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I’m assuming either the readers are young or don’t like nuanced stories. Characters CAN be grey and, I think what bothers me when reading the comments, is how they refuse to see that. People have to be either good OR evil to them but that’s not interesting or even how people are in real life. We’re just people who make both good and bad choices and do both good and bad things.

Heiner is an incredibly interesting grey character but they need him to the a villain so the FL can be a victim. They need her to be some powerless damsel in distress when she isn’t. Her character is also grey. But the people who write that off are really missing out on enjoying a nuanced story because they can’t view characters as anything outside of ‘red flag’ or ‘green flag’.

No, he literally drove her to suicidal depression, so what if he's morally grey, he's still shit but well written. He's literally abused the FL mentally, yeah he's traumatized so what, what did Annette do wrong. Literally nothing. I've read lots of morally grey characters, they are interesting to read but it doesn't mean I'll support them.

I think you're the childish one here. We can understand a character's motivations and still believe he's a massive piece of shit.

Having a tragic backstory while committing egregious atrocities against an innocent woman does not make someone a 'gray' character. If anything, I think you're the one who is unable to distinguish nuance.

She isn’t innocent. She’s also grey. Maybe we’re reading two different stories or you skipped over things but she isn’t 100% innocent.

I also don’t think you know what nuance means? There are shades to characters. Yes, he did abuse her. Yes, he has a tragic backstory. None of that cancels out. But it does create a nuanced character where we can understand their motivations. That’s what makes an interesting story. That’s what opens them both up to redemption. :)

We might not be reading the same story or you might’ve skimmed the chapters? Or maybe the novel does explains it better.

But Annette is not a complete victim. She did benefit from the atrocities and was willfully ignorant of the suffering of those around her. I’m not saying that justified her abuse. I’m saying she’s a victim in some instances but not in others. That’s where the story creates interesting nuance and categorizing each character as STRICTLY either “victim” or “villain” doesn’t work.