So you know that in some books you got your good characters and you got your bad characters, and they make good stories from time to time, but those aren’t stories that you remember, those aren’t the characters that make you go by day to day thinking about them. But stories that have characters that breaches the grey area of morality whether it is the good guy or the bad guy, those are stories and characters we remember. Why is that? Well, it opens up an entire way of thinking for us. it gives us a reason why the villain would chose to do what is wrong instead of for just evil’s sake or more interestingly whether it’s allowable for a hero to do a bad thing in order to accomplish a greater good. I mean a villain who is out to bend humanity to his will in order to create a better society where people could live in harmony is better than the villain doing it just because, oh, I’m just evil, and a hero who has to make the choice of whether or not to kill the villain despite his morals and sympathizing with the villain make for a great story. I think morally ambiguous characters are popular because it shows the readers the whole spectrum of a person, that we all have layers and imperfections and motives and the different means to accomplish them. I think we all can sympathize with a Severus Snape, a Darth Vader, a Luke Castellan because despite being villains, they show that they’re human…to a degree, and we all can name a hero that has a whole spectrum of flaws that doesn’t hinder them from being good. So, in other words, if you’re into writing, remember this: Grey is the new black.
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