A DISCUSSION OF NEUTRALITY--WHY DARK NEUTRAL CHARACTER ARE THE MOST INTERESTING

(SORRY ABOUT OVERLONG TITLE OF LAST POST. I ALSO GOT TIRED OF RANTING ABOUT POLITICAL CRAP SO IF YOU'RE RIGHT WING YOU CAN SORT OF READ ME NOW, LOL.)




Messing with fonts way too much, lol, this is handsdown my new favourite. 

Character discussions are always weird, because a lot of people have that one Darth Vader, Bellatrix Lestrange, or otherwise depressingly evil loving friend, who is always like "I love her soooo much," (The character is blatantly evil and killing everyone without mercy, and some people find this cool somehow. I mean, I recognize the badassery, but seriously? How is mass murder without mercy okay now? 

But the many girls who swoon over the Luke Skywalkers and Harry Potters aren't much better, are they? (Yes, I used to be one of those people.) But seriously though. Those characters happen to be well fleshed-out, to the point where we understand their motives, and they do mess up on occasion. These characters are usually purely light characters, always doing the right thing, and almost inhumanly perfect, while the singularly dark characters are concerningly Hitler-like, killing without mercy and only matching up to the fortunately very rare brand of evil dictator. Even worse is it when these characters have very little backstory, not allowing for any explanation for their evils. Vader has a flawed explanation, but it's an explanation nonetheless. He's dealt with past trauma, whereas certain villains, like Hela from Thor: Ragnarok offer no backstory whatsoever. Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. The point is, that Vader and Voldemort, Harry and Luke, have good backstories to explain the dark/light characters in more depth, while many villains and heroes seriously lack this level of death. This, my friends, is a criminal offense. 

Obviously, with very few exceptions, real people are never perfectly selfless and saintly, nor are they actually Hitler. Yes, some of us may do more good or more bad, but in the end, a lot of us fall in the "neutral" spectrum for sure. And a broad spectrum it is. Kylo Ren from the recent Star Wars installments, definitely falls on the more dark end of the spectrum and I say, a little too much so, although his future is still definitely uncertain, which is critical. Yeah, it's pretty likely that he'll die in the final installment, but what side will he end on? We can hope for redemption, as it is still a possibility. Unfortunately, he doesn't have nearly as much backstory and depth as he very well could, but he is clearly a confused character with many emotional struggles. These sorts of characters, the ones that still need to grow up to an extent, are some of the most interesting, as opposed to well-established, and boring, light and dark characters. For this Kylo, is a dark neutral, but more on the dark side than other dark neutrals often are. (Don't forget; he's also that emo kid who breaks stuff, which is admittedly too destructive for my taste, but that's beside the point.) These characters don't just ruthlessly project anger onto others, they hate THEMSELVES, and are still coming to terms with their less-than-desirable (most of our problems) situation. You can read my last post for an in-depth look at Loki's self-hate, but for now, I can suffice to say, that neutral characters, especially dark-leaning and unpredictable ones, are what keep me coming back to movies to see what they will do next. 

Of course there is a neutral light side as well, still not as interesting, as most of these characters are ultimately on the good side, but still fascinating nonetheless. The characters that fall into this camp are characters like Katniss Everdeen and Han Solo. The former, who ultimately wants to do the right thing, but is actually burdened with real-life PTSD, struggles with sides and morality through the entire franchise, because she has to kill to survive. Katniss manages to be one of the most interesting characters in recent memory, as she is actually affected by her questionable actions, instead of the books brushing it off as a "greater good" or "survival" scenario. The later starts out as a self-loving mercenary, coming into his own as a general and caring for his friends, before slipping back into his old smuggling habits and ultimately making a sacrifice for his family. The light characters that teeter on selfishness and greed, as well as necessity, are some of my favorites of all time. 

One last "dark neutral" character I'd like to look at (I skipped over my favorite, Loki, because of my last post :),) is Draco Malfoy. I know a lot of people would consider him a purely dark character, but he is too tormented by his father and the Dark Lord, and too much of an insecure character to be evil. He's more of an insecure bully, and he is one of the most interesting characters in the franchise for that reason. Harry's angry phase is weird too, though. 

Anyway that concludes my analysis. Leave your thoughts in the comments below.