forum Any advice on making my protagonist bratty but also redeemable/likeable?

Started June 05, 2018 by @Blossom_Utonium

tune

Lace (Invalid Character) is a princess who goes on a journey far from home. I want to make her really stuck-up and bratty at the beginning…but I want her to be likeable/redeemable.
Does anyone know how to do this?

Your link isn't working it must be on private

Dangit. For some reason it won't let me put it on public.

Dangit. For some reason it won't let me put it on public.

I haven't played with this yet since I haven't put anything into the ai yet. Still fairly new. I mostly needed an active community to learn from and bounce ideas off of.

Even though I haven't seen your character, it might help if you added something relatable as to why she's bratty besides her origin of being a princess. This could stem from a traumatic experience or have something to do with a having difficulty in handling her own emotions. It's also nice to show how even when she conflicts with herself, she comes out of the conflict with a stronger motivation than before. Overall, it sounds like you want a complex character, and the best way to do that is start with strong flaws, fears, and motives. These can often be made stronger with emotional ties. I hope this helped!

Trauma doesn't produce bratty behavior having been through my own issues. Trauma produces walls and shyness or mousiness mostly. It may produce aggressive or abrasive behavior but that is separate from being a brat and is a completely different thing. Brattiness comes from being spoiled and that's it really. You make a trauma story to explain brattiness and you will lose a lot of people.
https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/manners/how-to-brat-proof-your-child/
https://www.care.com/c/stories/3485/permissive-parenting-7-signs-your-kid-is-a-brat/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/peaceful-parents-happy-kids/201307/9-ways-transform-bratty-behavior
https://www.popsugar.com/moms/Reasons-Your-Kid-Brat-40381686
Abuse produced mental illness and parents letting their kids walk all over them and get their ways all the time produces a brat.

I'm really sorry! I truly didn't mean to spread false information. I guess I was just looking for a way to help, but I shouldn't have tried to help when I didn't know what I was talking about. I admit that I was really just taking guesses and making ideas, but I should have looked it up. I apologize for causing confusion, but next time I'll try to help in a more positive way.

I'm really sorry! I truly didn't mean to spread false information. I guess I was just looking for a way to help, but I shouldn't have tried to help when I didn't know what I was talking about. I admit that I was really just taking guesses and making ideas, but I should have looked it up. I apologize for causing confusion, but next time I'll try to help in a more positive way.

Lol your fine, I hope you didn't feel like I jumped you there. I just thought to sort it out quick before a mix up happened.

Thanks for clarifying! I was just hoping my ignorance didn't cause any problems, but now that I know more, I can help more! Thanks again!

Thanks for clarifying! I was just hoping my ignorance didn't cause any problems, but now that I know more, I can help more! Thanks again!

Anytime! If you ever have questions about trauma I can answer some things having undergone my own.

This is actually really funny because I have a character almost exactly like what you're trying to make. My character, Princess Elleen, is a princess who is somewhat bratty in that she hates when people tell her what to do, especially her mother, but has a big heart and wants to be a good princess. Her deal is that she understands her responsibilities, but her mother is hard on her for a variety of reasons. Also, Princess Elleen wants to be recognized for her fighting skills, something that is frowned upon. She learned her skills from her father, the greatest warrior to ever do it, and he spoils her rotten, so between her mother and father, she's got some issues that she needs to sort out.

I tried to make it so that her "brattiness" stemmed from the fact that she wants to be her own person regardless of what is proper, and she resents it when someone, usually her mother, tells her that she can't. Every royal knight that was assigned to protect her either quit or was fired because she refuses to listen to them because she wants to go out and have adventures and she's not afraid to ditch them to get her way. This is played both for sympathy and as a negative in the story: while I'm sure a lot of people can sympathize with how she feels, she goes way too far and feels entitled to getting her way because she think's that she's just. On the other hand, she wants to fix problems that she sees in her kingdom, particularly how women are treated in their society, which is something that she sympathizes with for obvious reasons. One of her staple issues is how rampant child-daughters-to-adult-sons arranged marriages are among the upper class.

So I said all that to say that a character such as yours could do something similar to mine, whereas they're bratty for a specific reason that stems from how unfairly they are treated (or perceive themselves to be treated) due to all the responsibility that they have, but they are genuinely good people at heart.

This is actually really funny because I have a character almost exactly like what you're trying to make. My character, Princess Elleen, is a princess who is somewhat bratty in that she hates when people tell her what to do, especially her mother, but has a big heart and wants to be a good princess. Her deal is that she understands her responsibilities, but her mother is hard on her for a variety of reasons. Also, Princess Elleen wants to be recognized for her fighting skills, something that is frowned upon. She learned her skills from her father, the greatest warrior to ever do it, and he spoils her rotten, so between her mother and father, she's got some issues that she needs to sort out.

I tried to make it so that her "brattiness" stemmed from the fact that she wants to be her own person regardless of what is proper, and she resents it when someone, usually her mother, tells her that she can't. Every royal knight that was assigned to protect her either quit or was fired because she refuses to listen to them because she wants to go out and have adventures and she's not afraid to ditch them to get her way. This is played both for sympathy and as a negative in the story: while I'm sure a lot of people can sympathize with how she feels, she goes way too far and feels entitled to getting her way because she think's that she's just. On the other hand, she wants to fix problems that she sees in her kingdom, particularly how women are treated in their society, which is something that she sympathizes with for obvious reasons. One of her staple issues is how rampant child-daughters-to-adult-sons arranged marriages are among the upper class.

So I said all that to say that a character such as yours could do something similar to mine, whereas they're bratty for a specific reason that stems from how unfairly they are treated (or perceive themselves to be treated) due to all the responsibility that they have, but they are genuinely good people at heart.

That will make for some great family issues and tension. The parents will have tons of fights. Because they do not see eye to eye on parenting. That is sure to cause a wedge in a marriage.

Normally it would, but due to extenuating circumstances they literally only have each other, so it would be silly to fight over this one issue when they have much bigger issues to fight over, being the Queen and Commander of the Army respectively. That, plus the fact that they have two other kids that they more or less see eye to eye on. In fact, the fact that they do coordinate on how they raise their other two kids (i.e. their sons) is one of the things that has Elleen so upset. She thinks that she's treated differently just because she's a girl and that she's not as important.

Normally it would, but due to extenuating circumstances they literally only have each other, so it would be silly to fight over this one issue when they have much bigger issues to fight over, being the Queen and Commander of the Army respectively. That, plus the fact that they have two other kids that they more or less see eye to eye on. In fact, the fact that they do coordinate on how they raise their other two kids (i.e. their sons) is one of the things that has Elleen so upset. She thinks that she's treated differently just because she's a girl and that she's not as important.

Awesome. I'd read it. This sounds like a good premise or story.

If I ever get around to writing her (she's sadly not the main character), I'll definitely remember to let you read it.

Give her a good heart beneath all of her whinyness. Luke Skywalker is possibly one of the most universally loved protagonists, and he starts off as a whiny teenage boy before he develops into a more mature young man.

I also have a character who is an ignorant brat but undergoes some serious character development. I guess the way I'm approaching it is by giving her someone to see herself in. The thing about my little brat (Tori) is that she's not stupid. So the more she is annoyed by her counterpart's jerky, bratty, arrogant behaviour the more she slowly comes to realise that she herself has similar issues (honestly her self-awareness probably will start after she's complaining about her counterpart to someone else and they tell her "technically you do the same thing" and she has that little existential crisis of "oh, I'm a hypocrite and I kinda suck").
It's something I've not often seen addressed in media, but when it is it makes my heart happy. Kinda like Yona's character development in Yona of the Dawn (NERD ALERT everyone get down - it's an anime). [she also happens to be a princess who goes on a journey, coincidentally]

Thanks guys, this is super helpful