Books unlikeable characters Your Protagonist Is a Terrible Person — Can They Still Be Likable? Sure, they’re utterly reprehensible — but you still want readers to root for them. By James Davis Nicoll | Published on July 30, 2026 Teddy Bears Never Die cover art by Andy Bourne Comment 0 Share New Share Teddy Bears Never Die cover art by Andy Bourne Suppose that you are an author. Suppose you want to write about a protagonist who not only has a slight flaw in their character, they are by any objective measure reprehensible (as we’ve discussed, there are more than a few examples of this phenomenon in science fiction and fantasy). Further, suppose your purpose is not to provide the audience with the opportunity for delicious disapproval of appalling behavior. You want the readers to like your terrible, terrible protagonist. What is a hardworking author to do1? I can think of several options… A common approach is to provide the protagonist with a tragic backstory that explains how circumstances beyond their control set them on their dark path. Maybe criminals killed their family! Perhaps they grew up a feral child in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Or maybe their father ate their last French fry. If their past is dark enough, it’s hard to blame them for their present. In Aliette de Bodard’s 2023 A Fire Born of Exile, naïve scholar Dã Lan was betrayed and condemned. Years later, wealthy but seemingly unremarkable social climber Quỳnh appears. They are, of course, Dã Lan in a new guise, returned to exact revenge on the people she blames for her downfall. Who would not want to pay evil unto evil? One can always place the protagonist in a milieu where any sort of decency is synonymous with suicide2. In a world where a boot is stamping on a human face forever, the best available option may be to be the one wearing the boot. If there are no better choices available, nobody can be blamed for not taking one. Despite the previous paragraph, this doesn’t have to involve dystopia. Simply present your protagonist with a sufficiently challenging context—existential threats on the scale of nuclear war or total ecological collapse aren’t necessary. Even a small thing like a shipwreck will do, if no help is coming—assert there are insufficient resources to save everyone, toss in phrases such as “lifeboat rules,” and Bob’s your uncle. Well, until you toss Bob overboard for being surplus to requirements. Take, for example, Cho Yeeun’s 2023 Teddy Bears Never Die’s co-protagonists Hwayoung and Doha. Hwayoung’s quest for justice for her mother’s murder left her a potential victim for ruthless landlords, gangsters, and serial killers. Axe-wielding teddy bear Doha would like his human body back. Hesitation to take certain bold steps would not simply ensure failure but death… and possibly worse. Another option is to confront your protagonist with people who are even worse. Is your protagonist a ruthless mercenary willing to work for anyone with sufficient gold? Set them against the fanatical armies of a dark Sauronian overlord bent on WORLD CONQUEST. Does your protagonist have anger management issues? They won’t look so bad compared to sex traffickers. Is your lead a little bit murderous? That’s better than being extremely homicidal. Not only is being morally compromised usually better than being a moral vacuum, the narrative can make the case that the protagonist serves a useful purpose. After all, without the flawed character being willing to do unpleasant but necessary things, evil might run amok—when you think about it, anyone who protests is objectively on evil’s side. Jorj X. McKie of Frank Herbert’s 1970 Whipping Star lacks many of the positive qualities one might want in a human. Just ask his fifty-plus ex-wives. However, not only do his defects make him an exemplary Bureau of Sabotage agent, even at his worst Jorj is a far better person than antagonist Mliss Abnethe, who even now plots to annihilate the ConSentiency with weaponized bottom-spanking. Finally, you’d be surprised how forgiving audiences are of protagonists who are sufficiently charming, cute, or attractive. Provide the lead with witty banter, depict them being adorably inept at adulting, or wrap their smoking hot body in a couple of scarves or perhaps a speedo. Minor lapses like serial confidence games, spree killings, or the odd total planetary destruction will be overlooked or waved away. It’s just the way human brains are wired. Yugo Sakamoto’s 2021 Gen-Z slacker black-comedy Baby Assassins is the work that send my mind down this path. Recent high school graduates Mahiro and Chisato would be by any objective measure terrible people, lacking as they do discipline, ethics, patience, or attention spans longer than a few minutes. Plus, they leave a trail of corpses in their wake. However, they’re just so adorable together it’s easy for forgive minor peccadillos such as their lack of adulting skills and a body count higher than Hannibal Lecter’s. And if all of the above fail? Turn your gaze outward. Look for an audience for whom vice is virtue, people who delight in trainwrecks, folks who would really like to watch the world burn even if only second-hand. Somewhere out there, there may be prospective fans who would be thrilled to see bad people do terrible things. All you need to do is find them.I sense providing examples in this specific case would be an error from a comments section-maintenance perspective. Have I omitted other useful options? Given that I initially could only think of three approaches, almost certainly. Feel free to extol the virtues of your favourites in comments below.[end-mark] Yes, yes, uncontrollable weeping in the shower is always an option. It’s just not a very useful one. ︎Which puts me in mind of the kids in Battle Royale who refuse to be forced into the adults’ evil game and simply jump off a cliff. Sometimes, the only way to win is not to play. ︎ The post Your Protagonist Is a Terrible Person — Can They Still Be Likable? appeared first on Reactor.