One good example of this is in the Bartimaeus trilogy where we start out liking Nathaniel in the first book, really don’t like him much in the second, and then he is allowed to redeem himself in the third. If we didn’t feel the way Stroud wanted us to feel about the characters the story would not have been as effective.

But I have to say–so far, I feel you’re misreading the character. What makes Dexter most compelling (for me at least) are three things: (1) he consciously acknowledges himself to be a monster; (2) he channels his monstrosities into a very specific code of honor (only killing to save lives); and (3) his prime motivation is the struggle to be “normal.”

In that sense, he is not a villain (or antihero) at all–especially going by the rule of thumb that a villain thinks himself to be right. The code of honor is, generically, perhaps the most significant feature: like Vash the Stampede or Edmond Dantes, the viewer’s sympathy for him is largely contingent on his ability to follow a specific code which separates him from the chaos of other “outsiders” or criminals. If he is ever to kill someone innocent/relatively innocent (and it’s quite likely at some point), then that would probably be closer to the low point of an everyman hero journey, where he has caused horrible things to happen and has no idea how he will “save the day.”

Or he could (at that point) go darkside, in which case the viewer would perceive a tragic turn and the show would never be the same. Joss Wheedon is very good at such turns, especially in Angel.

In any case, the Dexter of the midpoint of season 1 seems, to me, to be pretty clearly a dark hero rather than an antihero.

I think many people are attracted to them for the simple reason that they don’t feel bound by the rules of society. Yes, they have noble intentions or effects ultimately, but instead of wading through all the red tape or waiting in line, they’ll just do what everybody wants to do at some time in their life and cut someone’s ear off or something similar to get what they want.

It’s kind of a fantastical have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too thing.

Also, I would like to comment that one of my favorite villains in literature (Acheron Hades from the Thursday Next series) had an entire family . . . They were all villains themselves, but it was a family none-the-less. In contrast, my all-time favorite villain, Hannibal Lecter, lost his family and that was one of his many motivations (though the family motivation made him a slightly less interesting character and made Thomas Harris seem to be a bit of a sellout in his most recent work).

By the way, I ADORE hearing references to Dexter these days. But I must say that it’s not only a television show. It started out as a book series that is now including three novels and growing.

And, this being my first comment at the actual site, I have to thank you guys for having not ONLY a writing pod cast, but one that isn’t boring, littered with rants about how unpublished you are, or filled with tons of ads (such as one that I really won’t mention because it’s not very polite).

Thank you again.

Thank you so much. That helps a lot. Right now I’m working on a book where as I think about it I realize I DON’T have a villain of any sort in it, and yet it seems to work just fine. But I do have conflicts in it, so I guess those work in place. So, thank you! (And thanks C for at least trying… even if I kind of got more confused.)