I'm not saying go out of your way to piss people off, but there's nothing wrong with experimenting.

Most of the occasional criticism I've seen about your work has been along the lines of "[established character] wouldn't do that" or else some continuity comment. Of these the former is the more difficult. If the reader doesn't buy the motivations of the character then suspension of disbelief is broken and the story fails. That's why I've generated a sprawling cast of own-creation characters that I can be the final arbiter of; nobody can really object to what they do as being out of bounds if I'm the one making them do it.