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The Power of a Morally Gray Hero
- Jill Brashear
- Oct 23
- 2 min read
As a romance author, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make readers fall in love with a character. It’s not always about the chiseled jaw or the charming banter (though those don’t hurt). Sometimes readers want a hero who blurs the lines between right and wrong to achieve their goals.
In First Blood, David Morrell introduced the world to Rambo, the original morally gray hero.
The Broken Hero Before It Was Cool
When First Blood hit shelves in 1972, America was reeling from the Vietnam War. The country was divided, disillusioned, and trying to make sense of what “heroism” even meant anymore.
Enter Rambo.
He's a highly trained soldier who returns home only to be misunderstood, mistreated, and pushed too far. He’s lethal, but he’s also lost. He’s not fighting for an enemy anymore; he’s fighting to survive in a world that no longer has a place for him.
Before Rambo, heroes were clear-cut. You had the good guys and the bad guys. Rambo blurred those lines. He was a victim and a villain. And readers couldn’t look away from the train wreck of his quest for survival.
We Crave Characters Who Struggle
Even though First Blood is an action thriller, it taps into the same emotional undercurrent that drives romance. Rambo struck a chord with readers who mistrusted authority. Rambo wasn't a traditional hero. He was something both broken and dangerous, flawed, and deeply human.
Rambo had the same kind of inner conflicts that make a romance hero compelling. Whether it’s a grumpy single dad afraid to love again or a soldier haunted by his past, readers are drawn to that emotional complexity.
David Morrell gave us a character who was both sympathetic and terrifying. Readers felt Rambo's pain. They understood why he broke. And that empathy is part of what made the book unforgettable.
Fresh Grit
First Blood was praised for its gritty realism and relentless pace. It read like an action thriller, but packed an emotional punch. Morrell was writing in a cinematic style before there was such a thing. The fast pace, moral ambiguity, and human vulnerability combined to make this book a blockbuster hit before it was immortalized on the big screen.
Great analysis, Jill. I would just disagree that Rambo is the first morally gray hero though. Don't forget about film noir! Or the literary noir private eyes. Raymond Chandler's Phillip Marlowe or Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer are both very morally gray. Check out Hammett's "Red Harvest" for a real thug of a hero. Did you like the First Blood movie? I just watched it last night and thought it was pretty darn good.
I find it interesting that First Blood was published in 1972, before the war even ended. It makes me want to read other books from that era and compare the story lines. I know there are plenty of stories about how returning soldiers were treated (which was cruel and abysmal), but Morrell's First Blood gives that soldier an almost antagonist slant on purpose. Was this a common theme, the irredeemable ex-soldier who provoked the establishment on purpose, or was John Rambo the exception? He's so morally gray, he's almost the antagonist. That said, Teasle is NOT a hero by any means. Can you have a book with 2 villains and no heroes? Apparently so.