Timeline for How do you make characters relatable if they exist in a completely different moral context?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
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| Dec 12, 2018 at 17:19 | vote | accept | Bridgeburners | ||
| Dec 12, 2018 at 14:51 | comment | added | Draco18s no longer trusts SE |
So, no, you certainly don't need to shove modern morality where it doesn't belong. Heck, you don't even really need modern morality in a main character in a modern setting. The book I'm listening to right now has a decidedly "chaotic evil" character as an MC. He slaughtered an entire village and raised them as zombies to increase his empire. But he did it because his actions earlier ruined their livelihoods, but if he raised them as undead, they'd never age, never need to eat, and never need to sleep. He'd do anything to protect his growing undead nation. Why not join willingly?
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| Dec 12, 2018 at 9:46 | comment | added | JollyJoker | @NicHartley More uncomfortable when you realize every slave owner treats their slaves pretty badly anyway and the promises of freedom and slandering of other slave owners are just lies to make them work harder. Too obviously useful to not have been real at some point. | |
| Dec 12, 2018 at 0:21 | comment | added | anon | One interesting thing I saw recently (in fiction, don't worry) was modern-style ethics born out of pure pragmatism. For example, they paid their slaves a living wage and let them "buy" their freedom for a pittance, treated them like people, fed them well, didn't overwork them, (subtly pointed out how much worse the other people's slaves had it) and the slaves actually felt loyal towards their master and were more productive. It was... strange, and uncomfortable, but a unique experience. | |
| Dec 11, 2018 at 22:56 | comment | added | Amadeus | One trick is to have a friend or somebody else in the society remark on the goodness of the MC; e.g. "You're slaves eat better than I do!" ... "Ay, and they work harder, too!" -- Another is to make your MC a member of the underclass, that accepts their position in society; e.g. a woman trying to get something done. Readers can sympathize, the vast majority of us work for people above us without resenting their higher status (if they are not sadists), that is just the way things are. And a lower status is a great story obstacle, we love an unlikely hero prevailing against odds. | |
| Dec 11, 2018 at 21:48 | history | answered | Galastel supports GoFundMonica | CC BY-SA 4.0 |