My thoughts on the moral limits of fiction.
1) Don't make your story just pretty glittery colors: make it communicate a good moral message, and make it clear.
If you can't think up a good message, open the Holy Gospel on a random page and work with what Jesus tells you. Actually, do so even if you just thought the most epic message up.
2) Don't just watch silently: even without a narrator, your story should clearly condemn evil and exalt virtue. Always.
3) Multiple gods: are not okay. In the Bible God tells us once and a thousand times that he doesn't like being replaced, so why do so in our stories, media, and culture?
4) Avoid the myth, not the creature: many cool mythical creatures come with uncool, often horrendous backgrounds. Using your imagination is of course a good thing, so if you like to imagine a talking white horse with a horn, that's perfectly fine, just don't call it an unicorn and research on the ancient myths -- there is nothing good on that, let me tell you.
5) Magic: although the word may have been "cleaned" and used to no end in our popular culture, magic is still the name of something horrible and dark. Try an alternative such as the superheroes's superpowers, why not, and definitely call it something else than 'magic'.
Another interesting bit I think is that healing 'superpowers' should be used with mighty caution in your story. If you are careless, you might end up devaluing life with your healing and reviving skills. The very existence of a revival superpower might be questionable unless is God Himself giving it back-- for God and only God is the source of all life.
6) The Hero: he or she will be your main character. To make our hero heroic, look up the 10 Commandments. Admire them, study them, love them, and actually make your character follow them!!
Of course of course, but your hero, like everybody, has flaws. Excellent! But do keep an eye on this -- he shouldn't be even worse than the villains; and above all, he's supposed to be trying to observe those Ten Commandments, trying to overcome his flaws. And he doesn't have to entirely succeed, but he can't give up with it either.
If he does wrong, remember to punish him, in a clear crystal view. God's ways never require any type of sin in order to advance; theologists agree that should Adan had not sinned, Jesus would've come to the world anyway!
7) The Villain: Aha, so "the article just got interesting"? Watch it! Going "out of character" by one moment let me explain something to you: we humans are born with something called "attraction to evil" which is a consequence of the original sin. It's something we are called to renounce to in order to receive the Holy Baptism and become sons and daughters of God.
So let's renounce. Let's not approve or consent or pursue this inner attraction to evil we feel.
I know you must be throwing an inner tantrum by now, believe me, I sometimes feel mad about it too, but avoid the "cool, charismatic villains" like the plague. Otherwise, you'll end with a sharp rock for everybody to hurt their souls against, don't.
Lastly, if your villain is really evil, don't tell us all about it. Wanting to know to the latest detail of a crime is another manifestation of our fallen nature. We mustn't let it win. A good example of this is the scene where Scar cold-bloodedly kills Mufasa... did we really need to see that? No. Of course not. It would have been enough to know that Scar tried to kill Simba with a stampede, in some other way.
8) Don't murder the bad guy: most bad guys are bad because they have the "the end justifies the means" mentality. Don't pick it up you as well and think it's good that the villain dies so the hero can finally live happily ever after.
Villains that change to good are almost unheard of these days; why not reverse the tendency and show that despite we are all sinners, God's mercy can really leave our pasts behind? Then, your ex-villain can become as cool as you wish.
9) Rivals: are good alternative to villains. You know, you don't have to be evil to give the hero something to do! Your rival could be after the same goal as your hero. Perhaps their goals could be incompatible. Maybe they could band up together sometime... a world of possibilities.
10) To be continued...
