Writing Blog - Flaws

Characters are supposed to have flaws.

I was talking with a friend the other day, and the line came up. It’s a line that gets repeated an awful lot, and I think that’s to its detriment. Some things get repeated so much their meaning gets lost somewhere along the way. Someone goes, “This guy is an asshole and I don’t like him.” Then someone replies with, “Well, yeah. Characters are supposed to have flaws.”

But there is a difference between having flaws and being unpleasant or uninteresting to read about. 

Take the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Every character there is a major ass. No ifs or buts about it. However, this doesn’t detract from how enjoyable it is to watch them. In fact, the show is good because it takes these flaws and turns them into a comedic strength. The utter horribleness of everyone in the show becomes the reason why they are so entertaining.

Konosuba is a more moderate example of this. Kazuma can 100% be a jerk, but he has a good heart deep down. The same goes for most of the cast. The way the show manages to balance these two sides is what creates something that is fun to watch. You can laugh at Kazuma getting screwed over, and you enjoy his moments of success.

Some people would say this is simple because these are comedies, but no, I disagree with that. Comedy is hard. Being funny (consistently funny at that) is something I consider super hard to do. I sure as hell can’t. Being able to balance your characters’ traits while straddling the line of tastefulness (kinda) is damn impressive and deserves lots of praise.

Anyway, the point is a character having flaws and a character being unlikable are actually not the same. They may intersect, and they do it quite often, but they are different things.

I’m not saying a character always has to be likable. There is nothing inherently wrong with a character that is there to be disliked by the audience. That sort of thing can work well. In fact, xianxia is full of characters like that.

However, if you’re talking about a protagonist, then that’s different. 

It’s fine if the audience is occasionally frustrated by the protagonist. It can even lead to some really good moments. But if the audience is only frustrated by the protagonist, then that’s a different thing. Then it becomes a problem.

People have flaws. It’s super okay for characters to have flaws. 

It’s okay to write a story about a super flawed person. Some of my favorite stories are about people who are all sorts of fucked up. Because despite how flawed those characters are, the writers never forget to give those characters something attractive to balance things out.

And that, I think, is important to remember.