Morally ambiguous hero/ines?
I hate it when morally ambiguous characters are just labeled either villains or anti-heros. I think that’s why I like my character Lyria Spellspinner so much. She's cunning, manipulative, secretive, isn't afraid to kill people when she feels it's needed, defies the laws of nature and man by being heavy into the dark arts, befriends dark creatures, performs necromancy, performs forbidden soul magic, and has a temper problem (in that if she loses her temper, everyone heads for the hills screaming hysterically, and witnesses will probably need therapy for the rest of their lives. Those on the receiving end of her wrath generally end up either dying horribly, begging for death, or going insane from the trauma).
But she's fiercely loyal to her employees and her loved ones, protects children (even when they're not hers), doesn't kill needlessly, feels remorse for some of the more horrible things she's done and has nightmares about it for decades or even centuries ("losing her temper" involves a massive temporary personality shift in which she is not herself, and thankfully has only one trigger1 which doesn't often happen), she's usually very level headed, she treats people with respect (sometimes even when they don't do the same for her) but isn't afraid to show contempt for people she dislikes if she thinks they're useless and harmless, she's fighting on the side of Good, and even though she's ungodly wealthy, she's generous to those in genuine need (even if she doesn't like them, if she doesn't think they deserve whatever misfortune they've run afoul of). She is a heroine, and if anyone ever thinks differently, well, they're well within their rights to think that. But to me she's a heroine.
If I had to give her a Hogwarts house, I'd say she's equal parts Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Griffindor, with a dash of Hufflepuff. But adult Lyria would probably get sorted into Slytherin... and would probably have very little patience for most of the idiots in that House during the events of the books, especially Malfoy. Child Lyria, however, would probably have ended up in Ravenclaw.
1 = Her trigger is if somebody murders someone she loves.
This was cross-posted from http://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/1274111.html
You can comment either here or there.
But she's fiercely loyal to her employees and her loved ones, protects children (even when they're not hers), doesn't kill needlessly, feels remorse for some of the more horrible things she's done and has nightmares about it for decades or even centuries ("losing her temper" involves a massive temporary personality shift in which she is not herself, and thankfully has only one trigger1 which doesn't often happen), she's usually very level headed, she treats people with respect (sometimes even when they don't do the same for her) but isn't afraid to show contempt for people she dislikes if she thinks they're useless and harmless, she's fighting on the side of Good, and even though she's ungodly wealthy, she's generous to those in genuine need (even if she doesn't like them, if she doesn't think they deserve whatever misfortune they've run afoul of). She is a heroine, and if anyone ever thinks differently, well, they're well within their rights to think that. But to me she's a heroine.
If I had to give her a Hogwarts house, I'd say she's equal parts Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Griffindor, with a dash of Hufflepuff. But adult Lyria would probably get sorted into Slytherin... and would probably have very little patience for most of the idiots in that House during the events of the books, especially Malfoy. Child Lyria, however, would probably have ended up in Ravenclaw.
1 = Her trigger is if somebody murders someone she loves.
This was cross-posted from http://fayanora.dreamwidth.org/1274111.html
You can comment either here or there.