How To Make Good Flaws vs Bad Flaws for Likable Characters 

DING

I want to hear the rest of the story.

Maybe that’s the conflict. He has this jet pack and carries it around with him to impress people but he’s too afraid to actually use it, and never learns how to by the time he needs to use it to get a can off a high shelf for an elderly person at the store.

I assumed he just needed the storage space.

I figured the reason he went to the store was _because_ he needed fuel for the jetpack

Yes! One of my guys puts way too much trust and is willing to do anything for anyone who accepts him (in other words, he’s naive) because he hasn’t had anyone stay in his life for long

And with this writing experiment you could also combine all of the great traits into one portrayal for a positive version of the character, or combine the bad traits into one to make a negative version of the character. Ex: because he rushes in mindlessly, he makes constant mistakes which ruins his self confidence so he masks it by paying extra attention to his demeanor, style, everything he shows to the world, becoming so self-centered people look more like a crowd of anonimous judges rather than people

The middle flaw relates to me incredibly well and I don’t know how to feel.

Thanks for the advice! :)

If making a character impulsive and emotional, he probably will be a bit reckless and doing things before he thinks how to make it Making a scientist is a hard way, you’ll need to give him a flaw that doesn’t contradict with his knowledge. Make him obsessed with new knowledge that he is ready to give his life for it, a little confidence but not too much (he is a scientist who knows how to stay cool and be ready to anything) If a character has a revered job or something like being more than anyone else (maybe being a king or the only ghostbuster) you can give him a bit of arrogance Characters need to have a reasonable flaws that connected with their personality, acts, sometimes even jobs

That there’s Capn Pegleg Pristine

Yeah not just with characters also in real life Like being disabled isn't a flaw in itself

Or characters that are autism-coded whose only flaw is having autism. Like.... really makes you think about how people view disabilities, y'know?

@@loganplonski922 or if a character has autism and it a genius, they're usually an asshole or their autism is the only reason why they're a genius in their field and not because of the passion and work they have

bruh so many special chrs are just super geniuses or smthing And like at this point when I'd tell people I have thing, they'd go like "woowww must mean your iq is super high" And I go "a h B u t, s e e,,," For some people it can actually become harmful cuz expectations

Very nice point! I didn't think of that! =)

I find it cool when these happen Though I don't see too many examples apart from my own thoughts More examples would be great for inspiration~

@@anidaname6880 my hero academia. Deku allways rushes in to save people without thinking.

@@mintgreen5614 true true

It's great as long as you make sure to actually show how those are flaws in-story. There are tons of people out there that say that their character is "too kind", "too brave" and so on, but that fail to actually show those flaws in-story at which part it starts drifting dangerously close to the fake flaws that are oh so very popular in Mary-Sueish characters and YA novels (Being "so pretty it's a curse", "average looking" (except not really and still magically attracting whatever abuser is in today) and so on). If you're character is "too brave", yet never lands himself in tricky situations by rushing in headlong, somethings wrong. Same if you take naivety as a flaw, if it doesn't actually affect the story, that's not a flaw and shouldn't be listed as such. (That being said, I find this good as well, especially combined with complimentary more traditional flaws. )

^^^ THIS COMMENT RIGHT HERE! This needs more attention!

And this is the reason why so many Mary Sue character has only "fake" flaws

@@Hanmacx Yes, Because obviously everyone knows that being clumsy is a massive flaw that greatly affects the characters personality

@@buddythemoth To be fair, being clumsy could be a huge flaw, if they were clumsy all the time, and not just when they say they are

@@theod4660 like Marinette from miraculous is so clumsy but she has a few other flaws to complement that. She’s clumsy not only physically but verbally so that when under pressure she will blurt out the most ridiculous story without even thinking.

That opening remains my favorite opening of every Sonic game to this day. Beautifully animated & it shows that Sonic isn't infallible. 👌

@@lupinsredjacket3191 You can just say fallible.

Sonic Unleashed has the best story out of all the franchise in my opinion

Same thing happens in the Lost World. Sonic's overconfidence and inability to listen caused him to unleash the Deadly Six (basically Sonic's version of demons) from Eggman's control. This arrogance also gets his best friend Tails kidnapped because Sonic walked into an obvious trap that Tails saved him from. Then he managed to force Eggman, of all people, to save Sonic from his own arrogance before Eggman seemingly dies, all while the world Sonic is on is actually dying because of the Deadly Six. In one of the last few levels, Zavok, the leader of the Deadly Six, calls Sonic out on this, basically saying "We may be destroying the world, but none of this would have happened if you listened to your so-called friends! Where's your friends now Sonic?" Zavok jumps away, and instead of Sonic saying one of his usual comeback lines...he says nothing. Because Zavok was right; all of this is Sonic's fault. And all of this comes to a head when he has to face Tails again...under the control of the Deadly Six. Sonic had to swallow his pride and apologize to his friend for his arrogance before finally saving the world from his own screw up.

I wouldn't count Unleashed, because I can't recall any instance where it's held against him (in fact, I'm certain Unleashed is where Sonic's more gary stuish tendencies started to become the norm); Anyways, Sonic just kinda carries on normally afterwards, as do alot of the NPCs in the story, treating him as the hero he's always been. There was one POSSIBLE instance where Sonic suggests Chip's presence is what helps him retain his good side, but Chip himself handwaves that away saying his light is too strong for any darkness. He doesn't fall into that "too perfect" side, but he definitely tilts that way. I have problems with its execution, but Lost World would be a better example, if only because the narrative at least states that Sonic did in fact mess up on his own, and not through some outside circumstances. When Brookes brought up overconfidence, the first thing that instantly came to mind was Aosth and ESPECIALLY SatAM. Both of these series have numerous stories showing how Sonic being brash and arrogant has major downsides, often leading to the conflict being resolved only when Sonic humbles himself.

Basically what Shakespeare does alot in his plays.

Example:Immortality seems like a gift because you can litteraly never die, but actually it is a curse, because you can never die you have to witness everyone you loved, you cared about, your family, your friends all of them die in front of your eyes. This can make a character; depressed, broken, suicidal or even make them turn evil.

@@azir1595 you have no idea how close to home that hits for me 🥲

@@azir1595 immortality doesn't mean invulnerable Like if you get blown up to pieces but are still alive

@@Hanmacx imagine like deadpool kind of immortality but more depressing and more serious

Unlikable very character character is the other way around

JetPack Alligator II: Ski-doo Boogaloo

his flaw is that he chooses to drive to the grocery store instead of the more awesome way and fly there

@Simple Weirdo but what about his 500 kids😂

@@kittycat5972 Promiscuity. Another flaw.

@Simple Weirdo maybe he ends up having to save his kid, who somehow ended up on the roof while he was busy trying to watch his other 499 kids, and he has to save him fast, but his only ladder is broken, so he has to face his fears and fly to his kid.

Sonic Lost World was insufferable, that was the first time I actually found Sonic (one of my childhood favorite) UNLIKABLE (of course, Tails wasn't any better, himself).

This is why I LOVE Sonic Boom. Yeah, it's basically a Sonic sitcom, but the characters are given fleshed-out personalities that make for witty banter and surprisingly creative situations. In one episode, Sonic meets an obsessive fan, but his ego stops him from seeing the red flags... until said fan kidnaps him and tries to make him act out his fanfiction. ("Ooh, SonAmy! Spicy.") Yes, this actually happened. It's interesting because the writers not only use flaws to make the main cast more relatable, but they also straight-up make fun of the characters at times, especially Sonic and Amy. It actually works well. Anyway, the episode is called The Biggest Fan, if anyone's that curious.

@@landonj7863 Sonic Boom is pretty interesting, it's the first installment of Sonic media that made Amy, not only tolerable, but, actually likeable.

Landon J That‘s kind of why I HATE Sonic Boom. I‘ll give you that it’s better written than whatever the hell Pontaff are doing, but half of the characters are just not the characters I‘ve come to love, they’re just people who vaguely resemble Sonic and his friends. The TV show gave them flaws that they didn’t originally have like Knuckles being straight up mentally retarded(TVTropes used him as the posterchild for flanderization for a reason) or Amy being a feminist(seriously, what the hell?). Then there are episodes where characters will just have random flaws that come completely out of nowhere just to drive a plot, like Sticks randomly losing all of her paranoia and getting overprotective over an obviously evil robot dog(in the third episode she ever appears in nonetheless) or Sonic and Knuckles turning into sexist pricks for one episode(and Knuckles even completely losing his survivalist abilities, one of his informed *strengths* just to make this dumbass plot work) just so Amy and Sticks can show them up and the episode has literally zero self-awareness about it. Yeah, that also happened. The episode is called Into the Wilderness. Let’s say I didn’t like it very much. This show is way too inconsistent for my liking. How am I supposed to be attached to those characters when they bend and break to whatever jokes the writers want to throw in? Amy’s personality in particular changes in nearly every episode depending on what the writer needs her to be, I literally don’t even know what to think of her. I suppose her overall personality is supposed to be a modernized version of „girl“ which I guess is where the random feminism thing came from, but they never settled on what kind of girl she’s actually supposed to be overall. Good comedy is driven by strong personalities, it doesn’t work the other way around. Especially when those personalities were already there, yet they still felt the need to completely rewrite half of the cast.

Honestly they had a big chance to change that in Forces. It would’ve been really cool to see Sonic completely hopeless, but then gradually gain back his confidence throughout the entirety of the game.

I never realized that but it’s true

That is too wholesome

I like this comment!!!! ^-^ Gold Star!

That definitely explains why my 7 year old self's stories were not good by typical writing standards. Children don't really have the concept of inciting incidents, conflict or basic narrative structure. My younger self's stories were about a fish and lobster who would go on adventures and do cool stuff depending on the mood I was in at the time. Upon reading them again, I can appreciate how random they were; I was simply drawing what I liked without a care in the world. The humor still slaps tho.

Aren't they *necessary* for good storytelling?

​@@SL2797Flawless is always weak

Four eyes have entered the chat

My immediate thought was *Shadow The Hedgehog.* His motive in SA2 being summed up as **minor spoilers** "A human SWAT team shot my girlfriend/sister-figure/BFF when she never did anything wrong, so now I'm gonna get revenge against the entire human race by shooting the planet with a laser cannon" sounds _kiiiiiiiiinda'_ like "not taking it well" to me.

bro i was just thinking about how bakugo is a good likeable character with flaws 😳

*DON'T REMIND ME OF THAT PLEASE*

I wheezed lol, that is true tho.

i say this all the time, but GODDAMNIT THAT WAS ONE OF THE FLAWS THAT EMMA FROM THE PROMISED NEVERLAND HAD AND NOTHING EVER HAPPENED, IT NEVER GOT TO HER 🙁🙁🙁

It's also boring reading about a character who's 'character flaw' is their strength in the story. Basically just makes them perfect with extra steps to make them seem 'flawed'.

@@icycloud7876 I'm not familiar with that. What would be an example of that type?

@@Burnzsall I don't really know any movie or book examples, mostly because characters like this are basically the most forgettable. Though an example I can give is where a character's flaw is that they are overconfident, but then the story twists it into a strength. Where that overconfidence wins them the competition. Where others might not have the confidence to be bold like the character. And that character never struggles at all during the story. The story might try to introduce tension with other characters struggling, but the main focus would be on the main character who has no struggle.

IcyCloud For some reason, you made an exact description of the main character from the Throne of Glass series. And here I am trying to forget that garbage fire...

@@blueberrymuffin_144 Yes, I don't like the MC from Throne of Glass either, she's a Mary Sue and gets everything she wanted. Everything wrong she does gets justified later on. I can't tell if she even has just one flaw which shows her more negative side.

Same

i mention the promised neverland a lot, but i truly believe that the sort of “villain” of the story, isabella, is a very good chaarcter for a villain. because she’s not REALLY that evil, but she’s also working against the main characters who are trying to do the good thing because she’s given up trying to do the good thing maybe i’m interpreting her very wrongly but still

I'd love to see a villainous character who is, deep-down inside, a good character, because they cannot really make themselves commit to performing villainous deeds that they are expected to do...but they *DO* still want to be villainous, if that makes any sense.

Remember, a villain is a person with bad morals. An ANTAGONIST goes against the heroes, they dont necessarily need to have bad morals, just a screwed up moral compass if that makes sense.

BulbaSour I support him

@Lily Ramsey that's really intresting! And yeah, my character would learn to not let the negativity consume him to the point of harming others

That is so oddly specific that I can guarantee you’re writing/animating/creating a game around a story

@Trin Silvers That makes a lot of sense! I haven't touched that story in over a year, but I really like the idea of having a surface flaw symbolize some deeper aspect of his personality.

@@chanca132 Maybe it's a result of another flaw, and he gets stressed out too easily and overthinks things- laying awake at night thinking "what could I have done or said differently that one time?" Maybe he has some kind of fear or PTSD he has to learn to move past, and _nightmares_ keep him up at night. Maybe because he doesn't get enough sleep, his _true_ flaw is that he's a cranky and irritable person during the day and has a short temper and health problems. There's _a lot_ you could do with that! ^_^

@@ChaosRayZero I fully agree with all that! 😊 But that story's been shelved for years now, and I kind of doubt I'll ever go back to it.

@Leirdo Man64 are you okay? Where's all this hostility coming from?

Flaws...one flaw isn't enough

That “and everyone died” at the end reminded me of Patrick’s story about the ugly barnacle

Lol

@@quakezero8968 he was so ugly that everyone died THE END 😃

So true. “My greatest weakness you ask, suited hiring guy? Why it’s that I always try to please everyone, i’m Obsessive about doing good work, and I am a little too giving, always trying to make my team and boss look good. No one dares to be honest -it would be pandemonium. “My biggest flaw sir? Hmm! So many from which to choose...let’s see...I sneak in RU-vid videos at work, I have trouble waking up when the alarm goes off, and my state of mind? Well! Let’s just call it questionable, shall we?”

How can a car have a personality.

@@tobyjohn4682 IM LAUGHING WTF

Love, it's what makes a Subaru a Subaru.

1 year late, but here’s my opinion. Take example: if a hotheaded character learned to be less impulsive through a personal lesson, you can still keep him hotheaded, just toned down to the point where he doesn’t do something stupid. These types of the flaws are mostly just exaggerated character traits, so you would be fine if you kept them acting as normal, but toned down. Later in the story, you can make an event that tests how mature the character has become. Put them in a situation where they would make a mistake that they had made before and show the audience that they had learnt their lesson and they would not make the same mistake twice. It’s a good way to make your audience feel that your character had truly grown as a person.

Or you can make new ones arise naturally from the events of the story. Let's say a boy in a village is treated badly by everyone because his father was a cowardly soldier that ran away when the villagers needed him, as a result he's timid and lacks confidence in himself. Through the course of the story he improves ,becomes stronger, more confident (overcomes the first flaw) and saves the village from a monster.After that his reputation changes and he's now treated as a hero , however, he starts to resent the villagers because of their previous mistreatment, as a result he can't get close to anyone in the village and mistrust other people( second flaw) To be fair, you could make the argument that he was always a mistrustful person, but you could just play it up as just another neutral character trait ( he tends to remember the actions of other people) or even a positive trait ( he was a good judge of character,he tended to be very careful in who he became friends with), up until the point that it becomes a flaw because of the events of the story

I've often wonder that myself. For example, does a character's shyness have to be "fixed," or can the character stay shy?

Stellbz Damn, that’s cool! Does it have a name?

@@smileyboi9174 awh thankyou! And yeah its called My Boys 😊

"Woah! That's interesting, but I sure don't care!" -Sonic the Hedgehog

I'm immediately interested in what that flaw will cause, so I think it's great!

@@SM-yz4hi I immediately thought of the character often being completely unprepared for important plot things and vastly underestimating opponents due to not paying attention to the briefing.

Nah, I get what you're saying. It's hard to write the same flaws because it feels like you're incriminating yourself, lol.

Blank Slate That’s probably why flaws are so important. They make the reader recognize the struggles of the character, and maybe through the character’s journey the reader can reflect on their own journey as well.

If it helps you're not alone! It's hard confronting your own flaws. It's a little scary..

@Ash Parker Alot of what we make are reflections of ourselves in one way or another I've found that the main characters of the story i'm making are each an aspect of myself, Kinda like the living stitchpunk things in the movie "9", each one is one 9th of the scientist's soul, and one piece of his personality The stories we make come from our knowledge of the world, so it makes sense why everything we make can be directly tied to ourselves as people

😂"crocodiles can't drive cars, just one critic's opinion"

Sonic also acts like a wise-cracking douche for most of the game before and after the one or two moments of conflict, so it's hard to care much about him and the plot, especially since the new villains aren't taken very seriously either. I respect Unleashed a lot more for it's shorter moment of overconfidence that isn't referenced much at all afterwards since there, you at least have to spend the entire game owning up to your mistake and dealing with it's physical and societal effects (also the writing's a lot less quippy and hollow, and a bit more serious imo), while in Lost World, the adventuring continues just as it did before the serious scenes.

Glad it was helpful!

Based on my experience. People who try to write villains as the victims don't tend to really get the sympathy from the audience because it is just out of nowhere where they would introduced their tragic back stories or something to make the viewers sympathise with them. I don't know about others but that would just kill the mood.

There are many ways, but a common solution is this. Give them a good reason to hate the main character. Maybe because of something they did in the past or that their ideals just don’t get along with each other. Example: Jason Todd and Batman. Jason hates Batman because he won’t kill criminals and just leave them inside a jail that they can easily escape from and potentially hurt more people.

Good way is to make the vilian have a good goal. Like help to someone, but he just made it the wrong way. One of the best examples is Light Yagami. He started to murder criminals so he can make the world a better place, but he was also selfish and sadistic.

Badabingbadaboom everyone just described ✨anti-heroes✨

Not sure if you've heard little kids tell stories, they're exactly like this.

It's pretty funny seeing these kinds of comments, because this video was obviously made last year and all the comparisons to Deltarune characters after the fact is hilarious

@@CharacterDesignForge Baha, I guess I can sort of see it as kris as well. Mr. Toby Fox sir, maybe you need to work on your character flaws. Lol.

Glad you enjoy it!

Thanks!

Didnt notice until a year later, il see if i can edit out on the youtube side. Honest mistake

What he is saying is that the tragic backstory isn’t a flaw, but nervousness and depression and stuff that come from the backstory are flaws.

I've planned some things for one preliminarily...