This is just a quick question for those who like practicing creativity.
Now sometimes when discussing fiction (particularly fantasy) I’ve met people who condemn certain works as glorifying the devil simply by having a some overly powerful demon in it.
Now what exactly does that mean? I mean if I were to imagine a demonic monster, with two large horns, is of enormous size, and would require a band of heroes to suffer grave injury (perhaps even sacrifice) in order to destroy it, is that glorifying the devil? Is it glorifying Satan to portray him as some fiery, towering archfiend easily capable of mass destruction? How about portraying him with the same power but as a seductive, young, and slightly feminine incubus with a cold, cruel personality?
In short, if I refuse to portray the devil as some cartoonish red guy with a pointed face (like in most mainstream Christian literature) and opt for a more aesthetically powerful or appealing image, is that glorifying him?
As long as it (yes, it) is not the protagonist of your expression, and that there is a holy opposition that faithfully stands against the evil, there is nothing to worry about in the artistic license taken to portray the deceiver. It is equally important to take care not to assign it characteristics that are not angelic in nature and belong only to the Lord Himself.
Be careful though. It literally is “playing with fire”. Make sure your own house is in order, lest you invite one in unintentionally. :knight1:
To be honest… there seem to be a lot of people for whom just portraying the Devil would be glorifying them. I’d personally like to slip them a copy of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and watch what happens.
I find beautiful demons scarier than the archetypal red-skin/horns/hooves devils. There’s something about creating demons that take this form that is almost more realistic: evil likes to put itself out as being good, the better to be more deceptive and enticing.
My thoughts exactly! I sometimes can’t stand the cartoonish depiction of the devil in some Christian literature (e.g. Chick Tracts). In my opinion, it just downplays him. It makes him a insignificant opponent you could just banish away by saying “Jesus”. :rolleyes: Any Christian who had real struggles with sin would obviously know how tenacious, cruel, and calculating Satan is.
On the other hand, I’ve seen many villains with devilish personalities and man, the fan girls these guys have! (E.g. Tykki Mikk from D.Gray-man, Aion from Chrono Crusade, Sephiroth from FFVII). However, that doesn’t make them less of the cold, cruel, merciless fiends that they are. It’s their very coolness and seductive looks however that scare me the most.
I mean, if I were to face the devil in the form of that pants-less Red Guy from Cow and Chicken, I’d give him a beating Super Cow could never give.
On the other hand, if the devil’s in the form of some handsome, unflinching bishounen with a killer stare… I wouldn’t feel so lucky. >_>;;
I’m guilty of that myself, per my own fangirling of Kazutaka Muraki from Yami no Matsuei (aka. “Descendants of Darkness”). The guy is a drop-dead looker, but in my right mind, I would not want to have him as a physician, in case he decided to use me as a guinea pig for some kind of weird experimental medication that would turn me into one of his cats-paws. Seriously, if the Devil wanted to mess with me in the worst way possible, all he’d have to do is manifest to me, looking somewhat like this guy:
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I know how that feels. As much as I hate bishounen (out of natural male envy for their tendency to attract fan girls T_T ) I feel the same as you with regards to Sephiroth. People say Kefka from FFVI is the better villain but frankly, Sephiroth just terrifies me more with the way he can pull your strings. I can’t count how many times I’ve imagined his Masamune running me through every time I hear One-Winged Angel. DX
Simply put:
If I were to face the devil as a silly cartoon red guy, I’d just pwn him with a mallet from hammerspace.
If I were to face the devil as some towering final boss archfiend, I’d still pwn him but not without having a bold struggle with adventuring party friends.
If I were to face the devil as some merciless, god-like bishie incubus… I would not be so sure… and would fear not only grave injuries on myself and my friends… but even a tragic death.
I seriously hope I won’t end up pulling an Aerith should I ever pen the third. I like tragic… but not that tragic! DX
Now see, this is where I get my problem from some Christians.
God is depicted as extremely powerful. However, if I were to depict a demon as being extremely powerful (e.g. the Kyuubi from Naruto), would that be assigning characteristics?
It’s the same with beauty. As what Matrix Refugee and I have stated, we have encountered a lot of unbelievably handsome villains. While these villains are still terribly powerful and cold-blooded evil… they’re walking babe magnets! (Which is why I personally spite them grrr DX Will it kill people to give underdog geeks that kind of attention too?! ;w; ) Wouldn’t making them beautiful be the same as angelic?
Maybe I’ve been reading too much H.P. Lovecraft and other pulp horror, but I tend to imagine devils and demons as amorphous beings capable of taking on any ugly, grotesque and/or downright terrifying appearance that takes their fancy. The monster in John Carpenter’s version of The Thing (as well as the computer game thereof) would be a good example of the sort of thing I have in mind.
When the demons are just hangin’ out in Hell, chewing on souls like humans chew on gum, I bet they look like things that would give H.P. Lovecraft nightmares. When they come to earth to tempt us… that’s when they put on their handsome incubus disguises…
I wrote a paranormal romance, published in 2006, in which the villain was the devil - very attractive guy. It was the hardest character I ever wrote, much harder than my earlier vampire novels, because the vampires I could feel some sympathy for, since they were human beings once.
I actually think the experience of writing the book strengthened my faith - and I developed a strong devotion to St. Michael because of it. I returned to the Catholic Church shortly afterwards.
Technically, no, it isn’t about power, but what power exactly? The power to create belongs to God alone, but demons are capable of illusion, and the ability to project illusions will only work on those who are caught unaware. Those who are truly devoted to God have a gift of being able to see through the illusions of beauty and see evil for what it is. Those of us in a state of grace can still be fooled, if we let our guard down. It happens to us all. Even the devils supposed acts of goodness are masks for evil intentions designed to ruin us, and if we look closely, there is nothing miraculous about anything a demon does.
Lost Wanderer, I concur. I still get a childish sense of nostalgia whenever I hear “One Winged Angel”. So, yes, evil is at the root of deceit, and the liar will do anything to destroy us. But, what I like better is the piano version of “Tifa’s Theme”. :whistle:
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