Wondering about how DRK’s true power source works (spoilers)

[Anonymoose]

Moogles are just ... kinda ... the most entertaining combination of childlike and insightful possible. Their aetherial talents are beyond us and yet they just take it for granted (see: Ascian / John Cena invisibility-on-tap). Combine that with the themes of the DRK story and how mad people were at moogles after the sidequest rampage of 3.0, it was just a funny dynamic to see him want to punch them.

But the moogles aren't wrong! Sid is trying to live up to his master in the wrong ways for the wrong reasons. This is the running theme of Dark Knights all the way back to FFIV: raw power alone is like a glass blade, sharp, but brittle and unreliable. It will never be enough to protect anything, and for all their edgelord-i-ness, dark knights are knights. If they didn't have something at their core that wanted to protect others, they would be in another line of work.

Ergo, the Dark Knights strength comes from bad feelz and less-than-benevolent action, but righteousness nonetheless. The "darkside" is the bad feelings, rage, and indignation of seeing people who wrap themselves in a cloak of benevolence (religion, law, order, proper behavior, decorum) while being abusing and taking advantage of others. The Dark Knight fights malice with malice for the right reasons: to protect those who cannot protect themselves. They just happen to not deny themselves taking joy in abusing the abusers sometimes, lol.

The moogles are teasing him, goading him, rubbing his face in the truth (and accusing him of being too stubborn or dim to listen to them deliver the message in any less-blunt way): the flame in the abyss - the light at the core of all that rage and darkness - is love. It's why the dark knight so so angry at seeing others violated in the first place: they're sensitive people who care about others.