"anti-hero"

2019 · Legion20 · Fantasy

Legion20's massive web serial builds a detailed magic system and a morally complex protagonist around the question of whether someone broken by two lifetimes of trauma can learn to trust, to care, and to stop treating every relationship as a potential threat. The early arcs are excellent, with Lith's strategic thinking, the layered magic system, and the political maneuvering of Mogar creating a story that rewards committed readers. The later volumes struggle with pacing issues, filler arcs, and narrative decisions that frustrate the patterns the story spent hundreds of chapters establishing. But across its enormous length, Supreme Magus offers one of the most psychologically honest takes on the reincarnation protagonist trope, and when the story is firing on all cylinders, the combination of magical progression and genuine character growth is hard to match.

2019 · Eric Ugland · 352 pages · Fantasy / LitRPG

The Bad Guys: Brightblade is the companion series to Ugland's Good Guys, following a protagonist who's everything Montana isn't: calculating, morally flexible, and willing to play the villain to get ahead. The darker tone provides a contrast that's interesting in the context of both series, and the willingness to embrace a ruthless protagonist gives the book an edge. The writing and plotting limitations carry over from the Good Guys, and the dark anti-hero archetype is less distinctive in LitRPG than Montana's warmth was.