There's a great article from a while back by Karl Iglesias in Creative Screenwriting where he attempts to drill down this specific and challenging aspect of characterization -- or getting an audience to care about our protagonist. He boils it down to three components: Pathos, Humanity, and Admiration (I think he also breaks this down further in one of his books). Pathos is when we feel bad for the character, or sympathy, as in the character suffered a loss of some sort; second, Humanity, simply our desire to see the protagonist be nice/human to other people or animals, you know, the old "pet the dog" theory; third, Admiration, when we see the protagonist be good at something, whether or not it's what they do for a living. I don't think he's saying you need to have all three, but using Pixar characters as examples, the more of these qualities your characters possess, the more likability or rootability they possess.

It's interesting to play with as I have done with a recent pilot and I'm finding some success with it.

Also, please feel free to check out my semi-reliable blog (more reliable now that it's summertime):

http://tednusbaum.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the amazing post!

Ted

Ted, thanks for the comments. I've taken the liberty of updating my OP with your Karl stuff. Also added your blog to GITS Friends. Again thanks.

Really good post. Looking forward to Part II. I especially liked the "undeserved misfortune" concept. It seems to do two things simultaneously: build empathy for the protagonist and create a good set-up or inciting incident for Act I.