Activity

It is a truly difficult subject to tackle. How much duress can cover, and evil actions vs the actor and factors that might diminish guilt but exactly how far?

In my story, the MC, Alessio, is a seventeen-year-old prince who’s a fantastically intelligent, gifted protégé, escaping a cult he was sold to. Because he’s so clever, and can detect lies and read emotions eerily well his character is always balancing a fine moral line when it comes to manipulation, but at the same time he’s very solidly a good person.

One of the biggest facets of his character comes from an event when he was thirteen or fourteen where he invented a lie to protect himself from being raped by the main villain (who was also one of his closest friends at the time–at the very least he offered some protection from his abusive stepfather). What he couldn’t have foreseen at the time were the devastating consequences of his lie; shifting the axis powers of the world on a grand scale as well as the torture and deaths of numerous people used a leverage against him…among other things…*ominous pause* (You may as “what the heck did this little boy tell that dude to get that to happen?” heheh you’ll have to read my book…once it’s finished 😭)

But now as a result, psychologically, he’s incapable to straight-out lying even to protect someone else (which is one of his biggest motivators throughout the book series). At first it might seem like a plus that he can’t lie except it’s a compulsion not a choice and doesn’t take into account any measure of duress, besides which he’s still an incredible actor by necessity.

Deep into his character arc, Alessio constantly debates whether suicide would be justified if his mere existence is a danger to others. He believes there’s a possibility if he dies things will get better for the kingdoms of Casumbra, and the war might end in their favor, but he also feels responsible for “fixing” a situation that’s completely out of his control, taking blame for the entire course of the war. The only reason he’s struggle to survive is to find a way to save the world in time, and he’s desperate enough to try any method of escape short of murder but hates himself for every decision he makes.

It’s been a rough theme to explore especially as more details come into play (aaaaaaand that extensive research into accurately portraying trauma…that throws in a lot more factors like mental state and ability both to reason and to act according to reason being significantly hampered etc etc)

But I want to really focus on themes that EVERY life matters, including your own, because God made us all and loves us, every life is sacred. Even the villains have sympathetic characterization because I want them to be seen as people, broken and full of evil thoughts and actions it still all stims from their pain. And that leads to the themes of choice, a willingness to forgive both others and yourself and to make the decision to change, which falls back on Love being the reason for all of that. Good actions are nothing if they were done with bad intentions and bad actions with genuinely good intentions doesn’t really make the actor evil, and depending on the situation you just don’t know about guilt when someone truly meant well.

It’s an intense story, and I still don’t know all the answers to the questions my themes explore and if I did I wouldn’t be wanting to write this WIP so bad.

So that’s me! XD

Even as self-defense, there’s still the factor that if he didn’t kill them wouldn’t they have attacked more people? It’s a hard choice because things never just affect one person really. And then you have to factor in intentions; did he plan to save himself once he got there and realized what was happening? Was he even thinking at that point? And then what would’ve happened if he hadn’t killed them all? Wouldn’t they have continued to attack past the capitol and destroy others?

But then also, they were innocent. In their case, evil actions—horribly evil actions—were taken but they can’t be counted guilty because of their lack of choice and intent.

It’s very interesting, people are not capable of either goodness or evil without freewill. Animals can’t be evil no matter what they do because it’s all only instinct. People can be, because they can make a choice and have the understanding to appreciate–at least in part—the rightness or wrongness of an action. That’s why it’s such a hazy ground when either choice or understanding is severely hampered; it’s animalistic, being deprived of either of these when even God refused to take away our freewill and knowledge of good and evil.

Without choice and relative understanding, love is impossible, guilt is impossible. And we don’t know in this life how much of either anyone has, we don’t even know how much we have sometimes. That’s why Jesus tells us to not judge others.

One of my favorite Bible quotes is when He’s asked to judge the woman caught in adultery and he simply answers “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

And then He goes on to basically show her no person can authentically condemn her without condemning themselves, and that He relinquishes His just claim to condemn her. But He also says “Go and sin no more.”

It’s especially beautiful to me because He doesn’t ignore the crime but He loves her beyond her actions and wants her to change because it’s for her good. His Mercy is endless to anyone, but He respects our choices also and will never force us to be saved. That’s why we have to forgive both ourselves and others, we have to choose to seek His Mercy and to will good actively in one’s actions.

(PS. Any late replies I give it’s not because I’m not interested it’s just that I’m in collage and way too many side projects…😂)