A difficult character

[stuckupmyownera]

The protagonist in my latest project is a bad guy. He kills everyone that gets in his way or comes too close to discovering his deep dark secret, including his parents and brother. Oh, and he's a money-grabbing scrooge.

But he also needs to be likeable.

He is intelligent, confident and good-humoured, he loves his wife and kids and he fears being discovered.
Do you think that's enough? Any more tips for making a really nasty piece of work a successful protagonist?

[Raghu]

Sounds like Terminator.

:):):)

[nielsty]

Just include some "save the cat" moments(read Blake Snyder's book) to make us like him/understand him. If we don't understand why he does his bad deeds, then he won't work as a character in my opinion

[icerose]

Study likeable badguys. Like Dexter and such. They don't need to be saints to be a good main character, and complexity can really draw the reader in. You do have to have some level of sympathy going on. If you can show him in his torn moments, show us the vulnerability and so forth you can pull it off. It will take a lot of work and a balancing act, but it can be done.

[jessegrillofilm]

I am writing a mobster script right now and had the same thing. As long as your charter has set rules for him self you should be ok. The charter I am writing has strict guidelines of loyalty and wont rat on anyone no matter what. A good example of this is in god farther 3. Remember when they are all in that large room right before the helicopter comes in and guns them down. One of the head mob guys says something like "yeah we deal in gambling and we kill people but we wont sell drugs." As if that makes him a better person. If that does not work just have him petting a dog. Everyone likes dogs. Also I just saw this a little in LA confidential a little with Russels Crows charter. Yeah he is a corrupt cop and he beats the crap out of people but he hates wife beaters, giving him some redeeming value and making the audience side with him.

[Stylo]

Your protags parents and brother would have to be ten times nastier than him for it to work, otherwise it's going to be hard for an audience to warm to him: The reason Dexter's accepted is because he's killing evil people.

[HeronW]

Think Hannibal Lector--we can appreciate him for his intellect, his cordon bleu skills, his knowledge of books and art, etc, he even has a weakness in Clarice whom he can't kill. He is merciless to anyone getting in his way and often these are not the nice people either.

We or the reader don't have to 'like' or feel affection for characters, they need to keep us interested, they need to make us wonder 'what next'.

[ricetalks]

Remember that no bad guy thinks of themselves as a bad guy. Even if they know that some of the things they do are bad, they don't think of themselves as bad. They always have a reason or a justification for what they do. And you have too understand that to keep them a real and interesting person. Get inside that.

I am reminded of a documentary I saw once about this guy. In it, one of the cops was telling this story about the way this guy broke into someone's house., kidnapped this guy's wife at gunpoint and was dragging her to his car when the husband came after him with a gun and the kidnapper shot her husband and killed him before he dragged this woman into his car and took her away. When the cop asked the guy why he shot the woman's husband he said, "Because that guy was crazy, man. He was coming at me with a gun."

[LIVIN]

You have a couple options: Either the character is killing people for a greater moral purpose (Boondock Saints) or the character has a troubled past and seeks revenge (Sweeney Todd) or just generally a troubled past, which is how many stories allow you to feel for the person, even when they do something bad. Perhaps there is someone that is worse. Perhaps all the people the person kills are justified as being worse, even if the justification may not be totally rational.

Furthermore, show the softer side - gives a child an ice cream cone or whatever.

[NikeeGoddess]

i think he shouldn't kill his parents and brother unless they are worse than he is. and if they are worse than he is then they will understand him. but that's not your story. so maybe he should do something to get himself out of the picture in their minds... like making himself (and his wife and kids) disappear in their eyes. if they think he's dead then they'll leave him alone.

[Provrb1810meggy]

Your use of the word Scrooge reminds me of A Christmas Carol. Though I have not read the book (I know, horrible writer, right?), I have seen various movies and plays based on it. What makes us want to revisit Scrooge, who, after all, is not close to being a nice guy? Maybe it's the likeable cast of characters surrounding him, and we're curious how Scrooge's actions will impact them. Maybe it's because we wonder how he got that way. Maybe we're waiting for his comeuppance. Maybe it's because we want to see him confront who he really is head-on and change for the better.

Although all of these might not work for you, one of them might.

Think about all the shows, plays, and books with characters that aren't likeable, and nonetheless, you've appreciated the show, play, or book. Figure out why!

[Jon-Luke]

I Think that there is a definite common trait that all "lovable-Bad-Guys/Girls" have and that is that they get to do the things that we all would secretly love to do but are not allowed to do, or they do things that are totally not acceptable to the norms of society and that makes them fascinating to watch or read about.

Think of John Malkovich's character in Dangerous Liasons. He is awfully bad, in fact I don't think that his character has any redeeming qualities but we love him because of the things he does and how he goes about doing these things. We then fall in love with his character when we learn that he does in fact have a heart, and we end up rooting for him to win.

This is a tricky balance to get right however, but I find that these types of characters are far more interesting than your run of the mill superman types.

Good luck creating an archetype!

[IceCreamEmpress]

Think of John Malkovich's character in Dangerous Liasons. He is awfully bad, in fact I don't think that his character has any redeeming qualities but we love him because of the things he does and how he goes about doing these things. We then fall in love with his character when we learn that he does in fact have a heart, and we end up rooting for him to win.


I'm not sure that's how most people reacted to that character, actually.

[Jon-Luke]

I'm not sure that's how most people reacted to that character, actually.

Okay maybe a bit of a dangerous example - You get the Malkovich fans and the Malkovich haters - But I think my point is, love or hate the character, the character is totally enthralling because we are invited to be involved with his badness that in normal life we just wouldn't be allowed to do and it also helps that he has a certain wit and charm.

[GigiZ]

I would say like some have mentioned here, he has to have a weakness. Shakesperean villains have weaknesses, their "tragic flaws." They're not necessarily easy to identify but in a movie character they can be.
I thought what made Valmont likeable in Dangerous liaisons was his weakness for Michelle Pfeiffer's character. He just couldn't get over her.

[gophergrrrl]

Topic Caster, I don't know if you're much of a gamer, and I don't know if this will help, but have you played Grand Theft Auto 4? The character you described reminds me a great deal of the main character (that you play as) in GTA4; Niko. Niko, though VERY lovable, is primarily concerned with looking out for number one--himself. He does have emotion, in that he does fall in love and he does care about his family, but it ultimately comes down to his past experience which put him in sort of a survival mode. Sort of like, survival of the fittest, and the will to preserve his own existence. Maybe you could pick up a copy of the game, if you're into games, and he could give you a little inspiration.

[Jon-Luke]

I recently read another interesting hypothesis on what makes an audience root for a character and here it is: Even if your Hero is a bad person people will identify with him if bad things happen to him, the more bad things that happen to him the better. If his daughter get kidnapped let his wife divorce him too and while you are at it let his car get repossessed and his mother can die etc... This all gives the audience a reason to root for your character and this also provides a mechanism for you to reveal your characters characteristics as to how he reacts to the bad situations that are thrown his way.

[GigiZ]

The question would then be, how does the character deal with all the bad stuff thrown at him: courageously or in a cowardly way? Does he confront situations or find an easy way out and/or implicate others who might be innocent? My point is, he still has to make decisions, moral decisions that in turn will make him be a moral or immoral, good or bad character.

[Jon-Luke]

The question would then be, how does the character deal with all the bad stuff thrown at him: courageously or in a cowardly way? Does he confront situations or find an easy way out and/or implicate others who might be innocent? My point is, he still has to make decisions, moral decisions that in turn will make him be a moral or immoral, good or bad character.

I agree with all of the above, but he can still be enjoyable or lovable due to the attitude he has to reacting to all the things that happen too him. For example if he has a good sense of humor about the bad things he does or the way he reacts to the knocks life deals him then he could be quite entertaining and lovable.

[GigiZ]

[quote=Jon-Luke;2460384]I agree with all of the above, but he can still be enjoyable or lovable

But he can't be enjoyable and loveable: he's a "bad guy," right?
Plus, a sense of humor just colors a reaction. The question is what does he do, what does his reaction entail? Does he sacrifice something he treasures? That would make him seem less bad and more moral. Does he harm someone else to save his own ass? That would lean on the bad guy side. Does he lie to get out of trouble? Same here ... and so on.
Your question was how to make a bad guy protagonist relatable. I think you might want to make his actions result from a mix of motivations moral and immoral. Perhaps the moral ones should be more semi-conscious and the result of situations where he's under pressure.