Likeable Characters
At some point today, I seriously wondered how I managed to weed through nine volumes of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, when there must actually be 1.5 characters I somewhat like in it (yes, you read this number right).Let’s not be mistaken, there are good sides to the series, including the fact that it allowed me to go through three weeks of illness during a hot summer month, a few years ago—that, and some nice concepts as well (even though I keep on thinking that the world is better fit to a role-playing game setting than to a written story). However, no matter my efforts and how many times I’ve tried, I never managed to find a character that I’d really like in it. Female characters especially are the worse; “strong women” definitely doesn’t mean “know-it-all beasts who think they’re above everyone else” (who can I nominate… Nynaeve-Egwene-Faile-Elayne, perhaps?). His male characters aren’t really better; the only one I used to really liked is turning in a sour way, as far as my reading goes, and the others are too often the bland or annoying types. Can’t say that Rand is extremely attaching, is he?I think it’s this series that made me realize fully how creating likeable main characters is important in a novel. Sure, we don’t need a whole bunch of goodies, without any color and variation in them: simply a handful of characters who won’t make the reader grimace every time they walk into a scene of the book. Really, they don’t need to be completely nice guys, they don’t need to be perfect, they don’t need to behave in an irreprochable way all the time… they simply need to show the reader that there are many possibilities along this spectrum that ranges from “bad, cantankerous and cruel” to “too kind, too perfect, too bland, too uninteresting”. We may dissert at length about how goodie-two-shoes can lack luster at times, they’re at least more bearable on the long term than their contraries.To me, likeable characters in fiction novels now seem to be a necessity. To use the Wheel of Time reference again, I’m not sure that, everything considered, the “good ones” seem so much better than some of the “bad guys”. Alright, they’re not trying to destroy or dominate the world; apart of this, they’re not people I’d like to meet in my everyday life, and they’re sure not people I’d want to befriend. As a reader, I don’t feel any connection with them; more than often I find them an annoyance, a necessary evil to make the plot develop. This is a little too much all at once, and definitively not what I want to feed my own readers with.Is this a matter of characters lacking a personality? I don’t think so. The problem rather lies with their personalities, in fact, with the way the author has developed them. I don’t enjoy their presence, and this has an impact on my reading.When I pick a fiction novel, it’s for my entertainment, not to feel annoyed at its protagonists…
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Gina
you know I felt the same way about that series (I only made it to book five) It’s not so much that I don’t like “unlikable” characters, it’s more that the characters were annoying. I’ve fallen for some wonderfully flawed characters in the past, but the characters in this series seemed to grate on my nerves.
Brian Turner
You’re brave indeed – up to nine volumes? Number 11 is released by Tor very soon. :)I hear a lot of praise for Jordan, but unfortunately I never got past the prologue.In my imagination, Jordan probably has similarities with George R R Martin but with even les purpose.
Yzabel
Indeed, Gina. Flawed characters can be likeable through some of their aspects, and in this case, in spite of being flawed, the aim is reached. That’s why protagonists don’t need to be “perfect” for me, as long as they have at least one thing that will make them pleasant (and, well, not too many things that will outshadow this and make them annoying all the same!).And “grating on my nerves” is a very appropriate way of wording it, i think.
Yzabel
Brian – Nine volumes, yes. I think I mainly went on reading because I had started this monster of a series and it’d have felt weird to not read it until the end… However, “Winter’s Heart” being the latest one that was available in paperback at the time, I didn’t wait and buy the next volume when it was out in hardcover. I’m not sure if I want to, even though it’s now available in paperback as well. Besides, given how long has passed in-between, this would probably mean having to read the whole series again in order to remember every little detail, and I’m not brave enough for this!
Yvonne
Yeah, I haven’t found my favourite female character either. There isn’t any one in the balance of feminine and strength, is there? Maybe most authors are guys, that’s why.
Yzabel
Maybe the authors being male does have something to do with this, indeed (although this would deserve a series of posts all by itself, I think–is it the same for female authors, too? Do we have problems creating male characters?). Jordan however counts among the worst ones, in my opinion; not only are his female characters not attaching, but I have the feeling that he somehow does that on purpose. As if some PR agent had forced him to include lots of female chars to attract the audience, while himself wouldn’t have wanted to include women from the start.
jay
its interesting to read your comments. The Wheel of Time series is somethng of a ‘guilty pleasure’ of mine; it is appallingly written, the characters are cartoonish, and yet I’ve read the entire series (to date). the female charactes are especially bad – Jordan has no clue how to write women, and he over uses certain phrases (just how often can a woman ‘smooth her skirt and silks’?! i cringe every time i read it).but still, i go back for more… why? the concept, as you said, is good – and i find it addicitve.and to think that there’s been talk of creating a series of films in CGI about the entire set of books!anyway, aside from that, just wanted to say i enjoyed visiting your site 🙂
Yzabel
Aw, now that you reminded me of it, they sure spend a lot of time smoothing their skirts. I don’t even do that in real life when I wear some myself. Doesn’t this look like some type of OCD!The reason why I kept on reading it was probably the same as yours, in fact–because the world, all in all, was an interesting one. In any case, if a series is one day done, I hope the characters will be somewhat rewritten. It’d be a celestial gift made to them, really.And thanks for enjoying my blog 🙂