: Re: How unadvisable is it to flip the protagonist into a villain? Essentially, I have a protagonist who I set up as a 'main' good guy in one of my series. However, in my final series, I intend

@Hamaas631

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I want to share an example of how this was done wrong.

Let us turn to the great bastion of bad writing - 2000s computer games.

Enter MechWarrior 4. You play as Ian Dressari, rebel leader. You are trying to overtake Duke Roland, who killed your family and usurped the throne. You do it by driving big, cool-ass mechs.

plot happens

The game ends with your tooshie back in the rightful throne. All is well in the world. For the entire game, your character was portrayed as being a good person - friendly, inspiring loyalty, good sense, etc. You even have opportunities to put yourself at risk helping people not directly associated with your cause - I think a couple instances there is NO game benefit for doing so.

But wait, an expansion pack has been announced!

Enter MechWarrior 4: Black Knight

Now, suddenly, your former player character is the bad guy! The reasoning? "Oh, well he wasn't a good duke after all." No further elaboration.

The writers left the players with literary blue balls. No great exposition on how Ian's thirst for vengeance for his slain family led him to abandon the people around him. No discussion on how his desire to insulate himself from future assassins and treachery meant that he refused to hire competent people to run the kingdom. Just "Oh, he was bad."

You can do it. It can be powerful. Others gave the example of Darth Vader. Without offering spoilers, Brandon Sanderson has a lot of face-heel (and heel-face) turns in his writing - all of them are pretty satisfying because he builds on the reasoning for 300 pages before it happens, even for minor characters like Vyre. You have to start justifying it from the start of the story, and build on it until the only reasonable conclusion that your readers can reach is "Oh, well of course he's a bad guy. Look at all the ways he's wronged others in his quest so far."

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