Thread:The Unknown Afterlife/@comment-26268104-20151103144423/@comment-6794436-20151104023105

I'll have to disagree with the bottom part. A character that does terrible things really can't be felt sorry for. A character that goes out and murders innocent people or tortures people can't really evoke any feelings of sympathy for the reader because they're doing terrible things. In most scenarios, the ends won't justify the means at least to the reader, which will make them have more feelings of anger than sympathy. A terrible person as a main character can make the readers grow an attatchment, but never really make them feel bad for them. That is, unless they're only killing evildoers, but in that case one could make the argument that they aren't really doing anything terrible in the first place.

There's a difference between being a terrible person and having flaws to make your character more relatable. You can't use the "main characters can't be perfect" argument here because it really just doesn't fit. There's a fine line between having low self esteem or being hated and being a terrible person. They can't be perfect, but to really make readers feel sorry for them, they can't be terrible people. Never did this guy even imply that a character has to be perfect, just that they can't be terrible people, and there's a huge difference that I would've thought you'd have known. I can't really advocate for his rating system, but he brings up a very valid point about having your main character not be a terrible person. To be completely honest, if you're making a pasta where your main character kills innocent people and you're looking for readers to feel sympathy for him, then you might want to change up the plot a bit. The ends don't really justify the means in that situation.