Contest - Tainted Flame

This is my entry for *OttBettina’s contest "Black & White".
These five characters symbolize goodness and four types of evil.
EDIT: This won 4th place. Thank you! <3

<sub>To the far left of the main figure is the Ideological Evil; the one that commits evil acts in the mistaken belief of doing good. It’s commonly seen in armed conflicts and war. This evil fellow justifies itself on the basis of goodness, like in the war between Osama bin Laden and Bush. To attack evil doesn’t automatically mean you stand on the good’s side.

In the upper left corner crawls the Stupid Evil; the one that commits evil without knowing it or even care. The evil around the world is almost always caused by ignorance, and the good intention can bring about just as much damage as the evil one, if there’s lack of knowledge.

To the upper right are the most familiar evils of them all - the Instrumental Evil. This nasty fellow is the one that commits evil deeds for personal gain, while knowing it is wrong. Bank robbery and various kinds of thievery are its more common attributes.

To the right rises the Demonic Evil from the dust, the one that appears in books and movies. It's doing evil just because it’s evil. This evil is fictional, and therefore far out in the distance.

The main figure is the brightly flaming Goodness, although tainted. Nothing can be 100% good. The blindfold represents ignorance/passivity and the relationship with Stupid Evil. One example is the Holocaust. It would have never happened if the German people had protested against the Nazis when they first introduced Jew regulations and deportations.
The flail symbolizes the fight against evil, from which the Ideological Evil emerges.
The mask stands for the stereotype conception of what goodness looks like.
The scroll symbolizes knowledge, and the brass scales the power of Justice. The lower cup overflows with blood. Is death penalty a righteous thing?</sub>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Art © *Sakalah
Watercolours and Polychromos colour pencils on Canson Montval WP. 15+ hours.
ORIGINAL SOLD.