IS GIDEON EVIL?

[Scott]

In many respects, It's a Bad, Bad, BAD World is a truly fascinating two-part episode. We are introduced to two sets of Charmed Ones: an evil bunch and the familiar good group. Yet, this episode opens many a topic in Charmed. Among them, was this question first raised by laiste in the Charmed Cafe:

Laiste wrote, "I also have a question. Actually, my daughter pointed this out. In its a Bad Bad World, the "good" Gideon is trying to kill Wyatt (presumably for "good" reasons) but in the Bad world, the "Bad" Gideon is also trying to kill Wyatt (presumably for "bad" reasons). If they have reversed moralities, and the "good" Gideon is trying to do a bad thing, shouldn't the "bad" Giodeon be trying to do a good thing, like save Wyatt? How is it that both Gideons with both moralities justifiably attempt to kill Wyatt?"

[Scott]

vandergraafk gave this rather lengthy response, a response that first appeared in the Charmed Cafe:

laiste, you've raised a question that is a whole different matter, which is where I suppose this can all logically go, namely, what exactly is the premise of It's a Bad, Bad, BAD World. In theory, the two worlds are to be mirror images with everything reversed. Bad is good; good is bad. The second element of the story is the notion that what happens in one world is a carbon, though reversed, copy of what happens in the other world. Events must happen simultaneously. Put in the perspective of particle physics: we have matter and anti-matter. Electrons in our world carry a negative charge. Positrons (the equivalent anti-matter particle) carry a positive charge.

Since the events in each world must happen simultaneously and be exact duplicates, the only difference can be in their moral charge. The Charmed Ones do good in one world. In the other, they do bad. Consequently, a Gideon in the anti-matter world would fear such an awesome accumulation of good in Wyatt that he was determined to eliminate the threat a good Wyatt posed to the delicate balance in his world where evil has the advantage. In the world we prefer, the threat is an evil Wyatt, of course.

Where, I believe, you err is in viewing Gideon as evil in our preferred world or good in the anti-matter world. And, here's where the morality of Charmed gets interesting, if a bit muddled. Basically, Gideon is correct to fear an all powerful Wyatt, unchecked by no one, whether that's a world where his mother and aunts have been vanquished and where the Titans have decimated the Elders, even though the Titans were finally defeated, or whether it's a world where his aunts and mother are powerless to prevent absolute power from corrupting Wyatt. Where Gideon errs is in the method he chooses to prevent this from occurring.

In Imaginary Fiends, Leo expresses the optimistic point of view, namely, that the best that parents can do is provide a positive role model, love their child to the best of their abilities and provide opportunities for a child to accept greater responsibility in the world as he or she ages and to equally accept the accountability that such increased realm of freedom necessitates. If parents do all of these things, then, as Piper notes, you hope for the best.

Gideon, on the other hand, takes the opposite view, one espoused by Lord Acton, that posits the absolutely corrupting evil of absolute power. Absolute power must be stopped at all costs; it can never be trusted. In Gideon's view, such a threat must be stopped by any means necessary.

Does that mean that Gideon is evil? Well, that depends on your definition of evil. If evil is defined, as it usually is in Charmed, as the complete lack of empathy towards humans and the absolute incapacity to love another (lust is as bad as it gets), then Gideon is not evil. He has empathy, empathy towards the students in Magic School, empathy towards the human, albeit criminally minded human, whom the headless horseman kills in The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell. Yet, there are clear limits to his compassion. Almost without hesitation, he vanquishes his Magic School assistant Sigmund for threatening to expose Gideon's "plan" to deal with Wyatt. Gideon is thus revealed as someone who, with the best of intentions, creates a horrible situation. Even if it didn't necessarily have to end with the death of Wyatt, as Leo noted in A Call to Arms, the very idea of removing Wyatt for months or even years from his parents, as perhaps Gideon planned, would surely have been enough to traumatize any child. The ends never justifies any and every means. Ends always have to be examined in terms of their moral content. The means always have to be examined in terms not simply of their utility, but also in terms of the relationship to the very ends they purport to attain.

Thus, I don't really have a problem with the "good" Gideon in the anti-matter world. He's not really good. Instead, he is an evil person who fears the unchecked power of a good Wyatt. Like the Gideon in our world, that Gideon will suppress any discussion of whether what he is doing (his methods) are correct. They simply are in his view.

This analysis should not be taken as a ringing endorsement of It's a Bad, Bad, BAD World. Rather, I have chosen to address only the narrow question you raised about what a ostensibly "good" Gideon in the parallel universe ought to be doing towards the good Wyatt there. There are plenty of problems with this episode, however, especially when the premise that these are parallel universes locked in time and event with opposite charges. Why should anyone ever be able to send entities from one into the other? Like matter and anti-matter, they should annihilate each other upon contact. Charmed tries to extract itself from this mess by looking at the consequences if the two worlds intersect. Its solution: an excess of light (good) and darkness (evil) in each respective world is amusing, but not necessarily logical.

Its explanation: that the parallel universes are all part of the grand design is even more problematic. Why? The only thing I can come up with is that the writers suspect that the Charmed Ones are winning - in either world - with the vanquish of the Source, etc. How could they square a supernatural vision where evil and good are locked in eternal struggle, with neither side ever winning, as Avatar Alpha noted in Sam I Am, with the reality of a TV series where the Charmed Ones were in fact winning - and winning big time? If a parallel universe exists and is part of the grand design, then their precious balance is maintained. The Charmed (Evil) Ones are winning, but so too are the Charmed (Good) Ones. The balance is maintained. Whew! What a mess!

[JennieWhome]

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