THE Epic Evil Paragraph Of Third Thunder: Orah the Deathless Dancer

”That myth again! Your belief in an omnipotent good underlying the Universe was the strangest delusion of all. Power is power. It alone is, and can be used by anyone who dares to wield it. Those who build, those who destroy, what difference to energy? Your demiurgic fancies never amused me. To hear them now is pitiful."
 
The above quote is Valin speaking to Orah in Valin's fortress. Valin represents the opposition or the ego and its beliefs about reality.
 
This in a nutshell is what any evil character in any story could say, and really have said many a time. Darth Vader in the Star wars movies and his master of the Sith order certainly based their worldview on this type of thinking. Power alone exists and whosoever can master that is the master of creation and everything in it. Hence they have no restrictions to what can be done to others to achieve their own goals.
 
This idea is not merely reflected in fictional stories, but can be found anywhere that a person is in a position of power, even if that power is wielded over who is to do the dishes after dinner. It happens on all levels of human endeavor.
 
Valin in the Thunder series is a very pure representation of the belief in separation from the Self. He is bent on destruction and many times is very successful at it. At the same time, the story strongly suggests that Valin is not a force outside of us that we struggle with. In the story, he is the opposition that Gana carries inside of himself; that which he has created through his own belief in the possibility of suffering. Thus, evil can be conquered only on the inside of each individual.
 
So if one believes in the Universal Force for Good, then one could also ask, is Valin a friend or foe in the end?
 
Nataraja Ishaya