Forgiving Murderers

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

...in fiction.

Sorry for mildly misleading title.

Okay, so there are a lot of characters in fiction who have murdered and killed others. And not in the sense of self defence, but in actual, honest to god killing either for vengeance or sport or other reasons.

However, people still forgive them, both in universe and out of them.

Some examples:

Spoiler

1. Harley Quinn: A mass murderer in her own right and practically guilty of genocide by implication because of her continued association with the Joker. Also, Poison Ivy, who has quite a formidable bodycount. However, put them together with Catwoman in an apartment for the story Gotham Sirens and suddenly everyone forgets their past actions. Dick Grayson as Batman just lets them go as long as they promise to not go back to their criminal ways, and the fans have been in love with Harley since before she 'turned good.'

2. Faith Lehane: Has killed three humans at least, and worked for a man hell bent on taking over the world (OF COURSE!) She does go to prison, but after four years she breaks out (and it is definitely breaking out) and everyone basically forgives her, with a few sour grapes but no one even bothering to say 'hang on, this isn't like the cases of possession we come across, you murdered, liked it, and kept doing it.'

So do you like characters who murder for no reason? This isn't about liking people who kill for self defence or for justified reasons, but sociopaths who the story still expects you to like?

For myself I always have problems with this. I understand the appeal of characters like Harley, but I still get pretty uncomfortable when I'm clearly being expected to not only like the murderer but sympathise with them and laugh at their jokes. There's always a bit of me that keeps going 'that's funny, but you once blew up a school for a joke!'

And feel free to add more examples you think are particularly weird. Also, no real life examples.

 

[Kryzantine]

Killing for vengeance is sociopathy? That's a whole other argument there.

If I can still sympathize with the aforementioned murderer, then I might be able to ignore their past actions.

Although I will elaborate a bit on this - I don't like most killers in fiction. Writers don't give them enough of a grey area, or make them interesting people. Perhaps the fact that they are killers is emphasized too much. And before someone suggests the idea of a sociopath, I usually see them coming from miles away. They're either too boring or too interesting.