: Re: Does the main character have to be likable? I am often hearing / reading that the main character of your story should be likable or even if flawed should be something about them to get the

@Megan928

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Psychologically, people like stories that have a conclusion or resolution - this is why books ending entirely on a 'cliffhanger' (other than as part of a series or other longer storyline) are relatively uncommon.
In this case, a lot depends on how irritating your character is to the reader. The two best options are either a) a largely likeable character with a couple of failings (that probably make him more relatable to), or b) a character so horrible that the reader doesn't mind when he dies. Anything in between those extremes won't be impossible to write about, but subconsciously the reader will be looking for a solution that involves overcoming the bad character traits, so his death won't be a satisfactory ending at the end of the book as he never 'redeemed' his character traits.
Another possible way of gearing the story would be to have others slowly discover that this character is bad over the course of the story, so that their final discovery and his death at the end are the solution. However that calls into question whether or not he's the main character.
TL;DR Your main character doesn't have to be likeable, but it helps a lot if by the end of the story he's either liked or disliked to a pretty strong extent.

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