I was reading some passionate hate rants about Joffrey from the Game of Thrones last evening, and it got me to think: if people love hating on characters so much (and they do, else there wouldn't be so many hateables everywhere), what do you think of stories where there's no character that's annoying or hateable?
I don't mean slice-of-life stories, where a family of awesome people can struggle to overcome a problem not caused by malicious intent of another human.
I mean stories like Harry Potter, or the Game of Thrones, or what have you where there always seem to be characters to bring the other side of emotions out in the reader. There are protagonists, antagonists, people fight (whether physically or by other means), but no character is really made to be hated, be annoying, or a clear-cut bastard.
Does it take away from the reading for you? Do you miss it? Is it an element that should be present in those types of stories? What do you guys think?
I don't mean slice-of-life stories, where a family of awesome people can struggle to overcome a problem not caused by malicious intent of another human.
I mean stories like Harry Potter, or the Game of Thrones, or what have you where there always seem to be characters to bring the other side of emotions out in the reader. There are protagonists, antagonists, people fight (whether physically or by other means), but no character is really made to be hated, be annoying, or a clear-cut bastard.
Does it take away from the reading for you? Do you miss it? Is it an element that should be present in those types of stories? What do you guys think?