Is it okay to write a story where the protagonist is a Terrorist?
I am writing a side story called, The Afterglow of Jovian, which mainly takes place sometime during the final stages of the main story. Here's a brief gist of the main story to give some context,
- The main story takes place in the future, 566 E.A.E.
- By this time mankind has successfully colonized most of the planets and moons in the Solar System.
- Due to the immense success of colonization and terraforming, from the end of the year 2099 A.D there was an exodus from Earth.
- Thus 2100 A.D is officially marked as the epoch for the start of E.A.E (Exodus: After Earth) era.
- Eventually, a global government called the Third Planet Alliance is formed as a form of a global government.
- The main story follows Lisa Roberts who is part of an elite counter-insurgency unit called the Titans, who are tasked with neutralizing the terrorist faction known as Jovian Liberation Army.
- The Jovian Liberation Army are a military resistance coalition formed between the moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto of the Jovian system.
The main story, as mentioned above, mainly focuses on Lisa Roberts and the Titans neutralizing and eliminating the terrorist faction. In my side story, I am thinking about telling the story from the terrorist faction side. While in the process, I am also thinking of exploring more of the backstory and the reason for the uprising of the Jovian Liberation Army.
My only worry is: Is it a good idea for the protagonist to be a terrorist? Generally, people don't like the word "terrorist", due to the negative connotation associated with the word. And, it is generally also frowned upon in society. Because of this dilemma, I am also thinking to introduce a secondary main character who at one point, during the very early years of Jovian Liberation moment, was a former Titan member. But, he becomes disillusioned with the Third Planet Alliance government when he is ordered to gun down the severely undermanned and unharmed Jovian resistances soldiers. I am thinking this might help the readers to connect a bit at least.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35796. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
3 answers
There are quite a few examples of media where the protagonists are terrorists. Whether the characters will be acceptable to your readers will depend on what you do with them. There are several options, among them:
Your protagonists use bad methods (terrorism) for a good goal (freedom). In the course of the story they realize that their methods are wrong and fail at their goal.
Your protagonists are the morally superior suppressed slaves of an evil majority and have tried peaceful ways for centuries to no avail, and now they have to resort to violence before being finally wiped out entirely.
You write relief escapism that allows your readers to indulge all their bad sides (think games like GTA).
Your protagonists are the good guys, but you give equal screen time to the terrorist antagonists and portray them as essentially good people that have taken a wrong turn (see point one above).
Here are some lists of movies where the heroes are terrorists, if you want to look at examples:
- https://www.quora.com/In-which-movies-is-the-terrorist-the-hero
- https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/2qs0bh/are_there_any_good_movies_from_the_terrorist/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/24/movies/24dargis.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_about_terrorism (includes movies with terrorist antagonists)
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35799. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. In other words, your main character probably doesn't see himself as a terrorist, so a first-person or close third-person story focusing on that character can present something more nuanced than "terrorist, ick". I've read stories where I know the main character is reprehensible in some way -- terrorist, serial killer, torturer -- but the story is still interesting. Not all fiction requires that the reader see himself in the main character.
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Can you? Yes. As @Cloudchaser points out, it is being done, increasingly more commonly.
Do I wish such stories did not exist? YES.
Terrorist attacks are very much a part of my life. There's a failed attempt every week where I live, on average once a month they do not fail. When I was a child, it was far worse. My mum wouldn't allow me and my brother to take the same bus, because she was terrified of losing both of us.
So what is it you're doing when you make your protagonist a terrorist? You're making the reader sympathise with him. Even if particular actions of your protagonist are despicable, they are suddenly understandable, forgivable. From there, it's one step to "sometimes acceptable". Well, NO! Terrorism is not forgivable. There is NOTHING understandable about blowing up a bus full of schoolchildren.
I should draw your attention to the distinction between terrorism and guerilla. While sometimes the distinctions are blurred, guerilla is strictly against soldiers. Terror is against civilians. And political assassination isn't terrorism either. Terrorism is against your average Joe, and average Joe's baby daughter - the targets that would instil most terror.
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