Remus Lupin
Adventurer
Steel_Wind said:I don't think that Parkman is going to the dark side. I think he is a normal man - with normal feelings, normal faults and an essential humanity. That average schlubb has been given a power of mind control that Internet fan-fiction suggests is the singular fuel for fantasy and abuse.
How would you fare with such a power?
When Parkman decides to know Elle and Claire a whole lot better - at the same time - you might place him in the darkside camp.For now, the identity of a woman in a photo, the forced identification of a serial murderer and a command to just be a normal kid and eat your cereal is not yet a path to the darkside. And telling a boss to let you pursue a murder case which is most definitely not closed so you can, in fact, do the job you were hired to do is not THAT morally gray.
"These aren't the droids you are looking for" != "Discussing the location of the secret rebel base"
Placed on a spectrum, is eating cereal and compelling someone to reveal a name more like "not the droids" or "revealing the location of the secret rebel base"? (Does your answer change if you substitute waterboarding for telepathy? Or a levitating black probe with a cruel needle sticking out of it? Possibly it does.)
Right now he's trying to save a woman's life. A violation of another human being? Yes. Justifiable? Perhaps (and perhaps not).
It may be that Parkman will - in the end - wind up in a darker place - but let's face it: none of the Heroes, save for Peter, Sylar, and Hiro have had such a temptation for corruption laid at their feet. Sylar is a psychopath whose movement to the dark side made black, blacker. Peter on the other hand, is too utterly vapid to understand the bigger implications of what he is or what he can do. Pointing fingers at Peter is like faulting a six year old for having a poorly developed moral compass.
As for Hiro - he failed his first test along the road to Paladinhood too. And several others after that, it seems.
All very good points. To answer them completely would bring us into non-ENWorld appropriate areas of discourse. I'll simply say that it's a question of character. The issue is not whether Parkman would do something mildly wrong in order to do something good. The issue is whether, having discovered how easy it is to do this "one small thing," it them becomes that much easier to justify doing it next time. Or to do something considerably worse in the face of a greater danger. As some of your examples indicate, it is easy to justify doing harm to someone in the name of a good end. The question isn't "Is Parkman now evil," but "will Parkman begin to slide into self-justification and abuse of his power." Right now, I don't know the answer, but the show wouldn't have raised the issue if it weren't a possibility. Matt's choice will eventually be: To become his father, or to become something better.
