Can Evil Love?

[Salmastryon]

I was reading a really interesting thread about this on a gaming board and thought the question very relavent to writers too.

Can Evil characters truly Love? And how would they express it? Since they are "evil" would they really act like "good" characters in love?

So what are your thoughts.

[kanshu]

I think that it has a lot to do with how you define "good" and "evil".

Is a character 'evil' because of what he/she does?

Does "true evil" require a specific set of mind, like, some mental illness that will warp up the character's perceptions and ways to feel things?

Which, if answered yes, would then lead straight to 'can people who aren't 'quite right in the brain' truly love?

But then, a lot of the 'good guys' are not neccesarily 'right in the brain'. Wouldn't that mean in consequence, that they would not be able to truly love, either?

[Terra Fire]

Yes, I do think that 'Evil characters' can love, but they love in their own way.

In a few of my stories, I have evil characters loving, yet in their own evil way. One character thinks that he's in love.

Am I making any sence?

[kanshu]

Mmm... what makes your character evil?
I mean, if you say that they love 'in their own way', or even just *think* they are in love... then what sets them apart from the good guys who 'love in their own way', or think they are in love?

[Terra Fire]

Nothing really sets them apart. Only that they act different than the labeled 'Good Guys'. I think that every living thing (be it in fiction or real life) is capable of feeling love, if they want to admit it or not, even if they don't even know it. It's a scientific fact that things can't live without some form of love or affection.

Even if they're 'not right in the head', subconsciously, they still feel for the ones they care about, or care about them. Though, that feeling of love can be expressed in many different ways. Love, I believe, can be expressed through hate or any other emotion in that sense.

A character who is labeled 'evil' or 'good', I believe can indeed love. It’s just the definition of love that needs to be broad upon. It’s how we define love that distinguishes if an ‘evil’ or ‘good’ character should love, or fall in love.

But, this is what I believe.

~VGT~

[darkraion]

Oh dear... two of the most abstract concepts in the world. There are so many different ways to interpret the concept of good and evil. In the sense of some all-consuming cosmic force of darkness that needs no reason or purpose for being the darkness that it is, I would say no, there's no room for love there. However, I don't really believe that kind of evil exists in human beings- not as a complete, driving force that takes over the psyche. We all have pieces of something dark and perhaps even 'evil' within us, but I believe it's something that comes with a reason, grows with a purpose. One person's wrong-doing becomes another's shard of evil, and in that way, while some people may be quite consumed by this form of 'evil' I don't think it's the same simplistic, romanticized concept born from from the human imagination. Because it's really something so complex, I think it's not only possible for anyone to love, but for love to be even deeply entwined with what might make the person mold into our accepted concept of 'evil'.

On the other hand, love itself is a subjective concept. I would imagine it means different things to different people and to different degrees. How often do we mistake infatuation for love, and how do we even know that said infatuation isn't love until we're given a point of refference in our personal experience? Until we know it's infatuation, could it really be love for the simple fact that we don't know it as anything else? I'm confusing myself here...

But yes, in short, I think 'evil' people can love in some form or the other. It all fits very neatly into that lovely gray area, yes?