What kind of protagonist do you prefer?

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Do you like watching someone who is larger than life that you can admire, wish and strive to be like or do you like someone that has some foibles so that you can identify with him or her?

I like to be able to relate to the character, so faults are a must, but I also like them to have special skills or stand out in some way. For example, I love the character of Greg House. I love that he is an ass, but often an ass with good intentions. I like that he is a genius, but admittedly makes many mistakes. I can relate to his solo life style, but also with the fact that he craves for something more and doesn't know how to accomplish that.

I was told I would really like the show Dexter, and while I do and can definitely relate to his view of social interactions (aside from the homicidal part), I don't really connect with the show or character.

The character is boring if they are completely average, but not plausible if they are perfect. Greg House is a very good example.

I personally like a main character with personality flaws. I dislike characters that are holy saints or evil devils, I perfer characters that have both good and bad traits, like the characters in Desperate Housewives.

"Some men are born great, some achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them."
I prefer those who choose to be heroes.

I grew up watching Arnold, Stallone and Van Damme and recently got into old Clint Eastwood movies (Dirty Harry). I like my protagonist to be a real bad ass.

Hmm good question. I would probably say I like certain protaganist to be tottaly badd ass, but they have to have a spot of weakness, even if they hide it. The types that come to mind are Riddick, John Preston(Equilibrium), Alucard(Hellsing) and Kamina(TTGL)

I like any character(s) that I can relate to, especially those who have an independent spirit. The character of Josephine "Jo" March is a good example of this.

I like protagonists who are all around stronger than me, characters I can look up to for inspiration. It doesn't matter if they're perfect or imperfect, I just like watching a character with the comforting thought that they'd be able to back me up if they were my friend in the real world. Hope that didn't sound too corny. ^^;;

Well in books I can always identify with the serial killer.... in a book I read (I can't remember its title) that was originally in German, it was a murder story about a guy who was looking for his perfect wife, and when he found them to be `impure` he killed them. There were sections from his point of view, and I identified with him on many occasions...
I have noticed that many murderers are portrayed to have AS traits in books/films...

I like protagonists who are, in some way, 'damaged goods'. You have a hint of humanity in them when they sometimes do unheroic things.

Okay, here's one for sci-fi geeks…
I like my characters flawed, but not too flawed.

Examples:

The characters of Star Trek: TNG are all morally perfect, boring and completely unrelatable.

However, Captain Sisko from DS9 is a great, interesting, very flawed character. I loved the story arc in which Sisko finally turned against the Maquis… He didn't do it out of morality, or because of duty. He did it for revenge because one of them (Cmdr. Eddington) personally humiliated and betrayed him—a very interesting, real, and relatable motivation.

By contrast, Adama and many other characters from the New Battlestar Galactica were often so flawed and inconsistent it was hard to like or relate to them. I was disappointed in Adama for letting Helo get away with sabotaging the virus attack against the Cylons. By indulging Helo, Adama completely betrayed his duty to protect the human race…

I developed a deep hatred and contempt for Adama and Helo because of that. However, I must admit, the fact that I was moved so much proves what a great, heroless, show that really was! I just hope they both rot in hell!

I like basking in character types that are morally perfect sometimes, although I also like some with flaws.
Although I don't like ridiculously flawed characters. Think soap operas. Although I know there are people out there that suck that hard, I don't think it justifies painting that picture as a cultural norm.

Well, there's a few types than generally appeal to me.

There's the extraordinary eccentric: great detectives, genius types, very talented individuals. These types tend to turn up in serial form... tv shows, multiple books or films. They are most notable for having gifts appreciated so much by others than their notable, sometimes almost crippling flaws are either overlooked or at least pardoned, written off as the handicap to balance the gift. In short, they are valued despite their failings. I tend to be very jealous of that. Eg: Doctor Who, Monk, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes.

The alternative Cinderella: Someone no one thought much of, someone who was written off as a bad job, who was ordinary or even repulsive, who had something about them that everyone, including the person in question, took as worthlessness... who then is given (or even better, who discovers) about himself or herself something so wondrous, so special, that it shames the very idea that this person could be anything but extraordinary. Often called "The Chosen One." I know there's years of pain behind my love of this type. eg: Bastien (The Neverending Story), Harry Potter, King Arthur

The brave, lucky idiot: someone who plunges forward determined to do the right thing, risking life and limb and abject humiliation and copes and still ends up coming out a hero despite a sometime deficiency of really brilliant thinking on his part... usually has the aid of wiser, less active people. This type's raw courage and usual selflessness and loyalty to those he loves is balanced by his tendency to make a lot of mistakes and suffer huge amounts of pain in the process. eg: Flik (A Bug's Life), Marty McFly, Guybrush Threepwood, Spider-Man (again, sometimes they do stupid things, even if they're not stupid)

There's also the Frank Capra hero... I think that's the best description for that one.

Although I enjoy Doctor Who, particularly in that he can often be a flawed protagonist, I actually prefer, in terms of realism, the cast of Blake's 7. I mean, amongst the main cast, you have:

*An altruistic revolutionary who starts to believe that the end justifies the means

*An amoral computer hacker who is out for himself first

*A cowardly drunken thief and lech

*A glamourous but pragmatic space pirate

*A telepathic terrorist with something of a chip on her shoulder about her people

The only one who was anywhere near a decent fellow was Gan, when his limiter chip wasn't malfunctioning, and he got squashed by rubble.

And later, you get:

*A crochety, misanthropic and arrogant supercomputer

*A black woman who is a gun nut and just a little too excited at using a bow and arrow compared to a laser

*An arrogant smuggler with an ego and an attitude problem the size of a planet

*A glamourous gunslinger who is a bit on the trigger happy side.


And their opponents?

*An eyepatched psychotic with a laser for an arm

*The queen b***h of the galaxy well before Sarah Kerrigan showed her spiky mug whose idea of fair play is to shoot a blind man's artificial eye, taunt him, and then shoot him again


As they put it in one episode...