What is a protagonist to you? (+poll)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

• A puppet
• A child
• A victim
• A student
• An assistant
• A friend
• An idol
• A case study
• A test subject
• A reflection
• Something else

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Just an interesting question I thought of. ^^ If you choose 'something else', I hope you'll explain what it is, 'cuz I feel like I pretty much covered all the bases....

Anyway, I think my protagonists are definitely case studies, test subjects, and reflections...they all harbor little bits of me that I can watch learn and grow in new environments, while I throw difficult obstacles their way to see how they handle them.

I feel like most people see themselves taking a more active-feeling role in the way their protags develop, which is why I couldn't think of the descriptors that actually pertained to me until the end of the list. ^^; But I do have one active-feeling descriptor, that I guess I'd consider my 'something else'-- a creditor.

Every character I write comes with a promise to keep, a vision for them that I need to fulfill by the end of the story. This 'debt' basically hangs over my head until their character arc is over, and I can never truly end the story until I've paid up, interest and all. I guess that's what makes writing the last half of a story so nerve-wracking for me. ^^;;;

[Leyelle]

I think in my mind, a protagonist is almost always "an individual.' A living and breathing person that I get to know and learn about the life and experience of, so "something else" is the option I choose. I often feel that the decisions I make when writing them have less to do with whether I want to make them happy or make them suffer and what seems to make the most sense with who I understand the characters to be

[UrMom]

I just see protags as "the main character(s)", nothing particularly special. Although I use them like tools, for venting, exploration of different topics, personal exploration, stuff like that. The great thing about fictional characters is that they're fiction, you can do anything you want with them, as long as you use appropriate age and content warnings, that is.

While they're representations/concepts of real people, I can never truly see them as people.

[AmysGames]

Gotta be honest, I'm not sure how to answer this, lol.

First of all, I don't really see my protagonists any differently than I see any of my other characters. I guess they tend to be more heroic, or they might play the role of an audience stand-in, but all in all they're just characters who happen to hold POV for most of the story.

As for how I see my characters, I refer to them with affectionate terms like "my children," but I don't literally think of them as my children. I tend to put them through the wringer, and sometimes torment them on purpose, but I'm not like "ha ha! Suffer, little insects!!" In some ways, they feel like real people that I just happen to be telling the story of, but at the same time they're a part of me, but also they aren't me at all.

So I guess what I'm saying is, I don't know how to put it other than "they're my characters."

[skidiggy]

This one's tough to answer. At the end of the day, a protagonist to me is "engaging" and/or "interesting" and can be multiple things on that list as well.

[binahwrites]

I answered a friend, and the reason is kind of silly, whenever i write a protagonist i tend to think "oh they are cool i wish i could be their friend" but i mean, my writing is geared towards found family and strong friendship, so thats my reasoning

[BoomerZ]

Think you are missing the most important one. "hero".

[LunarScyphozoa]

Honestly? The one I keep the camera pointed the most. I don’t believe a protagonist is any different than other characters, aside from how important they are to the story. Not even necessarily how important they are in the story, merely how important they are to what the audience is seeing. They don’t need to be special, they don’t need to be relatable, and they certainly don’t need to be heroes. They just need to be the focus.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Honestly? The one I keep the camera pointed the most. I don’t believe a protagonist is any different than other characters, aside from how important they are to the story. Not even necessarily how important they are in the story, merely how important they are to what the audience is seeing. They don’t need to be special, they don’t need to be relatable, and they certainly don’t need to be heroes. They just need to be the focus.

Since a few people have voiced a similar thought to ^this, I wanted to address it. I mean, why did I use the word 'protagonist' and not just 'character'...? There's not much difference...a protagonist should be a character like any other.

But upon further thought, I think there is a difference and should be a difference, at least within the context of their own story. That is to say, I think a strong protagonist shouldn't just be one of many characters; there should be a specific reason why you choose to have the audience follow them, a reason why they are the best and most impactful POV for the world you're exploring.

Like, I think of the stories I write with large ensemble casts, with characters of many different backgrounds and ability levels...there's always a specific perspective or quality that sets the MC apart. They are driven to connect with their peers in a way the other characters aren't, or they have an intense hatred or sadness or other deep emotion that the other characters haven't experienced.
Or maybe they grow with the setting in a symbolic way, or they exhibit the worst or best that setting has to offer, so that the reader can examine both at once. Or, y'know, the way their mind works and the decisions they tend to make provide the reader with the specific understanding of the setting that I want to emphasize.

I hope this doesn't sound too pretentious, but I think that's the difference between writing a sequence of events happening to a person, and writing a * story*-- an effective protagonist should feel tailor-made for the story they're in, and vice-versa. It shouldn't be enough for the narrative to simply follow them or spotlight them, it should be commenting on them and interacting with them.

Like, if there's no real difference between them and anyone else in the story...then that's tantamount to saying there's no real reason for them to be the protagonist at all.

[AmysGames]

I think you're right, in that a protagonist isn't "just" another character. There has to be something unique about the protagonist, even if it's just that they're the most thematically appropriate to be telling the story.

However, in the context of the specific question that you asked, it doesn't change my answer. They aren't "more" of my children, they aren't more like me, I wouldn't even say they're more of victims because oftentimes my protagonists' job is to react to bad stuff happening to the secondary characters, lol. Just because they're special to the story, doesn't necessarily make them special to me, if that makes sense.

[Lensing]

I trusted my gut feeling and voted for puppet.
I push my protagonists into situations and see how they react, it feels a lot
like playing. Test subject sounds good to, but I don´t know if I understand the
term correctly

[mohdadeebace]

He is me just with the ability to do whatever he wants.

when an ordinary life collides with extraordinary power, Destiny takes a Dark turn. Behold Darius, the boy with the burden of a weapon that could change everything. will he rise as a hero or fall into shadows? Find out in #volkermord

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[MelancholicOtaku]

For me the protagonist is the person we get to see the world from. Nothing special but a good protagonist should be one of the key elements to get the reader to try out the story.