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Blake Carrington is a power driven man with a business and family legacy to uphold. Crystal, Blake's second wife, is pregnant and is unsure if the child his Blake's or her ex-husband from a recent divorce. In this drama episode, Blake has hired his friend and hit-man, Mack, to get rid of Crystal'x ex-husband. After Blake battled with the thought of loosing his wife over his decision he called off the hit-man. Later that day, Crystal met with her ex-husband to end things for good while horseback riding. A gunfire went goes off on the field killing the ex-husband and scaring Crystals horse causing her to be dragged until she went free from the horse straps. Later that day, the doctors announce Crystal has lost the baby. Enraged by what Blake thought Mack had done, he invited him over to his mansion to confront him because he told him to call it off and now his child is dead. Mack insisted that he was not the one that killed Crystals ex-husband. Blake refused to believe him and tortured him and killed him. Blake's moral ambiguity cause him to loose his closest friend and Crystals ex-husband still ended up dying. His intention was that it was just to kill Mack since Mack killed someone else, even though it was on his orders.

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Joesephine Johnson - "The Family Man" by Russian writer, Mikhail Sholokhov

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Joesephine Johnson - "The Family Man" by Russian writer, Mikhail Sholokhov

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This story shows that Mikishara’s decisions are based on how many mouths he had to feed and if could not have chosen this path, the result could have been different, more disastrous. He did not want his daughters to suffer after he was gone that is why he had to choose the most painful fate for his two sons (Ermolaev). He could not help his sons, Danila and Ivan. His daughters hated his for the decisions he took. This story shows the repercussions of war.

Mikishara’s actions are justified because otherwise, the white soldiers would have killed all three of them, leaving the daughters behind. To avoid that situation, he had to make a difficult decision. One cannot judge Mikishara because he had to choose between death and life and he chose the lives of his daughters who were young at that time. When one has too many mouths to feed, Mikishara’s decision sounded very reasonable. If he had not, his daughters would have suffered. To take both lives was a necessity at that time (Sholokhov). Even if he had not killed them both, the sergeant would have killed them along with killing him. It was beneficial neither for Mikishara nor Danila or Ivan. The readers have to see his judgment for these actions before.

making any judgments. Hence, his actions are justified in killing both his sons to feed his other seven children.

People may offer different opinions on this story and verdict may vary. Some people might say he was wrong to choose the death of his two sons. When a person is in such a situation where nine lives are at stake, it is better to take two lives to save those who can be saved. His sons had to die to safe Mikishara from the worst fate. This also shows that he, as a father, cares for his children, and rather than letting the sergeant decide for their fate, he decided all of his children’s fate.

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In Kentaro Miura’s manga, Berserk, Guts is known as the Black Swordsman, due to his exploits as a mercenary. In one of his early jobs, he came across a former court physician, Vargas. During Vargas’ time in the court, his employer, The Count, began an inquisition for heretics in his territory. However, it was merely a rouse to capture people, and use them as his livestock. Upon learning that The Count is a demon that consumes people, Vargas flees the court with his wife and children; however, they quickly get captured. Vargas’ wife and children were mutilated and eaten in from of him. Later, he was mutilated. Due to the atrocities committed against him, Vargas begs Guts to slay The Count, after he told his story. In response, Guts ridicules him for not being able to solve his own problems, and leaves. Later, Vargas gets captured again, which leads him to be beheaded in town square. After witnessing this, Guts gets haunted by the vengeful ghosts of The Count’s victims. Thus, he resolves himself to slay The Count, not for the sake of others, but rather to sate his own vengeance. He uses The Count’s daughter, Theresia, as a human shield, which allows him to deal the killing blow. Despite numerous atrocities that The Count has committed, Theresia vows to kill Guts. In her view, Guts has committed evil by murdering her farther, and revealing the truth that her father is a demon. However, the townspeople view Guts as their savior, due to the riddance of a menace. Initially, Guts is shown to be uncaring the plight of the masses, but that is due to hardships he has faced by living as an orphan. Due to this, he became a child mercenary to survive in an unforgiving world. His responsiveness is dulled as a result. The only thing that matters in his world is the survival of the fittest. Nevertheless, the targets for his vengeance are demons, as well people that that actively try to harm him. His methods may be crude, but the world ends up being a better place.

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Dexter Morgan is the main character of the self-titled television show "Dexter". He leads a pretty normal life working as a forensic analyst with the Miami Police Department, but he keeps a dark secret. You see, Dexter has a hobby of murdering people - but not just anyone would land themselves on Dexter's table. He only kills the worst people in society; murderers, rapists, human traffickers, etc. Throughout the course of the show he's forced to make decisions that cause him to challenge his beliefs, but he always keeps his personal "code" in mind to guide him through these situations. While what he's doing is wrong, he's only targeting people that society would be better off without. This begs the question - is what he's doing okay? This is, in my opinion, what makes Dexter such an interesting character, and show.

Written by Stephanie Penaranda

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In movie Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief, there was a young man named Percy who thought he was a Loser who had bad dyslexia. He has a beloved mother and has a disrespectful, rude and annoying stepfather. He only had one friend and he was on crutches. Percy went on a field trip to a Greek museum and that was the day his entire world changed within a few seconds. A monster tried to kidnapped him but his crippled best friend and his teacher who was in a wheelchair saved him. But the monster said one thing that stuck to him, Where is the lightening bolt. Percy was very confused. From that day on he knew he was not normal and that his life wouldn't be normal ever again. After all of that he found out that his best was Satyr. Percy, his mother and the Satyr was on his way to a camp that Demi-gods go to and on the way his mother was kidnapped by his uncle Hades. From that day on he was on a hunt trying to find the gate to Hell. On the way to Hell he had to fight multiple monsters. He eventually found Hell and was talking to his Uncle and his uncle was asking for the Bolt and had no clue where the lighting bolt was at. But inside of his shield had the Lighting Bolt. Percy had no idea where it came from because it wasn't his own shield, someone gave him his shield. Eventually Percy got his mother back and was able to go up to Olympus and give the Lightening Bolt back to his Uncle Zeus. Not only did Percy prevent war between his father and his uncles but he also was able to meet his father for the first time.

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One of the shows that I recently finished watching in which the characters can be viewed both as protagonist and antagonist is Money Heist(La Casa De Papel). It’s about a group of criminals(burglars) that come together to plan the perfect bank robbery, the bank of Spain which holds the most money. Their leader, the professor, is the one with the plan and if you watch the show you have to admit it's perfectly smart. Not only is it well planned out how to rob the bank but how to do it in a way where they come out as the good guys because when we think of robbers we view them in a negative way. Since they are robbing the most important bank in Spain their robbery is being broadcasted everywhere and at first they are seen as the bad guys. However, everything changes when the people see that they are sharing the money with everyone. The scene where a hot air balloon goes across Spain dropping millions of dollars for everyone was proof that they weren’t doing this only for themselves. The characters(el profesor, Berlín, Tokio, Nairobi, etc.) do hold unusual professions, that is of being burglars but do it without ever hurting anyone. As we know most burglars will get rid of anyone who stands in their way of getting their money but not this team. For that reason the professor recruits every single one of them after looking at their record because he knows that they will never hurt anyone else. Their compassion for others plays a very important role in the plan because if they want to stay on good terms with the people they must not hurt any of the hostages. It’s important to mention that they aren’t just doing it for the money but because they want to provide for their family or get ahead in life since they come from a low income social class. In the end they are able to get all of the money out and releasing all of the hostages safely. In the eyes of the people of Spain they are viewed as “heroes” while on the other had to the police they are the most wanted. This worked out in their favor because all the team wanted was the money for good reasons and not to hurt anyone in the process even though a lot of obstacles were in the way of their plan. I really enjoyed the show and I highly recommend it if you are into action.

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Moral Ambiguity in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

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Moral Ambiguity in How the Grinch Stole Christmas

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In Dr. Suess’ best-selling book and holiday favorite, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the main character, the Grinch, plays a pivotal role in conveying the main message of the story. The Grinch is morally ambiguous because he is portrayed as the villain of the story, and he has some unresolved hatred in his heart. At the end of the story, not only does he stop his evil acts, but he has a complete change of heart. The Grinch contributes a lot to his community once he learns the true meaning of Christmas and is understood correctly. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Grinch begins by abhorring the Christmas spirit and all the citizens of Whoville because of their state of happiness and friendliness. In an attempt to get rid of his least favorite holiday forever, the Grinch steals all of the presents in the town, which is an evil act. When he hears the people singing jovial songs on Christmas day, he quickly realizes that the holiday was not dependent on material things. This touches his heart, and we see his heart grow in size due to his new understanding. By seeing how quickly the Grinch changes from evil to good, readers can better understand the impact  Christmas spirit can have on a community. In this context, the morally ambiguous main character creates conflict in the story and interests the audience.

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In the show "YOU" originally written by Caroline Kepnes, we follow the main character Joe Goldberg who is established pretty much as this crazy stalker person, later on the show doubles down as he kills a person and does other heinous activities. But then the show traces back to where Joe feels empathy and relates to the situation "Ellie" is put in. Joe stops her from getting sexually assaulted. Not only that he shows genuine care and resents when others are treated badly, juxtaposed to the fact he himself has killed many people without any regret.  This type of behavior is present throughout the rest of the seasons placing him in some where between a serial killer and someone who does the most to help out as much as they can.

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In the Japanese manga Naruto, the character ‘Pain’ in the later volumes wants to create peace between all nations through his ideology. His philosophy being the world is in a never-ending cycle of hate and there will continue to be hatred unless everyone can be united. The solution to this is to have all the nations and people understand what it means to feel pain as a bonding experience. In hopes of understanding each other’s pain, people would create peace to not experience that type of pain again. Now how is everyone going to experience pain? Well, through war and weapons of mass destruction of course. He sets out to do just that along with his organization, Akatsuki. His philosophy is extreme and debatable especially considering the political climate and feel of where the world is in the story at this point. However, it’s understandable why Pain believes this philosophy. During his childhood, Pain, formerly known as Nagato became an orphan during the brutal second Shinobi War. Neighboring nations would fight in his country, which was located in the middle. They were able to fight with no regard for those who lived there and with no damage to their own nations or civilian citizens they could care less about casualties of an outside country. After the war him and his two friends, Yahiko and Konan, were looked after and trained by their sensei, and when they got older, they too decided to help others. Soon after, the third Shinobi War started and they were targeted by other village leaders. This situation ended with Yahiko sacrificing himself while Konan was being held hostage by those leaders. As a result, Nagato once again felt pain. The excruciating pain of losing his best friend and provided him with a new realization of the world. And thus his philosophy was born. This character challenged even the main protagonist’s beliefs and asked the protagonist if he himself could think of a better solution for stopping unnecessary wars and pain, which at the time he could not. Pain is one of the best known villains in the series that many find themselves rooting for once his tragic backstory came to light. He built his village back from ruins and advocated for their land to not be used as a war zone but was betrayed. He is considered one of the strongest characters so far and is relatable to the protagonist because of how their stories start. You know exactly why he was trying to achieve peace by doing it this way even though he felt the lives that were lost along the way were for the greater good. He is morally ambiguous in that he wants peace for the world but wants to achieve it through violence. And that doesn’t necessarily feel right.

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The anime series, “The Promised Neverland”, is about a promised made between humans and demons that they would live in separated worlds. In the demon world, there existed farms that began breeding humans. When a demon ate a human, they would take in their attributes which would prevent them from degenerating into monsters. In one of the farms, Isabella, also known as “mother,” was a caretaker of orphans. This antagonistic character is conflicted between taking care of the orphans and obeying the demons that feed on the children. Initially, Isabelle was seen as a caring mother but as the show progresses, we see her true nature. She was just looking out for herself because that’s the only way she knew how to survive by obeying the demons. However, when the children escaped, she is seen troubled and is incarcerated by the demons, but she is given a chance to capture the kids for her freedom. But when she finds the children, she defends them and helps them escape from their horrible fate.

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Moral Ambiguity in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Ryan Bottitta 

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Moral Ambiguity in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Ryan Bottitta 

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The Star Wars series is one of the most popular and beloved movie series in entertainment history. For this post, I'm specifically going to write about Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Spoiler Warning if you haven't seen the film!!
Much of this particular film centers around Anakin Skywalker, the prophesied "Chosen One" whose destiny was to bring balance to the Force. From the time he was discovered as a child, he was wise beyond his years and familiar with machinery and planes- something that interested the Jedi. As he got older, he fought in numerous battles under the guidance of his mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi, become one of the most powerful Jedi ever. In Revenge of the Sith, he and Obi Wan rescued a kidnapped chancellor named Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who in turn appoints Anakin as his personal representative in the Jedi Council. As the movie continues, it is slowly revealed that Palpatine is actually evil, and begins to tempt Anakin with increased knowledge about the Force, as well as the dark side. It is around this time that Anakin begins to have scary dreams showing his wife, Padme, dying in childbirth, as she is pregnant currently in the movie. His fears over her potential death causes him to accept Palpatine's offer to learn the true power of the Force in order to prevent Padme's death. This results in Anakin crossing over to the Dark Side, much to the dismay of Padme, Obi-Wan and the rest of the Jedi. When Padme and Obi-Wan go to confront Anakin, he strangles Padme with the Force in a fit of blind rage after thinking they arrived there solely to kill him. As a result, Padme falls unconscious and Obi-Wan engages in a battle with Anakin on the bank of a river of lava. Eventually, Obi-Wan uses his lightsaber to cut Anakin's leg off while he was in mid-air, and leaves Anakin to fall into the lava bank below, screaming in agony as he yells "You were supposed to bring balance to the Force, not throw it into darkness!" After Obi-Wan leaves, Palpatine and his men arrive to take Anakin and work to fix his burned body. At this time, Padme gives birth to their twins- Luke and Leia- before dying, having lost the will to live after realizing that Anakin was never coming back to the light side of the Force. Due to his severely burned body, Anakin is then placed within a black suit, therefore officially become Darth Vader. He is informed by Palpatine that Padme has died- but not because she lost the will to live, but because Anakin himself had killed her, which the audience knows is false. Anakin, now as Darth Vader, begins to scream in agony over the guilt of killing his wife- the one person he wanted to save and the whole reason he did what he did during the movie. It is a cruel irony that while he did what he did to save her, he did end up losing her inevitably, too blind by his love for her and his fear over her death to realize that he was being manipulated by Palpatine.
He was morally ambiguous in this film specifically for that reason. His intentions at the beginning were good; he wanted to desperately prevent his visions of her death at the end of her pregnancy from coming true, and would do anything possible to prevent it from happening. Even if that meant going against the Jedi Order and crossing to the Dark Side. Eventually, his desire for more power that Palpatine could give him began to reach a similar level of importance as preventing Padme's death, which resulted in his blind rage and refusal to return to the light side, despite Padme's tearful begs. He loved Padme, but he also loved power, and would do anything for either one of them. However, his desire to protect Padme and achieve more power left him blind to the manipulation tactics Palpatine was using in order to break him away from the Jedi.

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In the play Othello by William Shakespeare, Othello himself plays as a person who is morally ambiguous. In the beginning of the play in Venice he is in love and gets married with Desdemona a white Venetian, he is the general of the Venetian Army and is both respected and not respected by some such as Desdemona's father. Racism in the society bring pressure for Othello to do well as a general. This pressure that Othello feels being black African in a white dominated society of the rich upper class ties in further as the play goes on. You can see the building tragedy between Othello's good morals and the lies that Iago has put in his head to believe that Desdemona has cheated on him with Cassio the Lieutenant. This took him to extreme anger and lengths by believing that he should punish by killing Desdemona and later himself. It shows that although Othello wanted to be good and do good as a general and husband even with adversity surrounding him, he still had building anger in his heart because of the feeling distrust and insecurity being in Venetian Society.

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In the movie Gone Girl, Amy and Nick Dunne are a morally ambiguous married couple. The movie follows the mysterious disappearance of Amy Dunne and chronicles what her husband Nick has to deal with as a result of her becoming a missing person. The movie tells the story through the current events of their lives as well as through flashbacks and voiceovers from both Amy and Nick. From the very beginning, it is obvious that the happy couple in the flashbacks is in stark contrast to the unhappy and disconnected couple that exists when Amy disappears. As is common in almost every true crime story of murder or disappearance, the first suspect is always the spouse. Both the police and the media are extremely suspicious of Nick and pick apart every word and facial expression he makes from the moment he reports Amy missing. While Nick is not exactly the most likable character, the audience spends the better part of the movie grappling with the possibility of him murdering his own wife. He is framed as the bad guy, a husband who is disconnected from his wife and seems indifferent throughout the investigation. He is also framed as an aloof, pretentious, misogynistic man who had an affair. At the same time, Amy is being portrayed as a brilliant writer, loyal wife, and the police and media in the movie have a positive view of her due to the famous Amazing Amy books that her parents based on her childhood. The audience is meant to view Amy as a potential victim and Nick as a potential abuser or murderer, but there are certain things about Nick that cause uncertainty about this. The audience can acknowledge that he is not the greatest person, nor the greatest husband, but they must debate whether that makes him evil enough to cause harm to his wife. The first time I watched the movie, my opinions, and guesses about what happened to Amy and what type of person Nick is changed almost every five minutes. During the climax of the movie, a discovery is made that switches the viewers' perception of both characters... causing even more confusion than before. This revelation shows the moral ambiguity of both Nick and Amy Dunne, and the lines between good and evil and victim and abuser become increasingly blurred. The moral ambiguity of these characters is what makes the movie so striking and compelling, keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat.

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In Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre”, Edward Rochester is a morally ambiguous character. He is depicted as an awkward and mean person who makes Jane feel very offended in the beginning. He is rude and disrespectful. He keeps his wife Bertha locked in the attic at Thornfield for years and he is being dishonest because he hides his past. He attempts bigamy and then tries to convince Jane to be his mistress. After I read more in the book, I realize Mr. Rochester is a kind and caring man who shows true sincerity and concern towards Jane. He is a responsible person and cares about people around him. When his wife set the house on fire, Mr. Rochester rescued all the servants and tried to save Bertha but he ended up losing his sight and one arm. Mr. Rochester is a sophisticated character and his positive qualities shine throughout the book once we get to know him.

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Bad Principle Bad Morality unveiled by Huckleberry Finn

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Bad Principle Bad Morality unveiled by Huckleberry Finn

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In the Conscience of Huckle Berry Finn, displayed the friendship of morality and sympathy. Morality and sympathy becomes an ongoing battle as Finn tries to help his slave friend run away from his slave owner. Finn has been struggling with his morality and what is the right thing to do. Jim had plans to rescue his wife and children from slavery or even steal them. Huck hustled up a canoe and paddled ashore not long after he encountered by some slave mongers looking for runaway slaves. In the moment of questions, Huck struggled with what is the right thing to say or do.
The author over and over showed Huckleberry in fair light of showing sympathy towards a slave. His conscience throughout the story has been shaped by racism which was what he know but struggles with what is good morality in saving his friend.
Huckleberry show us that in the heart of a bad situation, good can come from it if we shape our way of thinking. He knew slavery was an inhumane act and decided to do his part. A great lesson here is that it's never too late to look into ourselves and make a change.

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Moral Ambiguity embodied by Severus Snape

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Moral Ambiguity embodied by Severus Snape

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In the hit movie and book series "Harry Potter," which follows the story of a wizard named Harry Potter, and his fight against the Dark Lord, Voldemort during his time at school called Hogwarts. At school there is the introduction of the then Potions Professor, Severus Snape, who is shown to be dark and always reacting in a very mean and cold tone to Harry, always favoring everything against him. Portraying him to be very rude and often times outright evil, where he is in the dark muttering things to himself or seemingly conspiring with the dark lord. In future books/movies we find out Severus was always on the side of "good," but instead was protecting Harry by infiltrating the dark to obtain information. Then even showing how Harry's father, a character who passed long before the setting of the books, and primarily a positive character. Was in fact Severus' school time bully, flipping the script and truly showing moral ambiguity.

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In the Spiderman universe exists a symbiote named venom and this symbiote ends up bonding with a host named Eddie Brock. Venom, in many cases, is depicted as a villain but there are also moments where he is depicted as an antihero. In the recent Sony films, the antihero rolled is prioritized as we see venom doing many things such as eating bad guys or destroying a rocket to beat Riot, another symbiote. Venom serves to be a nice contrast to spiderman because unlike spiderman, who's actions are purely just and do not leave much in regards to moral discussion, Venom tends to kill and cause havoc to get his his job done. Venom's actions make us have to stop and think because they can be seen as good or bad depending on how you view things. Venom kills robbers to save a person, this makes you question, was what he did right? He did kill someone but then again, he also saved someone so he really makes us have to use our moral sensibility to think for ourselves and view his actions differently.

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In James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues," both the narrator and his brother are morally ambiguous characters. Sonny, a jazz musician and a heroin addict, is the foil to the narrator, an algebra teacher who tries in vain to save Sonny, to make him see the error of his ways. The story is narrated from the brother's perspective. Although their society-- Harlem in the 1950s-- would position Sonny as the bad brother and the narrator as the good one, Baldwin challenges this dichotomy through the dialogue between the two. We realize that Sonny feels things more deeply than his brother; his vulnerability to the pain of growing up black in an apartheid city is the source of his genius (music) and his self-destructive tendencies. On the other hand, Baldwin reveals the morally upright and responsible narrator's blocks against feeling deeply. His lifestyle is shown to be a defense against pain, not unlike Sonny's addiction .