What makes a character unlikeable?

Writing Desk Archive
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What makes a character unlikeable? What personality traits do you guys as readers don’t like to see in a character?

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2

Obnoxiousness :confused:

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3

Characters who aren’t willing to learn. But, honestly, I don’t think any trait is inherently bad.

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4

Someone who who did something wrong and blamed it on others.

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I can not stand whiny characters. But I can accept a character being obnoxious at the begining of a story if the plot revolves around them growing (i.e. Coraline, Re:Zero, Etc.).

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  • Cheaters. I seriously cannot stand these types of characters nor can I root for them.

  • Someone who bullies innocent people just because they feel like it. I don’t find it funny, endearing, nor worthy of my admiration.

  • Mary-Sues. They’re so predictable, they’re good at everything, loved by everyone, the most special person on earth, always doing the right thing… meh, boring.

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I hate shy turned cocky MCs. I see it all the time on Episode and it’s so annoying. They get upset at every little issue too to cause conflict for the plot and ughhh… no.

With other obviously bad traits- such as cheating I think that this can be a good move but only if the author acknowledges that the character is a bad person like that. Like a main character CAN be bad but what makes me completely stop the story altogether is if the author tries to justify the MC’s actions and the characters just go along with it.
Like let’s say the MC cheated… “Oh it wasn’t my fault! It was my ex!”

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8

A lot of Episode stories seem to promote this. There’s even a featured story called “The Ultimate Affair” made by a community author.

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9

What’s also disgusting about that story is that they made the husband (MC’s husband) the bad guy just because he has vasectomy. WTF!

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10

Wasn’t that The Pregnancy Game? But I still agree. He wasn’t the best husband but him having that shouldn’t be the reason he’s the enemy.

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11

There was an INK version of The Ultimate Affair. But man, that story was absolute trash but laughable because of how disgusting it was. Glorifying cheating…so not cool and definitely not cute.

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12

MC: “My husband got a vasectomy without my permission, that’s not right. So, I’ll be cheating on my him with my neighbor/friend husband to get pregnant. Seems fair.”

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I won’t lie, I’m not on the husband’s side for not telling his wife he got a vasectomy because that’s something you should’ve talked about and informed her, but what the Mc did was way worse lmao.

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I get what you mean and of course, he should have talked about this before doing it. I don’t have any sympathy for the MC because the fact that she cheated on her man was a total d!ck move. I wouldn’t take her back if I was the husband.

In general, I don’t condone cheating unless the person is being abused or not getting the love that they deserve from their partner.

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I think that’s what the author tried to make it seem like that was the reason why she did it. But her husband wasn’t abusive or so insanely inconsiderate. Yes, he was disrespectful at times but all he didn’t want to do was have kids. He’s not 100% a good person for that however the Mc isn’t an angel either and is worse.

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16

When they’re ‘pErFeCt’ and overconfident.

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  • Cheaters
  • Hypocrites
  • Doormats aka let people walk all over them and never stand up for themselves
  • Abusers
  • Druggies
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Those are my biggest problems with the story why did he not disclose that he had a vasectomy to his wife and why is cheating shown to be validated in these types of stories, just because the MC and “LI” are in crappie relationships doesn’t mean that what they did is fine

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19

Exactly, I’d like to know because it doesn’t make any sense. I feel like they just gave a hand fisted reason for him to be seen as the bad guy. The author makes it seem like people who don’t want kids should be seen as the bad guy.

Especially since these issues aren’t super big. Yes, he lied about having a vasectomy but you constantly had this idea of wanting kids without taking consideration of what he felt about it, instead called him selfish for not wanting to have them like you want to. And the LL is a jobless jerk to his wife.

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I agree with (at least) most of this so far, but there is something that I really CAN’T stand - MCs that what attracts them is a man being evil and hostile towards them.

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