How To Make Good Flaws vs Bad Flaws for Likable Characters

Whether you’re drawing or writing characters, we’ve talked in the past about how, if you want a character to be likable, it’s a good idea to make them flawed. To give them flaws. Usually a pristine, perfect character repels us, it has the opposite effect we would hope.

Ok, cool. Good. Make them flawed. Give them flaws. Seems simple enough. A robot arm is a flaw, right? A disadvantage is a flaw, right? In this video, we'll take a closer look.

All illustration in this video done in Procreate on the iPad Pro.

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[caroodraws]

I really like the idea of taking traditionally positive traits like kindness or courage and pushing them until they become a flaws, such as lack of boundaries or acting without thinking. Thanks for talking about this topic, it's cool to hear your take on it.

[Cy_Cyborg]

I'm really glad someone acknowledged that a disability in and of itself is not a character flaw. I see that a lot for some reason, the flawless person with a missing limb being perfectly fine and never struggling with anything, physically or mentally. They're still bland, but now they're bland with a cool leg lol

[tickytickytango]

You listed a lot of problems with the Alligator Story. I'm just here wondering why the alligator would drive to the store when he has a jet pack.

[dissonanceparadiddle]

One of the best pieces of advice about this I ever heard was take your characters strengths and find the flaws that they cause

[Danmarinja]

Remember to always consider where your characters good traits come from.

• They are strong because they believe in protecting others
• they are smart because they want people to be proud of them
• They are stylish because they care a lot about self-expression

Its a lot easier to create believable flaws this way.

• They want to protect others but won’t think about their own safety, which regularly puts them in danger
• They want people to be proud of them and so any small mistake or misunderstanding is like a cut to the chest to them
• They care a lot about self expression and fail to pay attention to other people sometimes, especially on days when they put in so much effort into their outfit

[jokerson]

One major point of Sonic's confidence was him being overconfident. Look no further than Unleashed's opening scene.

Sonic's having a good time messing up Eggman's plan, but he gets a little in over his head and is caught. No way out till he reveals his trump card, the 7 Chaos Emeralds.

He turns Super Sonic. For all you that don't know, Sonic can fly, is completely invulnerable, and has even trumped gods and other deities in that form. So he easily blows up Eggman's flag ship as Eggman's making a run for it and Sonic gives chase, going out of his way to destroy another ship. Why? Because he can.

He's finally got Eggman cornered and drops his guard to brag and throw some snark. After all, he's beaten Eggman how many times regularly? And now the doc doesn't have a mech nearby and he's in his Super Form.

Eggman knew this and the entire attack, Super Sonic, EVERYTHING...was a setup. Eggman reveals a trap that rips the Emeralds out of Sonic, shatters the world into 7 pieces, and turned Sonic into a fuzzy beast before ejecting him into space.

For the most part in the story, Sonic isn't being the goofball because last time he was, the world got shattered. He was overconfident twice, and could only bail out of one. And Eggman counted on both times.

[amead]

For something to really be a flaw, the character needs to face a consequence for it. For example, if they’re too brave, they should get hurt as a result of it. The character can never learn to overcome their flaw of they’re not forced to confront it.

[notrealnamenotatall]

The best part is that flaws are flexible. You can make an exceptionally flawed character very likable and likewise a conventionally 'good' character very unlikable, or the other way around. Nothing more fun than a character you hate to love or love to hate. XD

[Danmarinja]

I demand more of jet pack alligator parent.

[mattdoesstuff]

Flaws? Finally, something on this channel that I am an expert in.

[rainpooper]

It’s always in the execution. What I see a lot is that a character is said to have a flaw, let’s say a short temper, but it’s never actually portrayed as a flaw, for example, the actual story only ever showcased the short temper when the character in question was standing up to a mean teacher for picking on the shy girl in class and got detention for it. That’s not how flaws work. You can’t bend the narrative to put a character in the right when they’re supposed to be showcasing a flaw. That’s about the worst thing you can do because it either makes them too perfect or it leads to character flaws that are completely unintentional and therefore unresolvable, such as making the character look like a big fat jerk and never addressing it.

You’re totally right about Sonic tbh, he’s a Gary Stu in a lot of the post-Dreamcast games. The problem are most likely SEGA‘s mandates that keep the writers from giving him actual flaws. Even stories that try to focus on his weaknesses end up being so confusingly written that it leaves you wondering what exactly Sonic’s flaw was even supposed to be. (Looking at you, Lost World.)

[Yipper]

4:12 quite literally in fact, as in the game you are often going too fast and run straight into an enemy if you arent careful.

[watchermagic]

5:55 Actually, yes, I have read something like that... *que flashback*


I was cleaning out my old junk when I came across a binder I'd had for well over a decade. When I opened it, scrawled in sharpie on the two inside surfaces, in my six-year-old spelling, was a story about a baby unicorn who was scared because the mom went away, but then the mom came back and it was all better. Complete with illustration, even. ;P


It's really interesting, how a lot of the work I've seen done by children under 7 has very little conflict, which is always resolved through what amounts to an undo button: "I was sacred, but then I wasn't." I find it fascinating, actually, because looking at it, that's how we think when we're that young. Dad goes to work, Mom goes shopping and kisses the boo-boos. When something's wrong it's an external force that solves it, and often we're so inexperienced that just the possibility something *might* be wrong is enough conflict for a good story; or conversely, hiding under the bed until the thunderstorm passes.

[Cavegeckosol]

I always struggle a bit, but for me, it is also vital to know your audience. Kids will relate to different flaws than adults. For example, I grew up thinking that Usagi from Sailor Moon was a big crybaby who never fought and was pretty lame. Same with Shinji from Eva. I thought these were cowardly characters. Only as a young adult did I come to appreciate their flaws. Now they are some of my favorite characters. Pick an audience and really get into the stuff they like. Once you know the framework of a genre or an audience, you can start stretching those boundaries successfully.

[cobalt_bold]

“The loss of a family member and the character not taking it well”





*Tenya Iida*

[Burnzsall]

I can see what you mean. It's kinda boring reading about a character that is perfect at everything.

[areoants]

but John Brookesegglestoncharacterdesignforge, when are you gonna have Universal pick up the rights to your "Jetpack Alligator Father" IP? because that would make for a killer film tbh

[silverscorpio]

I like the idea of taking a flaw like naivete or overconfidence and writing their story or backstory and having them make the characters make mistakes.
- A naive character was taken advantage of and now has trust issues
- An overconfident character got in way over their head and things didn't go well.

[annorakanon]

I needed this so much... About six months ago, I started making up a story, and there was a moment when I realized, that the main character's personality didn't have "great" flaws (There were some, but they weren't serious), so I decided to add "Negative" and "Too serious", but that didn't seem enough, so I added "Worried", "Weak" and "Selfish", and that's when I realized that the main character just became that annoying kid you wish you could kill. Thanks to your video, I could balance all the flaws, and remove those, that made my character so annoying... Thank you so much! 😃

[comicalsocks]

Balanced and flawed characters are always great to have, especially when its explored in both positively and negatively!