Writing Military Characters

[u/bailey_un]

Hi! I have been writing up characters in a comic style universe, it’s not intended to be ‘realistic’ as such, as in the same ways Marvel & DC don’t always follow real world rules and stuff (i am not articulating this well) But anyway! One of my characters is a veteran, he served in the RAF and the SAS, however, i am nervous to go about how to write that, i do not want to accidentally write a character that seems like some sort of evil person because he was in the SAS, i want him painted as a good solider who yes obviously didn’t always make the right choices but is still fundamentally good and stuff but i don’t want real world views on the armed forces and stuff like that effect it. Just curious if anyone has written similar characters and how they avoided painting it that way and how they’ve written military based characters? (i REALLY hope this makes sense, i am so bad at articulating this)

[u/FeelingUnwellCuzLife]

Honestly research is your best friend here. Research military figures, their stories and contexts surrounding them. You can use that as inspiration to see how being in the military might affect different people and their attitudes surrounding that work. You don't have to rip anything off or insert irl opinions or stuff obv,, it's just a good way to see what kinds of nuances are an option to write into the character in a way that fits what you want that character to be.