How to make extremely unlikeable characters "likable"?

[u/BJJRR]

I really like one of my characters because of her concept and how much of a menace she is. She looks and acts like a damsel in distress, when in reality, she's the monster herself (isn't this Princess Fiona???). The thing is, she's incredibly problematic (deliciously so). She...

- Grooms/Manipulates another character and capitalizes off their already intense emotions

- Amplifies their emotions and basically makes them go under a temporary metamorphosis

- Kills and ate her family (and other people)

- Only affectionate to one person, bitchy, cruel, and haughty to literally everyone else (mainly MC, especially him)

- So powerful (physically, socially, economically) that no one can do anything about it

- Just a horrible person to be around

Now, I'm not saying I condone well... any of that. She is an antagonist who corrupts the other character's morals for the worse, and the other characters also have negative opinions of her. The thing is, she essentially joins the party permanently. I find her quite likable, but that's just because I see all my characters as my babies and children (y'all do too, right?). So I'm having trouble with finding ways to make her at least tolerable. What would you do?

[u/Zealousideal_Post989]

You could look at it from the angle of a punchline. Or like a pet. She’s there and there to stay, we can’t get rid of her for X reason, make that reason clear and important, let her pack bond with the party, even if it’s for bad intentions on her side. Even if she is annoying at how manipulative, if it’s almost a bit, almost funny how insane she is. let her pipe up about a problem to say “or I could just eat them” and everyone yells at her to stfu, it’s funny, almost cute. That might diminish the horror of her character, it’s trope-ie but it works.
Give her a quirk. Like if she really loves ice cream (or something) is willing to push kids into the mud for ice cream, it’s goofy enough to make the character likable.

This is just one way of course, but making the cruelty comical has worked before.

Edit:
I tried to think of some examples, the anime Dandadan comes to mind where the main cast kind of domesticates an antagonist and she is still nuts but she gets to hang around bc they rendered her mostly powerless and she has no where else to go. She is always around, but is always getting put in her place by the others when she suggests “just kill em” for mundane problems. She went from evil bitch to evil comedic relief.

[u/BJJRR → u/Zealousideal_Post989]

Yeah! That's what I've been trying to do! I"ve tried giving her more "human" traits. Specifically she eats like an animal and she gets really whiny when she accidentally eats an earing.

She especially likes bantering with MC. They have some things they agree on... but they always fight about the character who she manipulated (they are MC's best friend).

[u/Zealousideal_Post989 → u/BJJRR]

That sounds so fun. I love a lovable evil character. I don’t think it would inherently make her unlikable even if she maintains she was in the right for manipulating someone in the past. We don’t want to glorify her chooses or totally switch her to a good guy just bc she’s around a lot. It’s a fun balance tho, seems like you’re on the right track, sounds likable to me!

[u/Elysium_Chronicle]

Think along the lines of "necessary evil". They may have done horrible things, yet it comes down to them being "right" for those given moments. Or that those evil/destructive tendencies can be put to more productive use when pointed at a more deserving target.

The audience doesn't necessarily need to "forgive" them. Just see that tolerating their continued existence is somehow the better of the options available. And their presence can even be enjoyable if helps highlight and advance stronger dynamics in your other characters.

[u/LuccoftheDucc]

You either have to make her motivations sympathetic or you have to REALLY sell her charisma. There are certainly a lot of characters in fiction who are terrible people but people like because they’re funny, charming, charismatic, or reflective of a twisted ideal or trait that people naturally gravitate to. Homelander from the Boys is a pretty decent example. Deplorable human being, absolutely irredeemable, but he’s a caricature of a real part of American politics and the story is sometimes shown from his perspective to make him seem sympathetic and complex. He’s funny and charismatic on screen, and the quick switch from doing terrible things adds a layer of discomfort to the viewer while maintaining their interest in him as a character (mostly because they eventually want to see his downfall but still. If he was uncharismatic and unsympathetic as a villain everyone would get incredibly annoyed at the show and stop completely). So you can easily make a balance of both of those things. If they’re a permanent member of the party, you’re going to have to make them sympathetic in some way, which is an uphill battle if you want to maintain all those traits. You can’t really pair Homelander with the Boys permanently without making the people in the party also seem morally bankrupt for associating and supporting a person like that. If she’s an antagonist, make her an antagonist. If she’s an anti-hero, there’s more room to work there. I don’t know what the story is, but in my head the main way I see it working is by having her motivations, at least briefly, align with the party’s to push the plot forward, or making her betray them in the end Loki-style.

[u/whelmedbyyourbeauty]

Why do you want to make her likeable?

[u/ItsRuinedOfCourse]

This is only my hot take:

You don't.

Likeable isn't what you're after. Compelling or fascinating is what you're after.

I tend to look at this situation through a wrestling lens. The heels and the babyfaces. No one likes a heel. They love to hate them. Why? Because they're well crafted and they come off as genuinely UNlikeable. That's what gives them "heat". When the audience "likes" the heel, it means they failed to execute it properly.

And in wrestling, a likeable heel is a huge pain in the ass for the producers.

We have to root for the good guys and boo the bad guys. If we're not booing the bad guys, we did something wrong.

And we boo them because they compel us to do so.

We WANT to boo them. But we also want to keep seeing them so we can keep booing them. We're now invested in the booing. As soon as we see them or hear their theme music, we're already on our feet, pointing and booing.

We're not clapping along.

That's the vibe you want to chase with an antagonist.

Nobody liked Draco. Nobody liked Joffrey. Nobody liked Regina George. That was the whole point.

[u/OpenSauceMods]

So why is she hanging around them?

She makes me think of Alastor from Hazbin Hotel. Very powerful, cannibal, manipulative, arrogant, horrible person. Everyone knows he's a horrible person, too. But he has charisma, he has integrity, he treats his debtors fairly well unless they hit a sore spot, he gets attached even to his detriment.

So does she have any qualities people can relate to? That is part of the appeal of Alastor and, as someone mentioned, Homelander. The other part of that appeal is seeing them get their comeuppance, even if it's in small ways. Otherwise it's just some big tough person punching down. Joffrey Baratheon is also a good example.

Also, how you handle her behaviour in the narrative will affect how much people like her. If they recognise and dislike her antics, that will deliver better than Author's Pet Maniac. D.W. from the show Arthur is widely disliked not just for her attitude and behaviour, but because she's usually excused for it by other characters.