: Re: Why do readers enjoy reading about "bad" or evil characters? I've changed a secondary character into a murderer, and it changes everything. This change also opposes my core philosophies, that

@Rambettina586

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I can see three reasons for a murdering protagonist to be appealing:

1. the ethical struggle between law and what they perceive as right

Presumably, your protagonist killed the politicians for a reason. Maybe they felt that for some reason killing them was their moral obligation. Maybe it's a revenge story. The reader might not agree with the murder, but they might still understand the reason.

If your protagonist is aware that killing in general is ethically wrong, the resulting internal struggle can be fascinating. Add the consequences of having to hide their crime and being on the run, and the story becomes even richer in conflict.

2. the arc of redemption

Whether your protagonist murdered for "noble" reasons or for some other motive, if they feel guilt and doubt later-on, that allows for an interesting arc of character progression.

They might decide to make amends by helping others, or struggle between the urge to turn themselves in (maybe to prevent an innocent being punished) and the practical need to stay out of prison, e.g. to support their family.

As a reader, I can sympathise with someone with a dark backstory trying to turn their life around. Regretting one's past mistakes is human, and even dealing with the consequences of a (literally) life-altering action as having murdered someone can resonate in your readers' own experiences as an exaggeration of their own regrets.

3. getting a taste of a life unlike our own

In fiction we often follow characters along story lines completely unlike our own life. We can visit other planets, encounter strange creatures and, yes, make decisions we normally wouldn't.

In role-playing games, the player often can choose between the good and evil path. Some players choose to follow their own moral code, others will deliberately choose the most evil option to see where it will take them and experience the feeling of being evil. Having both paths adds replay value to a game because it allows the player to try either whenever they feel like.

It's similar with books and movies. Depending how I feel, I might pick a story featuring a heroic character or an evil protagonist. When following the hero, I want to know whether they'll manage to save the world and how they overcome the obstacles on their way. Conversely, with the murderer, I want to see whether (and how) they'll get away with it.

And of course, there's always room for a combination of these options. You could have a protagonist who, after a long internal struggle, decides to commit the act of murder despite it being both against the law and their own morals, and then spends the rest of their life dealing with this crime: always afraid of being found out and yet wishing to share their burden with someone. They might wish to turn their life around but find themselves being unable to do so because that too would have consequences. They might even end up killing more and more people to cover up their previous murders and try to justify it to themselves as having no other choice.

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