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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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Everyone has those couple of characters they just despise. Do you hate them because they're poorly written and do stupid things *cough*BellaSwan*cough* or do you hate them because the author wrote them to be evil and unlikable: a la Theon Grayjoy from the Song of Ice and Fire series?
Do you write your characters to be intentionally nasty and do heartless things? Do you want people to hate them? Do they kick puppies and push old folks down the stairs?
Who's your most hated character in literature?
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Joined: 4/3/2011
Posts: 22
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I have a problem with always seeing the persons/characters side. When it comes to characters that I know I'm supposed to hate, I'm always like, "He only acts this way because his father never threw the baseball with him! Don't you see?"
Sometimes a character may annoy me because they do something stupid, or they steal scenes away from another character whom I would rather spend more time with, but I've never really been driven hatred.
One thing I've never been able to successfully pull off is writing a hated villain. I always end up loving all my characters too much to want anyone to hate them. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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My most favorite hated character? I couldn't pick one, most of the evil characters in literature have back stories that explain how and why they got there.
Personally, I ADORE writing for the villain. There is something satisfying about unleashing my inner evil genius. The more 'omg you are sick' feedback I get, the better.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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Ignatius J. Reilly (“Confederacy of Dunces”) was one character who drove me up the wall – his overall priggishness was just insane! But the character worked because he was just so … strange. And he wasn’t a classic “villain” – just someone who you probably wouldn’t want to befriend in the real world. It was precisely that he was so socially obtuse that I kept reading the book.
To counter the “everyone’s just so wonderful!” I had going in my contemporary romance, I started a very noir-ish mystery, which has a host of unlikeable characters. I created a journalist for a local rag-azine named Saxon – the kind of writer who just thinks he’s God’s gift to words, but obviously not, or else he would have moved onto the NYT. I meant to use him only in the beginning of the book, but he really grew on me. In fact, almost everyone in “Rapture Red” is unlikeable in varying degrees (some, like the victim’s wimpy neighbor, Walt Witt, are just irritating), except for my detective and the victim’s widow, the characters central to the plot. I don’t know why I chose to do this. Maybe the genre just lends itself to these kinds of characters --? ☺
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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@Michael I'd like to say Oooh Theon is just a bad boy because he was taken hostage after the war, but he was treated well and treated the others like siblings until that fateful day...damn Martin for making him because such an awful character! (I don't want to give anything away for those watching/reading game of thrones)
I seem to be good at writing bitches...(hmm I wonder where I pull my inspiration from...) but I don't know that anyone has ever really hated any of my characters. I don't know that I'd be surprised if they did though.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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@MB - I read the first line of your second paragraph far differently than you intended. I read it as "I'm good at writing, bitches!", rather than "I'm good at writing bitches!". Heh
Anyway, when I'm trying to write a character people hate, I tend to do one of two things. If they're a villain, I *don't* flesh them out. Fleshing out a villain makes them seem more human, therefore less of a threat, and therefore less hated. If I humanize them, it's at or near the end, for impact. If they're a minor character, a 'butt monkey', if you will, I make them petty.
Thing is, I tend to avoid that latter type of character, because I don't like to see them in books. In books,I want them to get blowed up, but when they do, I don't feel satisfaction for it.
Characters I hate? From Game of Thrones I hated Jeoffrey and, later in the books, Theon. I also hated Walder Frey after the betrayal, but that, I think, was intentional on Martin's part.
Y'know, it seems the villains I hate the most are villains who are bad guys *because* of their petty natures.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 44
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I like to write characters that start off hateful but then have redeeming characteristics or prove that they are more than just their blatantly nasty parts.
I cannot, however, go the other way where I take a likeable character and make them hateful. It feels like a betrayal, and it wounds me as a reader. Can't quite bring myself to do that...yet. 
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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@HJakes I think that's the real kicker that makes a reader end up hating a character.
Not to harp on The Song of Ice & Fire stuff, but Theon was Rob's right hand man, willing to go into battle when the younger brother Bran was almost killed by the Lannisters. You think of Theon as this good guy willing to help these kids he grew up with...and then he totally turns on them, making you totally despise him.
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 6
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My antagonists always get a POV so even if they're hated, they are understood. Twisted minds are so much fun.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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Roo from Raymond Feists darkwar saga. He turns into a little bastard, and hes not evil, but hes not good, hes just, blah.
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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 9
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Professor Umbridge from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. That book, of all of them, got my blood boiling the most and it was primarily due to Umbridge. She was one of those characters you love to hate.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 102
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I write characters for the reader to judge harshly to help bring out my story's talking point. I don't know about hate though.
From what I can tell, characters are like everything else. For every person that hates a character, there's someone else who just loves him/her.
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 52
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I once read an interview of Roald Dahl. His advice about writing evil characters is to make them as evil as you possibly can. He said to give them no redeeming qualities and readers will love that. The meaner, the more vile, the better. We see that in characters we love to hate all the way from Voldemort to Claudius in Hamlet. From Mr. Hyde to Hannibal Lecter.
The nastier the better.
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Joined: 4/26/2011
Posts: 52
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You've got to do what works for your particular plot. Obviously, it has worked for Dahl and many others, including Shakespeare. Or, to quote Hamlet, "Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!"
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Joined: 6/14/2011
Posts: 3
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In God Bless the Child I wrote the parents of the main character to be hated completely. Though in the story they had a background to why they got to be the way they are, I find that there is no one that doesn't despise them.
I did this for several reasons. One they were abusive to a four year old, and that right there garners hatred. Two, they die in a horrible fashion a third of the way in and I wanted people to applaud their demise as the story moved forward.
From the comments I received on my work, when evil characters suffer or "get theirs" there is a sense of relief that comes along with it. We feel bad when someone we like gets hurt, but when we think they deserve it, it is easier to swallow when the bad happens.
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Joined: 6/11/2011
Posts: 17
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I never hate any of my characters. My guiding principles of villainy prevent me from even hating villains. I do often dislike characters for various reasons, but hate is a little strong for me to toss around lightly. To make the point a little more clearly, I dislike the three new Star Wars movies, but I really hate Jar Jar Binks. I am not even sure why that character was made, but I am fairly certain hate was not the intended emotional reaction.
From my own writing, my villains are equally flawed as my protagonist(s). They all have clearly defined motivations, methods, and means. And to create a villain specifically to be hated, to me, is a crime against literature. I have posted rules on my own blog, and I am often quite happy to share some qualities that I think most, if not all, villains should adhere. Keep in mind, I make a distinction between villain and bad guy.
Bad guys are meant to be disliked, and truth be told, do not add much flavor to a tale that utilizes them. These are typically used in a good versus evil situation, like old spaghetti westerns, where you could always tell the who the bad guys were by the black hats they wore. Serial killers (no matter how sophisticated), ruffians, bullies, street brawlers, ninjas, assassins, soldiers in evil armies, undead, and all around general bastards are typically in the cast of bad guys. These characters are easy to dislike, even hate, because that is what their stock character position is supposed to elicit from the audience. A bad guy enters the story, does bad stuff, gets the reader to hate them, does more bad stuff, gets the protagonist to confront them, loses, and we feel happy because they lost. That is the life of a bad guy.
Now a villain is an all together different breed of bad guy. They are so far above bad guys that they, when portrayed properly, enter into the realm of legend. The villain is never a stock character, can never be rendered down to a mere two dimensions, and is as complicated, if not more complicated than the protagonist. Why? Because what motivates a villain to do dark, dirty, evil, and disturbing acts has to be that much greater than what motivates the protagonist to do "good." So while I have bad mouthed Star Wars initially, one of its characters still holds true in concept at least as one of the greatest villains of all time: Darth Vader.
And here is why (excerpt/snippets from blog post):
Rule 1 - The villain is always right.
The villain does not get to be wrong. No matter how ill-guided, morally-ambiguous, or downright horrible their views might be, they are one hundred percent correct and backed by conviction that will never be bent. The specific beliefs do not matter, but the villain’s adamant adherence to them is of utmost importance. A wishy-washy villain results in wishy-washy plot. No one wants a plot that looks like a back and forth battle of someone with a split personality.
Additionally, how entertaining would it be to read a story about a protagonist constantly besting someone that makes all the wrong moves for all the wrong reasons? The story would be pretty lame and lack any form of substantial conflict.
A villain that does everything wrong for all the right reasons gets sympathy from the reader. The conflicting sympathies make the climax more enjoyable in that not only is the reader hoping the protagonist wins, but they also hope that the antagonist turns (see rule 3).
Rule 2 - The villain must inspire loyalty.
Villains act against the established norms, because they are attempting to elicit change on some level or another. Aside from a few key exemptions, a villain that cannot inspire followers loyal to their cause is pretty ineffectual as a catalyst for change. Convincing people one at a time would take forever, and a handful of minions is not enough. People must look to a villain for guidance and leadership. The villain must reciprocate by not betraying the trust. This also means that a villain can be compassionate, even to the point of having a mate/lover.
Rule 3 - The villain must be redeemable.
The first two rules ensure that the villain is "human," but this rule makes the villain real. Somewhere near the climax, the villain must have a chance to change sides, switch paths, or undo some choice for the greater good. While the redemption may not actually happen, it must be within the realm of possibility. If the redemption does happen, it must be believable. Why is this important? Because being evil for evil’s sake is simply stupid, and converting the leader of a potential army of evil-doers would theoretically convert the whole army.
These are by no means hard and fast rules for EVERYONE. These are a personal view/opinion of what makes a villain great. Because to me at least, the story fails miserably if the villain fails to become real. These are just my articulations of how to make a real villain.
Why so much interest in the villain? I have played D&D and other games quite often, and GM them more often than not if I can. That means I have to tell the story, and I always start with the villain. As such, I pay attention to villains more often than protagonists when I can.
I do not begrudge the use of bad guys, and in fact, many stories would fail without bad guys. Most stories with a true villain have many bad guys beside them. Bad guys are neat by their own right, but give me a real villain any day. I'll enjoy the story more, and rarely will I hate a villain simply for being portrayed as a bad guy.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 40
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I hold to the theory that every character is the MC of their own story and therefore can't be completely bad. They have to have a reasonable motivation (to them) for their actions. That being said, I have/am writing characters so narrow minded as to be almost completely unlikable. You just have to remember to make them real people. If they're flat, two dimensional characters, it doesn't work.
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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 40
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I like to think about Anne Rice's vampire Lestat. After Interview With A Vampire, he was about as unlikable as you could get. Then she wrote The Vampire Lestat and you saw everything from his point of view and everything changed. Whenever I look at the villain I like to remember that.
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Joined: 7/21/2011
Posts: 2
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I like to write characters that are so emotionally draining for the others in the book that the reader can't help but hate them. I like books that make me choose a side in the very beginning and then twist me around so I don't know who I should hate and who I should like!
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Joined: 6/14/2011
Posts: 3
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One of the things that I seem to do well is really create characters that people hate. Some times it is easy. In my God Bless the Child novel it is easy to hate the abusive parents that physically and emotionally abuse a four year old. I actually did this for the reason that when the turning point of the novel came (the father killing his wife and then himself) there would be more of a "thank God," than a "oh how sad."
However, I also create characters that you hate (or at least strongly dislike) in the beginning but as the character grows, readers change their opinions about them. I like the challenge in doing that.
According to my literary worthy friends, I do have a knack for creating evil characters. I think the joy is to not make it obvious that the character is evil right up front. It's easy to dislike a rapist, but one of my most hated characters in my God bless the Child series is a baptist minister who uses a bully pulpit to try to shape the community he lives in to the way he thinks God wants people to live.
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