A well written SELFISH character?

[akitsukino]

I want to know, who is the best written selfish character from a story you can think of? It can be from a movie, a book, anime, manga, comic, webcomic, your own webcomic. The reason I ask is because I've got a story cooking and I want the main character to be one who starts off as selfish and manipulative but then comes to the realization that there are people who need things more than they do. Only problem is I can't think of any characters off the top of my head who immediately show traits like this. I also imagine it would be pretty difficult to write a character with a vice like this without making them too unlikeable or hard to watch. So what have you got? Who is the bets selfish, well written, and, at least, semi-likable character you've ever seen/written? Any advice you've got on how I could write one would be well appreciated.

[joannekwan]

Dr. Gregory House is pretty selfish and jerky, but I don't think you want to watch 177 episodes of House so I'll try to sum him up best I can. He's very much an asshole but he's very witty and sometimes charming without being too smooth which makes him likable in my opinion. He's also a sympathetic character; putting his personal problems aside, he's a doctor trying to save people's lives so he doesn't have time for patients' bullshit and lies. He can be pretty pitiful at times with his personal life, but that just adds to his depth.

As for something you can read off the bat, in my comic Erie Waters, the main antagonist is fairly selfish. She does experience some character development as well. It's a relatively quick read too.

[lunaartemisasama]

Ok. Not so sure if she is well written, but when you say selfish my first thought is Ruby, the main character of a telenovela.
Rubí Pérez is a poor woman interested only in money and hopes to become rich by befriending rich people. She is beautiful so she seduces men even if it means backstabing and cheating on her "bestfriend" with her fiance just to have an upper social status and be rich.
The end is bad for her of course, but she ends up teaching her little niece how to get revenge over everybody buahahahaha, it ends up with an open ending where the niece is all grown up, and looks exactly like the aunt, and her mission will be to make the exboyfriend of Ruby's fall in love with her, and her son too (why not?). lol I love her.

[solhawthorne]

Have you played The World Ends With You? That game had what I believe to be the single best example of a jerk character growing into someone who 'cares', while still remaining fundamentally standoffish. Without spoiling, the protagonist, Neku, starts off as a selfish person who doesn't care about the people who meets, classic 'nobody understands me' edgy teen style. Over the course of the game, he meets some people, like Shiki, who were genuinely nice and were only trying to help him out, and he responded terribly. Only after she's gone does he feel regret for his action and tries to make amends. It was through his attempts to fix his mistakes that he started to realize how selfish he was. So for the first week he was a pretty unpalatable asshole but by the third week I really liked and cared about him.

I believe the trick to why Neku's development was so fascinating was because he was put into an unpleasant situation that forced him to put a magnifying glass on his own behavior. There was also a bit of "just desserts" in the game so I got some satisfaction seeing him get punished for being rude lol. For your own character, providing opportunities in the story for the selfish character to get their just desserts and then have them reflect on how being a selfish prick caused their misery can be a good way to drive development and make readers care about them.

[kyupol]

Uchiha Madara in Naruto... Freeza in dragon Ball... Shishio in Rurouni Kenshin...

A few examples...

[SleepingPoppy]

Howl from Howl's Moving Castle. I think rather than selfish he was more vain and self absorbed. I see him as a good example of writing a character to be flawed, but still powerful, and most importantly still very likable. It's been a very long time since I read it, so I'm admittedly a bit fuzzy now, otherwise I'd answer you in more detail!

Since its a YA novel, it's easy to breeze through, and on top of being very entertaining, it's pretty easy to pick up on Howl's character traits, and character arc. Without being text book selfish, I think it'd provide and easy to digest example of what you're trying to do. The main character's arc is just as satisfying, if not more so.

((I think a lot of people have seen the anime but don't know it was based on a book?))

[mintycanoodles]

im gonna go with damon from vampire diaries - hear me out tho. he starts off as the selfish and "bad" brother, and stefan the "good" one. as the show goes on tho it blurs. it's shown that damon's pretty selfish about things that don't really matter (he's vain, got no impulse control, does what he wants whenever he wants, and cares only about getting what he wants), but when it comes to the hard stuff he's pretty damn selfless. versus the "good" brother stefan, who's selfless about things that don't matter and a selfish jerk about the big things that really do.

and i think he goes through the most character growth on the show, too, becoming the guy who's jumping to sacrifice himself and/or his happiness at any and every given opportunity.

so I think the best written selfish characters are ones that are shown to be not actually selfish when it counts, or they have a good reason to be. and of course, the way to my heart is always good character growth.

[Heck]

[SleepingPoppy]

It occurred to me a lot of modern adaptations of Sherlock go with the kind of lovable (at least to John and the audience) jerk / insufferable genius version of Sherlock. BBC Sherlock and the American remake give you rather different versions of Sherlock, but they are still selfish and manipulative at times, but also likable. I like BBC Sherlock better, but as a character study you might get more out of the American one!

Emily from Revenge could work too. The show is based around her obsession with getting revenge on all the people that ruined her life by betraying her father. She's cold, and obsessed with her goals, which leads to a lot of manipulation. I never finished the series, but I remember feeling like she was a unique character type for a lead female. She is not a selfish person, but being hyper focused can lead to selfish actions that put good people in danger. The show has a very soap opera feel because of how dramatic it is, but it was good. It might still all be available on Netflix.

[azureXtwilight]

I think in main charater-wise, a better example would be Vegeta in Dragon Ball

[shazzbaa]

There was an interesting like... guideline I heard once, that was something along the lines of:

Likeable, Competent, Proactive -- pick at least two.

If you have a character who's sympathetic and taking an active role in their choices, then we'll forgive them for not being good at stuff (Steven Universe). If you have a character who's making proactive decisions and is competent enough to keep up, then we'll forgive them for not being people we'd actually want to be friends with because they're interesting (House, Sherlock)

But ultimately, that's just a guideline.... it's easy to get caught up in the idea of characters needing to be relatable, likeable in some way. But I kinda think it's more important for us to see where a character is coming from. We don't have to agree with them; we just have to "get it" and want to see more of this character.
So I think what's more important than figuring out how to add "likeable" traits, is figuring out how to be very honest and real about the character's selfish motivations, and how to get where your character is coming from. You don't sit down and say "this character is selfish," because people usually aren't just selfish for the sake of being selfish. You might have a character who believes that no good deed goes unpunished, and thus refused to be altruistic because it'll come back to bite her. You might have a character who simply values their own survival and their own desires over the needs of others. Even something simple as "I want to chase my dream, and if I stay here to be with you, I might miss this chance..... so oh well, goodbye," is a selfish choice, but one we understand -- even if we don't agree with the choice, we can comprehend and relate to that feeling. You might have a character who believes that he worked and sacrificed and suffered to get where he is, and it's unfair to ask him to give others the help that he never received. That character will come off as self-centred and entitled, but if you write them honestly, there's also a lot of unhealed hurt in that kind of person.

Manipulative and selfish people can often be people who are hurt very badly and terrified of losing things they can't afford to lose.

I think it's things like that, that make a character who isn't a good person work. Not necessarily make them likeable, but make us want to know them better and want to see what choices they make, because they feel like real people who have a lot more to them than their vices. If they have Actual motivations and desires and fears, then we're much more likely to want to see them find a way to overcome those things.
The rest is gonna be all about framing; paying attention to what you show and what point of view you show it from and what information you let the audience in on to control what their impression of the situation is.

[Rueleer]

That's an interesting question indeed~ Tbh though, I have a hard time thinking of examples since most selfish characters I've come across are written a bit ham-fistedly, and so I don't tend to enjoy nor care to remember them.

However, I do have one character that comes to mind. I don't really know if other people would agree that he is well-written, but Kei Nagai from Ajin is my choice for one of the most selfish characters that I nevertheless adore. Though, it might be more accurate to say that he is sociopathic rather than selfish, but the main concept is still relevant.

What makes Kei tolerable for me as a protagonist is that his selfishness is logic based. He will always put himself first, because humans are naturally self-preserving, and he'll exploit other people's generosity if it serves to benefit him because why not? It's not like he forced them to do so. But that's all - he's only interested in bettering himself. He won't go out of his way to interfere with others if they don't bother him, and if what he does ends up benefiting someone else, whatever.

It's a cut-throat ideology, but it makes sense when you consider the whole of his character as well as the nature of his supporting cast. The most important part of making a flawed character likeable is to reasonably justify their actions. It's also muchhh easier if you don't let your characters become sadistic. It's hard to sympathise with someone who enjoys other's pain for the sake of it.

So, basically, if you follow @shazzbaa's guideline, Kei falls into the 'Competent' type. All the reasons she lists at the end of her post are essentially why I love Kei and root for him, even though I think he's a pretty shitty person. XD

Hope that gives you some insight, and good luck with your writing~!

(Also, on a side note: I also absolutely adore Kei's 'best friend' and polar opposite, Kaito, who is much more of a stereotypically likeable character. However, I actually think I like him so much - even more than I love Kei, really - because of his relationship with Kei. Due to Kei's absolutely shite personality, it makes me feel that much more for Kaito's compassion. I'm not sure if this is relevant to the main topic, but I just thought it was interesting.)

[aFistFull]

[akitsukino]

That's a pretty interesting guideline. I'd actually heard sometime this before myself; it said that a character doesn't have to so much be likeable or sympathetic as they do have to be interesting and understandable. One of the reasons I brought up the "likeable" issue (which I know is incredibly subjective) is because there have been times when I've watched things with character so heinous and hard to watch that I would give up on the whole series coughharuhisuzumiyacough , but itsworth mention that I am an over sensitive ninny (you've probably seen my posts)! But those are some pretty good points thanks for the advice !

[punkarsenic]

Shaolin Fantastic, from the Get Down, is my favourite selfish character (from my faaaaavourite show.) He's an orphan, raised in a loveless gang where hes abused in every sense of the word, which is why hes selfish; he doesnt know how to love, because hes never been loved. hes a dj, and his best friend who he loves like crazy but cant express it is a rapper - and also very smart, and trying to get into yale. shaolin does all these crazy reckless things to, essentially, ruin his friends chances and keep him in the bronx to make music.
throughout the show, you can see him struggle against this selfish, violent conditioning and try to learn to love his friends properly. hes sooooo complex and interesting, with a real 3d character and arc of development.

the show deals a lot with the concepts of family loyalty and doing things for yourself vs being selfish. i think shaolin would be a good character to look at for what youre after - and the get down is a crazy good show anyway.

[9outofPen]

If you've ever seen Disney's "Treasure Planet," I think Long John Silver is a good example, because you can tell from the start that he's selfish. But even though he's obviously looking out for number one, his insincere flattery turns into something more genuine as he takes Jim under his wing, making him a likeable character.

As long as you give occasional glimpses of the character's true personality, it will give the readers something to connect to and like, I think. If you know WHY they're selfish, or suggest that there's something they care about, or even that there's something that can hurt them like everyone else, it will make them more than just a trope. ^-^ People WANT to like your characters! Even when my sister and I watch the jerkwad footman Thomas in "Downton Abbey," we keep thinking if he'd only be more humbled by some unfortunate events, he could redeem himself as a character. lol

[Mari]

@SleepingPoppy

oh my god seconded so hard, Howl is the best selfish asshole written. The book is my favourite <3 Was going to write a whole bit about Howl and how the book is great and has a stronger message than the animu(which I love, don't get me wrong, but they kinda butchered Sophie's curse) but you did that so. Just you know.