"Orphans make great characters."

I forget now which professor first uttered those words, but I have since heard them repeated over and over again. Imagine a world with Annie, Madeline, Oliver, Pip and even Bruce Wayne as stable, mundane indivduals with no motivation for self-growth or adventure. I would venture to guess that we'd lose over half of our most beloved stories if the characters in them had grown up in stable homes. Orphaned children are forced into life without tools, without understanding. As readers thrust into a new world we cling to these characters for guidance and explanation.

It's easy to pity an orphan. Afterall, they have been robbed of that simplest and most underappreciated gift - childhood. Whether their parents were murdered or simply too poor to feed them, children who grow up without emotional nourishment will seek it elsewhere. The greatest part of this character dynamic is that you, as a writer, can take it anywhere. You can make a villain who people pity [Vader] or a hero who who slays him [Skywalker]. Though the source of tragedy is often similiar, deciding how a character will react to their tragedy is deciding their fate.

As for my antagonist, I murdered her parents. And like Dick Grayson and his ilk, I have decided to give her the middle-road approach to life. One that produces fits of anger and remorse but seeks to do well for those they care about. As a child who is taken in and guided by a surrogate parent I have given her a set of moral guidlines imposed by a desire to please and seek reward. Whether she will embrace or rebel against these ideals has yet to be decided.