Opinion on selfish MCs.

[c37]

What do people think about cutthroat selfish MCs that only care about themselves and occasionally their friends/family? I want to know if people like them or not.

 

[Th3Breadnought]

This probably boils down to personal taste.

As a frustrated teenager who often felt taken for granted, unappreciated, not respected... there was occasionally a certain edgy catharsis in putting myself in the shoes of the guy who knows what he cares about, takes what he wants, and tells everyone else going "HoW dArE yOu!?" to go pound sand.

As an adult father who retroactively realizes how juvenile that teenage boy was, and who now deals with adults who behave like those MCs... I tend to find them very insufferable unless they're done really well with emphasis on the people and relationships they aren't selfish with, what the motivations are for their behavior and the exceptions to their behavior, and that they have a character growth arc.

 

[Tabula_Rasa]

Generally, I dont.

And generally they are not written as rational, pragmatic or "smart", they are just the author's surrogate to live out their fantasy of being a shitty person.

 

[c37]

This probably boils down to personal taste.

As a frustrated teenager who often felt taken for granted, unappreciated, not respected... there was occasionally a certain edgy catharsis in putting myself in the shoes of the guy who knows what he cares about, takes what he wants, and tells everyone else going "HoW dArE yOu!?" to go pound sand.

As an adult father who retroactively realizes how juvenile that teenage boy was, and who now deals with adults who behave like those MCs... I tend to find them very insufferable unless they're done really well with emphasis on the people and relationships they aren't selfish with, what the motivations are for their behavior and the exceptions to their behavior, and that they have a character growth arc.

Okay, maybe not teenage selfishness. Something like a pragmatic leader or commander.

 

[Th3Breadnought]

Okay, maybe not teenage selfishness. Something like a pragmatic leader or commander.

THAT sounds like it has a lot more potential.

But you see where precedent brought my mind and expectations

 

[Eldoria]

What do people think about cutthroat selfish MCs that only care about themselves and occasionally their friends/family? I want to know if people like them or not.

It depends on the character's level of selfishness. If selfishness here is prioritizing oneself and one's loved ones while doing everything possible to avoid harming others, then this type of selfishness is more pragmatic.

In the real world... this type of selfishness is common, not because of bad character but because priorities and urgency are different. We are more likely to save our family than a stranger, it's humane because we have limited capacity.

If you design a selfish character like this, congratulations! You have succeeded in creating a relatable character with high generalization because most readers have probably experienced it. "Oh... this character cares about his family as much as I do." Therefore, your fiction is more likely to attract readers' sympathy.

The second type of selfishness is the manipulative egoist. This character does not hesitate to use others as stepping stones for his own interests. This character is more suitable as a villain. Readers are more likely to hate them except for a few odd ones.

 

[c37]

It depends on the character's level of selfishness. If selfishness here is prioritizing oneself and one's loved ones while doing everything possible to avoid harming others, then this type of selfishness is more pragmatic.

In the real world... this type of selfishness is common, not because of bad character but because priorities and urgency are different. We are more likely to save our family than a stranger, it's humane because we have limited capacity.

If you design a selfish character like this, congratulations! You have succeeded in creating a relatable character with high generalization because most readers have probably experienced it. "Oh... this character cares about his family as much as I do." Therefore, your fiction is more likely to attract readers' sympathy.

The second type of selfishness is the manipulative egoist. This character does not hesitate to use others as stepping stones for his own interests. This character is more suitable as a villain. Readers are more likely to hate them except for a few odd ones.

understood.

 

[Anonjohn20]

Considering how popular all the Chinese cultivation stories are, I think the internet loves selfish MCs. "Oh, you walked on the same side of the road as me? You are courting death! I shall ruin your life!"

 

[c37]

Considering how popular all the Chinese cultivation stories are, I think the internet loves selfish MCs. "Oh, you walked on the same side of the road as me? You are courting death! I shall ruin your life!"

Ohh, what's your opinion on selfish mc and villian both with age progression.

 

[PancakesWitch]

Usually they work out if you make proper drama and tragedy and the reason why they're shit, if they are just shit with no reason then people don't really care.

 

[c37]

Usually they work out if you make proper drama and tragedy and the reason why they're shit, if they are just shit with no reason then people don't really care.

So, if I write the proper reasoning and events that led to it. I might make a memorable mc.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

All I know is I've tried writing one twice. Made it to about chapter seven the first time and chapter five the second, but it's not easy to stay inside Michael Gray's headspace long enough to keep going. Though he's not so much "selfish" as "an a-hole who doesn't mind misleading anyone, even the reader, if it suits his needs at the moment."

 

[c37]

All I know is I've tried writing one twice. Made it to about chapter seven the first time and chapter five the second, but it's not easy to stay inside Michael Gray's headspace long enough to keep going. Though he's not so much "selfish" as "an a-hole who doesn't mind misleading anyone, even the reader, if it suits his needs at the moment."

Mine isn't an a-hole, just a thief for now.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Mine isn't an a-hole, just a thief for now.

Ah - have another story (stuck on Chapter 3) where the MC (well one of them; its an ensemble story with four MCs and a "sidekick") is an assassin. Actually, I guess I have two, since a Sniper is pretty much an assassin turned into a modern military term, and that was Dane Coleman's MOS as a marine in Digital Cowboy Dane...

 

[PancakesWitch]

So, if I write the proper reasoning and events that led to it. I might make a memorable mc.

I mean, yeah, if they've gone through tragedy, mistreated, and have suffered not just themselves but their families have also suffered then you could create a really great motivation to make a "dickhead with a heart" type of mc.
I've written a few myself, though sometimes they are also literally insane.
When you give all these reasons the readers themselves will demand the mc to be a bastard and it won't feel forced. The only way you could fuck this up if, despite everything, he was still a goodie-two-shoes that could never harm anybody, as this is seen as very unrealistic.

 

[c37]

I mean, yeah, if they've gone through tragedy, mistreated, and have suffered not just themselves but their families have also suffered, then you could create a really great motivation to make a "dickhead with a heart" type of mc.
I've written a few myself, though sometimes they are also literally insane.
When you give all these reasons the readers themselves will demand the mc to be a bastard and it won't feel forced. The only way you could fuck this up if, despite everything, he was still a goodie-two-shoes that could never harm anybody, as this is seen as very unrealistic.

yeah no goodie-two-shoes is not what my Mc is going to be

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I mean, yeah, if they've gone through tragedy, mistreated, and have suffered not just themselves but their families have also suffered then you could create a really great motivation to make a "dickhead with a heart" type of mc.
I've written a few myself, though sometimes they are also literally insane.
When you give all these reasons the readers themselves will demand the mc to be a bastard and it won't feel forced. The only way you could fuck this up if, despite everything, he was still a goodie-two-shoes that could never harm anybody, as this is seen as very unrealistic.

Or make it a comedy. That's what works for Fraser's "The Flashman Papers" (he took a "throwaway" villain, Harry Flashman, from a 1800s novel, Tom Brown's School Days, and gave him a series of novels that have him playing - quite by accident, and usually because he was trying to steal something or bed someone, not because of any noble reasons - important roles in various historic or literary events, including intersecting three Sherlock Holmes stories - but only meeting Holmes once, very briefly, and having the detective give a thoroughly logical but 100% WRONG reading if him - and playing important parts in the battles of Roarke's Drift and Little Big Horn, as well as being involved in the Charge of the Light Brigade, and there for the Uprising that led to India gaining independence from England, etc.)

 

[onehunter]

I like them, but not when they live at the expense of others.

Run into someone dying on their travels? Meh, unlucky.

Rob some poor old guy with a broken carriage? Prick. No me gusta.

 

[tiaf]

People can be selfish without being a bad person or doing bad. It only gets annoying if they loose sense of reality and get greedy.

People who are selfless can be the most harmful and biggest source of suffering. It’s stupid to be selfless to the point of making yourself or others suffer.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

I like them to the point of torturing myself in writing a story revolving around them and their selfishness.

The premise is simple. Guy chose to explore that faux intellectual thought experiment prevalent since the early days of the internet. The one where you just ask a moral dilemma to as many people as possible and then surprise them with how it is true. The shock of what they said in fact mattered. The Guy figured out how to create magical portals and spent years going around asking what should be done with the ability to travel to other worlds. From regular people to governments, all walks of life including drug dealers and religious zealots, everyone he could ask, he asked. Surprise, humanity chose to pull a humanity out of their collective ass and shame and ridicule him on his efforts! So, after he opens portals to mars, alpha centauri, a magical world with a civilization, etc. He bails on humanity. Sending back video logs documenting his never-ending discoveries as being the only one who can.

Why torturing myself? Decided to make it as an epistolary novel. News clippings, personal dialogues of people on Earth, government meeting transcripts, etc. Started having a stroke realizing that I had to change speech patterns across all of the documents.