i dont think "likeable" needs to always mean that theyre a cool dude you would hang out with. They need to be someone the reader can/wants to root for, or relate to, or just WANT to see change or progress or whatevs it is that makes them a person of interest.
I've never been concerned with whether a main character is likeable or not, there are plenty of books, movies, shows and the like with unlikable people being the main focus of the story. Sometimes the focus is on the fact that they are far gone like in portrait of dorian gray Dorian starts out good but he quickly becomes a terrifying character i didn't like him but at the same time I read the whole book.
I focus more on trying to make the characters feel real enough, ore relate-able. But, I try to make the designs likeable for me so that I draw them to my best but other than that I don't try........
Is your main character likeable?
Weelll....sweet ol' human Daniel2 was likable, but vampire Daniel? He was meant to be tragic and freakin' horrible, so I guess some may like him in the sense that's he interesting, but no, he's not a likable person vampire that you'd want to meet in real life. He's not supposed to be.
I think even the most dislikable main character has something to hook you in with, and they can't be so unlikable that you can't relate to them. However, these characters usually become likable by the end of the story. Scott Pilgram grows as a character, which is why in the end you want to root for him.
My own main character Sam in Blood and the Art of Baking1 is definitely a dis likable protagonist and I have to admit, she is one of the most fun characters I've ever written. She's a pale, skinny, unlikable vampire who says whatevers on her mind with an insult filter.
Still it's very subjective. Even if the character is written well, the reader just might not like them because they don't get along with such personality types in real life.
I actually dont know if Teb is a likable character, its all subjective, I would like her to be but someone isnt going to like her
Most often what makes a character "likeable" is how pro-active they are. If they have a clear goal and are working at it with determination then even the jerkiest of them become "likeable". Contrast this with re-active characters, who just passively accept things tossed their way, and you'll see the difference in appeal.
There's room for all kinds of main characters if you're smart about it. Think about Frank Underwood (if you've seen House of Cards). It's hard to imagine a more manipulate, immoral person, but I love the guy and want him to succeed. Also, there's Luke Skywalker, who's gung-ho attitude makes up for the fact that he starts off as a whiney little turd.
Then there are the main characters who are intentially kinda 'normal', and it's the world they find themselves in that's interesting (a la Harry Potter), rather than the main characters who are the interesting part in a normal world (Sherlock Holmes, or Tony Stark). My character at least starts out as the 'normal' one, in order for people to project themselves onto her. So I guess whether or not she's likeable depends on how much you like yourself, haha. But she's alright.
For me it's all a matter of whether a character is a likeable character and not whether they're a likeable person. First example off the top of my head is probably Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother, as there is no denying that the guy is probably a sociopath and has done some terrible things. And yet for fans of the show, he's written with so much humor and energy, and played with so much charisma that he's a popular favorite character because he's just fun to watch as a character. Alternatively there's Dio from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Guy's a complete and total monster, no matter what part of the series you're at, but he's a cool villain. I dunno why, he just is. Maybe it's cause of how over-the-top the whole series is or something.
I find that difficult to answer, I don't know if my main character is likable. He lives in a remarkable world were he 'was' the normal one. But as the story progresses he becomes more and more part of that interesting and new world. How do you define likable? Some people like jerks and others hate the good guys. I think it is matter of personal taste.
I want to try and have my main character, Pyre, have both loveable and hateable actions, thoughts, moments, etc. throughout my comic. Will this work out? When The Spire was a pen and paper comic a friend of mine said he was a (I quote here), "Happy-go-lucky bi-polar idiot who is so naive with everything besides his own life he'd ask a black person who would be evil enough to burn them so badly." I was laughing so hard I projectile vomited all over my lunch, his lunch, and him. It did work however because he then couldn't make up his mind about hating him the next day. All the other people who read the paper edition agreed with the indecision, each with a different list of what they liked/disliked about him. So I'll try to not make Pyre look like a fool on the digital edition this time around.
I have four main characters but I will try my best to answer this.
I don't try hard to really make them "likable" when you try too hard to make them likable it tends to backfire and not everyone will like them anyway. That's just how it is.
I just try to make them somewhat realistic as people, my characters do make mistakes and sometimes really big ones that they sometimes cannot fix later on, especially my character Jack, he's done that twice. The two big mistakes he's made can be compared to squeezing all the toothpaste out of the pack and then trying to put it all back in.
My character Lucy has done some things she's not proud of either.
So both of thse characters have skeletons in their closets.
for my characters this could go either way probably :/
I could get readers that really like my characters for their flaws or some that may not like them because of their flaws or some that may just think.... meh.
It's all about personal preference.
For example
I hate Grell from Black Butler for multiple reasons, one of them being his attempts with suicide to bring humor to the audience and personally that puts a really bad taste in my mouth for reasons I'd prefer not to get into.
I would have liked him a lot more if he was just an insane grim reaper tbh.
A lot of Black Butler's audience really likes Grell though and I can see their reasons, but unfortunately I don't feel the same as they do about the character. I actually I find a lot of the characters in that show to be unlikable and I basically only watched it because I liked the art and my girlfriends kept bugging me to watch it. When season two came out so many people hated Alois but...I actually really liked him :<
Maybe I just have bad taste in characters xD
Characters are people, people are jerks, people can be sad, people make dumb mistakes. Their "Likability" is within the audience ability to identify with them. Woody is identifiable because he was going through a change in his life that upset him and led him down a path he would not have normally gone down (as we see in the first few scenes he's very caring of the other toys) so to see him try to throw Buzz out the window and "kill" him was both shocking but interesting to see how he got to that point.
I don't know much about Scott pilgrim :v so i wont go into that one.
But thats the thing "likable" is a silly thing to say. Your characters like ability is just the same as why you do or do not like your brothers friends but he clearly loves his friends because he hangs out with them all the time. Liking a person is a very personal thing. Just like liking a character. If you don't like woody its because you don't like him or his personally (or because he's a creepy pull my string doll) but that wont stop other people from liking him.
I think people should strive more for Identifiable then likable. No one will be loved by everyone. Not everyone likes Buzz... not everyone likes Lewis Black, and some people don't like your next door neighbor. :v es just how things are.
NOW to answer your question of if my main character is likable? .... I got like... ten stories XD so hard question to answer. I like to think my characters are all messed up in their own ways and prob wont be liked from first meeting. But thats fine, they're not always friendly, so it makes scene. :v
I feel like this is a little difficult to judge for yourself.
As long as all of your characters, including the main character, are well rounded, they are bound to be likable to someone!
The thing that I have been going for for my characters is "real," not "likable." Several of my readers have commented that they like my main character because of a recent thing she did, but I know they may feel differently down the line as things change for her. But...that's the whole point: Character development. I would much rather have my readers hate my main character, then love her, then feel sorry for her, etc than have her remain likable to them throughout the story.
Masahiro1 is hardly likeable at the moment. He's a grumpy misanthropist, far more concerned with his own problems than with the problems of others. He's not a complete jerk - he doesn't abandon little bloodstained orphan girls when he finds them in the woods, because that would be a really jerk-y thing to do - but let's just say he's hardly anyone's ideal of a good person.
And while he has some growing left to do, he won't ever be perfectly likeable - because honestly? I find that sort of thing a little boring. In some cases, a perfectly likeable main character can be pulled off - I really like it when a good person is contrasted against a terrible world, for example - but if the reader/viewer goes in knowing that this person is perfectly likeable all the time, a bit of the tension goes out of the story, IMHO.
@Jelw Hahaha - it's alright if you like him! I'm happy that you do! But I'm also not surprised if people don't, right now; he's being kind of a jerk. I mean, the only reason why he's still got Akane with him is that she just won't stay put when he leaves her. XD
In most comics I've read, I didn't like the main character. Or, I liked him/her, but it wasn't my fav character from the story. And I still enjoyed it. As long as there is one character that can become my favourite- be it main or side character- I'll probably like the story C:
As for my main character, I have no idea if she's likeable : o She's probably a bit annoying, haha~
I like to create characters who cause most of their own problems, or can't see how simple the solution to their problems might be because of their personality flaws. Like, a character who is a jerk because they feel rejected by others, not realizing that it's their being a jerk that is causing their isolation. You feel bad for them kind of like a puppy knocking its own water bowl over, and you want them to learn how to do the right thing.
