How to Write a Morally Declining Protagonist | Dear Writer #10

101 Writer Questions Answered!

Jun 15, 2025

I have written a protagonist with a corruption arc.
My intention was to create a protagonist that isn't morally the purest (see Light Yagami in Death Note, Ainz Ooal Gown in Overlord and Lelouch in Code Geass), and the idea was to show how environment and circumstances can corrupt a decent person (kind of a villain origin story).
How can I pull this off without giving the wrong impression of justifying the protagonist's terrible behavior? I had the idea of rewriting the main character into a better person to prevent this, but it feels like I'm backing off when it comes to the story's main purpose.
I understand there are aspects that should really be handled with care and responsibility and this is why I'm writing this today.
Do you feel it's a better idea just to rewrite the character entirely?

Dear Writer,

It's been said (shockingly, by people other than me!) that my first book did this quite well, so at the expense of shameless self-promotion, you can read it to see how I did it.

If no time or interest in that:

Remember Robert McKee's words:

"We put our characters through hell. We put them through hell. It's the only way we change."

#1 Your character should have a tragic backstory.

Darth Vader and Gollum are great examples. Make sure to be specific. With both of these famous characters, we experience exactly what they went through with them. Foundational trauma is a clear way to think about this.

Consider giving them a chance at a new life and taking it away from them. Anakin losing Padme, Gollum losing his trust for Frodo, John Wick losing his puppy.

#2 Ensure every step of the moral decline is clear.

Consider structuring the character's decline with at least 3 major "event horizon" moments of intensifying moral weight.

These “event horizons” should be structured around the character's choices and these choices should seem rational to the protagonist even as the reader sees what's happening to them.

The audience should be able to understand, not necessarily condone, the character's morally suspect choices—a slippery slope vs. a sheer cliff. If we can't see why, then it's not a villain origin story, it's a villain protagonist story.

You can accomplish this by ensuring that the foundational trauma is well-executed and that the character maintains some redeemable qualities as the story progresses.

#3 If we watch the character change, then you're implicitly promising the audience that the character we used to know is "still in there" somewhere.

While that old person may never fully resurface, we should at least see them getting their head above water from time to time. An old nickname; a triggering sight, sound, or smell; another character we thought had vanished who conjures memories of simpler times.

Your protagonist doesn't necessarily need to go from "knight in shining armor" to "dark lord." It could just be "decent person" to "worse person." Make sure you know the scope of change you're going for.

#4 Always remember that if you write this kind of story, you're writing a classic tragedy in the Greek dramatic sense.

The good news is, there are more analyses of these kinds of stories than you could ever digest, so you've got lots of examples to turn to.

And in that vein of this kind of story going all the way back to the Greeks, remember this about tragedies: They're inevitable. The seeds of self-destruction should be sown early. They should be obvious on a second reading.

Best,

DRM