Evil, or just... persistent?

[drashizu.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering since reading the most recent book whether the Mede Empire can be called evil without being a little hypocritical. Certainly we don't want them to expand through our three little countries and make Eugenides's and everyone else's life less pleasant (or shorter). So I'm not suggesting changing their status to anything other than "The Bad Guys," but really, it could be said that they're just persistent and ambitious empire-builders. In some ways, the tactics they use are comparable to, say, Attolia's before she married Gen, or Sounis's, or any of the many meanie barons filling the two lowland countries.



Off the top of my head, first 3 things the Medes have done that are bad...

1. Nahuseresh urged Attolia to cut off Gen's hand. He did it intending to incite a violent political conflict. But honestly, he didn't make her do it, and he didn't make Eddis declare the subsequent war, either. Is this any more reprehensible than, on a smaller scale, Eugenides baiting Costis to punch him in the face? If you bait a dog, it bites. But as Teleus points out, men are not dogs.


2. He murdered barons while Attolia's back was turned. Murder's murder. Out of curiosity, I wonder how much of what he did in Attolia was okayed beforehand by his superiors back in the Fatherland? (er... the Mede Empire...)


3. He provided the services of the assassins that attacked Eugenides in KoA. But then, the king of Sounis paid for them and used them.

I bet there are more... yep, just thought of a fourth.

Anyway, to what extent are the things that the ambassadors have done out of the ordinary for the politics of this world? We know Attolia's court is already a cesspit; political murders happen all the time. A husband and a suitor both kicked the bucket at her hands alone, simply to secure her throne for herself. Although I recognize that these were ruthless things for her to do, truth be told they're part of what I like about her character. She's the Ice Queen.

When Sophos killed Hanaktos, I cheered, and then cheered again when he shot Akretenesh (which is inciting a war if I ever saw it! though, admittedly, not in a pre-planned, manipulative-bastard kind of way). And if I can be perfectly honest... although I find him slimy, like Attolia did, I also found myself really kind of liking Nahuseresh's character in QoA from getting to see all his interactions with Kamet. He was a bastard, but he wasn't pure scum, either. And Gen himself is nothing if not a bastard sometimes. (Magnificently so, but still.)

Basically, my question is, are we thinking of the Medes as evil primarily because they happen to be working against the wishes of our main characters, or, if the roles were reversed, would the Medes still just be evil? For that matter, am I right in thinking everyone feels the Medes are evil to some extent, or does someone disagree? What Mede evilness am I missing?

Comments

[aged-crone.livejournal.com]

"(This isn't to say that Medes don't have good reasons for expanding: they may be in a vicious cycle of increasingly large armies requiring increasingly more tribute to pay (requiring a larger army to conquer the land to pay the tribute...); they may be over-populated; the emperor may need things for his ambitious noblemen to do so that they don't start civil wars...)"

Then they should disband the army and that would solve the problem of needing to pay for them. And overpopulation would be no excuse; if they're so all-fired crowded they can move peacefully to other countries, or go find an uninhabited island somewhere. (I'm a bit touchy about this because of the whole Nazi thing about "Lebensraum." I have a German elementary school math textbook from that era; and the math problems consist in part of, "If there are this many Germans on this much land, how many countries should we take over so we have more room?")

And if the emperor is so worried about his barons, deal with them, don't inflict them on innocent bystanders.

[ricardienne.livejournal.com]

I agree that they aren't necessarily justifiable reasons to people who aren't the Medes.

And I think it's actually one of the things that makes the Medes (seem) evil: the fact that they seem to perceive other countries and their customs (particularly ones not in their cultural tradition) as basically irrelevant, inferior, and not worth serious consideration, except as targets for colonialism/imperialism. (I think "imperialist" was the word I was looking for in my last post and not quite getting).