Protagonist 1, 2, 3 and 10

Red's Hawt Chibi Pelippers said:

Yeeeah sort of asking this now because I'll eventually be having, like, 18 important characters in my own fic here O.o

Click to expand...

Well, first off, important characters aren't the same as protagonists. You can have as many "important" ones as you want so long as you have them play a key role in the plot. However, it's very easy to undermine their importance if they only have a bit role at the climax of the story (such being the case of the rival in the DPPl games, wherein his shining moment was actually a short stunt where he helped the protagonist fight two of the admins of Team Galactic and inadvertently get vengeance on the one who beat him at Lake Acuity).

When it comes to the actual protagonist, there is ONLY one. I know that a lot of people would disagree with me, but even if you have your story following several different characters, the actual main character has to be your true focus. It makes no sense to start your story following one character and then trail off on another's saga, even if they're someone who is tied to the main character in some way. That's just not how things work in fiction. I myself have parts of stories follow other characters temporarily, but that's generally just to show that there's something going on behind the main character's back or to foreshadow the upcoming introduction of a major event in the story, so it always ties back to the protagonist in some way.

Well, it's definitely simpler to focus on one protagonist, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's better. It depends on the story really. I've read books where I had wished I knew what was going on inside an other character's mind, and I've read books where I wished they would stop switching perspectives. It's all about the author's ability to handle what they're doing. If you're looking at eighteen different characters that are going to play an important role, I'll agree with Incinermyn with the fact that all because they're important, doesn't mean they're main characters.

However, I do think it's possible to have more than one true main character. In a book series I read, each chapter was written from a different character's perspective, but they were all working towards the same goal, and were traveling together. So, the journey was really about all of them, instead of focusing on just one. Of course, that's one series I've read, out of I don't know how many books I've read, so it's rare, but I do believe it is possible.

Mmm, in traditional fiction, you really allowed only one MAIN character. Anyone else counts as side character or an aide to the protagonist. This is a literary mechanism called centralization. Your plot is supposed to be fully focused on the character you first introduce as the central figure of the story. From there, any events that follow involve him/her either directly or inadvertently. This leaves more room for character development and changes in the protagonist's personality. Similarly, other characters change too, whether they're in league with the main character or not (this is actually a good way to implement the whole case of "dissention and betrayal" or "boosting of characters' morale").

When it comes to the actual protagonist, there is ONLY one.

Click to expand...

Who is the protagonist in A Game of Thrones?

Personally. It's how the author executes it. You can make an important character into a protagonist or antagonist in their own special way in their own small special story arc. That could either effect the main protagonist or not.

For an ex; I have 20 important characters in my fic. At first I was aiming at all 20 being antagonists. Then thought to myself, it was a terrible idea and too much for me to pull off. Then I narrowed it down to one or two. But now I am unsure. Sooooo now I decided to snowball the plot, let it flow out itself. And antagonist is currently unknown (Which could be a good thing, or bad thing. I'm taking a gamble on this one)

And in your and my fics case. You'd probably have to flesh out important characters to have influence on the protagonist in a good way, or in a bad way (in a good way). And depending at the plot, the way you use them and work from that.

I'm not a writer or anything but I read stories every now and then. Usually I prefer stories that have two protagonist (or more).

Examples of things I've read: Anne Frank, Gantz, My Queen (Manga), Kicka** 1, 1.5, 2, 3, Evangelion, Dragon Ball Z, Walking Dead, Jupiter's Legacy
..so I read more manga than books..

Negrek said:

Who is the protagonist in A Game of Thrones?

Click to expand...

It's debatable whether the author of that series does a good job in having so many different central characters.

I think it's fully possible to have more than one "protagonist" though. I disagree with the argument that all other characters are there just to revolve around one character's journey, and I think more than one character can have a consistent journey throughout the story. However, on the other hand, it's easy to spread yourself to thin by creating so many different characters and trying to focus on each one. You can risk the reader losing track of who's who or end up not giving vital characters necessary characterization in favour for another, or just have the whole story be a confusing mess. Having way too many characters is a good way to invoke apathy in an audience because it's harder to "get to know" them since the focus is switching around so much.

I think, if you want to have several central characters, you should start off with a few central characters, and get to know them. After you do that, you can gradually expand the focus to other characters, pulling them into the fold of established characters, and then so on. Then, after awhile, the reader will be familiar with and care about a lot of the characters. You probably don't want to go nuts with introducing too many main characters though.

Grovyle42(Griff8416) said:

It's debatable whether the author of that series does a good job in having so many different central characters.

Click to expand...

Oh, absolutely! I really didn't care for the way the oodles and oodles of viewpoint characters were handled in GoT, personally, but what I was objecting to was the notion that somehow there can be only one protagonist BY DEFINITION. I think that series is a fairly well-known one that's a good counterexample to that argument, that's all. Whether or not it's a good idea to have more than one protagonist is a different question entirely!

For my part, I tend to get leery over having multiple central characters, which almost inevitably means multiple POV's. You really compound problems of pacing and structure when you have two or more mostly-independent storylines going on, so in my opinion you really have to have something big to gain by using multiple protagonists before you should take on that kind of logistic writing nightmare.

I recently read a great essay on POV that comes to similar conclusions. Basically, the premise is that limiting your viewpoint is valuable because it helps you know what you shouldn't show in the story. When you have tons of viewpoint characters or a near-omniscient POV, the temptation is to show everything, but the essence of writing is really about choosing what's truly important and cutting out all the rest. Sticking to one or only a couple main characters helps you write a more focused story just by the nature of the setup. (There are lots of rly rly great essays on that site, for what it's worth, plus loads of practical info on the script-writing business, so definitely something to check out if that's the way you plan on going with your writing.)