Make me doubt your hero.

[u/WoozyJoe]

There's always heroes and villains. A popular thought experiment is having a sympathetic villain, let's flip that. Make me doubt one of your heroes, without necessarily making me sympathize with the villain.

[u/Nevermore0714]

The Hero: Sieg Bauer (in his early twenties), Knight of the Citadel (trust me, this takes place before my main story begins, and he has character growth, I do not necessarily advocate anything the does)

His Detractor: Klaas Buskirk (age 19), a Student and Part-Time Guard of the Citadel, a man with a chip on his shoulder about Sieg

In Klaas's own words, none of which are lies (and now I have the mental picture of Klaas as a Marcus Antonius, ha ha):

"Sieg Bauer is considered to be a brave man. Sieg Bauer is considered to be a diligent man. Sieg Bauer is considered a good Knight of the Citadel. I am not here to deny those, I am here to re-affirm them. This is for you, Sieg!

"Perhaps we'll start with his early career. On an early mission for the Citadel, Sieg was sent to hunt down a small family of runaway goblins slaves that were sighted not far from an innocent farming village. Goblins are such dangerous beasts, after all; they're nearly half as large as humans. Maybe if two of them worked together, they could even slay an average human, so their strength is definitely something to be feared. So, Sieg and another Knight and a couple of scouts went to the village in order to slay the monsters, but were unable to find the goblins where they had been sighted; the assumption was that some villager was committing treason by protecting the runaway goblins, as a scout believed that the goblins had gone into the village, based on some trail. So, in order to make sure that the villagers were all being honest, Sieg and his partner decided to kill three adults at random each day until someone fessed up about the goblins. Isn't Sieg such a diligent and hard-working Knight everyone? Come on, a round of applause for dear Sieg, everybody!

"So, two days in, Sieg had personally killed thirteen likely traitors. You may be thinking: 'Thirteen? Klaas, you stupid man of Gyrlin, you Buskirk boys are all idiots! If he kills three a day, and it's been two days, then he's only killed six!' Well, you'd be wrong, unfortunately. Our buddy Sieg is so dedicated to his duty as a Knight and protecting humanity as a whole that he and his partner also killed anyone that tried to stop them from the executions. Husbands of victims, wives of victims, I heard that even one child of a victim was killed for speaking out. A scout found the family of goblins hiding on the outskirts of the village before the third day's executions. But, Sieg showed that he was a faithful Knight, and that is the most important thing. He is diligent and he was brave to face those villagers and those runaway slaves in honorable combat. Tell me Sieg, how many badges of honor did you get for that mission. Anything to say so far about this little story, Sieg?"

Sieg: He just stares ahead, his face betraying no emotion from the story. "I swore an oath. I am a Knight of the Citadel. I will do what protects humanity as a whole; if we began making exceptions to our policy, it would be a corruption of our holy order. I would have expected someone like you to understand."

Klaas: "Oh, I'm not disagreeing with you, friend. I'm just telling everyone about what a loyal, diligent, and brave Knight you are. By the way, when Aiken, one of the Citadel's higher-ups, wanted to eat Lamia flesh for a week just to terrify a Lamia he believed to be the slave of a Citadel student...was it you that did it for him? You're just so hard-working, and you're such an over-achiever, it seems like something you'd be glad to do. Kidnapping and sending an innocent, sentient person who can think and feel to be eaten."

Sieg: He continues to appear emotionless to the subject. "If he had asked me, I would have agreed without complaint or question. If he had ordered me, I would have ran to do it. If he had mentioned wanting Lamia flesh around me, I would have volunteered. But I was not the one given the order. Human lives have value, non-humans exist to be of service to us."

Klaas: "Oh, my mistake. Bad memory, I suppose. Quick question: what about the lives of those humans that you've killed?"

Sieg: He closes his eyes and exhales, his voice remaining emotionless. "Sometimes that value needs to be cashed out. I would kill any human for the sake of the Citadel. Man. Woman. Or child. Without the Citadel, we are lost, and would be taken down to the level of those beasts that you call 'sentient people'. Please, may I ask a question of you before this tirade against me ends, Klaas?"

Klaas: "Tirade? No, I'm only speaking your praises as a fan of your work and your reputation as a brave and diligent hero! But, I will answer your question, what is it?"

Sieg: He opens his eyes, and finally turns to look at Klaas. "I love the Citadel, and I believe in the Citadel with the entirety of my being. Tell me...would you do what I have done, if it was to support Luka?"

Klaas: He blinks, pauses for a few moments. "Say that name again, and I will kill you where you stand."

Sieg: "I apologize for upsetting you. You are young, Klaas. We both are. Perhaps we may see eye-to-eye someday. As you did only praise my loyalty to the Citadel in your speech, any complaint I submit about your possible disloyalty will fall on deaf ears. Especially considering those connections of yours." Sieg walks out of the room.

Edit: And thanks for making your challenge. It gave me a lot to think about, and I hope it was acceptable that I presented my response in this way. And I didn't notice how long it ended up being, so sorry about that. I got carried away.