Antihero
“I’m sure your dead _____ would still love you very much, Maxim.”
– Rag, every time Maxim Edge gets in one of his moods
The return of Maxim Edge and an introduction to the rival team of Feitr’s Guild.
Consider this the antihero corollary to the previous Feitr’s Guild entry on sympathetic villains. I’ve noticed a general storytelling trend where everyone’s “greying up” the morality of their characters – heroes more willing to compromise their values for pragmatism and villains given more and more sympathetic reasons for wanting to commit genocide. In the middle, you got your antiheroes, who may start off pretty morally repugnant but have a good heart deep down that eventually develops them into a more heroic figure as the story progresses. Finally, the antihero overcomes their flaws and comes out a bona fide hero – a complete character arc!
But then the story gets renewed for another season, and everyone loved the antihero when they were the edgy, take-no-prisoners bad boy, so you need to write a proper balance between their reformed behavior and the rogueish charm that enamored audiences in the first place. Or you could just make the character “conflicted” 24/7 and do heroic acts with a grumpy scowl.
– James
