In Love with a Killer
Could you love someone who killed another person? It all depends on the circumstances, right? We find it much more acceptable for someone who acts in self defense than to justify affection for a serial killer. It's all about how a writer presents the characters and their motivations and justifications. Just calling someone a "killer" vs. "murderer" vs. "sniper" or "assassin" already colors a reader's impression of the character.
In the TV show Bones, FBI Agent Seeley Booth is a former Army sniper. He's killed plenty of people, but viewers accept and love him because a few important facts are made known to us:
• He feels guilt about having killed people, some of whom he wasn't sure he should have killed
• He wants to make up for killing people in the past by catching murderers now
• He's hot
What about a mentally ill serial killer who heard voices telling him to kill? Or was damaged by terrible childhood abuse? Do the voices take the place of Booth's military superior? As long as the other three rules hold, can we cut our serial killer some slack if he's getting therapy and feels remorse? What if the killer uses a knife rather than a long-distance rifle? Or poison? Does this affect your acceptance of him? If he's hot enough, can we fall in love with him? I think I'd have some trouble, but I've been surprised by my own reactions to killers in films, though less often in fiction.
There are plenty of damaged characters in romances. As writers, we're advised to make our characters flawed or they're going to be boring. But can we go too far? Recovering drug and alcohol abusers, former corporate raiders who put thousands out of work and even some sexy thieves can all be redeemed if we have enough mitigating circumstances so their misdeeds no longer define them. Just smooth over the roughest edges and we're good to go, right? Maybe not.
Who are some characters you found yourself falling for, despite knowing the absolute worst about them? Which characters might have been appealing if only we knew more about them? Which characters fell completely flat for you, even though the author (or screenwriter) did their damnedest to get you to love that character? Obviously not all flawed characters were meant to be loved, but I'm talking about romance here. If you found yourself falling in love with Hannibal Lecter or Annie Wilkes (in Misery), that's fodder for an entirely different discussion.
Here's another question to ponder: what's more likely to make you hate a character or stop reading: one who is too perfect or one who is too flawed?
Leave a Reply