What is the cost of your ambition?

The answer to this question varies from person to person, and often correlates to the extent of their goals. Typically, the response is something along the lines of hard work and perseverance. Most people would never openly admit that they would harm others, even if it meant that they could finally attain their heart’s desires. But for some, they would be pretty cool with destroying anything or anyone that gets in their way, and they don’t care who knows it.

…

Wait, hold on. How could anyone operate like that? Well, writers of space fiction often justify it in the same way: some folks are just really, really bad. And not “bad” like fun and cool, but bad as in truly awful on a fundamental level. Even terrible enough to eradicate entire star systems… and whatever life inhabits them.

Here’s the basic formula:

The only real variation from story to story can be found in their motives. What drives the bad guy to commit atrocities against innocent people? What’s in it for them? If every vicious act is done in the name of achieving ultimate power, what happens after they’ve achieved it? While the reasons may vary, the method is always the same: force all life to bend to their will, and destroy all who oppose them.

Consider the Sith from the Star Wars franchise. They spread evil throughout the universe to increase the power of the dark side. But why? They could just focus all of that energy on being good and achieve the same level of power. Even if they didn’t want to be as snooty and self-righteous as the Jedi, they could forge their own path to the light side without harming others. Why do innocent lifeforms have to suffer just so some dudes that they’ve never met can have cool lightning hands?

Not to mention the amount of work that a plan of that scope would require. The countless hours spent scheming and plotting, sowing the seeds of corruption wherever they can. The criminal organizations to construct, and influential people to threaten. And all of this not just on one planet, but all of them?

Of course, not every space villain goes to such trouble to get what they want. Let’s look at the example of Horde Prime from Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Rather than working with others, he created clones of himself and established a hive mine to connect them. With his vision of a perfect universe entirely under his control, he trampled all who dared defy his rule. Except… that’s still a lot of effort.

Ultimately, is it worth it? For an intergalactic control freak, perhaps it is. And a conflict of that scale is sure to make for an interesting story! But I’ve always struggled to understand the logic behind it. How could precious lives and complex civilizations be an acceptable trade for the satisfaction of one person’s egomania and greed? How entitled does someone need to be to cause so much death and destruction?

Luckily, these are fictional characters. We can just analyze them, delving into their carefully constructed backstories in order to understand them.

If only it were that easy in real life.

HANAN OMAR - An alien cosplaying as a big nerd. I like thinking about big questions and writing down whatever my brain pukes up.