Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#151) -- How Bad/How Good

How bad can a good guy be and still be a good guy? 

The Battle Royale kids... Heroes or Villains? You decide.
As bad as he needs to be to do the right thing.

I'm not saying that we need to rewrite morality so that two wrongs make a right, or accept that the ends justify the means. What I am saying is that, as that hero defines himself, he must be willing to do what needs to be done to undergo his quest to accomplish the greater good.

Getting his or her hands dirty won't make the character the most moral good guy, but if the driving force is to do good and to sacrifice his or her own good for the good of others, then no matter how close the character may be to the line between good and bad, he or she is still on the "safe" side.

Those are my moral judgments on this matter anyway. Your gavel might bang differently.

2 comments:

  1. like the old argument do the means justify the end or does the end justify the means...

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  2. I refer you to LUCIAN: DARK GOD'S HOMECOMING. My 1st-person protagonist is the "dark god" who has no interest in helping anyone but himself. But a funny thing happens as he's ruthlessly pursued across the multiverse for a crime he didn't commit...

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