This is something I have been thinking about more and more as I read even more – across hundreds of books especially fantasy/dystopian/sci-fi – the trope of the ‘morally grey’ heroine is becoming more and more popular so I’m going to do a deep dive into this! Are the female main characters (FMC) that are being marketed as morally grey truly morally gray or are they just women in a patriarchal world acting in a way that that society – ours or fictional! – don’t appreciate?

Minor Spoilers for Throne of Glass, Red Queen and Eragon!

So lets dive in!

Evangeline Samos from Red Queen is a key example of a ‘morally grey’ character. She argueably an antagonist. In the beginning she is even semi competition for protagonist for the interest of Cal. But she doesn’t care.

Her values are focused on love and acceptance for herself and yes she is ambitious and we know she is cruel sometimes but she is still not a villain. If she is a villain then Julian – the amiable uncle figure to Cal and Mare – is a villain too! He kills her father, takes over a mans brain and makes him walk of a cliff where he knows he will be drowned to death painfully and slowly. But Julian is still presented as working for the right side! Surely Evangeline is working for the right side too – her side. Survival.

Another example is Caeleana Sardothian – presented as insane and unstable for most of it but it she just head and shoulders above everyone around her? She is more intelligent, more charismatic and more skilled than the assassins and her other peers so she is separated from them by this ‘otherness’ but is that just that she is truly powerful?

Look at her values. Justice – skewed and biased but whos isn’t? Kills Nehemia’s murderer painfully but is that just revenge?

Then take a very male character like Eragon from the Inheritance Cycle – I love this series, it is what got me into fantasy but it does make a good comparison.

By the end of the book he has killed hundreds in a swathe to get to the capital, he kills the king and the dragon and is so powerful that he has to leave. But his power is heroic and his sanity is never questioned. Not when he prioritises helping Rouran his cousin find Katrina over the arguebaly ‘greater good’ of supporting the Vardan, not when he leaves an entire army marching towards certain death to chase a dream – people question it but not him. Yes those decisions are taken from a moral place, yes they work out in the end and yes they make a great story.

But so do Caeleana and Evangelines.

When I was doing my international womens day post about strong FMCs it really got me thinking. All of the FMCs had killed someone – I read fantasy -, all of the FMCs had moral compasses just different ones but the difference is was who’s control they were under. Keladry of Mindelan isn’t a morally gray knight, she is noble despite controversy but she is still very much under the thumb of the capital until she breaks out in the fourth book and this is when we see some of those lines blur for the first time despite her always remaining a firmly good classical hero because she regrets the actions she has to take for justice. Paedyn Gray from Powerless kills someone but she isn’t morally gray – at least of that book – in the eyes of the reader because we completely understand.

So what is the difference between morally gray and not? Is it that we just understand the motivations? Because in that case I would argue that Manon Blackbeak, Caeleana Sardothian, Katsa and Evangeline Samos are by that definition not morally gray. Some of their decisions are not solid and they do kill people but is the defininton of a morally gray FMC whether they are under the control of the patriarchy/govermantal structure of their respective worlds?

Katsa breaks away from that but in the beginning when we decide what their character is like she is going to execute people for the king. She also starts a secret council to undermine that hence the gray part not black of her morals. Evangeline Samos is so powerful and yet still controlled by her father until pretty late in the series. She knows that to get the power she wants she is going to have to marry Cal but by the end she decides not too. Caeleana Sardothian is probably the most morally gray in most people’s eyes on this list because she was an assassin for many years and does kill a lot of people on and of page in brutal ways. But so do other ‘classic’ heroes. Eragon kills people on page, he even mentions that it is almost unfair because they cant keep up with his supernatural skill. Percy Jackson kills a LOT of ‘monsters’ but he is still a hero, we never question at any point whether he is flexing his power or leaning into insanity he is just trying to survive.

If I start on another debate about how Percy Jackson and Eragon are arguably still until the guidance and power of their respective structures the Gods and the Vardan and how that may be why they are also classic heroes and never morally gray I could keep going forever but I wont! (maybe another day!).

To wrap it up is this main idea – are the female characters portrayed as insane and morally gray and villiainous in fantasy books really like that or are they just outside of the control of the government or a rebel structure? Are any female characters that aren’t in a recognisable structure that restricts their movement or power morally gray? And are all female characters who are powerful enough to take revenge on those who wronged them nudged closer to the label of insane or morally gray when they are doing the exact same as their male counterparts it is just labelled justice and avenging loved ones instead?

I also wanted to add that it is so odd how the obstacles placed in their path and the way they are overcome are judged so differently in morally gray characters to classic heroes. A classic hero’s journey is all about overcoming refusal of the quest, inheriting power or a throne and overcoming resistance to achieve a greater goal. Often the morals in the beginning have to be compromised to achieve the greater good. But powerful FMC’s aren’t often given that grace, especially as they are so easily dubbed morally gray. If they exchange morals for power or justice then they are irretrievably morally gray or downright villainous.

Readers – and this has been proved over and over by sales and booksta as well as just general chat – don’t care about morals or the perceived moral state of the character they care about being able to sympathise or emphasise with them. That is why villain backstories are so popular, they deal with the shadows within humanity show what can happen to people who stray of the path. And redemption arcs which are sometimes present in villain afterstories show that people can climb out of that life state and leave that behind.

So often FMC’s backstories and how they became morally gray are because of the patriarchy and violence so they become the most dangerous thing to protect themselves. We can see this with Caeleana, she is forged by the Assassin King and it is only when she leaves the country adknowledges the deeper parts of her history that she previously was ignoring that she can face what he made her into and go back to confront him.

Morally gray is the middle ground between villain and hero but who is the hero? It is cliché but someone’s villain is another characters hero and the more fantasy I read the more I become convinced that morally grey is a label given to female characters who aren’t controlled by the goverments around them!

In Conclusion…

Are the female characters portrayed as insane and morally gray and villiainous in fantasy books really like that or are they just outside of the control of the government or a rebel structure?

Are any female characters that aren’t in a recognisable structure that restricts their movement or power morally gray?

And are all female characters who are powerful enough to take revenge on those who wronged them nudged closer to the label of insane or morally gray when they are doing the exact same as their male counterparts it is just labelled justice and avenging loved ones instead?

What do you think?