I love a ‘morally grey protagonist’. I love villains. I think it makes it more interesting…and real. It’s not like we don’t need a little help and redemption at times. Besides, who are we to judge? So, let’s see what L T Getty has to share about her characters.

Morally Grey Protagonists?

               I grew up reading stories about heroes and villains, where things were not clear cut that the hero was perfect but there were definitive light and dark sides. Somewhere along the lines, the stories that claimed that they were for a more adult audience started to blur the lines of hero and villain. I didn’t mind it, because so long as the hero didn’t cross the line and had some redemptive qualities, I could still cheer for them.

               Suddenly reading more ‘mature’ stories meant more nuanced themes and ideas. I didn’t mind unreliable narrators, and even stories where there were no heroes. Perhaps the most honest among these is William Makepeace Thackery’s Vanity Fair. Its subtitle is A Novel without a Hero. It’s satire but not in the way you think.

               But what makes a hero?  I suppose we should define some terms.

               A Hero in the modern sense, is probably a loaded term. For the sake of this article, I will define as someone who at least attempts to do good. We’re not here to talk subversions, so I don’t want to hear about how much Hero A sucks at it. A Villain conversely, is someone who attempts to do bad. There are many, many many subversions of these tropes, and there’s no way I can go over all of them in any brief article. The fact that I had to define these terms speaks volumes, but let’s focus.

               A Protagonist is the center of the story. The antagonist is the person or force that opposes the actions of the protagonist.

               Up until recently, in most stories, we follow a heroic protagonist.  Think of most renditions of Cinderella or The Ugly Duckling. In more modern renditions of stories, we tend to flesh out the characters, or tell the story from a different perspective. My favourite novel, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, tells the story from a villain protagonist. Lewis also pinned The Screwtape Letters, which was literally advice from one demon to another, whereas Till We Have Faces paints the character of Orual as incredibly sympathetic, but also completely in the wrong by the end of the tale.

               I’ve done villain protagonists. Dreams of Mariposa, Marie is a villain, and I didn’t want the audience to think she was the victim or somehow loveable, so much as delve into an extremely narcissistic mindset. I’ve written heroic characters; Daphne from The Mermaid and the Unicorns is jealous and stubborn, but she’s also brave and loyal, and grows from her mistakes. I’d say that Marie is a very flawed villain, and Daphne is a flawed heroine.

               What about the morally grey characters?

               When I was doing research for this article, I stumbled across why Heroic Fantasy deviated from Sword and Sorcery. I always assumed that Sword and Sorcery were referring to elements in the story, like sword and sandal (Vaguely historical romanish stories) or Sword and Gun (John Carter Space Opera). Turns out it was to deviate from the legacy of morally compromised protagonists common in sword and sorcery. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroic_fantasy )

               Although comics, movies, and other adaptations didn’t always stay true to the original, I grew up reading Conan the Barbarian shorts, and there’s plenty of stories where Conan gets himself into a situation because he’s blatantly there to steal something or do something that would land him up in the local jail. He takes up with pirates, isn’t shy on killing, and has been attributed to an awful lot of ravishing. He’s still an incredibly iconic hero that has stood the test of time.

               Why the morally grey heroes in Sword and Sorcery tales? In my opinion, sometimes stories lean better towards characters who might not be on the up and up in their society. There are certain situations that have to get pretty convoluted for a Lawful Good Hero go find himself in.

               I found this with my novel Tower of Obsidian. Kale gets betrayed by his lord’s men and they set out to sea to hide from the wrath of said lord, where they are attacked by drougr and Kale’s captors become captive themselves, and thus the adventure truely kicks off. I’m not calling Kale a morally perfect hero, far from it, but he’s also not the sort of person who’d go sailing off into contested waters. The drougr are looking for warriors and rough men to send to the tower; they don’t typically have access to people like Kale.

               I for one don’t like to think of people as morally complex but inherently flawed – even paragons of virtue probably should have a testing point or a weakness, and it’s ultimately their actions, and not their motives, that make them heroes or villains in the story. As a writer, I eventually have to take a side in a conflict, even if it’s “Hey, you’re all awful”. That doesn’t mean that I have to make the answers easy.

               For instance, in Witchslayer’s Scion, one of the major issues in the growing empire of Tenagee is that these conquered territories aren’t happy being ruled by people who aren’t from their island or culture. Yes, the Imperium is conquering the islands and sometimes they treat the natives pretty terribly. BUT they are also bringing in trade between the communities, and establishing a form of law that protects women and children. YES, the islanders are right to want to control their own futures, BUT the people who tend to rise to power tend to be the sort who use people and will sell their own people out to better their own positions.

               To me, the morally grey area is the situation which a given character is faced with making a decision in which there is no right answer. I love well-written characters who are upstanding moral citizens to which I inspire. The problem is that, when I was a younger writer they were difficult to write well. I think it depends on the audience, but in general most readers want a main character who is relatable, and even if they’re not perfect, understandable, and if they’re a villain, motivations that the reader can understand or even sympathize with.

               In short, I don’t think a character has to be capable of stealing but not of murder to be morally grey. I think the vast majority of characters in fiction need to be realized, and that includes flaws. It’s not such a bad thing as the vast majority of characters in modern fiction overcome their flaws and grow as people. An upright person, with a teeny tiny tint of darkness, could still be considered grey by this standard, but it’s ultimately their actions in spite of of these flaws that differentiate the heroes from the villains.

I loved the article and it only makes me want to check out your characters more. Thanks so much, LT.

Witchslayer’s Scion by L.T. Getty

GENRE:   Sword and Sorcery/Fantasy

BLURB

Koth’s life was decided for him since before he was born, for his ability to heal wounds by touch is rare even among his people. When an attempted kidnapping turns to sacrificial murder, he embraces vengeance and the sword. As he journeys far from his small isolated village in the north, he learns the truth as to why his bloodline is targeted by strange magic, in a world still rebuilding from a time when dark sorcerers didn’t bother with secrecy.

Koth thinks his quest is straightforward enough–find the men responsible, and kill them–and any who aid them. He will soon learn that those who have both privilege and power, there are few things they lack–and in the pursuit of godhood, their allies can prove even more sinister as mere mortals seek to advent empires and dynasties.

EXCERPT

“Something’s wrong,” Una said. “Koth, wait here.”

“Why?” If there was a problem, she should be waiting outside for him.

He sensed inside, his aunt’s thoughts remained hidden from him. Una shouted, and he ran inside the building. He thought there were lights on inside, but he saw no candles.

The tea house was very dark, and he felt a sudden dread—he wanted to leave. Baro barked from the outside. ~Una!~  he thought, before something hit his neck.

He knew at once it was a poison dart, and ripping it out he tried to smell what it was. Seeing metal reflect moonlight and he moved his hand, his skin cut. Moving instinctively out of the way, his next reaction was to purge the toxin that coursed through his body and tried to understand the wound. It was mostly his forearm, deep but he could still use it, the bone unaffected. He’d do a better healing later. He focused on something not unlike a burn before going for the knife at his hip. Striking 85 in the next liquid motion, Koth realized he was attacking his aunt.

She grabbed onto his injured flesh and seared it, destroying, weakening the sinew and the cartilage and causing it to age and die, following up the bloodstream, to find the heart and kill. Koth tried to brace; he couldn’t heal and keep her at bay. He was physically stronger and much heavier, but she was weakening his muscles. He tried to wrench the knife from her.

He knocked the blade to the ground then tried to lock minds with her to find nothing short of blinding pain take him over, wrestling him to the ground and making him drop his knife. She took the dagger and when he tried to force himself up, a familiar sense washed over him. Magic, but not coming from Una.

“Do not kill him yet,” Yeshbel said, “we will bleed him first.”

AUTHOR Bio and Links

L.T. Getty is a rural paramedic from Manitoba. She enjoys writing science fiction and fantasy and generally being creative.

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Author Links: My Blog: https://ltgetty.ca/

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