Killing the Enemy
As much as I have a high tolerance for gross stuff (I was originally a marine biologist, after all!) I get a bit squeemish about fictional violence. Again, it's not the descriptions of the acts themselves, but the context and moral framework the violence is given in the storyline.
Recently, I have been watching Legend of the Seeker, a TV adaptation of Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. It is what one of my aunts calls 'bubblegum for the mind'-- lots of good-looking people running around with swords, fighting the cartoonish forces of evil with magical explosions. In other words, an excellent distraction to have on in the background while doing chores. There is a pretty obvious line drawn between Good and Evil, with one exception. The forces of Good are crazy violent, and seem to solve most of their problems by hacking enemies to bits every five minutes. For a character who is supposed to be on a mission to spread peace and justice, this presents an inherent moral problem, particularly since the main objection to the villain is that he uses outrageously violent tactics to squash any opposition.
The violence double-standard crops up a lot in high fantasy. One way of dealing with it is to introduce an enemy that is 'always chaotic evil', as Tolkien did with Sauron's army of orcs. In many genres-- the traditional zombie flick being a notable exception, since by definition one's opponents are already dead-- this solves the violence problem while creating another thorny issue: can an entire sentient species be 100% evil?
The other approach is to bluntly engage the double standard in the story itself. Show both sides using the same hypocritical rhetoric to condemn the tactics of their opponents while crowing triumphantly when their side commits similar acts of brutality. It's much more difficult to do this than to create an 'always chaotic evil' video game enemy, but it lends realism and moral nuance to your story.
Recently, I have been watching Legend of the Seeker, a TV adaptation of Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. It is what one of my aunts calls 'bubblegum for the mind'-- lots of good-looking people running around with swords, fighting the cartoonish forces of evil with magical explosions. In other words, an excellent distraction to have on in the background while doing chores. There is a pretty obvious line drawn between Good and Evil, with one exception. The forces of Good are crazy violent, and seem to solve most of their problems by hacking enemies to bits every five minutes. For a character who is supposed to be on a mission to spread peace and justice, this presents an inherent moral problem, particularly since the main objection to the villain is that he uses outrageously violent tactics to squash any opposition.
The violence double-standard crops up a lot in high fantasy. One way of dealing with it is to introduce an enemy that is 'always chaotic evil', as Tolkien did with Sauron's army of orcs. In many genres-- the traditional zombie flick being a notable exception, since by definition one's opponents are already dead-- this solves the violence problem while creating another thorny issue: can an entire sentient species be 100% evil?
The other approach is to bluntly engage the double standard in the story itself. Show both sides using the same hypocritical rhetoric to condemn the tactics of their opponents while crowing triumphantly when their side commits similar acts of brutality. It's much more difficult to do this than to create an 'always chaotic evil' video game enemy, but it lends realism and moral nuance to your story.
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