Reasonable Hate?

[AxelxGabriel]

If you like everything else about a work, story/setting/concepts/ideas/some of the characters, but you absolutely HATE the Main Character: Is that enough to not like the entire work?

On the one hand I know its unfair to what I do like, but on the other hand, being the main character you have to deal with them every step of the way constantly, so its like that character ruins everything they come across.

 

[Callate]

It kind of depends on how I feel the work itself is judging the main character. If the protagonist is a jerk, but the world and the other characters are aware that the character is a jerk and treats them accordingly, that can be fine. It might well be that the author is trying to explore a specific set of ideas by giving that character those traits.

If the protagonist is a jerk and everyone fawns all over them for the traits I find obnoxious; if the world goes out of its way to praise and reward that character for behaving that way-- we've got a problem.

 

[JoJo]

I think that's fair enough, the point of a work is to bring entertainment to you and if the main character fails to do that to the point where it spoils the whole work for you, then it's reasonable to dislike the entire work. That's not to say that the main character has to be perfectly agreeable to you, but he or she should be likeable, or 'love to hate', or interesting in some other way, or else the creator has failed.

 

[Eamar]

Of course it's enough. Anything is enough. There's no right or wrong when it comes to personal entertainment preferences, it's not like you need permission to dislike something.

Hell, there are plenty of books/games/films/songs that I dislike for no solid reason at all, or for reasons that would make no sense to other people. If something's just not doing it for you, no big deal. You're not required to explain yourself.

[small][small]Unless you're getting into internet arguments about it, of course, in which case it's never ok to just have an opinion on a piece of entertainment. If that's the case (and judging by your other thread earlier that looks likely), I'd recommend not doing so in future.[/small][/small]

 

[AxelxGabriel]

Believe it or not, that was something else entirely.

 

[Eamar]

Believe it or not, that was something else entirely.

Fair enough. In which case, my main point stands: don't worry about not liking stuff