Some people like villains. Some readers like the character so much that they’re keen to ask why. And because of that, some will try to question you. Your moral. Your logic. Because of your choices. But they all forget that liking a character is not as simple as making them your favorite ‘cos it aligns to what you believe, your moral stance or whatever—you just personally like how great the character is because the story and how that character is written and presented. That character doesn’t have to be good or righteous. It just needs to elicit a great reaction from me to make it my favorite—moral ambiguity withstanding!

This topic actually came up when I saw a lot of people hating on the fact that Bakugou (from Boku no Hero Academia (僕のヒーローアカデミア) won two popularity polls consecutively. Everybody wonders why we like him despite the fact that he’s a bully, a loud mouth, and has a short fuse! But those flaws make him more interesting to me. And even though he hasn’t properly given that in-depth character arc or story yet, the little bits that Horikoshi-sensei planted in the story so far are making me very hopeful about how he’ll develop Bakugou, as well as his role in Midoriya’s—the main character’s—story.

I think it’s very presumptuous to think that a good character has to have morals or fall to a standard—a good character has to be well written.

The same case happened when I decided to root for Aaron Warner (from Shatter Me), and everyone went bat-shizz insane, questioning us and our relationship choices because how dare we root for him—an evil incarnate of that fragile female character! But I just do, alright! My morality is not skewed—because I know there’s a very thick line between fiction and reality! It doesn’t exist on the same plane—in my head, it doesn’t! So to judge my character based on what I like is nothing more than a baseless assumption. While I fall for certain stereotypes occasionally, that does not mean it was an unconscious decision. In the end, even if it is an exact contrast to my beliefs, the way the story was handled and how the events stacked in that character’s favor are what made me like him.

I think it’s very presumptuous to think that a good character has to have morals or fall to a standard—a good character has to be well written. That’s it! Liking a character because it has certain charisma and not because you and that character have the same beliefs or embodies the goodness nature of humanity—that’s not how it works; to me, that isn’t the reason why I like a character! I don’t like cookie-cutter characters!