Why Can't Evil Be Used For Good In SciFi/Fantasy?

@tonguetied I think that's true of the real world, but in a fantasy world the author has the ability to define good and evil for their setting, and there's a long history in the genre of objects and practices that are inherently evil. So you may have an artifact that is inherently evil, but used by the protagonist for good. Usually, there is a price to pay for such uses.

 

Or it could be something like blood, someones lineage to an evil person might effect them in that way of being a tool or something.

 

If you can simply redefine common words to have a different meaning in fantasy then there was no point in the question in my opinion. Deliberate misusage of words in this fashion is a slippery slope.

I can understand a character as being branded as inherently evil but in reality is doing good, but I would say that character is not evil during that particular situation. Doing something evil for the greater good is a possibility and certainly it is a judgment call on the part of the author and then the reader as to how it is evaluated, and there will always be pro and con arguments. Probably I didn't really understand what the OP was asking.

 

Yup. I agree. Look at the mess computer lingo underwent from the 1980s to the present. It's impossible to have an intelligent conversation between an old-school computer person and someone who got on the bandwagon after the Internet became popular.

 

Evil leading to good...sounds like an interesting plot twist to me.

 

No one is redefining terms. I don't know about misunderstanding the OP's question, but you did misunderstand my response.

 

Part of the issue may be remedied by looking at the full definitions of evil. Merriam-Webster gives one definition as "causing harm," which could be applied to an inherently evil object in a fantasy setting. They even give a sample sentence: "She drank an evil potion." In that sentence, the potion itself has an evil quality. Dictionary.com gives a definition of "That which is evil; evil quality." Again, a definition that can be applied to an object.

It's not uncommon to see this in fantasy, and it doesn't require redefining terms. The OP didn't ask about doing evil, but about using evil, which also implies some kind of object or force.

An example that comes to mind from fantasy literature is when Galadriel is offered the one ring in The Lord of the Rings. Galadriel recognizes that she could take the ring, set out to do good with it, and even do good in the short term, but she refuses it because she also recognizes it would corrupt her and make her into a terrible force in her own right. The object, i.e. the ring, is evil in and of itself. As I noted above, this isn't uncommon in fantasy - the use of an evil object to do good, followed by some price to pay. Another example is Elric's iconic sword Stormbringer. Elric is more morally ambiguous, but he strives to do good, and his use of Stormbringer ultimately brings with it a heavy cost to Elric and those around him.