The likability of a character is perhaps the most contested facet of fiction. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the Young Adult genre of fiction. Even though immoral or flawed characters have existed as long as storytelling, there has been a recent boom in popularity for the archetypes of the anti-villain and anti-hero.
The question is not what makes just any character likable, but what makes an immoral character likable?
The prefix ‘anti’ means ‘against’; however, this does not mean that an anti-villain is against villainy or that an anti hero is against heroism. An anti-villain is a character who does bad things for good reasons, and an anti-hero is a character who does good things for bad reasons. In Six of Crows the main character Kaz Brekker’s most famously violent moments is removing the eyeball of a man who hurt his love interest. On the other side of the coin, Alistar Lowe is the very person to attack his love interest. He curses her to suffering in a body that can not die but has no heartbeat. Both characters speak about their own self perception as villainous characters in the text. For example, Kaz Brekker states, “When everyone knows you're a monster, you needn't waste time doing every monstrous thing.” (Bardugo, 42). Meanwhile, Alistar Lowe claims, “Monsters couldn’t harm you if you were a monster, too.” (Foody, 80). It is this second quote that is quintessential to the understanding of pop culture’s love for anti-villains. Both characters are acting in ways that are unethical, yet justified by their backstories. This is the key to their popularity or their likability according to readers. It isn’t about the way the character’s behave, but why they behave that way. Lynn Zubernis, a professor and licensed psychologist with a Ph.D in psychology, researched into the worlds of fiction and wrote the article: Why do we Root for the Anti-Hero?. In the article, she states, “This is one of the reasons fans are often attracted to fictional villains. When characters possess rich, complex psychology, that helps fans connect to them. If a character is complex enough, it challenges viewers’ capacity for understanding others’ beliefs and desires, known as theory of mind. (Zubernis, 6).
A character can commit egregious acts, and readers can recognize those acts as wrong but still adore them regardless. Why?
Ethical standards appear far looser for characters than people in real life. Why is this? Moral Blindfolds and Ethical Reflections: Imagination, Ethics and Film by Matthew Thorpe states that there exists both, “the simultaneous imagining of the fictional world from within the perspective of a character, and how things are independently from the way that he or she experiences it” (Thorpe, 221). There is a difference between how the world is, how the character perceives it, and how the readers are able to perceive the picture as a whole. From there it is up to the reader to play jury and determine what actions are right and wrong, justified or not. Morality as a term implies clear lines drawn that define the differences between good and evil. Various ethical theories prove that those lines are not as stark as they may initially seem. In the world of fiction, there is a third variable that factors into readers approval of a character or choice: likeability. If a character is likeable enough, their offenses may be outweighed by fan adoration. As Thorpe stated, people are capable of holding the objective facts in one hand and their opinions of a character in another.
In the end, there will always be a level of subjectivity to the likability of characters in fiction. Both of the aforementioned characters commit deplorable deeds, yet are beloved by readers. The popularity of the anti-villain archetype speaks volumes to a paradoxical situation where there is a love for the villain but hatred of the villainy. In the end, many readers are drawn to characters who are not only imperfect but complex in their imperfections. There is no denying that anti-villains and anti-heroes alike push this idea to a further extreme. They are fascinating character archetypes that defy the traditional ethical values of the populace yet have won the hearts of millions nonetheless. Complexity lies at the heart of likeability.
Works Cited:
Bardugo, Leigh. Six of Crows. Thorndike Press, a Part of Gale, a Cengage Company, 2015.
Foody, Amanda, and Christine Lynn Herman. All of Us Villains. Hachette Australia, 2021.
Thorpe, Matthew. Moral Blindfolds and Ethical Reflections: Imagination, Ethics and Film. University of Kent, 2012.
Zubernis, Lynn. “Why Do We Root for the Anti-Hero?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 9 Jan. 2023, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-of-fandom/202301/why-do-we-root-for-the-anti-hero.
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People are obsessed over anti heros