Dark Master

The Dark Master is the faux antagonist of the film Bridge To Terabitha. He is a figure made up in by Jess Araon and Leslie Burke use in their adventures in Terabithia. He represents the issues Jess has with his father, and arguably his grief after Leslie's death.

Bridge To Terabithia
When Jess and Leslie find a secluded area in the woods, they decide to name the place Terabithia, where they hang out to take a break from reality. In their adventures in Terabithia, they act as the king and queen of the fantastical kingdom. In they're adventures, they make up the Dark Master as the villain, and spend their time battling his minions and trying to free his slaves.

As thier adventures go on, it becomes apparent that Jess has used the Dark Master as means of dealing with his father. His father was often hard on Jess, but this isn't revealed until the end.

At one point the Dark Master has summoned a troll in Terabithia, but when Jess buys a dog for Leslie, they bring him to Terabithia and in thier adventures use the dog as a troll hunter. The troll is used to represent a scool bully named Janice Avery, and when Lelsie befriends Janice, the troll in Terabithia is tamed.

Later on, Jess is told by his father that the keys to his hardware store are missing and they cost hundreds of dollars to replace. Becasue his family is struggling on ends meet, it becomes important to Jess to find them. It turns out that his sister May Bell gave the keys to Leslie, who didn't know what they where for and put them in their tree fort in Terabithia. When they next go to Terabithia, Jess and Leslie see the Dark Master for the first time and race to their tree fort to get the keys. The Dark Master sets his minions onto them, and in the fight, Jess and Leslie use pincones as hand grenades and Jess gains a metalic fist to punch them. Suddenly the Terabithian army arrives to help fight the Dark Master's minions and Jess climbs the tree to get the keys. Leslie uses a beam of light she pretended to capture in the mirrior, helping him find the keys. Jess grabs them but falls, and the reformed troll snatches him to saftey.

The next day, Leslie is killed in a freak accident while trying to get into Terabitha. The rope she used to get in broke, and she fell into the river, hit her head and drowned. Jess blamed himself for not inviting Leslie on a trip to a museum the day she died. Jess at first is in denial of her death and angry at feeling abandond. During the emotional climax, Jess returns to the woods, where he is chased by the Dark Master. Jess eventually stops running, and breaks down, finally crying for his friend. His father finds him and comforts him. Jess says he is worried Leslie is in Hell, but his father tells him, he may not know that much about God, but he's sure that he wouldn't send a girl like Leslie to hell. Jess says he thinks he's going to hell because he blames himself, but is told not to think that for a minute. Jess is told that Leslie gave him somthing special, and he needs to hold onto that to keep Leslie alive. Jess and his father reach an understaning and reconcille their differences, and Jess finally accepts Leslie's death, and the Dark Master dissapears forever.

Trivia

 * The Dark Master represents Jess's father, who is portrayed by Robert Patrick, who also played T-1000.
 * The Dark Master's design vaugely resembles The Predator.
 * In addition to the Dark Master representing Jess's problems (mainly his father), the Dark Master's own minions represent other people in Jess and Lelsie's lives. There are the Hairy Vultures and Squogres, which represent two school bullys Gary Fulcher and Scott Hoager, as well as the troll who represents Janice Avery. These symbolisms can be seen when the troll reforms along with Janice, and during a fight with the Scuogres, Jess punches one with a metalic fist, and later punches Scott across the room.
 * The Dark Master is similar to the Red Knight from the film The Fisher King. Despite not technically exisiting they are major antagonistic forces and manifestations of the protagonists problems (such as grief and depression). Keeping with this, in their respective films there is an emotional and dramadic scene where they chase the protagonist down.