Your main character is not going to be liked by everyone whether it is reader or character.
However, in due time, your main character will be liked by the characters and readers. it just takes a while.
I shall give an example:
My Turn:
In my story Red Reign: Monster in White, Nixora is now a member of the Red Reign which is a rebel organization that wants rid the injustices of the world along with bringing down the monarchy that governs the world. They even want to rid the Knighthood Federation too.
Anyway, Nixora happens to be a member of Red Reign and she is certainly not pleased about it given what she used to be.
However, she is even more displeased with the fact that nearly everyone in the organization is so rude and mean to her. Nobody is giving her the chance and she is struggling a bit in the place. Yet that won’t last long because she has to prove herself to the Red Reign members.
They still think she is some helpless princess who can’t do anything right along with the fact that she was royalty of a nation that dealt with many hardships.
Nixora doesn’t have a single friend in Red Reign and the person who she thought was her friend was never really a friend to begin with.
So, she is lonely, but if I play my cards right, things will change for the better. It just takes time.
Does anyone of you have a main character from any of your stories that is hated by the other characters at first? This main character went through some major development that made them go from hated to like by the characters.
There’s neglectful, overtly resentful, disrespectful…and I’m sure people could sub-categorize it further. But yes, if there’s interpersonal conflict there is some iteration of at least the midler dislike involved. But yeah, the basics of being an outsider to being an insider happens often.
Hmm, not hated but Cypur was quite disliked and teased for his differences. Does that count? Then he goes through a change and his actions, and the actions of those around him, ultimately change how others view him. Cypur didn’t do anything profound to change people, but they eventually do change.
Well, indifference to overt hatered is from the wolf pack towards most female MCs, traditionally. Indifference is the route I have in BifL. Her “parents” (aunt and uncle) are mostly verbally abusive, indifferent. Her real mother is just selfish, narcissistic. Her father is trapped under similar burdens as she carries.
So, I don’t stick to one thing, as it makes it easier to differentiate different groups of people in a story.
I definitely have characters who were hated at first, but it wasn’t necessarily because they were bad people or villains. Xix was hated because of her family. Leo was hated because he’s human. Amneris is hated because she’s Amneris. Then there’s the people who are hated because they’re bad people (justified or not) like Kek, Nephthys and Dex. Then there’s the ones who are hated for their own stupidity like Tara. Some of them become liked, some of them become hated, and some of them just stay as they are
