Thread:Godzillafan93/@comment-6052796-20141004121045

I had a bit of a revelation when it came to certain characters. It came to me yesterday but it was lingering abit due to our talks about the subject. I know you don't like Carpenter or King very much, but it's a good example regardless, but I was watching Christine. There were a few things in it that turned my head a bit. Arnie Cunningham. In both the film and the book, it's made perfectly clear that you're supposed to feel bad for him because of all the shit he went through, yet there are things he does that need to be called out as well. On the sympathetic side, he's had parents that smothered him practically, bullies that torment him and only one best friend in his life. Yet as soon as he bought Christine, people started treating him worse. Yet despite all that, when he's in obssesion mode, it's made perfectly clear that some if not all sympathy is thrown out the window, but when he dies it comes right back. Then I think of other characters in other stories, such as Izumi Akazawa, who do have sympathetic points, but the same thing happens. When we first meet her she's all charming if not blatantly strict, then when things go on we start hating her, we see some sympathetic points which soften it a bit, but then the diner scene roles around, then she tries to kill Mei, then we hate her again, but then she dies in the saddest way imaginable which makes us feel sympathy for her.

I come to realize that there are characters you can show sympathy for, but still call them out on their decisions and methods. I at first thought that we should judge characters by going through the most times they went on one side of the morality scale. If certain decisions or personality traits overshadow other things about them, then that's what I usually go by. Such as Mei's imcompetence. I am well aware of that, but her overall personality is what won me over to her side most of the time.

Have there been other characters in works that could be both sympathetic and at the same time be complete assholes? 