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How often do you focus on the original story's protagonist? (kbin.social)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I usually find the main character to be the least interesting. This isn't always, but it's often.

Part of it is the sense that sometimes protagonists rest too much on BEING protagonists to be interesting. Everyone sort of falls all over them and they're special just because and... It feels flat to me.

So most of the fic I write/read centers on secondary protagonist or side characters to varying degrees.

What about you all?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

I do! I also focus on a lot of other characters (friendship stories!). With the stories I'm interested in, most of the time the protagonist has something just as interesting to provide to my brain. Or is given enough hints of an interesting personality (Persona protagonists) that my headcanon fills out the rest of it to make the character exactly what I want.

I'm trying to think of a series I am into where the protagonist is of no interest to me. I guess Pokemon games? Mainly because when I write Pokemon stories, I usually go all OCs.

Perhaps it is the media I consume?

Yu Yu Hakusho: people don't fall over Yusuke. He has to fight to earn people's respect, but he is also loyal, and when he gets someone's loyalty they make a great team with him.
Saiyuki: I know Sanzo and Goku are the "main" main characters of the core four, but I can't imagine any of them without the other. I love all of them.
Ouran High School Host Club: Haruhi is a wonderful protagonist. As much as the whole host club fawns over her, they don't actually trust her immediately. Most of them have let her in to mess with Tamaki, as far as I'm concerned. Haruhi earns their love. And Tamaki initially seems like he might be flat, but the way the manga goes circumvents where you think his character might be taken.

For the ones I write? I write every character in Bandori. They are all interesting. Yu-Gi-Oh! DM is a matter of a cast. I couldn't separate them from each other too much. Even when I don't put every character in a story, they are all referenced to being in the background. They are important in each other's lives.

It is a matter of the media itself. A mark of perhaps not the best creator, if their main character is flat and uninteresting. Even if you can appreciate the creator for everything else they have accomplished within the media. A good author/creator will make a good protagonist. One you can follow and cheer for or even curse out as they make bad decisions. One you love. Or just love to hate.

And if the character is the type to bring people together? The creator will show why that is the case, not just tell. Or at least imply it well enough that our fandom minds put the last hooks together.