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This week on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re continuing our new series about male romance character tropes with morally gray characters.

In this episode, we talk about some phrases that are often used to describe how morally gray characters tend to be. Things like they: Play along the edge of the typical lines between good and evil dipping their feet in both, Are driven by their why or their life’s mission, Willing to do what needs to be done to get what they want, Feel the ends justify the means, Are complicated, Have their own moral code or compass, Have moral lines they will or won’t cross which are different than their society and/or the reader, Consistent in their own personality and code, Tend to have a backstory that helps the reader understand where their coming from

We talk about some example morally gray characters, such as — Loki, Kaz, Batman, The Joker, and young Coriolanus "Coryo" Snow.

And we dig into the psychology of what readers tend to like about these characters and why they can be so appealing. We touch on the fact that these characters often have past traumas or experiences that endear them to us and allow us to both appreciate their reasons for doing what they do and to hope that they can make better choices or change. They sometimes fail, fall down and experience significant pain, or face steep odds which help us root for them. These character often allow us a safe space to explore our own moral code and conduct and what we are capable of doing in difficult or morally fraught circumstances in an abstract and arms length way.  

Towards the end, we talk about how stories with a good morally gray character often tend to have another character who serves as the moral compass of the story and the setting. The contrast allows you to sit with and really consider the complexities of the world. One great example we feel is Mockingjay where we have a reversal of what we more typically see — Katniss serves as the morally gray character and Peeta functions as the moral compass of the story.

We hope you enjoy this episode and we’ll be back next week talking about another male character romance trope.

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

We referenced several videos and articles for this conversation. Here they are:

• YouTube Video “Morally Grey - April Jai (Lyric Video)”

• YouTube Video “The Dark Knight - Some Men Just Want To Watch the World Burn Scene”

• Campfirewriting.com “Morally Grey Characters: What Are They & How to Write Them - Amanda Jones”

Books and Films Mentioned:

• The Dark Knight Trilogy - Directed by Christopher Nolan

• Nocticadia: A Dark Academia Gothic Romance by Keri Lake and Julie Belfield

• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

• Thor - Directed by Kenneth Branagh

• The Ballad of Songbird and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)