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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32100
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Star Wars differentiates good guys from bad guys in the opening sequence in two ways: Soundtrack, which you can't very well do, and by presenting them as a stark, inhuman force in the middle of raiding the rebel ship (an _action_ that we're likely to see as evil).

You don't have to show your group killing anyone to emphasize that they're evil, they can perform a much smaller evil. Much as you can cause readers to sympathize with your hero by having him pat a dog or [save the cat](http://www.savethecat.com/ "save the cat"), you can have one of them just kick a dog, or chuckle while a bully gives someone a wedgie.

Of course, that's still an action. If you really must avoid actions, instead you can show them gathering at their Sanctum Malificus, decorated with goat-head banners and flickering red candles. You can describe their dress sense: skin-heads with racist or profane tattoos; dye jobs with anarchy symbols on their leather jackets. You can show one picking his teeth with a switch-blade, or just have them greeting each other with a whispered, "Hail Hydra."

Cliches abound in the above, but without knowing more about your evil group, there's little I can do to be more specific.

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