Star Signs - Writing Help

TIP EIGHT - Morally Grey Characters

Morally Grey Character

"You're spelling grey wrong —" L. Don't care. I'm probably going to write grey and gray at some point because I'm too lazy to remember the way I "should" be writing it (it's gray, apparently, because I'm American, and we're ✨spurshal.✨)

But back to the point. Morally grey characters. They is mostly advice for making morally gray OCs, but there is some advice that could apply to writing canon ones.

I feel like morally grey characters are becoming increasingly controversial, mostly because how polarized fandom has become on the idea of morality. You'll hear people use morally gray for anything from a character being a little mean to a character they like to actual genocide, and then obsessively attempt to put actually morally gray character into "good" or "evil" categories.

So...let's start with the basics.

What is Morally Gray?

According to readervoracious (who has no credentials beyond being the first Google response, mind you, but reputable sources are a little hard to find on fandom terms) morally gray characters are defined as "those who behavior discourages readers from identifying them as purely evil or purely good."

Which I do take issue with, mostly because by that doesn't narrow anything down at all. Most characters do that, especially recently. It took me a long time to figure out how to explain what made a character morally gray in my mind specifically. It is rather useful to have that cleared up. To me, the best way to do that is to spit grey characters into three different "shades" of characters: 

1. Light Grey Characters

These are the morally grey characters on the "right" side of the story. There's two usual versions of this: a character who does dubious things for good reasons or good things for dubious reasons. 

Emphasis on dubious. Not bad. Not evil. Usually these characters do have moral boundaries that they won't cross. If they of the first kind and have good reasons, they might not even like having any morally gray activities but don't (or feel they don't) have any other options. 

This is also where you get a lot of your broody protagonists. The ones who are a little edgy, but never really hurt anyone other than people who "deserve it." The best example I can think of is Kaz Brekker from the Six of Crows duology. A lot of fans play up his "brutality," especially those who complain that he was softened for the Shadow and Bone show. However I would argue, outside of his introduction, Kaz really only dips a toe into the shallow end of moral grayness. Yes, he rips someones eye out, but Ooman was already firmly established as "bad" even more he started bragging about possibly killing a sixteen year old girl. He drops a dude off a building, definitely to his death, but the man was offering to "share" a woman (lets be real, likely a girl or a very young woman) he was blackmailing for sexual favor. He scared a little girl, but given the alternative was killing her to keep her quiet, that's not exactly a grey option.