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okay, just for fun, I want to talk about making an unlikable protagonist.
Now, most stories dont do this. After all, the protagonist is usually supposed to be someone the audience cheers for.
But some stories do have an unlikable protagonist, so lets see if we can find out how that can work.
One way, is to have the character grow and change to become more likable as the story progresses. Sometimes, its a single event that transforms them, other times it might be a number of things that cause them to have a change of heart. A classic example of this is "A Christmas Carol", where ghosts change the heart of Scrooge.
Another way is to have an even worse antagonist. By having a villain who is really awful, the flaws of the protagonist seem less important than defeating them. To me, one example of this is the first "Dirty Harry" film. Harry isn't a nice guy, but the person he's tracking is so awful you pretty much dont care.
the last way is just leave them as unlikable. This is the most difficult to pull off because we're so used to having a clear "good guy" that you risk the audience just turning away from the story altogether. An example of this that in my opinion didn't quite make the tightrope work is a novel called "Invisible Monsters" by Chuck Palahniuk (who also wrote "Fight club").
The main character of the book, Shannon McFarland is an ... unpleasant person, to the point that even that fact she has a tragic backstory (a former model who was shot in the face) doesnt get her much sympathy from me. She seems to believe that her now-deformed looks have made her invisible, and therefore she can just do whatever chaotic thing she wants. (To give you just one example, she goes on a road trip along with her ex-boyfriend and spends the trip secretly giving him female hormones, not out of revenge, but just to see how long it will take him to notice the effects.) And even though she has what I think is intended as something of a redeeming moment, she spoils it by giving the impression its still all about her. The character is not helped by the writing style, which starts with a climatic moment and then jumps back and forth through time in a somewhat frustrating manner.
Now, of course, this is only my opinion, and others may love the book, but for me it shows the risks of having a really unlikable character as your focal point.
Comments
It is hard to write this
type of story.
We have so much literature, media and the rest promoting the 'hero' (or 'superhero') that bad guys are portrayed as really bad or even evil and must be dealt with by the 'hero'/'heroine'.
Writing something with Mr Nasty as the central character is a challenge. It is hard.
It just does not seem to be in our nature to do this. Even scrooge isn't truly bad (wouldn't want to work for him though).
We do see stories here where the bad guy gets magically changed into a nice and invariably beautiful woman but the proportion of the story where the bad guy is present is usually pretty small.
Perhaps it could be the subject of a competition here?
Thanks for this post. It is very thought provoking.
Villain Protagonist
One could write a story with one of those. (Grandpa in "Grandpa Takes Beth to Bikini Beach" is sort-of one.)
How about a story where the protagonist is portrayed as a hero even though he is the villain of the story? You've fooled the reader into rooting for villainy. The reader only finds out near the end.
-- Daphne Xu
Grandpa Takes Beth
Thanks for mentioning this story. You've got me curious and I've just added it to my to-read list.
As for unlikable protagonists. The problem is in how you define "unlikable". For instance, the only redeeming quality that I can think of for the Joker's girlfriend Harley Quinn from Batman is that she is faithful to the Joker. She does many unspeakable things that can ruin people's lives just for a moments laugh. But many people find her likeable as a literary character. In real live, I'd be terrified of living in the same city as her.
I have plowed through many forced feminization stories in order to find the occasional story that like. In the few stories that I have found that I love, the villain is having a having a merry old time playing with her toy, doing things that are hideously wrong in real life. In some of these, the stories are written from the villain's point of view. The forced feminization stories that I like are always incredibly funny.
If you want your protagonist to be unlikable in the story then that is hard. If you will settle for having a protagonist that does things that are despicable in real life then your job is easier. You could try making the story funny. You should definitely indicate why your protagonist is doing what they're doing.
I'd love to see you try doing this. You're a good author who's written many wonderful stories. I'd like to see how you handle this challenge.
The Challenge
Thanks for the challenge. It's definitely a challenge to my muse. Maybe I'll think something up. (Actually, "The Race" had villainous viewpoint characters, although I won't dub them protagonists. It was just a very short story, an exercise in being nasty and having a little fun with it. A couple readers did manage to find a certain humor.)
I might try more substantive stories, either with villainous protagonists or innocent protagonists who become villainous through ignorance, deception, or other mode. Maybe I could introduce Deliberate Values Dissonance.
I have the idea that if the masses are deceived, then perhaps the reader should be deceived as well. I think that Star Wars II could have been effective if made with Senator Palpatine as the Good Guy, and the Jedi Order as having been corrupted. (Not wholly false...) There would be hints that things wouldn't turn out so well...
-- Daphne Xu
Oh yeah!
Recently seen a joke that strikes too close to the heart:
All of the Super Villains tried to improve something.
All of the Super Heroes fought them to make things stay the same.
I remember science fiction by one of the grands, Heinlein?..., where a protagonist cheated to create impression that moon is very rich in gold and precios minerals. He was later condemned as an enemy of the mankind, but result of his actions was that multiple ways to go into outer space from Earth were developed...
But the guy in the book was quite likeable...
Flawed vs unlikable
There is also a fine line between flawed and unlikable. In many cases a flawed character can be more likable than the goody-two-shoes variety. For example it appears that in modern crime/detective series it's more or less mandatory to have a flawed protagonist. Then the question is whether they are unlikeable or not.
While I personally only very seldom have used an unlikable protagonist it does actually open for lots of possibilities. However, be prepared to receive less kudos :)
So and sos
As an exercise, I wrote a story with multiple viewpoints in which each character was an unlikeable as possible, 'Hard Memory'. Rather an odd experience!
I Think a Lot of Readers...
...like to have a protagonist they can at least sympathize with: not necessarily one they're personally similar to, but one whose ventures they can follow without rooting against them or -- worse -- not caring whether they succeed or fail.
One fights that at their peril, so to speak, when it comes to getting people to enjoy one's (fictional) story. (Non-fiction's different.)
I recall that Arecee told me once that he was getting complaints while writing Assassin that his lead character wasn't likable. He explained to me that he didn't intend him to be, and didn't think anyone should have thought otherwise given the title and the premise.
You weren't here back in 2006 when an author called Fakeminsk wrote a noir-styled serial called "Constant in All Other Things". Before he gave it up (thirteen episodes appeared, all near 15,000 words in length) there seemed to be almost a competition as to who was worse: the protagonist or the agent manipulating him, or for that matter the background villain that (in theory at least) he was being trained to assassinate, if the guy didn't kill him first. It got to be too much for me, but never really lost its following.
Eric
I've been toying with the concept of an unlikable protagonist.
I've been toying with the concept of an unlikable protagonist. I'm still kicking around ideas to make it viable. I do agree it is a challenge. I think that the problem really is that most readers want to see the character evolve into something positive. That's why the "positive change arc" of stories is generally more prevalent.
It took a while to come up with another avenue. The Warner Bros. cartoon "Animaniacs" had a "villain" protagonist in their "Pinky and the Brain" segments. (Yup! I went deep in the well for that one...) The Brain was 'unlikable' but wasn't 'detestable', he wanted to "take over the world". 'The draw' was the comedic interaction with Pinky and Brain in addition to seeing Brain get thwarted. How that can be applied to a TG story? Well...
Hugs,
Leila
I think there is one method missing...
I think there is one method missing and that is witnessing the downfall of a villain from the villains perspective.
Describing a villain who is so bad and on top of his or her game that the reader is rooting for someone - anyone - to show up and throwing a monkey wrench.
Even if it is just some meddling kids ( damn those!).
To slowly witness the master plan unravel and the villain be plunged into fury could be worthy of a story on its own.
We all like to read about how a villain is thwarted, but the "sucks to be you" moment is usually short and close to the happy end.
Switching to the villain's side we see it in all its glory. Like a Rube Goldberg machine, we follow each step at the chaos unfolds.
Unlikeable Protagonist
A long time ago, I wrote a story where the protagonist was an insufferable drunk, brawler and rapist. He was a sort of hit man for a local post apocalyptic warlord until one day he kidnaps and enslaves a woman he was supposed to murder. Using her feminine wiles, she goes on to capture his heart and become his companion in rebellion. He's still a badass but treats her with kindness, and so on and so on ...
It is doubtful that this story will ever get from a typewritten manuscript to kindle. I have looked at it from time to time but the author's writing is so awful I just want to throw up.
Huum
As a movie wasn't that "12 heads in a duffel bag"? The protagonist was definitely not a good guy.
Karen
Jellfree/Lexa
A lot of people seemed to dislike Jellfree/Lexa and crew in Battle For Earth. It wasn't intentional, mind, I was attempting to portray extremely damaged individuals, but I guess they rubbed some people the wrong way.
Everett/Sapphira portrayal in Psyren's Redemption is, however, very much intentional. He is very racists, sexist and homophobic. In this instance, I'm exploring how a person with such prejudices can do a complete 180 and eventually he will become the embodiment of everything he currently hates. He does have redeeming qualities that will become more obvious as he sheds more and more of his bigoted ideals. I'm hoping that by the end of the story, most people will come to like him. Then again, some readers aren't very forgiving, so we'll see how that goes. ^_^
Have delightfully devious day,
Riddick
Yup, the character Riddick from the movie Pitch Black, an anti-hero.
Based on the information until near the end of the movie, he is the villain, yet he becomes the hero.
The sequels, unfortunately, couldn't keep him as the villain so as a character he is more a vigilante, someone with a strong code of vengeance that kills to pay back those that wronged him.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
Strange...
In all of the Riddick movies i've seen it was obvious from the start that he is one of the good guys. Just a bit chaotic and too good for lawful evil authorities.
Only moment I got some doubts about him was the end of the last movie in the series where he is sitting on the antagonist's throne...
that is what I said
it is only in the movie "Pitch Black" where he is an escaped mass murderer that he is thought to be the villain.
Stupidity is a capital offense. A summary not indictable.
Well
Oneshot's Ryan Sullivan from Designer Children is a terrible human being at first. So yeah it's not that uncommon actually. It's one of the ways characters can grow, character growth is one of the most important aspects of a story imo. But a bunch of anime have unlikeable protags but that's probably because I'm picky xD
I know who I am, I am me, and I like me ^^
Transgender, Gamer, Little, Princess, Therian and proud :D
PROtagonist. The answer is in the word
Surely if the reader is PRO the protagonist, s/he may have many faults, but cannot be unlikable. Otherwise, the reader cannot like the story without disliking themselves.
That doesn't mean to say that the main character cannot be unlikable.You can do what you like to them, but the reader is not directly identifying with them.
If the reader does identify themselves with being unlikable, then I guess they are in depression, and certainly does not need our help to make them further depressed. Alternatively, they are masochistic, and enjoy being punished. My story It shouldn't happen to a dog (https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/67592/it-shouldnt-hap...) has a bit of that about it, but the villain isn't meant to be unlikable, only laughable.