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@scarletimmortalized

Ah, the classic fallen hero trope. 😀

Do you like this idea/would you read a book that ended like this? I have read stories with such negative character arcs before and enjoyed them though I’ve read several that I was genuinely frustrated or bored to tears by.

What are your suggestions to the slow degrading of this character? Foreshadowing. Make sure that your character turning to evil feels like a natural and organic progression that comes from his worst, or better, his best qualities. Lots of virtues can become vices under the right circumstances (e.g. determination becomes stubbornness, optimism becomes a refusal to acknowledge painful realities). What is important is also to note are the justifications your character gives to convince himself and others that he is still a hero as he moves on from “small” sins to “large” ones (e.g. “I’m doing this for the greater good”, “I’m hurting these people because they deserve it”, “I’m entitled to have this so anyone who is in my way must be bad/selfish”).

What are cliches that you would like for me to avoid? This is going to sound weird but if you are going to turn your hero into a villain, please actually make him a villain. Like, make sure he makes the life of a character who the readers sympathise with (not a villain or minor character that readers won’t care about) objectively worse. A lot of stories that I’ve read have characters that turn “dark” but their “darkness” somehow always only hurts the bad guys who “deserve it” which I think can easily lead to the glamourisation of villainy. Another thing I ask is for none of the other characters that will have an influence on your fallen hero character (which I suppose in your story is his family) have, “I’m a villain,” plastered on their foreheads for at least their first few appearances. I always get frustrated reading scenes where the “currently heroic but soon to be evil” character heeds the advice of the “I’m going to lead you astray” character. Like, why would someone who still has the general mindset and behaviour of a hero be listening to such an obviously evil person? Subtlety is key. I would like it better if perhaps the advice that your character’s family gives him can sound reasonable or even good during their first few interactions.

Overall thoughts on a hero to villain character? It’s a trope with great potential for the exploration of morality, no doubt. However, my view is that, most of the time, readers want to read about characters that they like. The danger with turning a hero into a villain is that you are deliberately making that character less likable over time (unless you are planning to give your villainous character such style and charm that they remain strangely likable and interesting even when committing heinous acts). As such, you have to make sure that the other parts of your book (the plot, the setting, the other characters) are also strong and compelling in order to keep your readers invested in the story. That or make your fallen hero character so utterly hateable that your readers will read on just because they want to see him go down.