History Main / PassionIsEvil

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In SpeculativeFiction, whenever there are two innate [[TheForce forces]] at work (usually GoodVersusEvil or OrderVersusChaos), the "Light" side (that is, the heroic side) will be transcendent, calm and rational; the "Dark" side (the antagonistic side) will be passionate, impulsive and chaotic. Rarely are the two inversed, with the good side being the emotional one and the evil side being the indifferent.

* ''Comicbook/XMen'': Several {{Face Heel Turn}}s are caused by emotional overload throughout the series--but the most shining example is the Dark Phoenix. This is the explanation for Dark Phoenix--the result of the Hellfire Club feeding decadent and hedonistic desires to the Phoenix Force.
* A frequent theme in the ''GreenLantern'' mythos. Especially when the Guardians became despotic and started condemning emotions and the other Lantern Corps turned up as {{Foil}}s. Essentially, the Green Lanterns are in the "center" of the light spectrum (Willpower) and so they're the most stoic. Red Lanterns and Star Sapphires represent Rage and Love, specifically, and since their colors are on the far ends, their emotions control them. The more powerful the emotion, the more it controls the Lantern.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'', of course. The Light and Dark sides of the force tend to play this trope completely straight, although how true this plays out is a case of DependingOnTheWriter. According to several sources (including [[WordOfGod George Lucas himself]]), the Light Side is not merely dull apathy and cold indifference; it's supposed to be all positive synergy and symbiosis that makes the galaxy a better place. Things like love, romance, friendship, and peaceful ambitions are supposed to embody the Light Side just as much as hatred, lust, competition, and violence embody the Dark. This is ''not'' how it plays out, normally. One of the main reasons the old Jedi Order fell was because they played this a little too straight, leading to a lot of conflicted feelings in their Chosen One who had let himself fall in love despite it being against the Code and the Order's complete inability to pick up on the signs or help him in any meaningful way. At the end, even Yoda decided that their flawed teachings needed to go.

* In many religions, Angels, or an equivalent good side, embody purity and self-restraint, while Demons, or equivalent evil side, embody sexual, violent, and greedy desires.

* The Skeksis of TheDarkCrystal. They inherited the [[spoiler:hedonism and violence of the UrSkeks, but also their passion, ambition, and general thirst for life.]]

* ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'': Several {{Face Heel Turn}}s are caused by emotional overload throughout the series--but the most shining example is the Dark Phoenix. This is the explanation for Dark Phoenix--the result of the Hellfire Club feeding decadent and hedonistic desires to the Phoenix Force.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, you have deities called the Aedra and Daedra. The Aedra represent aspects such as Time, Life, Beauty, Commerce and Air--all natural things which have little to do with emotions. The Daedra, however, represent things like Deceit, Desires, Knowledge, Competition, The Spurned, Ambition, Manipulation, Madness, Domination, etc--or things sparked or perpetuated by emotions.

** Probably because it makes no sense. There is no reason why lust should be bad. After all, without lust, there would be no human race. There is no reason why passionate ambition is worse then peaceful ones. Being excited about things is not better then always being in some sort of emotional daze. If the Force sensitivity is passed on by genetics, its also not the best idea to make sure that all Jedi led sterile, loveless, sexless lives. Its also going to make sure that many force users decide against being Jedi for obvious reasons, and fall to thew dark side. If competition is dark, then nature itself, due to the mechanics of natural selection embodies the Dark Side. Not sure what that tells us.

** Probably because it makes no sense. There is no reason why lust should be bad. After all, without lust, there would be no human race. There is no reason why passionate ambition is worse then peaceful ones. Being excited about things is not better then always being in some sort of emotional daze. If the Force sensitivity is passed on by genetics, its also not the best idea to make sure that all Jedi led sterile, loveless, sexless lives. Its also going to make sure that many force users decide against being Jedi for obvious reasons, and fall to thew dark side.

->There is no emotion, there is peace.\\

There is no death, there is the Force.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'', of course. The Light and Dark sides of the force tend to play this trope completely straight, although how true this plays out is a case of DependingOnTheWriter. According to several sources (including [[WordOfGod George Lucas himself]]), the Light Side is not merely dull apathy and cold indifference; it's supposed to be all positive synergy and symbiosis that makes the galaxy a better place. Things like love, romance, friendship, and peaceful ambitions are supposed to embody the Light Side just as much as hatred, lust, competition, and violence embody the Dark. This is ''not'' how it plays out, normally. One of the main reasons the old Jedi Order fell was because they played this a little too straight, leading to a lot of conflicted feelings in their Chosen One who had let himself fall in love despite it being against the Code and the Order's complete inability to pick up on the signs or help him in any meaningful way.

Related to VillainsActHeroesReact, although that particular trope is more about how the events of the story are motivated by the villain's actions. Also, do not confuse with AmbitionIsEvil, in which you can tell the good guys from the bad guys because the bad guys are the one who want to change the StatusQuo. This trope is specifically about when there are two metaphysical forces in opposition and one of them motivates through passion and emotion and the other through peace and enlightenment.

* Vulcans in ''Franchise/StarTrek'' definitely believe this. Their race happens to have vast emotions which they must completely clamp down, lest they all become raging psychotics.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'', of course. The Light and Dark sides of the force tend to play this trope completely straight, although how true this plays out is a case of DependingOnTheWriter. According to several sources (including [[WordOfGod George Lucas himself]]), the Light Side is not merely dull apathy and cold indifference; it's supposed to be all positive synergy and symbiosis that makes the galaxy a better place. Things like love, romance, friendship, and peaceful ambitions are supposed to embody the Light Side just as much as hatred, lust, competition, and violence embody the Dark. This is ''not'' how it plays out, normally.

* ''''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' and ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': The Chaos Gods are the sum of every sentient being's rage, hope, lust and despair. Worshiped via mass slaughter and warfare, mutation and ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, rape and torture, and spreading disease and pestilence like a demented SantaClaus. The only workable alternative is to cut off the emotions, either by turning the entire world undead ([[WellIntentionedExtremist which was one vampire's plan]] in ''Warhammer'') or by killing everything down to the last bacterium (the Necrons in 40K).

** Discussed by Jean Grey in ''MarvelVsCapcom3'', when she defeats Akuma.

* ''{{Warhammer}}'' and ''Warhammer40K'': The Chaos Gods are the sum of every sentient being's rage, hope, lust and despair. Worshipped via mass slaughter and warfare, mutation and ChronicBackstabbingDisorder, rape and torture, and spreading disease and pestilence like a demented SantaClaus. The only workable alternative is to cut off the emotions, either by turning the entire world undead ([[WellIntentionedExtremist which was one vampire's plan]] in {{Warhammer}}) or by killing everything down to the last bacterium (the Necrons in Warhammer40K).

In SpeculativeFiction, whenever there are two innate [[TheForce forces]] at work (usually GoodVersusEvil or OrderVersusChaos), the "Light" side (that is, the heroic side) will be transcendent, calm and rational; the "Dark" side (the antagonistic side) will be passionate, impulsive and chaotic. Rarely are the two inversed, with the good side being the emotional one and the evil side being the indifferent.

Related to VillainsActHeroesReact, although that particular trope is more about how the events of the story are motivated by the villain's actions. Also, do not confuse with AmbitionIsEvil, in which you can tell the good guys from the bad guys because the bad guys are the one who want to change the StatusQuo. This trope is specifically about when there are two metaphysical forces in opposition and one of them motivates through passion and emotion and the other through peace and enlightenment.

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* ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'': Several {{Face Heel Turn}}s are caused by emotional overload throughout the series--but the most shining example is the Dark Phoenix. This is the explanation for Dark Phoenix--the result of the Hellfire Club feeding decadent and hedonistic desires to the Phoenix Force.

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* In UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}, "Dukkha" (suffering) is directly linked to passions such as greed, physical lust and anger. One of the Four Noble Truths is to recognize these as the causes of suffering and take proper action (meditation, moderation, and moral behavior) to correct them.

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----

->There is no emotion, there is peace.
->There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
->There is no passion, there is serenity.
->There is no chaos, there is harmony.
->There is no death, there is the Force.
-->--'''The Jedi Code''', ''Franchise/StarWars''

->Peace is a lie.
->There is only [[HotBlooded passion.]]
->Through passion I gain [[TheDeterminator strength]],
->Through strength [[AmbitionIsEvil I gain power]].
->Through power [[MightMakesRight I gain victory]].
->Through victory my chains are broken.
->The Force [[TheUnfettered shall set me free.]]
-->--'''The Sith Code''', ''Franchise/StarWars''

* [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness In it's early days]], ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' pitted the wise, intellectual Blue and the orderly and moral White colors with the passionate and excessively aggressive Red. Nowadays, while Red still suffers from depictions as a bully, [[DiscreditedTrope it is definitely by far depicted more heroically]] thanks to positive attributes like empathy and creativity, while Blue's sociopathic and deceptive traits and White's authoritarian and tyrannical side are both played up.

* The rage-filled Honored Matres from {{Dune}}, as opposed to the highly disciplined Bene Gesserit. The Bene Gesserit aren't necesarily a "good" counterpoint though--this is more a case of BlackAndGrayMorality.

* [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness In it's early days]], ''MagicTheGathering'' pitted the wise, intellectual Blue colour with the passionate and excessively aggressive Red. Nowadays, while Red still suffers from depictions as a bully, [[DiscreditedTrope it is definitely by far depicted more heroically]] thanks to positive emotions like empathy, while Blue's sociopathic and deceptive side is played up.

* ''Anime/GurrenLagann'' inverts this. The villains are stoic and depressed. The heroes are HotBlooded. That is a very understated way of saying it.

* In ''DeathNote'', HotBlooded VillainProtagonist [[LightIsNotGood Light]] [[SerialKiller Yagami]] is the lively, passionate, clearly [[RedOniBlueOni Red Oni]] force in opposition to the HeroAntagonist, cool-headed cold-blooded [[SympatheticInspectorAntagonist L]].

* Inverted in ''Film/TheWorldsEnd''. The [[spoiler: Blanks and humans who have been subjugated by them]] tend to be StepfordSmilers; not ''emotionless'', ''per se'', but certainly not passionate. Whereas the protagonists are (at least by the end), very passionate, especially Gary King, who verges on manic.

** Refferenced in ''Literature/ThePurifyingFire'', as Gideon - a WhiteMagic user - was trained to divorce magic from emotions. Otherwise subverted, however, given that Chandra and the other Red aligned mages are the good guys and the more ascetic [[LightIsNotGood White aligned Order is evil]].

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, you have deities called the Aedra and Daedra. The Aedra represent aspects such as Time, Life, Beauty, Commerce and Air--all natural things which have little to do with emotions. The Daedra, however, represent things like Deceit, Desires, Knowledge, Competition, The Spurned, Ambition, Manipulation, Madness, Domination, etc--or things sparked or perpetuated by emotions.