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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43156
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43156
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You need to figure out what your story's theme is. And then you need to take Joyce on a journey that forces her to make decisions about that theme. That will define whether she's good or evil within the context of your story.

I'm going to go on a bit of an aside here. Whether your character is chaotic neutral or lawful good or whatever doesn't matter for crafting a good story. RPG alignments aren't really about good and evil, but are more like a knock-off personality test that works well for a specific type of setting. In the end, as in real life, characters' moralities are defined by what they do. If an ostensibly chaotic evil character ends up stopping a cultic ritual to summon a powerful demon, isn't that a heroic action? And if an ostensibly lawful good character throws people who were looting to survive desperate times in jail, isn't that discompassionate? To be clear, I'm not saying not to give Joyce an alignment - it can still be helpful for understanding her personality. Just don't be married to it.

Instead of worrying a great deal about your character's alignment, you would be wise to focus on your story's theme. A good story is more than just a series of interesting events that happen to somebody. This is why you'll hear about ideas like The Hero's Journey, the 3-act structure, and the flow of rising action into a climax mentioned so often and treated as though they apply to every story. It's because they do.

And at the heart of all of those ideas is a story's theme. When a story begins, the MC is naive, immature, or broken in some way that's important to the world. Then, when the inciting incident occurs, they're forced to deal with that piece of their world very directly. The question is, will they be able to learn how to deal with this new reality? If they do, then they're a hero, regardless of what form that takes. If they can't, they've either become a villain or a tragic hero.

A lot of these themes are straightforward. In Harry Potter, Harry grows up in a family defined by selfishness, then is thrown into a world of magic with some people who are generous and altruistic and others who are even more selfish then his aunt and uncle. The question is, can he become a hero by fully embracing the selflessness the good guys stand by?

But in some stories, the moral logic can become quite convoluted! In the movie Inception, the main character, Dom, is a man who accidentally led his wife into committing suicide by messing with her dreams. He's been broken in two ways ever since: He can't get over his wife's death, and he's unwilling to go as deep into dreams as he did so comfortably at one point in his life. When he's tasked with not just stealing information from a victim's mind but planting an idea in his head, the question is twofold: Can he successfully pull off the reverse heist, and can he overcome his hangups with his wife?

The ending of Inception is a little backwards. Dom succeeds in manipulating his target's mind. Outside of the framework of the story, this would seem to be a very selfish, evil thing to do - taking away someone else's free will! But in Inception, the main character is treated as a successful hero. This is because the action he takes - pulling off the reverse heist - answers the question of the theme - can he return to the world of dreams? His decisions would probably be classified as chaotic evil in an RPG alignment system, but the bravery he showed was core to his specific story. Furthermore, the story doesn't end until Dom goes too deep and gets lost in a dream abyss with his memories of his wife. In order to escape, he has to overcome this manifestation of his grief. The story could not have possibly ended satisfyingly before that point, even though he succeeded in his primary goal, because the question of his unresolved guilt was tied to one of the story's central themes.

All of this is a long-winded way of saying: Don't worry about whether Joyce is "good" or "evil" in the abstract. Instead, figure out what the central question of your story is, then decide how Joyce is challenged by and ultimately overcomes or falls to that question. Your readers can and will debate the merits of Joyce's decisions in the broad sense forever. But they will root for her if she's dealing with the core issues in your story regardless.

* * *

From the snippet in your question, I already see several possible core themes for your story:

> G00fy: That’s what I thought. I’m impressed Banshee, the TLF were ready to sift through that code with you. I’m glad that it ended up being so easy. It’s just another domino in the effort to free the people of these corrupt corporate executives.  
> Banshee\_Harvest: Save your preaching for someone who actually cares. I was in this solely for the thrills.

Will Joyce start caring about corporate corruption? And if so, will she be successful in bringing that corruption to heel?

> G00fy: Aren’t you the one who is always complaining that they need a cause to join? What’s so bad about the TLF?

Joyce starts out not wanting to care about how her actions affect anyone but herself. But when she gets caught in webs that tie her to other people whether she likes it or not, will she be willing to commit to something bigger than herself?

> Banshee\_Harvest: I don’t like the rumors about you guys. You’re not afraid to hurt people to get what you want. And I don’t want to end up on that side of the fence. The ends don’t always justify the means.  
> G00fy: Lol, yet here you are, working as one of the most profitable hackers in the country, if not the world.  
> Banshee\_Harvest: I don’t throw people under the bus to get what I need. You do.  
> G00fy: Listen, we do what we have to, no more, no less. The sacrifice of the few, or the one is for the good of the many, am I right?

Despite pretending like she doesn't care what happens to others, Joyce can't stand the thought of hurting others. But she has abilities that can bring about a happier future for many if she's willing to pull the proverbial trolley's lever. Once she inevitably makes that decision once, how will she respond when she is put in increasingly twisted zero-sum games and forced to choose who lives?

Any of these would be a strong direction for your story to go in. You've asked the questions yourself pretty directly in the conversation you posted, I'm just making them explicit! And if you have a different central theme in mind, that works too. Regardless of what you choose, make sure Joyce's journey revolves around that theme. At that point, it won't matter whether her decisions would be classified as good or evil, lawful or chaotic - your readers will root for her regardless.

Original score: 8