Irredeemable Protagonist: Yay or Nay?

[Sully]

Hello there! I've been thinking a lot lately about flawed main characters, and I wanted to get some opinions on the matter.

I would like to make a story about a terrible person...and I mean, really terrible. However, I don't have any intention of making it a "redemption story". Rather I would like to pose a question: "Can this person who has done awful and even irredeemable things still do some good? Even if it won't change what they've done in the past?"

What are your thoughts on flawed or even downright irredeemable protagonists? Do you find them interesting, or are you turned off by them? I'd love to get some of your guys' thoughts.

Thanks a lot!

 

[APieceOfRock]

I find them very interesting. At least more interesting than the goody-two-shoes protagonists. The concept of an irredeemable person striving to do good despite his actions being useless really clicks with me for some reasons.

Unfortunately, some reader I've seen see any flaws other than 'clumsy' and 'oops! I'm dense and can't tell that a girl loves me when she clearly does!' to be a turn off. I mean, why do you even like reading flawed protagonists when the only flaws you acknowledge is things that are played for joke and have no significance to the plot or character development whatsoever? Flaws are supposed to be there for the protagonist to grow out of and get over them. And if they aren't, at least make them have some impact on the story beyond 'oh, this person is clumsy he's so quirky haha!'

Anyways, I ranted for a bit there. Back to the main topic. I like the thought process of someone who's mentally scarred from the thing he had done in the past to the point that just him acknowledging that he can actually do a bit of good in this world would make him cry in happiness. And someone, just someone acknowledging him for the good deeds he had done instead of the bad ones gives a sense of worth as a human being.

 

[Le_ther]

Yes, it might annoy people and give your book a bad review but who cares? Most people prefer reading books where the mc becomes redeemed out their sins but straight up evil mc can also be good depending on how you show their actions, character progressions, and character depth.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Good luck with your execution.

Most readers will be unable to relate to your MC and thus, not read your book.

To be honest, I tried and failed to write an irredeemable MC solely for a couple of reason.

1. Cringe. As in, why is he evil/ bad? If he is bad because of some backstory, then he is just cringe, lame man unable to get back up from past mistake, which earned him a remark of "man up and get the hell up". If he is bad because he wants to be bad, then he is cringe for being a manchild.

2. Humans like good things. Us humans are mopeyass who enjoy reading good things. While we do enjoy carnages every once in a while, we all do like to stand on the moral highground and feel superior. Kind of why we have genocidal hypocrites as MC in CN, betacucks JP MC or just straight up "I'm a grind bot" KN MC.

3. Moral even horizon. Because once your MC eats babies, he is no longer the MC, he is the devil himself. No one likes a baby eater, so either you give your MC a good reason to eat babies, like he is dying or the babies are evil. If not, your MC is not good.

The odds are that your irredeemable MC would either make way to a soy MC (The Breaker) or assigning relatable characters next to MC like the Slaughterer Hero and his stockholm syndrome side chick.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Irredeemable doesn't exist, though the worse a character is the more time and effort is needed to complete redemption in narrative. If the char has no interest in being good then no redemption will occur. But changes of heart can potentially happen quickly, if their world is turned upside down and realizations happen.

A character that has no intentions of being good will likely only seek out self fulfillment, which may include doing good things that please them. The intention was selfish, even though some good was done.

 

[NotaNuffian]

A character that has no intentions of being good will likely only seek out self fulfillment,

Every porn WNs made. Especially JP and their hypnosis.

 

[georgelee5786]

A flawed protagonist is a realistic protagonist. Giving your OC flaws makes him more real. And I do find downright irredeemable protagonists interesting,

 

[Southdog]

Sure. Just don't forget to make the character compelling, too. You can't expect audience engagement if the depth of your being is "i kick puppies and burn orphanages."

 

[TachimeSan]

What is better, if I might ask you, to be born good? Or overcome your evil nature through great efforts?

 

[Daitengu]

You mean like Dexter? Eh, it's a thing.

Personally, I don't find them interesting. Mainly because RL is already full of them. Real villains just can't be beat. From Nestle to Ted Bundy, it's hard to learn about em all. I just have no need of fictional mc villains.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

What is better, if I might ask you, to be born good? Or overcome your evil nature through great efforts?

Born good. Hands down. Overcoming evil? Oh, that's totally a bitch and a half. There is no cheat code for that. Trust me.

 

[K5Rakitan]

Different readers will have different opinions. Write what inspires you, and someone out there will also love it.

 

[lenardlumiyon]

I think it depends on what kind of "evil" you're going for.

If you're going for the naive version of evil that does evil things just for the sake of being evil, then I think you're going to have a hard time. There is one instance of this type of character that works pretty well imo, which is Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb. He works because he is incredibly incompetent which adds to the humor.

I think the more realistic "evil" person is someone who does morally reprehensible things, not for the sake of doing evil, but simply to satisfy their selfish desires. If you make this type of character incompetent, I think most people would be turned off and think of it as cringe.

If you make them hypercompetent, however, I think it can work out well. There are plenty of popular stories like this: Dexter, House of Cards, Death Note. I would personally find it interesting to see (1) how they use their cunning to do evil things in an incredibly big-brained way, (2) how they interact with and affect the "morally normal" characters, or (3) what their story has to say about the way society perceives morality.

Basically, the story doesn't necessarily have to be about the protagonist, but everything that surrounds the protagonist.

 

[SailusGebel]

Yay.

 

[Lloyd]

Hello there! I've been thinking a lot lately about flawed main characters, and I wanted to get some opinions on the matter.

I would like to make a story about a terrible person...and I mean, really terrible. However, I don't have any intention of making it a "redemption story". Rather I would like to pose a question: "Can this person who has done awful and even irredeemable things still do some good? Even if it won't change what they've done in the past?"

What are your thoughts on flawed or even downright irredeemable protagonists? Do you find them interesting, or are you turned off by them? I'd love to get some of your guys' thoughts.

Thanks a lot!

Just make your character a terrorist or something.

 

[Notadate]

I like them, and don’t. You gotta write them in a way where you can understand them in parts. And not make everyone hate him (readers) to the point where you they don’t want to read. This one book on RR has a character (MC) who just bat-shit, but not in a fun way. He is narcissistic, probably insane, kills anyone that even gets near him, the author wants to be smart but is actually dumb (narcissist). That doesn’t top it off, but that a brief thing, and he never gets better, and barely shows any emotion except snippet. I think he has god complex from being somehow the only one who knows game knowledge.

 

[Frank-9976]

Hello there! I've been thinking a lot lately about flawed main characters, and I wanted to get some opinions on the matter.

I would like to make a story about a terrible person...and I mean, really terrible. However, I don't have any intention of making it a "redemption story". Rather I would like to pose a question: "Can this person who has done awful and even irredeemable things still do some good? Even if it won't change what they've done in the past?"

What are your thoughts on flawed or even downright irredeemable protagonists? Do you find them interesting, or are you turned off by them? I'd love to get some of your guys' thoughts.

Thanks a lot!

Reminds me of one of my favorite video games (LISA: The Painful) so I think it definitely has potential. But as other people said, it is hard to do right. I don't have any advice because I don't really read enough to be able to say anything others haven't said, I just wanted to put out there that I have enjoyed that sort of thing before.