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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31509
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The provided answers are very good. As evidence of the importance of prioritizing character over plot, look at any good novel, or recall your favorite stories, and ask yourself what you remember about them and why you liked them.

I have two additional thoughts.

1. The character who 'needs' to return to war for your plot reasons. - You can try to come up with a list, of as many ways you can think of, for why he would return to war. This is an exercise to think outside the box. For your story, it is best if he does not simply decide, "OK, I'll go." That's not satisfying. It should be a crisis of some sort for him, before he agrees. Maybe:

a. he has been coopted by the opposition, is now a double agent.

b. he has fallen in love, and his love interest is in mortal danger in the army.

c. He has a traumatic brain injury and develops amnesia/etc

d...

e...

f...

The goal of the exercise is to start thinking along new lines. Many of the ideas on the list will go straight to the trashcan - but one might be viable and give you a way out of your dilemma.

Additional advice I have heard for this particular exercise is to automatically delete the first three ideas you think of, as they are too trite (not clever enough, the audience will be more satisfied with something that was work for you to come up with.)

1. Likability: It is very possible to like villains, deserters, traitors. I will again recommend "Lolita." The main character is a child molester. He is the worst man possible. He is most certainly not a role model, or someone you would ever want to be in a room with. But the book is impossible to put down, because he has so developed his own rationale for his crimes and explains them to the reader in such a convincing way, explaining his twisted logic, that the reader becomes drawn into his insanity. There are probably other good examples of compelling villains, in literature and real life. The trick (I believe) is to make the 'unlikeable character's' motivations sound, developed from their life experiences, compelling. Brief example: Your deserter may come to see that the war is unjust - the premise he went to war over is false. And so after a crisis of conscience he realizes he cannot fight anymore. Et cetera. You would ideally provide enough background and internal dialog (or other device) on his part to allow us to understand those motivations. 

Original score: 2