They're Everywhere

It’s been a weird week, but I kind of expected that. It’s a short work week, though, and I’m going out of town, so I don’t know if this will go up on time. I hope so.

I’ve got a couple more books to review (on a Stephen King book now), and I started LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which, uh… I’m actually not super impressed with it compared to the original game? That’s a conversation for another day, though.

They’re Everywhere

I am presently on season four of the USA Network series Mr. Robot. In the series, one of the important factions introduced early on is a Chinese-run hacker collective known as the Dark Army, led by the mysterious White Rose. As the Plot unravels, it becomes clear that the Dark Army is more than a hacker group–they act more like an insane cult, in the way they’re fanatically dedicated to White Rose, they kill themselves to avoid capture, and they coerce high-ranking people into becoming assets they can manipulate.

And they’re everywhere.

There’s a scene early in season four in which an FBI agent is set up on an awkward date with someone, and as they’re cringing at how awkward it all ways, that someone crudely (and cheerfully) threatens the agent’s mother to make sure the Dark Army’s agenda is followed. In another season, one of Elliot’s friends saves him from being assaulted, and then casually mentions that the Dark Army still has a use for him.

Basically anyone could end up being a member of the Dark Army, and happy to commit violence in pursuing its goals. And it’s terrifying.

This is a hard thing to achieve well; the notion that the enemy is out there and so numerous and well-hidden, that basically anyone could be a member of the enemy faction. But when it works, it is a fantastic way to keep the audience on the backfoot, second guessing the motivations of everyone our protagonists meet and carefully reading or watching the text for clues.

The example I’m most reminded of is Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. In that series, the Dark One has quite a few people known as ‘Darkfriends’, who are basically satanic cultists who swore loyalty to him in exchange for whatever (usually power, sometimes survival). It’s quite clear that most of the people who swore allegiance didn’t actually expect the Dark One to ask them to do anything serious, but alas, they’re living in the days before the Final Battle, so, uh, they kind of have to. And so there’s a rather terrifying scene (to me, at least), in which a guy approaches Rand and Mat at an inn in the first book, awkwardly trying to get them to go somewhere with him alone, and being very bad at it, before basically straight-up begging them to do what he says, because if he doesn’t, the Dark One will do something terrible to him.

It also makes it very interesting/frustrating dramatic irony in that you have extremist groups like the Whitecloaks proclaiming anyone they don’t like to be a Darkfriend, when they’re almost comically inept at finding the actual Darkfriends within their own ranks. Although it also makes their worldview more understandable–they see Darkfriends everywhere, because they’re actually everywhere.

There are also quite a few Darkfriends who are complex characters with their own motivations and character arcs. In one of the early books, one of the characters traveling with our heroes is, at the end, revealed to have been a Darkfriend, but redeems himself before the book ends. Another character had readers guessing for decades, but near the end of the series, reveals that while she’s technically a Darkfriend, she used a loophole in her oath of loyalty to help the forces of the Light win in the end.

It’s hard to pull off, but if you can do this–have it so that the enemy faction could be anyone, anywhere, you are going to get some readers and watchers hooked, because they’re going to be constantly guessing. And that means an engaged audience, and that means, if you’ve done your job right, they’re really invested, and the twists you pull will actually mean something, instead of just being random twists to throw people off.

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