Equal and opposite heroes?

[Feo Takahari]

A while ago, I wrote a story called Dulling the Pain. The original idea behind it was to take a heroine in the style of later Anne McCaffrey and use her as a villain, but I got kind of into writing her perspective, and I realized that a lot of readers would probably find her sympathetic. Juxtaposed with a hero in the style of early Orson Scott Card, I wasn't sure which was really the more heroic--both did awful things to people who didn't deserve it, but both acted in the service of what they saw as the greater good, just for diametrically opposed goals.

My eventual conclusion was to make them both heroes. Not just in the sense of "she's the bad guy, but she's really not so bad after all", and definitely not in the sense of "the good guy and bad guy are clearly defined, they just get equal screen time"--each underwent a hero's journey in which they faced challenges and temptations while remaining loyal to their cause. My hope was that the decision of which was right and which was wrong would come down entirely to the reader's personal philosophy.

This story failed on almost every level. I just didn't have the skill to write it at the time.

Anyways, I've been thinking of rewriting it from the ground up, and I'd like to ask about how I should have gone about it in the first place. Has anyone here tried something like this before? For that matter, does anyone even know of someone who's tried this? (Golden Sun sort of did this over the course of two games, but I can't think of any other examples.)

 

[Penpilot]

I think there are lots of stories out there where there isn't a clear cut villain, just people with opposing goals. I'm actually writing something along these lines right now. But the way I go about it is when the two sides clash, you have to understand why each side is doing what they're doing and can understand and sympathise with it.

Imagine this contrived situation. Lets say a cruise ship sinks and a guy ends up on a rubber raft with his daughter. There's only enough room for the two of them. Any more weight and the raft will sink. Now lets say a second guy comes swimming along with his son in tow and tries to put his son into the raft. If he succeeds the raft will sink. The second guy is desperate to save his son. This is his only chance and the second guy is willing to try anything at this point. Now lets say the first guy has a gun.

What happens now? What's the ideal outcome? IMHO it would be to put both children in the raft and leave the adults in the water. But can the first guy trust the second guy? The first guy worries about the second guy overpowering him once he gets into the water. If that happens who's going to protect his daughter from being thrown into the drink while the second guy takes the raft for himself and his son.

IMHO setting up situations like this for the no villain story is the key, where we can understand all the possible actions and everyone is a valid outcome.

 

[Bman10119]

I tried this with an old story that got lost when my grandmother knocked my laptop off the table and it got smashed up =( I had the plot set up so that both characters were in two different orders who were at war with one another over how to protect the world from evil, one wanting to be hands off and only intervene when necessary and the other wanting to conquer and enforce peace that way. I wrote the story from both characters perspectives, switching every chapter, and had both do heroic and villanous deeds, with the climax being them fighting one another. I had friends and family read and it tell me which of the two they wished to see win, because I wanted to make sure it was about evenly split on who they thought was the hero. Then I finished it and left it for me to go back and edit. It was generally accepted that everyone loved the concept of blurring the lines of hero and villain; in what was actually just an exercise to make a more sympathetic villain. So from what I've seen its a well received system, at least among the people I know.

 

[Helen]

It's not a problem. Both your heroes change in some way and you have a third antagonist. Like in,

In The Heat of the Night.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I can't think where the heck I read it but there was a book or a series of books about the battles between the angelic and the demonic. The angels were all law and order types and everything in its place, peace and harmony etc. The demons were all about conflict and change and the powerful advances that could be made through struggle, while peace led to stagnation. And now that I think about it, that's the same theme as in Babylon Five in their shadow wars.

So why not work with something like that. Idealogues, both with right on their side and an inability to compromise.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I like "Both sides are right, and neither can stand to admit it", and it's something I use a lot, but since it compliments readers who support either side, it's not very brave. I wanted to try something a little more specialized--"Both sides can be considered right, according to your definition of right, and compromise is literally impossible due to their different standards." (Basically, I wanted to take the piss out of my usual "tolerance and understanding solve everything" moral.)

 

[WyrdMystic]

I like ambiguity. If you want to go good and bad that's fine, but having no line is great too. I'm working on something where who is good and who is bad depends on the readers own personal beliefs.

 

[shangrila]

I'm doing something similar in my current story. The MC is fighting a rebellion to reclaim his honour and save the kingdom (a secondary goal, but a goal nonetheless), while his opponent is leading the rebellion to reclaim his family's throne from the corrupt family that usurped it. Neither of them are particularly good people, but they fight hard for what they believe in.

Personally, I think they're both more interesting to write and read about.

Oh, and one more thing...DAMN YOU FEO! You got me stuck in a TVTropes loop that took me hours to get out of *shakes fist*