6 Methods To Write Morally Gray Characters Readers Will Love (Or Love To Hate)

[@sincerelyxcourtney]

I think the more interesting characters are the morally gray ones... One that comes to mind is Klaus from Vampire Diaries. He was super exciting to watch when he first showed up. You never knew what he was going to do next and, for a little while, was a legit threat. However, because the audience loved him so much, I think the writers made him less and less gray, so it made his threats less believable, which is something to be mindful of when writing such characters.

[@mrswaim]

Yeah, that's a good point. It's important to remember core values on characters so we don't stray too far from what make them who they are.

[@bethpace6936]

I think the thing about Klaus Mikaelson isn't the fact that he strayed away from his character as much as he continued to experience growth as a character. He was a complete villain at the beginning of The Vampire Diaries, but the people put in his path helped him develop a sense of humanity he didn't possess before. Just waking up his siblings helped do that, but others, such as Caroline, Hayley, Camille, and most importantly, his daughter Hope. By the end of The Originals, Klaus was a completely different man than at the beginning of The Vampire Diaries. I agree, however, there were times when his threats seemed lacking because he wasn't the same selfish maniac who would kill anyone on a whim, though he did fall back into that at times.

[@3dchick]

I have a character who starts out willing to do terrible things for excellent reasons. His internal decency shows to the readers in that he's willing to take all the blame, but eventually he learns the ends don't justify the means, and sometimes even prevent the outcome he's trying to achieve.

[@ultravioletpisces3666]

6:48 this makes me think of House

[@jeanielong4078]

This was such a great post. In the opening scene of my WIP, my protagonist must choose between 1) calling an ambulance for her famous client who has just overdosed on Valium (and inadvertently inviting all the police, media, etc that comes along with the action) or 2) not calling an ambulance to protect her own secret business and identity. While sympathizing with her client's depression, after struggling with the decision, she justifies using the antidote/ flumazenil injection (which her client had mentioned previously), as means to protecting the client's wishes and dignity (in the name of loyalty). But, it is obvious to the reader (I hope) that my protag is protecting her own ass first. Any soundly moral person would have called an ambulance. Now I wish you would create a post discussing the pros and cons of starting a story with the above type of scenario (like drug abuse) that may be a negative emotional trigger for some readers. *hint*hint* Great topic, great delivery. I hope to see your channel grow!

[@futurestoryteller]

I would argue that the purest form of morally gray character is one that tells the audience who they are, then breaks away from the audience's expectations in accordance with their beliefs. A pseudo-hypocrite. It's an exploitation of assumed misunderstandings about their motivations. While not necessarily the best example, imagine you have this soldier who is trapped in the middle of a conflict between two nations distinct from his own. He's captured by one side and told to kill a soldier on the opposing side; the third nation, or he'll die in the man's place. He refuses, saying he won't kill someone else to save himself. His nation rescues him, and in the process he frees the prisoner he was told to kill. Later his commanding officer tells him he has orders to kill the _same_ person, and he carries out that mission without question or hesitation. It's likely to surprise the audience that he shows no reluctance to kill someone he'd previously saved, anyone who brands him a hypocrite, however, are failing to recognize how the motivating factors of each scenario are different, so his willingness to carry out a morally questionable action conditionally informs us about him and his core beliefs as a character.

[@mrswaim]

Yeah! That would be a great character.

[@zionleach3001]

I know most modern movie's are nihilistic and a amoral mess. But some people want movies more black and white. Like Arcane & Firefly, there was a spectrum. You have righteous characters to balance out the malevolent characters and anti-heros who are stuck in the middle. While I agree on Foundation for Economic Learning "Morality is Dead. Hollywood Killed It." The world is NOT a super hero movie. Some people are awful. Some did horrible things with good intentions. Some humble people are saints.

[@3dchick]

I also have a character who's absolutely a bad guy, but teams up with the heroes for his own reasons, and slowly comes (somewhat) around. He's not truly redeemed partially because his pre-story acts were truly irredeemable, but also because without the influence of the other characters, he'd probably revert.

[@ultravioletpisces3666]

This makes me think of Crowley from supernatural ❤

[@gaz0428]

What if you write a characters who cares deeply about there family and friends, but also need to take the life force of other people to live. (and shows little to no remorse about it) Would this be gray or evil?

[@mrswaim]

That could be a grey character. It depends on motivations. Do they care about their family and friends genuinely or is it a selfish motivation? If it's genuine then it contradicts how they show little remorse about killing others, making them more of a grey character. If it's selfish, then that would align with the other half and it would be more of an evil character.

[@gaz0428]

@@mrswaim genuine love for family, blatant disregard for everyone else. (More or less)

[@nmartinez18]

​@Gaz 042 Thing is, "Gray" can be as light as it is dark. So part of the balancing act is to know that good and bad don't necessarily even each other out, and Hero and Villain are relative. You can have a protagonist like Light Yagami, who is a villain, goes about things in a horrific way, but you can see why he believes what he does. When any crime could get you killed, you are not going to be committing crimes if you are smart and can help it, so there was a vast drop in crime across the world. Then you have L, who is a detective trying to stop a megalomaniac with a god complex that has become the most dangerous mass murderer ever, a hero as far as this story is concerned, but is doing it to protect the law and catch a criminal, but doesn't really care too much about the morality involved. L is willing to sacrifice someone, in what he knows will result in them getting killed if he is right, in his introduction to gather information. Hitler liked dogs, quite easily the most evil person in human history, had something he liked simply because he liked them. So a character who genuinely loves their family, but is a being that has too feed on life to survive, might just see anyone who is not in their family the way a normal person might think about a plate of chicken fingers. Yes, it was a living creature, but I am also hungry and this is how nature works. They are operating under an entirely different basis of morality. All of those spectrums makes sense, but you don't necessarily agree with them or make any of it right. If you can handle them if you want some case studies on morally gray characters check out Death Note (the one I went over), Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire (that one explains itself), and I Am Not a Serial Killer (haven't read that one myself, but the hero is a diagnosed teenage sociopath who is trying investigating a serial killer out of interest, not morality.) A good rule of thumb is, "If you can't definitively put them in hero or villain, and are not sure if they are fully one or the other, they are by definition morally gray." If you got through all of that my thanks for my indulgence and good luck with you creative crafting :)

[@flyingrobotduck]

A morally gray character doesn't have to be law abiding or even have a greater good intent. A villain could be a thief who only steals from those who can afford the loss or an assassin who won't kill children, and might even delay his hit if a child might get caught in the crossfire.

[@bonbonpony]

05:50 You pretty much described Dr. House :J

[@julietardos5044]

Garak from ST:DS9 and Snape from Harry Potter are a couple of the most interesting characters in fiction.

[@VictorMistral]

Thanos was wrong because he's idea didn't make any sense. Culling have of the sentient lifeforms across the universe, well half the of member of each species, would not be a solution to is problem. It is just a "let's delay it" And risk extension of species that are slower breeders, while favoring species that hyper breed, thus potentially causing more more then resolving as quick breeder would have less competition to take over everywhere... An other character that people consider morally grey is one whose moral code is more complex, and comes with quite a few complications and opposition. Especially if that character as a moral development such that he can understand that law are just a tool for a functional society but can often be immoral or wrong. Thus would not act according to the law to obey it, but because of the "moral good" of having laws, and would thus on a hand encourage law abiding, and on other would have no issue breaking the law if doing so would be more moral to is moral code. Breaking the law would be a moral requirement, just as respecting the law for it's morality. Of course add to that that that person would take moral action only for he's benefit, but for a "society" even if current society or social powers oppose that. Not that he would not always make moral choice just for "society" but would consider it in he's morality. Most are only capable of understand morality in the context of either themself, their group or current social structure (a larger group of people not close to them). The character morality would thus sometime be considered egoistical, even if the egoistical thing to do would be the opposite. Large social changes often had a few person that act if what they though moral, even fighting their current law and morality, and are often taken as criminal in their generation. And they probably knew that that they were painting a target on themself. That makes them a morally "dark" character in there time, and potentially promoted to heroes years after their fight.

[@angelbear_og]

I'm sure this is some great advice; however, the 2, 3, sometimes even 4, cuts PER SENTENCE is so distracting that I cannot continue. (I will try a newer video, maybe this has improved in the past year.) (Meh, nevermind, looks like the channel has devolved into reaction videos exclusively, which I'm even less interested in.)

[@DogWalkerBill]

I always liked Gandalf the Morally Grey.

[@VicRibeiro777]

Bayaz from the, "First Law" world, by Joe Abercrombie. Good topic, would have loved examples of each, to make it more grounded.

[@AndersonMallony-EricCF]

Paçoca.

[@andreasboe4509]

The main character of my series tries to break with his plain vanilla upbringing to become a more interesting person. I'm not sure if it works, but at least it's a path less taken.

[@linuswang6572]

Dr Gaius Baltar.

[@amaree9732]

The great late, Nora Ephron said, "Write your female characters, as interesting and complex as women really are." They aren't black and white, they're light-gray and dark-gray. The more you peel, the darker they become. Imagine biting into a scrumptious red Fuji apple... exposing a soft, black, rotten core. You spit it into your hand, and realize it's seething with maggots.

[@mallowblade]

silco

[@kentethliles916]

Eh, the problem with this video is that you’re just giving examples to the root of what makes a “morally grey” character. Really, I look at them as cowards. They’re called anti-heros, but that was before we made it sound cool because classical authors at the time viewed them as cowards of nature and nurture like Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. A coward is a relatable archetype because he reflects everything we refuse to admit with our own internal conflict. He’s the kind of guy that will do whatever it takes for HIS goals even if they’re noble at the expense of others. Cowards, are selfish in that regard as much as they are hypocrites. There’s really not that much depth to a grey character once we realize them for what they are: cowards.

[@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist]

Morally grey characters have come a long way since classical Russian literature's heyday. The character of Guts in Berserk is certainly not a coward and, although his motivations and attitudes change at pivotal moments of the story, he never resorts to moral cowardice to handle his internal conflicts. Anna Karenina is a coward, Stiva is a pig, and Levin is a Gary Stu. But, Guts is an actually complicated character.

[@kentethliles916]

@@Firguy_the_Foot_Fetishist I’ve never actually seen Berserk tbh. I mean a character like Guts can be brave, but is he heroic? Not really. When I define cowardice in the perspective of a story, not literally, but in the sense where characters do dirty deeds for the greater good even though it’s not ethical or moral in reality.

[@troythedeconstructionist1382]

This video was awful tbh. I could rant at length at every point, but I'm too busy to bother. All I'll say is that the entire perspective on morality spouted by this video is extremely one dimensional. In searching for moral grayness you treat characters are physical manifestations of moral principles (from a shallow and one dimensional perspective view of morality I might add) instead of living breathing people with personality traits, insecurities, beliefs, etc. I realize at a certain point story telling involves a lot of artistic style and personal preference, but it feels like you're putting the horse before here. Like you make insteresting characters first and then maybe you can judge them, but moral grayness will be the inevitable result of making well rounded realistic character. Where as here you're just remixing cliches. Also the idea of a character doing something and then crying to himself about it for a whole chapter sounds boring and irritating.

[@TheGoofyBuddha]

Best morally grey character I've ever seen was Amos Burton on The Expanse played by Wes Chatham...😏

[@angelbear_og]

Solid example. 👍

[@TheGoofyBuddha]

@@angelbear_og The only shock is that he WAS a morally grey character and not an absolute villain after his upbringing...😏 A testament to his character's character...😋

[@angelbear_og]

@@TheGoofyBuddha For sure! I think Naomi teaching him how to simulate empathy is the only reason he could be morally grey in the first place.

[@TheGoofyBuddha]

@@angelbear_og Well, I'm sure he got a lot of it from Lydia, his 'surrogate mother' and eventual lover (although the show never delves into that). She taught him how to 'pretend' to be a 'good' or 'moral' person by example...😏 Oh, and his sexual relationship with Lydia is precisely why he had a thing for Chrisjen. He was deeply attracted to older women.

[@drdabsmore945]

I thought the title of your video said "Morally GAY characters". 😂 I was like, what kind of trope is this?! Great info! Thanks, man!

[@BOBXFILES2374a]

Thomas Covenant. Covenant. Conflicted, angry, disbelieving, callous at times. Check him out.