Favourite 'Morally-Ambiguous' Character

[NecroNinja]

OT: Lee Everett from The Walking Dead game.
I know he's the protagonist and is generally a good guy but for a lot of the time he's forced to make hard, and often fucked up decisions.

How did I not think of this? Lee starts of as a bad man having committed a crime of passion, but it's what he does after that you get to decide, with his past hanging over you at all times. Obviously, you have the choice to do the nicest or worst things possible throughout the game, or even nothing in some cases, but I found that I had to do some things I really wasn't comfortable with, in order to do what I perceived to be the 'right' thing. There's a point in the game that you literally get your major choices listed to you, and when that happened to me, I thought it sounded evil, but I did what I thought was best. I think this character works so well because we make the choices. What would we do in these desperate circumstances? I was quite shocked by some of my decisions.

 

[triggrhappy94]

My favorite morally ambiguous character is the Kinectimals Tiger.
The game is marketed to kids who want to play with digital animals--good, right?
But from the box art, it's clearly a psychopathic killer.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

In books, my two favorites would have to be Roland Deschain from "The Dark Tower" series, and Rand al'Thor from the "Wheel of TIme" series. While I'm not completely caught up with TWoT (I just finished book six tonight, and am waiting for books 7-9 to be delivered), Rand has already had to make some morally ambiguous decisions, and I foresee more to come as I keep reading.

While I don't watch very much anime, my vote goes to Lelouch vi Brittania, from Code Geass.

As for video games, one of my favorites is definitely Cole Macgrath, but with a bit of a qualifier. I know that his behavior for most of the game was incredibly binary black-and-white good or evil, I actually consider the "evil" ending of inFamous 2 to be very morally ambiguous.

 

[Mr.Cynic88]

Season 5 Walt is just plain evil. The only reason people still like him is the attachment we've built towards the man during the gradual buildup as he broke bad. Mike is probably the most consistently morally ambiguous, because we see him being sweet with his granddaughter and go out of his way to save Jesse, but he's also a cold-blooded killer. If his job requires that he pull the trigger, he will do it, but when he does, he is often apologetic.

 

[AntiChri5]

Most of the ones I could think of have been said but I have 2 more.

John Constantine. The man only ever does anything for the thrill. He is every bit as likly to kick the crap out of good guys as the bad.

Ebenezar McCoy- The Dresden Files. Ebenezar is a member of the White Council of wizards. He was the teacher of the main character Harry Dresden and taught him to belive in the 7 Laws of Magic (Shown below).

Spoiler

Thou shalt not kill by use of magic
Thou shalt not transform others
Thou shalt not invade the mind of another
Thou shalt not enthrall another
Thou shalt not reach beyond the Borders of Life
Thou shalt not swim against the Currents of Time
Thou shalt not seek beyond the Outer Gates

It is later revealed that he is the Blackstaff, the wetworks man of the council, who is empowered to break the laws as he sees fit in order to protect the council and further their agender. He caused the New Madrid earthquake of 1812, the Krakatoa eruptions of 1883 and the Tunguska Event of 1908 as well as using magic to kill innocent humans who were being mind controled. He is not only morally ambiguous but the ultimate hipocrate.

I wouldn't call Eb a hippocrite.

He truly does believe in the laws, and thats why he accepted the position of Blackstaff. There has to be someone capable of breaking the laws without punishment, to prevent the system from being abused and do what has to be done. Since there is going to be someone in that position, it really should be someone who values the laws so they won't break them casually.

When he met Harry, Harry was a 16 year old who had been kept deliberately ignorant of them and had already started down a dark path by killing. Instilling a reverence for the laws, rather then admitting that he breaks them, was the only way to reform him. One of the main reasons for The Laws is that doing dark things with magic gradually drives you insane, but the Blackstaff shields it's wielder from the psychic blowback, allowing them to do dark things without being shaped by it. It's heavily hinted that Eb would like to pass on the position to Harry, at some point in the future.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I'm inclined to say Cardinal Albert Simon from Shadow Hearts (cause I spent a few days to beat it again)

the bad:
you spend most the game calling him something else
he murders, lies and tortures to effect his goals
lets other people try to destroy the planet, just to see if the spell to summon 'a god' will work or not before trying it himself.
tries to summon 'a god' to wipe out all civilization (fucker took quiet the beating to)
kinda smug at times

the good:
he's a perfect gentleman in most his dialog
he bore the 'heroes' no true 'hate' for getting in the way of his plans, to the extent he would have prefer to not have to kill them so they could live in his 'perfect world'
his ultimate goal was the elimination of 'elite society' and leave every one equal, and at no point do i remember him say he was going to 'rule over this new world'. in fact, when Yuri asked what he was going to do if he won, Albert said he wasn't sure

 

[bluerocker]

Going to go with Guts from Berserk, he is the Anti-Hero, especially due to having one fucked up life

Ohh, also, Nier. From, well... Nier. Don't want to spoil much though.

Ah! Somebody mentioned Nier AND Guts! You people have some good taste!

However, I feel it's a little unfair that Nier doesn't get too much of an explanation, so here I go!

Nier is a widower in a very crappy world. In the world he lives in, there are shadowy monsters called Shades; which attack humans on sight, kill animals that could be used for food, and generally make things miserable for any living thing. Nier works as a freelance everyman, doing all sorts of odd jobs in order to support himself and his daughter; who is very sick with a disease called "The Black Scrawl". So far, the mortality rate is 100%, and Nier will do ANYTHING to help his little girl. It is from this point we enter the game.

If I said anything else, it'd be a spoiler. But I think the point has been made.

As for MY favorite anti heroes, of the ones not already mentioned, mine would be this BAMF right here!:

(Also, I was trying to keep out spoilers, so sorry if my descriptions a bit vague...)

Spoiler

This guy, his name is Caim. He's from a game called Drakengard. In his universe, there is a war between two factions; the Union and the Empire over the control of a woman called the Goddess. The Goddess is one of 4 seals that keep the world from falling into chaos; with her being the final one. This task leaves her weak and unable to defend herself, so the Union has taken up arms to protect her from the Empire; who seek to destroy the seals (and naturally, kill her). As this woman is also Caim's sister, and the Empire was key in killing his family, Caim takes up his sword to defend her from the Empire. However, aside from saving his sister, Caim has the unquenchable thirst for the blood of all members of the Empire because; as mentioned before, they killed his parents and plan to do the same to his sister. This also extends to anyone involved with the Empire; including child conscripts, priestesses, and (eventually) an ally who is brainwashed by the Empire.

Caim shows no remorse for the death toll he has racked up, and he doesn't think about the moral ramifications of who he is killing. In fact, his only real redeeming qualities he has is the bond he has with his dragon ally, (to whom he traded his voice for power) and the fact that his goal is heroic. Aside from that, he's an emotionally numb man who destroys everything in his path.

What I really like about Caim is the fact that he doesn't really think too hard about what he's doing, and just powers ahead towards his goal. It's really refreshing for a JRPG protagonist. It's a bit flat, but refreshing.

Also, if I left anything spoiler-free that could help anyone else understand Caim's motives; feel free to point it out.

 

[Gizmo1990]

Super snip

I concede that Eb is not a hippocrite, after thinking about it and reading what you said it makes sense. And I would love to see Harry take up the Blackstaff but I doubt the Merlin would let him due to his past, his hate of Harry and the new job Harry has accepted in Changes.

 

[Owen Robertson]

47 from Hitman. All he knows how to do is kill people. He's the best at it. He doesn't want to, but he can't do anything else. He's stuck. I feel terrible for him.

Nathan Drake is out for treasure then feels obligated to save the world and/or get revenge. He kills hundreds of people to get at money, but then turns around and fights a super-soldier Russian commando because nobody else could.

John McClaine. He doesn't particularly want to stop terrorists. He's just always in the wrong place at the wrong time.

John McClane: You know what you get for being a hero? Nothin'. You get shot at. You get a little pat on the back, blah, blah, blah, attaboy. You get divorced. Your wife can't remember your last name. Your kids don't want to talk to you. You get to eat a lot of meals by yourself. Trust me, kid, nobody wants to be that guy.
Matt Farrell: Then why you doing this?
John McClane: Because there's no body else to do it right now, that's why. Believe me, if there were somebody else to do it, I'd let them do it, but there's not. So we're doing it.
Matt Farrell: Ah. That's what makes you that guy.

John's more of an anti-hero than a true ambiguous one. We can all justify killing "terrorists"

 

[Owen Robertson]

Because people mention Kira: no.
He is not morally ambiguous, he is plain evil, he is highly intelligent and motivated and as soon as he gets power ti goes straight to "I want to be the god of a new world order". It doesn't matter that he tries to do good, Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot believed they were doing good. Kira is just a crazy serial killer. He is quite compelling to watch(nobody ever ate potatoes chips like that).

Hitler was motivated by ego much like any other tyrant and conqueror. Alexander The Great was a piece of shit warlord who killed people, but only because he thought he could unite the world. He nearly succeeded too. Frankly I sympathize with the goal. Even the means. But I just don't believe you can conquer your way to peace. It'll never last.

 

[NecroNinja]

I thought of another one, and I can bet that most of us who know who he is, loved him. Liam Neeson's character in Taken; Bryan Mills. This guy protects people for a living, but when trying to save his daughter, he gets pretty crazy. You're clearly rooting for him throughout the whole film, so did it take anyone by surprise when

Spoiler

Mills shot the innocent wife of the French guy who threatened to turn him in? I mean, he obviously didn't kill her, but simply to maim an innocent woman to prove a point was crazy!

Arguably, that was a step too far, but for some strange reason, I didn't find myself holding it against him.

 

[NecroNinja]

I can't believe I forgot this, but I've just finished a series of comics called 'The Boys'. I hope others out there have heard of it, and if not, you definitely owe it to yourself to read them if you have any interest in superheroes/villains. The Boys is set in our world, only superheroes exist due to a chemical compound that grants random superpowers. But with great power comes corruption, and many of the heroes are careless or even dangerous to the public, so when they step out of line, a section of the CIA called 'The Boys' come in. It's a group of people used to keep the heroes in line.

The group is fronted by a Billy Butcher, who is hands down one of the most morally ambiguous characters I've come across in a long time, especially later into the series. He is the one that always gets things done, regardless of collateral damage, and worst of all, he seems to enjoy the brutality with which he dispatches his foes. But he does all of this out of a strong sense of righteousness and desire to prevent the superheroes from abusing their powers. Now there is much more to his character, but I won't go into any more detail, as I wouldn't want to spoil any of it for potential readers. What I will say is despite him doing somepretty despicable things towards the end, there are still moments that suggest that he wasn't so bad, moments that made me genuinely confused as to how I felt about him as a character.

To all that have yet to experience 'The Boys', change this now.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Garrus, Mordin, L, Sherlock Holmes, Judge Dredd.

 

[JaceArveduin]

I'm going with Bartimaeus. Of course, he's a djinn, so I'm not sure if he still counts, but he's just awesome.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Sherlock Holmes

A big part of Holmes' character is that, his opinion of the police aside, he does truly believe in the rule and righteousness of the law and upholds it at every opportunity. He disapproves of the methods of the Police but not their goal. He is very Lawful Good and only goes against the police due to his restrictions upon himself (he's a consulting detective, he decides when his job is done).

Holmes has never gone evil to do his job. That was why Moriarty was created, to be the reverse of Sherlock, the character who did go evil to further his goals.

It's not touched on as much in the books (because Holmes is portrayed reasonably straightforward and not much emphasis is put on his emotions) but in the BBC Sherlock series basically the biggest fear of everyone who isn't Sherlock is that he will one day turn evil, even though he never does.

 

[Artina89]

Hmmm... My vote would probably go to L, Mello and Near from Death Note all three would do almost anything to get Kira (using people as bait, that kind of thing).

EDIT: I almost forgot Ryuk, I mean he is the one who dropped the Death Note in the human world out of sheer boredom, and does not always help Kira achieve his goals. (In fact he makes a point of telling Kira that he is not taking sides in his conflict with L/Near/Mello).

 

[AnarchistFish]

I was thinking Breaking Bad when I saw this thread. But I don't actually like Walter White. I'd have to go with Jesse Pinkman or Saul Goodman instead.