Fire Giant Forgepriest

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Saern wrote:
MrFish wrote:
A neutral evil character might out of sheer whim decide to spare and even foster someone a la Hannibal Lecter.

Ninja'd! I was going to mention Lector, but you got to him first. He had genuine affection for Clarice Starling, and in Hannibal, even chose to cut off his own hand rather than harm her. In Hannibal Rising, just about all of his ghoulishness is taken in response to threats aimed at loved ones.

Darth Vader is another example of evil that loves and cares; not just evil, but Dark Lord level evil! He has genuine affection for Luke, although he's become so detached that for a while it seemed as if he could cast it aside in pursuit of the Emperor's goals. In the end, however, he turned to protect his son. One of the only good things to come out of the prequel films was also an explanation of what made Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader; heartbreak over the love lost when his lover and, earlier, his mother died.

Sociopaths bear another mention as well. As mentioned earlier, not all of them are evil. Look at Wrorshak (spelling?) form Watchmen. I'd definitely call him a sociopath, but he's very much an agent of the fight for good (though I can see plenty of grounds to say he himself is not good).

Actually, Rorschach is interesting in that he is a reminder of the fact that people rarely see themselves as evil, even if they're assassins, mass murderers or tyrants. A hard hearted nobleman might see himself as acting well on the part of his realm to execute someone merely for striking an aristocrat--it's preserving the natural order of things. A serial killer sees himself as ridding the world of filth; a torturer is doing a necessary job that fits into the scheme of the state for maintaining order.

I think that good characters in fact ought to from time to time find themselves at odds with the world. A really good example (to me) is in Zola's Germinal in which the young hero finds himself opposed to a brutal senior miner who mistreats his wife, the woman the hero loves. The law and custom are on the brute's side; goodness and right on the side of the hero who wants to save her from him. The paladin finds that most knights are actually venal, arrogant and cold hearted to the lower classes. His conduct is not seen as 'honorable' by them but it might certainly be very good.