I was bored.
Instead of picking up a book or doing my homework, I decided to browse Hulu. Not necessary the best thing to do – but a fun thing to do on a cold lazy morning when the gravitation field of the bed is strong then one’s will.
Browsing the “Most Popular” selection, I discovered a fantasy style show called the “Legend of the Seeker” created by the guys who did “Hercules” and “Xena”.
Unfortunately, the show wasn’t all that good – at least from a philosophical view.
You see, in the “Seeker” universe there is a really bad “guy” named the Keeper, who is the lord of the underworld (i.e. Hades, the dead, etc). He is trying to destroy the land of the living along with everything living (i.e. plants, humans, animals, etc). Basically, the Keeper is your standard ultimate evil spirit being based upon devil of the Bible.
On the other side of the battle there are a few humans who are fighting for “truth” or good. Armed with various levels of magic (which, in this universe, is a neutral force – either good or bad), these “good guys” come against the Keeper and his forces by seeking the “Truth”.
Pretty standard fantasy style stuff.
In fact, so standard it got me thinking:
Why do we, as humans, always assign ‘evil’ to a spiritual being who empowers his forces (i.e. humans, demons, etc) to destroy life while limiting ‘good’ to only that which is found within humanity?
For example, in the Seeker universe there is a “Creator”, who represents “good” – but he is inactive and distant, leaving his creations to fight the active evil Keeper with out his help.
You see the same thing in the movie adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron. The satan figure is made eviler, while the God/Jesus figure removed – leaving the hero figure to fight evil by himself.
In a nutshell – we humans like to think that we can defeat evil by ourselves without any external help.
Yet, sadly, that will never happen.
Only one person can defeat evil – the person of Jesus Christ, who, praise the Lord, is actively involved in the world and in the daily lives of all humanity. He is not an impersonal force who made the world and then went on holiday.
Sigh. If only there were more fantasy style shows and books that reflected this fact. :/
You are right on with your thoughts. If you just watched an episode of season 2, just an FYI – in season 1 its quite obvious that the Seeker is a messiah figure – not a “god” figure at all though. I know a lot of fantasy has a messiah figure in it – so I know you know what I mean (pain killers are kicking in and lack of sleep because of the annoying one called Ellie, so I’m starting to get fuzzy headed and may not make sense). I’ve only seen 1 episode of season 2.
I started to watch the show last year and didn’t think I’d like it and then several months later caught an episode that intrigued me and finished out the season. Now that I think back to it, one of the things that bothered me is that the Confessors can cause someone to bend to their will and follow them – how is that protraying justice? I don’t have the channel its on anymore and very likely won’t catch up on it. I know I wasn’t liking the addition of the Mord-Sith lady as a main character. Yuck.
You guessed correctly – I just watched the first two episodes of Season 2. However, I did read a bit about the “The Sword of Truth” books the show is based on. That is where I found out that there a “Creator” in that universe, but he is distant and uninvolved. In fact, the article I read mentioned that the “Creator” was based upon the Christian God – which made me upset as the God of the Bible is anything but uninvolved and distant! sigh. =/
Diest theology… which I’ve never understood – except that it comes from people living a dead faith.