It's Not Always Good vs. Evil

In most stories, whether in a novel or a movie, you have the good guys and you have the bad guys, or at least the MC is usually the good guy and the antagonist is bad. But really, it's not always as simple as good vs. evil.

In my WIP, John Dunn, Dunn is the good guy, and the Zulu king Cetshwayo, being his friend, is another good guy in the story. The Natal Secretary of Native Affairs, Theophilus Shepstone, is the bad guy. But I wouldn't call him evil. He conspires against Dunn, and turns on Cetshwayo by siding with the Boers against the Zulus in the border dispute, but really, is that evil?

Cetshwayo, truth be told, was responsible for the deaths of an awful lot of people. His own Zulu people. For instance, when he called for his armies to report for duty, a lot of them failed to appear, claiming illness. So the king sent out his elite force and killed every man who had stayed home pretending to be sick.

Another time, when a female regiment refused to marry the men Cetshwayo told them to marry, he had them executed. So I ask, which man was really good and which was evil? But who's to say? Shepstone tried to force the Zulus to stop their executions. They didn't appreciate that. They felt that the Europeans had no business coming into their country and trying to tell them what to do and what not to do. It was one of the many factors that led to war.

Is it all subjective? Who is right? Who was good and who was evil? Well, you'll just have to read the book. This is going to be a good one. It better be. Otherwise, I wouldn't be writing it!