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*Like* *NM* Stephen Send a noteboard - 09/06/2012 02:13:15 PM
Evil is something like a foreign virus which managed to invade the body of Creation. It exists, but people must reject it by abstaining from actions associated with evil or leading to it. Sinning makes evil grow.

It's not the manichean principle in which good and evil are complementary notions.

In SW, the Zoroastrian inspiration is transformed in a dark side of the Force that musn't be used, or evil will grow and destroy the cosmic harmony.

In WOT it's very similar: the shadow might have a cosmic role, but that role has it outside of Creation, barely able to touch what's inside (the role of that small brushing of the Lord of the Grave on Creation seems fairly obvious: it's to allow everything in Creation to decay and to trigger the transition between life state and death state, without making death final.). The Bore allowed Shai'tan to touch what's inside Creation in a larger way, and the more people have embraced its service the more it spread like a virus that would eventually destroy Creation.

As for Taoism, your understanding of the Yin Yang and what it represents is completely wrong (and seems to derive from wrong notions about WOT, where you associate the Shadow to the dark part and the Light to the white part, when this is strictly a representation of the harmony between the female and male aspects of the Light).

The Yin Yang is not good vs. evil. It represents the whole (thus the circle) in harmony, the female (dark) and male (white) aspects in balance. Female/Male isn't just the gender, but a whole set of opposite values/aspects that is associated with each (solar and lunar, wet and dry, active and passive and so on). The dots represents in turn the small part of female aspects in a male and vice versa, and the fact no aspect should dominate at the complete exclusion of its opposite. The symbol doesn't have to rotate (and has nothing to do whatsover with the Wheel of Time/Wheel of Suffering), that harmony doesn't purely mean constant equality between the two aspects, that one sometimes have to dominate, is already represented by the shape of the halves, each with a thin end and a large end, and the dots are placed in the large end.

The taoist aspect in Star Wars has nowhere the importance it has in WOT, and is pretty much limited to the dynamics of Anakin/Padmé and Luke/Leia. In WOT the Taoist inspiration is much greater as the equivalent of The Force is split in male/female aspects, and gender balance is a main theme of the series. But like in SW, the vision of good vs. evil isn't Taoist but mostly Zoroastrian.

In Taoism there's no Evil, evil is strictly an ethical concept, associated with behaviours disrupting cosmic harmony. It isn't represented in the Yin Yang, no more than evil is represented in WOT in the symbol of the Aes Sedai (the whole one, not the third age halves).
"I mean, if everyone had a soul, there would be no contrast by which we could appreciate it. For giving us this perspective, we thank you." - Nate
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"..the one to bring balance to the force" - 08/06/2012 08:42:49 PM 1384 Views
I was under the impression it was widely accepted that Anakin brought balance to the force... - 08/06/2012 09:36:55 PM 1057 Views
Actually, the most recent book revealed a solid answer to the prophecy. - 08/06/2012 10:48:43 PM 1116 Views
Is that really as canon as the movies? - 09/06/2012 01:29:49 AM 1024 Views
As canon as Han saying the Death Star was too big to be a space station... - 09/06/2012 03:21:12 PM 890 Views
Re: As canon as Han saying the Death Star was too big to be a space station... - 10/06/2012 06:24:16 AM 891 Views
The books are entirely canon. - 11/06/2012 06:46:23 AM 942 Views
Re: The books are entirely canon. - 11/06/2012 04:43:47 PM 960 Views
I figured he did it by clearing the deck - 08/06/2012 11:33:03 PM 869 Views
If things are going well, then balance is the last thing you want - 09/06/2012 04:46:37 AM 842 Views
Are you saying there are plot holes in Star Wars? Never! *NM* - 09/06/2012 06:09:59 AM 575 Views
I still think the bringing balance refers to what happens AFTER ROTJ - 09/06/2012 10:19:01 AM 939 Views
This will sound offensive, sorry, but that sounds incredibly dumb. - 09/06/2012 03:09:20 PM 966 Views
I don't see how it's dumb - 09/06/2012 04:26:43 PM 939 Views
Re: I don't see how it's dumb - 09/06/2012 06:18:17 PM 847 Views
I don't like your analogy - organisation vs nationality - 09/06/2012 07:06:44 PM 865 Views
What you seem to be overlooking... - 09/06/2012 08:50:30 PM 988 Views
Precisely *NM* - 09/06/2012 10:17:18 PM 466 Views
Also... - 10/06/2012 12:18:11 AM 932 Views
Another thing. - 09/06/2012 03:13:43 PM 823 Views
The concept of evil in SW (like in WOT) is Zoroastrian, not Taoist - 09/06/2012 12:26:20 PM 879 Views
*Like* *NM* - 09/06/2012 02:13:15 PM 465 Views
I always saw it as... - 16/06/2012 04:40:00 AM 1056 Views

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