You can feel sympathy for a character who is a bad person.
First of all, they're not real. That part is really important.
Second, one of the advantages of fiction is that it allows you to see the entire shape of a character and their backstory. You can understand how they became who they are, what wounds they're carrying, what fears are motivating them, and what choices led them to where they are.
And now, look at me in my fictional Tumblr eyes for a second while I say this, as I gently grab you by the shoulders:
Sympathy is not the same thing as endorsement.
You can recognize that a character is hurting the people around them while also recognizing that they're hurting themselves.
In fact, I'd argue that's one of the most important things stories can teach us.
Cycles of cruelty, abuse, isolation, and self-destruction don't become easier to recognize by pretending the people caught inside them are cartoon villains with no inner lives.
They become easier to recognize and end when we understand how those cycles form in the first place.
A character can't only be tragic if they're innocent.
They can be tragic because you can see exactly how they got here and exactly how they could have been something else.
You can feel bad for them.
You can even love them as a character.
And still think the way they treat the people around them is abhorrent.
Those aren't contradictory positions.
That's just engaging with a character as a character. Not as a morality test. But as an idea being explored through fiction.
Sometimes a story isn’t asking you to agree with someone.
It’s asking you to understand them.
And understanding people, fictional or otherwise, is harder than deciding whether they’re good or bad. But it’s also more important, because it’s what actually opens the door to change and self-betterment.
Stories, at their best, aren’t really about verdicts.
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