Yeah you don’t hear this kind of criticism about unlikeable characters in a lot of fiction, like say Walter Sobchack from The Big Lebowski. He is legitimately terrible, selfish, and controlling. He tries to steal the Big Lebowski’s money and then lies to his face at the end of the film saying “as if we’d ever try to steal your dirty money!” What makes Walter such a good character is because of how disarmingly real that is. He’s not a person who is actually very likeable at all, but you don’t usually get people saying they don’t like The Big Lebowski because they don’t like Walter.
To be fair to the person I originally responded to, though, Walter’s not the main character. It’s a lot more common to have unlikable sidekicks who provide a foil to the main character than it is to have unlikable main characters.
Yeah you don’t hear this kind of criticism about unlikeable characters in a lot of fiction, like say Walter Sobchack from The Big Lebowski. He is legitimately terrible, selfish, and controlling. He tries to steal the Big Lebowski’s money and then lies to his face at the end of the film saying “as if we’d ever try to steal your dirty money!” What makes Walter such a good character is because of how disarmingly real that is. He’s not a person who is actually very likeable at all, but you don’t usually get people saying they don’t like The Big Lebowski because they don’t like Walter.
To be fair to the person I originally responded to, though, Walter’s not the main character. It’s a lot more common to have unlikable sidekicks who provide a foil to the main character than it is to have unlikable main characters.