What aspect in a fictional character typically/almost always grabs your appeal?

Tragic villains or anti heroes are my thing also. I love personality wise smartalec sarcastic characters that are very intelligent. In my protragionsts I like people who don't preach all the time and feel relatable and feel like normal people and not heroes all the time.

For me, I have the tendency to become infatuated with anti-heroic main leads, tragic villains, and characters that hide morally good characteristics, such as altruism, behind a metaphorical mask. I also quite like characters that are shrouded with mystery and intrigue.

For some reason, the lonliest characters appeal to me the most...

Lessee... I find myself drawn to the clever or devious character. The one who knows what they want and will do anything to get it, but won't announce their plans and may even play themselves off as weak or useless. The sarcastic character is always a great one too, but I find clever and sarcastic to go hand in hand, more often than not. The top of the list has to be the tragic character that hides behind a smile. They break. my. heart. Prime example= Fai D. Flourite from Tsubasa Chronicle. He's always lighthearted and sweet outwardly, but has a tragic backstory and lives with the constant pain and loss from it. He never lets on, though, and instead works to make everyone else happy by acting happy himself. It's those characters that I'm almost always drawn to. But NO self-pity. I don't care how tragic the backstory; self pity is one of the worst traits to have in my book.