Consider: Rage

Consider rage. Always volatile, always destructive (even to oneself) and always inevitable. Any character may succumb to it. Usually, it presents itself as a white hot, knee-jerk reaction, but it can be slow and gnawing. Regardless, it always stands in defiance of reason, too insistent to be proud of itself.

Perhaps the most fascinating and dangerous thing about rage is that it shares a powerful commonality with love, in that it has the ability to override our survival instinct. Often, it is the most effective condition for causing people to throw themselves into various hazards without thinking, and many die in a haze of red vision and adrenaline spiked blood pressure.

Those who meet their end in such a way are easily labelled as fools, in both fiction and reality, yet most of us hold an unexpressed understanding of their actions; perhaps even a bit of admiration. It's likely because we all know it could happen to any of us at any time: a potentiality whom none are absolutely immune to.

It gets much more interesting in the moment! When one is swept up by such raw emotion: a delightful cocktail of anger and offense. The AUDACITY of what has befallen us! Oh, the glorious, rapturous surge of defensive indignation. The deliciously irrational self righteousness, and the drunkenness of being beyond fear for just long enough to justify our counterattack.

Because being angry feels good. At least in the beginning. It's nice to allow primality to take the wheel for a time, and seethe while our brains take a back seat to the carnage. And further, in defense of rage, it may itself be a kind of survival instinct, albeit one that relies on the roll of loaded dice.

Therein lies the catch. There's always a catch to anything that produces so much energy at one time. All drugs have their side effects, just as every addiction takes it's pound of flesh, mentally or physically. Rage is no different. Even if it manages to be productive, (it rarely is, because it can't be well controlled) the consequences are swift. Anger turns to bitterness and resentment. Hot rage held on to turns cold over time and cuts into a heart with its ever growing ice. Grunges fester and cause fixation, and hours are wasted dwelling on what could have been said or done differently.

Rage is a fire, easily sparked, but it burns fuel faster than any other emotion. By nature, it gives nothing back: it can only consume. As it has no ability to self-perpetuate, it must be constantly fueled, but it isn't picky about what it eats. Some are happy to toss everything they possess into it to keep it roaring, but like all fires, it will keep going until it runs out of sustenance or is deliberately smothered.

This is not an ethical or moral stance, this is simply a consideration. How many characters have given themselves over to their basest reactions? How many wrongs have been righted by using rage as a tool, and was it worth the cost in the end? Of course, some are more inclined to be seduced than others, but again, even the most temperate and devout can be grabbed, especially​ when it involves something that goes against everything they stand for.

Perhaps the deeper consideration at that point is this: does one need to be enraged in order to uphold what they believe in? Is there such a thing as 'righteous anger', or is it always self indulgent and masked as justice?

This is a personal consideration that comes down to each individual character. In the end, they must all be presented with the opportunity to control themselves or lose their heads, and it's not my place to strip them or anyone of that. These concepts are deeply connected to conviction, religion, justification and motive, and they are as sacred as they are unstable.

But this writer will, as a matter of course and responsibility, acknowledge the aftermath and pen the consequences, no matter what they may be. The sword thrusted in anger or temperance kills the same either way.