Post History
It depends a lot on the plot, the "genre" (I don't like this word too much, but there is a difference between pulpy science fiction and literary fiction), and other dynamics. For genre fiction (=s...
Answer
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/22225 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
It depends a lot on the plot, the "genre" (I don't like this word too much, but there is a difference between pulpy science fiction and literary fiction), and other dynamics. For genre fiction (=science fiction, horror, fantasy, detective, etc.) stereotypes are generally expected. This means, characters should be rather clearly offered as good/evil, smart/dumb, etc. Check about character theory: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character\_theory\_%28media%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_theory_%28media%29) For Literary Fiction ( **or** if you want your genre story to be more complex - "high-brow"; at your own risk!) the exact opposite should happen: - A character cannot be evil; s/he can be misguided - A character cannot be omniscient; s/he must have doubts - A character cannot be omnibelevolent; s/he must have some dark side (or, at the very least, some fundamental character quirk that assigns a flawed quality to his/her ethics And so on