Let’s talk bookish is a weekly meme, created and hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books and Dani @Literary Lion, here different topics will be discussed.
This week’s topic is ‘What makes a great anti-hero/morally grey characters?’, I love this topic! Mainly because I love morally grey characters!
Personally I love them because most of the time these characters are quite unpredictable! And that always makes for an interesting story! I just really like being surprised by the route a story is taking, although I can really appreciate if it is (later on) explained in some way why certain choices were made!
Morally grey characters also often have some interesting characteristics. I feel like these characters, especially if they are the main character, have the most development throughout the book, since they are so complex!
These characters also always bring a good vs bad storyline to the book. This can be groups off people being against each other, but also internally! Which is always very interesting, and goes back to the character development I mentioned! I just like these characters exploring themselves, and why they did certain things!
And of course when these characters make certain decisions there is always the doubt if this was good or bad, and especially the consequences for the bad decisions!
I actually think that in most books I like it best if these characters do ‘bad things’ because then we can focus on the consequences, the redemption and self-exploration!
Some of my favourite morally grey characters:
- Victor and Eli from Vicious
- Draco from Harry Potter
- Nico from Percy Jackson
- Kaz from Six of Crows
- The bloodwitch from Truthwitch
I have to finish PJO and see why everyone calls Nico morally grey!! I really would love to see him grow and change, especially in an MG series. Great post 🙂
You do!!
I love morally grey characters and agree that a bit part of that is their unpredictability. You need to keep reading to find out what on earth they’ll do next. And their backstories are generally wonderfully well thought out. I love that you included a list too. I can’t wait to discover the ones that I haven’t from it yet and I’m so happy that you included Draco. He was definitely such a complex morally grey character and fascinating to learn about.
That’s the best part!
I hope you will like the ones you haven;t read yet!
I love morally grey characters! They so often turn out to be my favourites. Victor and Eli are definitely among my favourites, too! So is Holland from ADSOM and Andrew Minyard from All for the Game 🙂
I should have put Holland on my list!
And this is why I love Kaz!
Same! And I think so many with us!
Glad to see this topic giving my boys Kaz and Draco the love they deserve. I agree that morally grey characters tend to be a bit more fun because they’re unpredictable.
They are the best haha!
Wonderful post Evelyn! I wholeheartedly agree with you about loving it when characters do questionable things. I find it fascinating to read about the consequences and how it affects how the characters view themselves. My personal favorite morally gray character is Holland from the Shades of Magic trilogy, and I’m looking forward to reading about more antiheroes from the books on your list!
That is the best part!
Oh yes Holland is also a good one!
Morally gray characters are some of my favorites, and you named some good ones, Evelyn.
They are always very interesting!