@i-am-insane The simplest answer to this problem is to imagine/create/write a variety of characters and scenarios, so that trying to be realistic will force you into a balance. We have all encountered pleasant and unpleasant people, protectors and predators. And there’s a spectrum in between, of course. And a lot of this can be just internal thoughts or emotions. I don’t think I’ve ever written a story, even the “gentle” ones, where a tiny doesn’t feel threatened or a giant doesn’t feel tempted.
Even for scenarios that are intended to be gentle or cruel, it heightens the impact to have an element of the opposite theme mixed in at some point. Developing your characters will necessarily put them through the whole range of possibilities, so that by the end we have an idea of how they’re going to react to the climax.
