Morally Gray Hero

The morally gray hero refuses the clean lines the genre used to offer: he is competent, he is on the right side often enough, and he is willing to do things the chosen one wouldn't. Jorg Ancrath, Logen Ninefingers, Locke Lamora, Lord Vetinari running a city by ends that justify whatever means — the archetype works because he is honest about the cost of effective action, and the reader is asked to keep loving him anyway.

The appeal is the discomfort, used well. Expect rationalizations the reader can see through before he can, sympathetic motivations under unsympathetic choices, and the genre's grimdark tradition put to interesting work. He is funny, often, and clear-eyed about himself in ways the heroes around him aren't. This is the archetype for readers tired of paladins and ready for a protagonist whose ethics live in the gray — where most real ones do.

• Honest about the cost of action
• Sympathetic motives, hard choices
• Self-aware rationalization
• Grimdark register done well