Top 5 morally grey protagonists

Let’s start with the assassin. Because obviously we should start with the assassin.

Mia Corvere isn’t morally grey because she occasionally makes a questionable decision in pursuit of the greater good. Mia enrols in a school for assassins, becomes exceptionally good at killing people, and spends a significant portion of The Nevernight Chronicle pursuing revenge against the people responsible for destroying her family.

She is violent, ruthless, manipulative and entirely prepared to do things that would make a traditional fantasy hero stare at her in horror.

And I love her.

What makes Mia work for me is that beneath all the blood, blades and spectacularly questionable decision-making, she cares deeply. Her loyalty is fierce. Her motivational anger comes from somewhere real. The people she loves matter to her enormously, even when loving them complicates everything she thinks she wants. And when her world collapses and changes on her in a heartbeat.

She’s not secretly a lovely person who has been misunderstood. She’s an assassin. A teenage killing machine on a vendetta.

But she’s a character whose choices make sense when you understand the girl underneath them. And that’s exactly the kind of moral greyness I find compelling.

I considered putting Andrew Minyard here.

Then I remembered that this post is about morally grey characters and not “people I adore despite the fact that I would absolutely cross the road if I saw them approaching me in real life.”

So we have Neil instead. (Ponders if I would cross the road if I saw Neil coming towards me… 🤔)

Neil spends so much of All for the Game being surrounded by people considerably more alarming than he is that it’s surprisingly easy to forget just how morally flexible he can be.

He’s a liar who has spent most of his life hiding who he is. Violence doesn’t particularly faze him when the situation calls for it, and his instinct for self-preservation has been shaped by years of living in a world where normal rules simply don’t apply.

But Neil’s moral compass shifts as he finds something he’s never really had before: A home. Support. People worth staying for.

That’s what makes him such an interesting character to me. His choices aren’t driven by some grand idea of heroism. They’re personal. Protect the Foxes. Protect the people who have become his family. Survive.

And if accomplishing those things requires breaking laws, lying through his teeth or occasionally making decisions that would horrify a normal person?

Well… nobody ever accused the Foxes of being normal.

Jude Duarte might be one of my favourite examples of a genuinely morally grey fantasy protagonist because Holly Black never asks us to pretend she’s something she isn’t.

Jude wants power.

Not reluctantly. Not because a prophecy says she must take the throne. And certainly not because she’s secretly trying to save everyone.

Jude wants power because she has spent her life as a vulnerable human being surrounded by fae who are stronger, faster and considerably harder to kill than she is. In Jude’s world, power means safety.

So she learns how to get it.

She lies, spies, manipulates and betrays people. She becomes extremely good at playing political games against creatures who have spent centuries believing humans are beneath them.

And every single time someone underestimates her, a tiny part of me cheers.

What makes Jude fascinating to me is that I don’t always agree with her choices, but I almost always understand them. Her ambition isn’t treated as a character flaw she needs to overcome before she deserves happiness. It’s part of who she is.

She’s angry, ambitious, clever and occasionally terrifying.

Let’s be honest, Cardan really never stood a chance.

OK, so I may have room on this list for more than one assassin.

Mia might favour blades, but Osric Mordaunt brings a rather more expansive approach to the profession. He’s an assassin with considerably more than one method at his disposal, which is both impressive and probably something you don’t want to think about too closely if you’re on his bad side.

He’s also an excellent example of why I enjoy morally grey characters so much. Osric isn’t someone who occasionally gets his hands dirty because circumstances force him to. Killing people is quite literally what he gets paid to do. His profession, if you will.

And yet, across the Dearly Beloathed series, we also get to see the person beyond the profession.

His loyalties matter. His relationships matter. And his feelings for Aurienne Fairhrim definitely matter, despite both of them spending a wildly unreasonable amount of time pretending otherwise.

This is where the moral greyness becomes interesting to me. Knowing Osric is capable of terrible things doesn’t prevent me from liking him. If anything, the contrast between what he’s capable of professionally and the person we see in those quieter, more vulnerable moments makes him more compelling.

Also, for someone who is presumably quite good at staying alive as part of his day job, he seems to require Aurienne’s medical expertise with alarming frequency.

Luckily for him, she’s a physician.

And luckily for us, they’re both members of the “actually, I’m usually quite bright except when this particular person is involved, at which point I become a delulu idiot” club.

Membership: two.

Now, please bear with me, because this is where the post may seem like it’s falling off the tracks.

Evie Sage is sunshine.

She is colourful dresses, cheerful enthusiasm, office friendships and trying desperately to be good at her job.

Evie Sage also works for THE VILLAIN™. (I mean, Tristan is also lovely in a grumpy way. We’re not pointing fingers here.)

The thing is, Evie is also remarkably comfortable with the fact that her employer has a torture chamber. And that eyeballs make a popping sound when you step on them.

This is why I love her.

Evie’s moral descent, or perhaps moral recalibration, is one of the funniest parts of the series because she doesn’t suddenly wake up one morning and decide evil sounds fun. Her boundaries on causing bodily harm move gradually as she gets to know the people behind the ominous titles and discovers that the supposedly “good” side isn’t necessarily good at all.

She’s compassionate and loyal and genuinely wants to help people.

She’s also becoming increasingly willing to threaten, scheme, deceive and participate in the Villain’s activities when the situation warrants it.

Super colourful. Morally GREY.

And perhaps that’s the greatest trick this series pulls. Somewhere along the way, Evie stops being the innocent assistant, possibly horrified by the Villain’s methods, and starts becoming someone who might be just as dangerous as everyone else.

I still haven’t picked up Adversary to the Villain, but I suspect her moral compass hasn’t finished spinning yet.