying about the price. Ironically, it is the hero’s fear and the villain’s bravery at this one juncture that defines them forever afterward.

By recognizing where that point is and exploring it we can create some very powerful characters. We need to decide where that tipping point is for each character and push them to where we need them to be. But we need to recognize where the balance between light and dark is and keep that balance as close as we possibly can in order to create the best characters we possibly can.