When I try to make a morally gray character, I just end up not liking them personally and think they are just an annoying asshole. It's a really art making them work well.
I kind of feel like it's hard to make a truly 'gray' character. You need to show flawed behaviors/beliefs... but you also need to make sure the flaws they exhibit aren't bad enough to turn a reader off. But then you also need to make their good traits realistic, and not accidentally create someone whose flaws are grossly overshadowed to a point where why even have flaws at all?
@@majones117 SK had the same problems with Roland after he sacrificed Jake for the dark tower in the Gunslinger. If you've got a real story, it might be worth it to press ahead with it.
I... wouldn't say he was morally gray? For him, he was doing the right thing. Before his turnaround, he had been indoctrinated to believe in the greatness of the Fire Nation, which would make capturing the Avatar, who seeks to stop it, seem like a necessity. Unless the whole fire nation is supposed to be morally gray.
Zuko really isn't gray though. The whole reason he gets banished is because he tried to do the right thing and spoke out inappropriately. Even when he's hunting Aang, there are lines he never crosses. Zuko wants to do the right thing, he just starts off misguided as to what the right thing is (pleasing his Dad).
The worst "morally grey" character is the hero/heroine that's supposed to be good and we're supposed to totally agree with them and be on their side, but they're actually horrible narcissistic monsters the reader just can't stand - and then the reader starts feeling the same horrified dismay towards the author for them not seeing that they've created a little monster. :-D
A good writer can make a character who does bad things sympathetic and make you root for that character even though you don't agree with what he's doing. I think that's the hallmark of a well written morally grey character.
@@ceve true. But part of me always sympathizes with the main character. I couldn't read a book with the main character being someone I hate and despise. Just a personal preference.
I'm not really sure about that. In terms of how a character is received, the reader is half of the equation. A good writer may be able to write people who do bad things in a way that makes sense, but being able to understand why someone does bad things isn't necessarily going to make you like them or think they should succeed.
Cough *Agent 47* cough He's such a blank canvas that I don't know what category of morally grey characters he fits in. I hope in Hitman 3 the writers explore his 'good' side.
Kind of wonder if humor is a good way to do that. Dark/dirty joke exchanges with a friend or regular at the bar could probably show at least a little of their viewpoint without needing to be an asshole to people.
After rereading Mockingjay, we discovered that Gale is an extremely morally gray character. It’s not that he’s a bad guy or wants to do bad things, just that sometimes (more often than not it seems) his choices and actions are not “good”. They are done with good intentions, but the acts themselves are “iffy” at best.
@@user-ch9zm8jf6z Spoilers! But he didn't blow up Prim! He was an inventor! President Coin was the one that made the call to use the device in such a way. I don't know why people hate Gale so much. He's practically the Tony Stark of their world. He makes inventions for a cause that he believed in. It's not entirely his fault that he trusted in the wrong person. (I was team dump both of them, but I found Katniss's reasoning for despising Gale a bit unreasonable.)
I disagree that make him morally grey. Being morally grey is either doing something bad for a good reason or something good for a bad reason. e.g. Snape ends up turning on Voldermort cause his love gets killed... but up until that point, he was OK with the murder of her child and husband. The bomb Gale thinks up isn't used by him. So his intentions are "good", and his actions aren't bad.
Do you think you still morally grey Character who do too far pranks video but still make a audience funny even if the morally grey Character is hurting other people feeling or social confidence like irl RU-vidr call Fred Beyer and Sknarp channel who do trolls or pranks things that is way too far for some people and many of other seem funny or hilarious?(I'm a bigger fans of those guys.)@@faithfuljohn
I'm from the US, but have always spelled grey the Queen's way. ;) I used to spell other words like, colors/coloures, but my teachers didn't like that. I think it's from reading a lot of UK writers early on.
The "Sin-eater" is one my favourite grey archetypes. Becoming hard so others can stay innocent is very compelling! The rangers protecting the Shire are a great example.
I do that, too. By the end, I might be able to pinpoint a trope it happens to fit, but I don't go into it thinking "I'm writing this trope". I'm just writing.
I think the best "morally grey" characters are the ones I wouldn't necessarily disagree with if we were placed in the same situation, or at least don't know what I would do in that situation. The key is making them compelling and their methods believable. Also, continuity and consistency is king. Especially here, because you could easily make him too good or too bad. I would also point out that its fine if he leans closer to morally black, but over the course of the story becomes a better person. Like Joel from "The Last of Us", John Brooder from "Bone Tomahawk", or even you could argue Roland Deschain from "The Dark Tower" by Stephen King.
I think that Battlestar Galactica is full of morally grey characters like that. I haven't gotten very far in the show, but the characters already made numerous hard choices that likely came at the cost of numerous lives. The best part is, as you pointed out, you feel like you'd have done the same thing, but the show lets you come to your own conclusions.
"Welcome back to yet another episode of Merphy Napier compelling her viewers to read The Gentlemen Bastards and anything and everything by Brandon Sanderson"😂✌️🖤
My favourite type of morally grey character is the kind that makes you get off your self-righteous high horse and say, "Ok, I know that's technically not a "good" thing to do, but given their situation, I get it; I get where they're coming from. And I'm not sure that I wouldn't do the same thing if I were in their shoes". As opposed to just a usually good character slipping up and making a bad decision once in a while that's easily identifiable as a bad decision. I think what makes the difference is putting the focus solely on the character and what they're feeling, and their motives and circumstances surrounding the questionable choices, rather than the action itself and whether it's a "good" or "bad" one from the audience's perspective.
He did seem quite willing to send those poor defenseless hobbits off to do his dirty work for him when he had all those magic powers and could probably have done the whole thing without danger.
@@toshomni9478 No actually the "poor defenseless hobbits" actually chose to go themselves. And no one powerful could take the One Ring or it'd destroy them. Including Gandalf. Or the Eagles. Frodo had to go.
I think he could have been if they had spent a lot more time on his actual arc and been more honest about his youth, indoctrination, disillusionment, etc. Unfortunately we don't actually SEE him make that many life-altering decisions. By the time he becomes Zuko's mentor, he's already saved the dragons from going extinct, lost his son, traveled in the spirit world, abandoned his claim to the throne, and dedicated his life to loving and guiding Zuko. Most of his character happened before the show began. over the course of the show he goes from being wise and helpful Uncle to officially taking a stance against his nation officially in defense of the spirits and balance in the world. He is clearly a man who's learned a lot from his mistakes, but I don't know if he's morally gray. I can't even think of any times he actually does the wrong thing in the TV show other than arguably the flashback when he's a general laughing about burning down a city.
@@dolphinsky24 Uncle Iroh is a war criminal and a big part of Fire nation's imperialist Conquest. The fact that he was a nice person in his private life doesn't mean that his actions didnt damage the world a lot. And of course, he Works to undo some of the harm he caused by becoming a better person and helping the earth kingdom to retake Ba Sing Se ( in amazing poetic justice and all) but even so,we cant forget he has his fair share of responsability in the destruction of countless lives in the earth kingdom and in the southern water tribe. Because besides being a general he was also part of the Royal fire family and Azulon's heir nevetheless
@Mako Cat yeah right , i think in fullmetal alchemist they give so much depth to their characters but we don't get enough time to spent with the characters. Cause greed was portrayed as morally grey but he never do something which was actually bad or harm someone
@@Abi-tm1fj Absolutely. I’ll admit the first bit of the book can be hard to get through, especially if you’re new to the grishaverse. It was hard for me to get through the first little bit too, but now it’s one of my favourite fantasy books. I would definitely recommend giving it another try.
This kind of reminds me a bit of Teresa from the Maze Runner (especially Scorch Trials and Death Cure). She was willing to sacrifice her friends, the people who saved her life, even the boy she loved, because she was convinced she was doing the right thing. She wanted to save humanity and was willing to use whatever means to get there. Perhaps the methods were inhuman, but she thought she was on the right side. I was so pissed when she betrayed them, but it wasn't a super gut punch because I saw it coming. The writing was on the wall. She was never fully a Glader, nor was she completely supportive of Thomas' decisions. And by the end, she was still sticking to her moral code, spouting the doctrine of WICKD till her death.
I love "necessary monster" type of characters. Especially, when we either grow to understand them through the story or there is a plot twist that's revealing that character we considered "evil" actually has motivations that completely change our view of them. I would give two excellent examples from danganronpa series, but unfortunately spoilers and I don't want to ruin this game to anyone.
YES, I’ve noticed that Danganronpa has really well written characters that have interesting motivations and (for the characters that have confirmed backstories) really interesting backstories that really explain how they got to where they are.
10:50 I disagree. A morally grey character who refuses to learn from their mistakes isn't "dumb" nor are they villains either. If anything, a morally grey character who refuses to acknowledge their actions don't match their beliefs is the definition of cognitive dissonance. People who want to see themselves as good while ignoring the not so good things they do or who justify the not so good things they do have a desire to see themselves as good no matter what they do. It would be fun to explore the intentions of why being seen as good is more important to them than dismissing them as being "dumb". A good example of this is Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos. People to this day call her a sociopath, a narcissist, and a manipulator after the truth of Theranos was revealed to the public, but if you watch the HBO doc about the people who knew her or gave her funding for Theranos they tell a different story. Many say she was passionate, intelligent, and determined to change the world of health care. Though Elizabeth's actions didn't match her ideals of changing healthcare for the better, there are still some people in her past that think her heart was in the right place and that she got swept up in doing bad things.
One of my favorite characters is Jaime Lannister and he ends up explaining how people end up becoming morally grey in the text. "So many vows...they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It's too much. No matter what you do, you're forsaking one vow or the other.” Most moral choices are a trade off of sorts and what you judge to be best may have a down side, which might be the only thing you are remembered by, not to mention others may disagree on the up side as well. You also a lot of times have no choice but to pick between bad options. Obey your king or your rebel lord? Both may be wrong or right on some part, either way you are bringing war to the common people who will suffer and if your side loses you are a traitor and may have to become an outlaw. It's hard to be an upstanding citizen even if you try.
It's always about choices and their consequences, or rather, which consequences a character is more willing/prepared to withstand. Also: "What could be worse than having to choose between two evils?" (Kamski, Detroit: Become Human)
I haven't finished the video yet but there's a very interesting morally grey character in a German book series called "Alea Aquarius" , he follows his own goals and doesn't take a particular side, he's his own side with tendencies that can be in favour of one or the other. SPOILERS: He saved the main character's life several times, for the selfish reason of getting something called the Silver Cloak, which lets you see in the future and would finally give him his rightful place as the prince of his folk. It's really interesting because you never know weather you should trust him. In a recent twist he bonded with someone the mc is looking for and this person has become so important to him that he gave up his goal to protect them. I really enjoy watching him shift and evolve, instead of just staying the same. ... I'm really bad at explaining-
For morally gray characters, I'm gonna recommend HunterxHunter. Only one of the five members of the main cast doesn't fall into any sort of morally gray standpoint, and a lot of the villains are also morally gray.
@Tom Ffrench I think he meant Leorio, as he's a good guy all around. Hisoka is a scumbag all around, its just his quirks and charisma that keeps him entertaining to watch nonetheless.
Merphy thank you for all the work you put into these videos (reading the comments, summarizing, giving examples etc.)! Also (not the biggest takeaway from the video) you changed the position of the Austen + Alcott collections and Peter Pan - because that has to be in the centre, agreed (no offense to the other mentioned, amazing authors).
@@robertblume2951 while I would agree they are the most like “a good guy” in the story, I don’t think I see them as completely white. They make some horrible/selfish decisions too.
@@Ponderingbooks why does that matter? All heroes throughout time have had flaws. Only saints were morally pure. White/black mortality has to have failures for white/black to even matter. Being good has to be a struggle. Also like I said they have to be good because part of George's theme is that Good people don't make good rulers.
@@robertblume2951 I think you should look deeper in their POVs...They aren't Dire Wolves for not reason. Martin himself has said that all of his characters are grey even the seemingly evil and the seemingly good. He hates white characters. The TV show made them white, in the books they are all grey. It's very anti Martin to have most of his protagonists as white...
Generally I believe that Grey characters are more closer to the Neutral allignments (lawful, chaotic, true) than others. Characters on the Good or Evil spectrum of allignments have a moral code that is higher than themselves. The no-judgement from the author is something I HIGHLY agree with. However judgement from other characters are completely fine as long as it comes from that character and not the author using them as a surrogate mouthpiece.
Thanks so much for toning down the beep when a comment or box shows on the screen. My autistic heart is so grateful I can continue watching this amazing series! You guys are amazing
Bad authors make the character either an innocent ball of sunshine that doesn’t do anything bad or their an apathetic edge lord that doesn’t care about humanity, apparently there’s no in between
I think most of the really good depictions of morally gray characters utilize the same tool as good depictions of villains: they are still the hero of their own story. They are gray because their idea of "right" does not match the common one in their society and they are thus part of an "ideological" conflict. Historically moral and philosophy is full of situations where one mans "rake" is anothers inspiring hero. Dalinar partly benefits from this. Through large parts of his backstory he still has good reasons (to him) for doing what he is doing.
The funny thing is - to me - that the people who can end up leaving the most devastation in a person or people's lives, are the good ones, the ones we love, who can truly ruin us. The bad we expect it, and the grey keep it level so that if we start to expect the good, it's soon reminded to us that, while we may like the, we can't rely on them. "If you do good, people expect good" - Damon Salvator The Vampire Diaries, and maybe it's true, the gray people are the damaged people who feel they're just not strong enough to do good, even if they might want to at times, hence why they're shifting between the two worlds.
"I am dishonest. And a dishonest person you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you have to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly stupid."
Clarke from The 100 (show not book) is a morally grey character which I think was done well. She tries to do the right thing and help people but she repeatedly does terrible things but you can always see why she did them :"I bear it so they don't have to."
I hate when they make a character that is basically Satan, that has slaughtered countless children and burned down several towns…and then give him a sad backstory (e.g. his parents were abusive) and claim that he’s morally ambiguous.
I read the Lies of Locke Lamora this year because of your channel, and I can say it’s amazing and has the best morally gray characters as well. I’m so happy I read it and cannot wait to finish the rest of the series!!
Every time I watch your "Dear Authors..." video I think you should read the Witcher, because so many things that you mention are done exactly right in these books... The characters are just so human and flawed and feel so real.
Ohhh yessss, I was waiting for this video for so long cuz my favorite part about books is when a character is entangled in a weird situation about morals or something special (could be anything)
Can we just stop and appreciate her..she is one of my favorite youtubers.. I think it's something about the way she explains her point.... I was waiting for this video for such a long time... I loved it 😀😃😍 P. S I am out of ideas for books to read so any recommendations , anybody
Morally grey characters is just another way to say *human* characters. All humans are morally grey. Even though some might seem more good or bad than others, "everyone's the hero of their own story" is what comes to mind here. Even the most vile of villains will find a way to justify their actions. Just like the most pure and moral characters can have moments where they do something wrong. Being morally grey doesn't always have to mean they're a bad person. It just means they make mistakes and are complex. Which of course makes for more interesting, nuanced characters to read!
"Even the most vile of villains will find a way to justify their actions" - I actually disagree. The "villain is a hero of their own story" is one that often isn't true to life. Far from justifying their actions, many people who do horrible things will divorce themselves from the need to justify themselves. They'll deny whatever harm they caused, either because they don't care or because they genuinely disassociate from their own actions. Some of the vilest humans on earth did what they did because it felt good to them at the time. Screw the consequences, screw justification, some people genuinely just don't care.
@@jakerockznoodles fair point! I didn't mean that they justify their actions as morally right. Just that they have a justification for their actions. That their actions have a reason behind it, if that makes sense? The Joker creates chaos - and his justifications are that he wants to create chaos and see the world burn. It's not that he sees that as 'right' or 'good' - but it's a motivation, a justification, that suits the ideals of his perspective. And like your point about vile people doing something because 'it felt good to them at the time' - that's a justification too. So is disassociation and not caring. They're justifications for why they're not acting in a strictly moral sense, but it explains why they act that way. Anyway, I'm not sure if I explained myself properly haha but thanks for countering my point!
00:45 "everyone is selfish sometimes..." and some people are fans of Ayn Rand who thinks the self is also a person whose interests are worth serving too.
It seems like starting with morally grey characters as a goal is somewhat flawed. A better place to start might be to give your characters strong motivations and then pit them against suitable obstacles that challenge their beliefs.
Oh my gosh thank you so much for including my comment!!! I love your videos and analysis!! I love this video and everything you touch on is spot on!! Such a big fan thanks so much again!!
I was thinking about the Sci-Fi TV show - the 100. Everyone there is a morally gray character. They don't start this way but are forced to do terrible things to survive and I loved it.😈☺️ Really recommend it.💛
I like heros who are snarky and sarcastic like; Dante(DMC), Gabriel Van Helsing, Burt Gummer, and Ash Williams. Somebody who mocks villains, but would still jump into a burning building to save people.
One of my favorite morally gray characters (or at least one I read as morally gray), is Javert from Les Miserables. He's clearly the antagonist, but he's not a villain. He has a very strong moral code that he adheres to - it's just one that we can see as readers prioritizes The Law over real humanity.
I know it’s not a book series, but I feel like I just have to drop an honorable mention to Bojack Horseman as one of the best and most real morally gray characters ever written across all of fiction.
I'm surprised no one mentions the "broken" character as morally gray. The "this is the only job for which I am suited" character. Where no one forces their decisions, but the character is convinced that anything else would be catastrophe. I might be the only one fascinated by this particular gray-character
The morally gray character in my book has the power to give people what they want and show them where their desires lead them, not because he wants to hurt them, but because he wants to understand what happens when people have their wishes granted, as a kind of supernatural scientist. He even tells them, I can give this to you, and this is what you will have to live with if you get it, and they do it anyway. He's a conduit for human desire, both good and bad, while not being attached to either, and that is why he is both revered and feared in the world in which he lives.
Kelsier and Zuko are the only morally gray characters I’ve seen that don’t annoy me. In both cases, what made the characters work what is that they were motivated by something good but they also had serious character flaws that they just could not overcome. Zuko was always motivated by a sense of nobility and honor and family. He wanted to make his father proud and he wanted to prove that he was deserving of being The prince of the fire nation and heir to the throne. Most of all, he was committed to the idea of regaining his honor after he disgraced himself before his father. As a result, he became extremely focused on capturing the avatar and he became very ruthless in being willing to do just about anything to achieve that end because he had severe tunnel vision. Yet, Zuko really did care about the well-being of others and did not want to see them get hurt and over time he began to realize that the actions he took were not really honorable and that regaining honor is about doing what’s right and not about trying to please his horrible father. As for Kelsier, he starts off in his past hating nobility because of the situation surrounding his own upbringing and he started off excepting the circumstances of the world he lived in and just focus on surviving. He had a serious ego and unparalleled arrogance to where he said about trying to become the greatest criminal in the empire all in the name of getting revenge on these nobles that he despises so much. he was always trying to justify his actions by saying that all nobles were terrible and oppressive and fed into the system that they were trapped in, and so he use that to excuse his cruelty and heartless disregard of the lives he took because he believed they deserved it. Then after his wife died and he spent his time in the pits, he realized that his entire way of life was shallow and he was always focusing more on himself than others. As such, he set about to orchestrate events in order to destroy the empire in the way of life that caused people to suffer so that there could be something better like his wife always dreamed of. Moreover, over the course of seeing this plan to fruition, he began to realize where he was still wrong in his mentality about nobles and he truly began to realize that he wasn’t much better because of his prejudiced mindset. Overall, both men had an innate understanding of what was right and what was wrong and both took actions that were absolutely reprehensible, but they both justified it to themselves by fixating on this one grand moral ideal to the detriment of disregarding all of the morals that they were violating in order to achieve that goal. In short, a morally Grey character needs to be one that is willing to do things that they know are wrong, but they are willing to do so because they are fixated on something that they deem as a greater moral ideal or else they are simply blind to how horrible their actions are because they aren’t thinking about it. A lot of times people just try to make morally Grey characters as people who do some good things and some bad things, or even to where they do some thing and then try to justify why they did it. The truth is that a morally Grey character is a normal person who is trying to do good but they lack the sense of moral conviction that others possess and are willing to do horrible things in order to achieve that goal. They are people who are more focused on reaching a goal then living up to their moral standards. They are people who know that what they’re doing is wrong, but they don’t recognize the fact of their actions. In general, they’re usually just detached from reality.
I've seen a couple of other comments recommending attack on titan, and I would like to add onto that. Attack on titan is filled to the brim with GREY. Not just the main character, not just the villains, but the world itself is grey. It starts off as a simple shonen, with eren being rather generic, altho slightly unusual even back then. The world starts off as black and white, good guys and bad guys, and the show slowly shifts from that into a complex narrative with sociopolitical undertones. Eren yeager (the MC) is definitely an amazing and layered character, but so are many others, including the ones who we thought were the bad guys. Many stories make the villains sympathetic. AOT makes it so you don't know who tf is the villain. Almost everyone is flawed, and flawed in a way that actually impacts the plot and other characters. No one is innocent, and they are all shaped by the world they live in
A great example of moral greyness is in the skullduggery pleasant novels. The main characters tell the world around them that they are violent and fighting the good fight so that others don't have to, but it's constantly toyed with that they actually enjoy the fighting they engage in, as well as their worse acts. They also often compromise, letting someone die to ensure victory, or team up with prior, or even future, enemies. However they still feel guilt when things go awry and they cause mass destruction and death. Doctor who also does this a bit, but skullgugggery does it more consistently, probably since it is the result of a single author rather than the vision of many artists.
I love a rogue with a heart of gold. The bad boy trope is only awesome when they are consensual and not emotionally manipulative which is... pretty much never. A tormented past isn’t the reason for you to be a jerk, Harold.
I couldn't help but think of Batman as I watched this. He commits horrible acts of violence in the hope that no one will experience the kind of loss he himself had. He believes any criminal can be redeemed, partially because he hopes to one day be rid of his own personal demons.
To me, the best example of a morally grey character in recent memory is Teresa in The Maze Runner series. Her motivation is to find a cure to the Flare...at any cost. This causes her to side with WCKD which is an organization willing to sacrifice immune children to produce a viable cure to save humanity. She hates watching her friends go through these absolutely traumatizing trials to become the cure, but not so much that she's willing to stop putting them through it. Because as she sees it, there will be a lot more lives lost if they don't find the cure. An unbreakable commitment to the "greater good" that causes her to do plenty of "bad" in order to achieve it. I love it.
I’ve never viewed Dalinar as gray, but then I also finished my first read of Oathbringer last week and haven’t been thinking about Dalinar’s character much since then... I _do_ love his arc, though.
One of my favourite fictional characters ever is Dr. Gregory House, a true morally grey character. I relate to him so much in that every one of his flaws is something I have struggled with in some way. Seeing a more unhealthy version of myself has been both fascinating and terrifying, and also helped me to have a better appreciation for the emotions of others. He's funny, he's interesting to analyse, and I think watching him has made me a better person in some ways.
She is literally one of my favourite book tubers 🤩 something about the way she talks about books I just like .... there is one thing missing.... more videos about Percy Jackson🤣🤣🤣 srsly though imagine the same kind of hp content she does but its pjo 😲 I do understand if she s not a big fan of the series since it is for younger audience ..... but still 😍😍😍imagine
One of my favorite characters in my story is the first son of the king. he sees what his father is doing to the country and the poeple and he doenst agree with it so he consipres with the enemy and gets the king killed so he himself can take over the throne. he is passionate about the betterment of the country and he acknowledges what he did as wrong but he doesnt see anyone else capable of doing the necessary bad. The younger brother who is the more outspoken one is accused of the conspiracy but to the older brother it is a necessary sacrifice for the mean time. he still has messy matters to deal with that he is convinced his younger brother deosnt have the heart for so he plans to finish the dirty work and turn a clean throne over to his younger brother and confess to his father’s murder. but things dont go as planned and his brother ends up getting executed. being responsible for his brother and father’s death he takes it really hard and starts to lose it... but i am still thinking up some of the details as these plans are for the sequel to the one i am working on now
I'm honestly very surprised that A Song of Ice and Fire is not brought up at least once. Any aspiring writer can learn from the way that series handles characters, in my opinion.
The School for Good and Evil is a great example for books with morally gray characters. The title says good vs. evil, but the characters in it aren't black and white, there are still things that can make them gray. Soman Chainani can write this amazingly, even in the sequel, the Rise of the School for Good and Evil. This series became my all time favourite book series.
My favourite morally grey character is Mal from Firefly. During the movie Serenity, someone is running behind the truck the main cast is in while being chased by the "big bad" Reavers. Mal doesn't consider helping this man up, but he purposely leaves this man to the Reavers, but rather than let that man suffer, he shoots them so he doesn't have to feel the pain he knows the reavers will inflict on him. His 2nd in command asks Mal after the fact why he didn't just save the man when he was so close to getting on the truck, Mal said he didn't want to risk his team
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