Worrying about your main character's likeability vs your vision

Okay to start off I'm writing a story with two other people for something we hoped to get either published or licensed (kind of irrelevant, but needs to be said anyhow, for Backstory purposes).

Anyhow, I was given the honor of creating the de-fact MC for the entire story. Here's the problem....I kind of secretly have reservations/fears about his overall likeablity and how audiences will respond to him whether positive or negative. To sum his character up, he basically starts off as an Idealists, then his ideals are Deconstructed over the course of the story as he turns Cynical and sees the world for what it really is, and then after awhile, his Deconstruction is then reconstructed into Half-way Idealist and Half-way Cynic, in a Decon-Recon Switch that gets a bit Zigzagged, somewhat.

I like this vision for him, I really do, but I'm kind of...afraid some won't see the depth and vision I laid out and just incorrectly call him "generic" and whatnot, and Accenuate The Negative of his flaws just so the Idealized portion of his character development isn't just seen as a just a Nice Guy.

I mean I know for a fact that not every single person will like him, hell the other characters I created for the story I just shrug if people wouldn't like them, but for him, being THE MC it's..always in the back of my mind whenever I'm writing him out. I'm thinking "what if I'm doing *offends* someone." "Will this cause him to be disliked?"

You can almost say I want him to be as non-offensive as possible while ALSO maintaining my vision for his character development. If 8 out of 10 people like him, then that's awesome! I don't want a Base Breaker or a Love It or Hate It character AT ALL.

Is there a way to break this mentality? Because it's kind of screwing with production a bit, as my fears are coming to the surface in my writing. :(

This is why critique and beta readers are important. There will always be outliers who will love or hate your character in a sane manner, as well as some who will Draco in Leather Pants-ify or completely despise him; you can't please everyone. In the meantime, try giving us or some other people in your life that you trust some of your work.

edited 17th Feb '14 4:12:36 PM by CrystalGlacia

The only time likeability of a character really matters is if they are at the top of a Love Triangle. That said, you can have an unlikeable main character and yet still have a great story.

I see.

So should I listen to those outliers?

I don't want to fall into the Ad Populum Fallacy. :x

Eh. Maybe, IDK.

...No. Write to the majority of whatever audience you're aiming for, not its crazy outliers, and let people critique your work if you're not sure.

Ad Populum is a tricky mistress, and unlikable M Cs have been pulled off a lot of times. Take plenty of anime, for example, featuring ineffectual neurotic twats, specifically the one featuring the patron god of ineffectual neurotic twats.

While this can and probably will create a poralizing love-or-hate work, an unlikable MC has been done successfully.

Eh. I guess I just want my cake and to eat it too.

• sigh*

I'm facing a similar issue since, because of how I've structure my story and what my story is about, if the reader doesn't care about the main character, then a lot of the story's plot is lost.

I like writing asshole characters. What I've noticed, is that whenever I sit down to write SERIOUS PLOT THIS IS MY VISION it falls flat. The minute I relax and write the same characters in a more silly setting, or a noncanon setting, the characters I write get received infinitely better. I don't know what this implies, but it probably means I still need to write a lot more before I try and publish anything.