What does it really mean to be morally gray?

In this episode of What Lives in the Lacuna, Remy Renard and E. Donohue explore one of fiction's most enduring character archetypes: the morally gray character.

Beginning with trickster figures from folklore, including Coyote, Loki, and the Sídhe, we examine how stories across cultures have used morally complex characters to navigate survival, change, and uncertainty. From there, the conversation moves into philosophy, comics, dark romance, and modern storytelling, asking whether morality can ever be separated from context.

Along the way, we discuss moral philosophy, reader interpretation, Batman, Deadpool, Dexter, John Wick, Legion, and the uneasy line between hero, antihero, and villain. Rather than offering a single definition, this episode embraces the complexity of morality itself and asks why morally gray characters continue to resonate so deeply with modern audiences.

• What makes a character morally gray?
• Trickster figures in folklore
• Coyote, Loki, and the Sídhe
• Moral philosophy and ethics
• Consequentialism, virtue ethics, and deontology
• Reader response and morality
• Heroes, antiheroes, and villains
• Batman, Deadpool, Dexter, John Wick, and Legion
• Dark romance and comics
• Why morally gray characters remain so compelling

• Coyote America by Dan Flores
• Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
• The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec
• Over Nine Waves by Marie Heaney
• Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
• Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
• John Stuart Mill
• Jeremy Bentham
• Simon Stern, "From Clapham to Selena"
• Valentin Jeutner, The Reasonable Person: A Legal Biography

Remy Renard is the author of The Florilegium Cycle, an Appalachian dark fantasy romance series set in Lorewood, a town where monsters are ordinary, folklore is real, and every story leaves its mark. Drawing on a background in the humanities, education, and storytelling, she explores the intersections of literature, philosophy, folklore, and pop culture.

E. Donohue is a professional horticulturist and author of many works of creative non-fiction about ecology and our connection to the natural world. She is also the aspiring author of The Raun Cycle, a historic grounded fantasy trilogy set on the Isle of Man, Ireland, Scotland and England at the time of the Roman invasion. Drawing on a background of ecology, anthropology, and creative writing, as well as a lifetime study of folklore, she explores the science and archeology behind the magic of folklore.

Podcast IG: @whatlivesinthelacuna

Podcast TikTok: @whatlivesinthelacuna

Remy Renard
www.remyrenard.com
IG: @remy.in.the.wild
TikTok: @remy.in.the.wild

E. Donohue
www.edonohueauthor.com/
IG: @e.donohuewriter
TikTok: @edonohuestoryteller