Hero or Villain, are they all that different, are you either or both?

[Mad Swede]

I think the best bit of advice I ever got about people and how we seen them was during officer training. Our instructor said "Yes, we like to think we're the good guys. But when you lead you must always remember that even good guys can do bad things. Think of people and their actions in terms of us and them, not in terms of good and evil. That way you can get down to case specifics in any given situation." I didn't quite see the point of that until I served on a UN mission in Africa and saw both sides of the conflict. That was when I understood what our instructor had meant. And I now apply the same sort of thinking to my characters when I write. None of my characters are good or evil in the conventional sense, they're just people who act in what they perceive to be their own and others best interests.

 

[Malik]

From The New Magic: the protagonist and antagonist, having figured out that they're both from Earth and now realizing they might be sympathetic to each other's positions in a brewing war despite what their military leaders think, are hashing things out over drinks. The protag calls it like it is.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

We have a similar viewpoint in our first book as Prince, with our POV character being very much the practical sort.

There was no point in pulling the bullet-damaged doors open. Etienne leapt at full speed, curling and twisting sideways to protect himself from broken glass, shattered the door with his body, and landed lightly on his feet on the other side as he skidded a bit on shards, Glock already drawn. A bullet caught him in the shoulder, sparking off his armor and spinning him to one side, numbing his arm for a moment. Someone was sporting something high caliber.

But so was he.

Ambidextrous as any sidhe, he switched hands and took aim. Thirteen rounds in the magazine. One in the chamber. Whole lot of guards. Each bullet needed to count. His targets were human security guards, paid to be here he imagined, but he had neither time nor inclination to sympathy. They were trying to kill him.

He would return the favor.