Character Development: Virtues and Vices

Virtues and Vices

So, some observant people may have noticed I haven’t posted in a while (shh! It’s a secret). But as I’m sure most of you have noticed, the world’s gone a little crazy and I haven’t been exempt. In any case, I’m trying to get back into the swing of things, and that includes a little revamping of my posts.

If you’ve followed me for a while (I love you guys, seriously!), then you’ve seen some of my Worldbuilding 101 posts. Don’t worry, they aren’t going anywhere. But I’m also planning to do some more theme posts. Like Character Development, and a currently unnamed segment that focuses on some of the more niche genres in speculative fiction. I have a few other ideas too, but we’ll see how they play out. Not that all my posts will be themed works, but I’m hoping that this will make my posts more interesting and help people looking for a specific issue.

Virtues and Vices.

What do I mean by that? Why dedicate a blog post on that of all things? Actually it goes back to thinking about character flaws. Our flaws come from our virtues. What do I mean by that?

Every characteristic a person or character can have has a good side and a bad side. Well, almost every. I’ll tell you what I mean in a bit. Let’s take a few virtues.

Okay, we have brave, patient, passionate, and gentle. All of these are good qualities, right? We want to be these things. Now, I’m going to show you how we can use these as vices.

Brave is easy. Brave is so easy to transition into reckless, brash and foolhardy. A person who has or considers bravery a chief point of their character is a person who ignores that fear is often a signal that something is wrong, and you need to pay attention! They are risk-takers, and let me tell you, some of those risks are going to blow up in their faces.

Okay, fine. What about patient? That can’t be bad, right? It can when it leads to being passive. Or indecisive. Or willing to just wait until things get better rather than trying to go out and make them better. It can also lead to the patient person being a bit of a doormat and being taken advantage of.

How about passionate? That inner fire, the drive to succeed. It takes passion to truly change something. And it does. But do you know what else passionate people are? Obnoxious. Way, way too easily. Yes, sometimes that fire lights your own. Other times, it just makes you wish they would shut up. They have a dream that they are going to share, whether you like it or not. I have met people, who I agree with on their passion, that are so obnoxious about it, that I wished they were on the other side.

I saw Hamilton recently (thank you, Disney+). Despite being a history buff, I actually hadn’t known much about Hamilton other than he was killed in duel with Aaron Burr. But, in addition to music that burrows in your head and stays there, I was particularly impressed with how well the musical showed the dark side of passion and patience. Hamilton, like many people with a vision, can’t see anything around it. He makes enemies at the drop of a hat, he ruins his family life, and it even led directly to his death. Was he a bad guy? Certainly not. But he was definitely far from perfect. Burr took a lot more to commit, wanting to avoid cutting off opportunities. He definitely had more patience than Hamilton. But it led to him being declared to have no standards or morals. Which led to his own destruction. He became a murderer and his career died with Hamilton. Yet I didn’t see the musical’s Burr as a villain either. The antagonist, certainly. But not a villain. I am making no judgements on the actual historical figures.

I didn’t forget about gentleness. I kept it separate for a reason. When I was planning out this post last night, I had a little trouble originally coming up with the dark side of gentleness, but when I found it… You could literally make a take over the world villain using gentleness as a core trait. Don’t believe me? Think about it. The gentle person doesn’t want others to suffer. This could lead to minor things like white lies or hiding hurtful truths. Or it could lead to trying to remove obstacles. Overbearing, smothering behavior, or even I can fix the world so no one has to hurt. All you have to do is listen to me and do whatever I say. But trees don’t grow straight without wind, and a butterfly can’t fly if you help open the cocoon. Humans don’t become strong without challenges.

Don’t even get me started on loyalty! Few things are scarier than the fanatic who is undyingly loyal to the wrong person or cause. Then you have the possibility of crossed loyalties. To spoiler the seventh book of Harry Potter, you have sisters Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. Both owe allegiance to old Snake-Face. Bellatrix Lestrange outright says she would sacrifice one of her own children to the cause if she were in the position to do so. Narcissa Malfoy outright betrays What’s-his-face in order to save her son. Who was more loyal? Who was scarier?

Now, the other side. Vices spring from virtues. Jealousy can only come from an overabundance of love. Not exactly healthy love, but love. Fearfulness is an overabundance of caution and care. Arrogance comes from pride which comes from confidence.

The one that may be an exception is cruelty. I can’t figure out how that relates to too much of a virtue. If you can, feel free to tell me and I’ll edit it in.

So, our faults come from are good points. As do your characters. No one is so good that they don’t have serious flaws and no one is so bad that they can’t do or be seen as good.

In other news, I’ve some new Tumblr posts up. Primarily cat pictures and a poem. Check it out.

For an experiment, try casting your hero as your villain and vice versa. How do their vices and virtues work then?