Sympathetic portrayal of an evil protagonist with good motivations
I'm contemplating writing about a character with good motivations whose actions would be considered evil. In short the story would be about a necromancer killing an entire nation so that he can bring order and peace.
My problem is that while I can convey the logic of this, I have no clue how to write this without making him a pure force of evil or writing a fall-to-evil story.
I can't think of any story where you get to follow the "good" guy and see his challenges; you always get the Mr Bond sit down at the end explaining why the bad guy is good.
How would you go about writing a story about a man who has already fallen to "evil" but still portray him as a good guy without sugar coating his plans?
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1 answer
1) Does the story have to be from the POV of the necromancer? Or at the least, does the end have to be?
You can show all the necromancer's challenges from the POV of the people of the nation, and its leaders, as they try to defend themselves, and in the epilogue or the denouement, someone (could be a survivor, could be a third party) points out that the necromancer was right after all. Or the leaders of the nation realize that they themselves have been a threat to peace, but they didn't intend to be, and they back down, or allow themselves to be sacrificed. I just read this setup in a C.E. Murphy novel.
2) Read or see Watchmen. Decide if that structure is worth adapting. (I won't spoil it for those who haven't read/seen it.)
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