I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently. I read a
lot of paranormal, and dark contemporary romance, but I find different things
acceptable behavior with different characters.
For instance, if a human guy, let’s call him Ben, commits
a serious crime like murder, I’m probably going to lose respect for him. Now
there are different ways to portray this, but say Ben’s sister was murdered and
Ben spent a year looking for her killer, only to take the guy out in cold blood.
Personally, I wouldn’t be able to relate to him. Yeah, he has motivation, but
we’re living in a world governed by laws, and Ben could have handed the killer
over to the cops.
However, if Ben was a vampire, then that changes
everything. Crazy, I know right? I can accept a vampire committing murder and
still relate to him, because that’s in a vampire’s nature, but not if he were
human.
Then I have to think about a recent book I read, where
the hero killed a guy who had raped the heroine. Strangely, it didn’t put me
off Gideon Cross too much, and he killed Eva’s ex-stepbrother with cold
calculation, but his motivation was to keep her safe, alive even. Ben in
scenario 1 did it for vengeance, which doesn’t seem right somehow, but to do it
to protect someone dear to you? Makes me like the character more.
So I guess anything is acceptable in fiction these
days, as long as the character has strong, relatable motivation. I’d love to
know what everyone thinks.
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