: 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

@Turnbaugh521

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In tales well told we should see two main elements: the raw story and the writer’s skill, linked largely by the characters… the more so in fiction. That makes needing the rest to be better to compensate for the unlikable character axiomatic.
Never ye mind no Jack Sparrow nor Long John Silver, Jim Lad. Cast your eye on real pirates like Drake or Raleigh, Morgan or Lafitte. Thieving cut-throats, one and all yet seen by history as heroes who risked everything to save their people.
In fiction, what about Flashman, elevated to serial stardom precisely since his progenitor saw the selfish, bullying rogue as more interesting than far-more famous but milk-soppy, Goody Two-Shoes antagonist Tom Brown?
What d’you make of Lady Macbeth or her poor husband, or Hamlet allowing himself to rot away in the state of Denmark? If you’ve no taste for Hannibal Lecter, consider the Corleone Godfathers or play with The Sopranos. Seize a second to see Servalan not as the unscrupulous scourge of Blake’s 7 but as a woman with the will and skill to become Supreme Commander in a deeply dark dystopia.
Take the time to morph The Master from Dr Who’s eternal enemy into a man superior to most he ever meets, with no greater power to bind him.
Back in real life were Bonny & Clyde “likeable”? Were Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid really comparable to Robin Hood? Were Frank & Jesse James more than murderous bandits? Was Wyatt Earp much better?

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