What makes a good protagonist?

[TheYaoiEmpire]

I read As The Gods Will Second Series the other day, and I can say without a doubt that Akashi is nearly the perfect protagonist. He has his faults but his good qualities, leadership, bringing people together, just over all being a character I wanted to survive the death games alongside secondary protagonist Ushimitsu, god he is such a precious muffin too, Akashi is almost perfect. I laughed, I cried, I felt his pain and I felt pain for him. The hottest kiss in any manga or comic series ever, As The Gods Will isn't BL but he sure as hell never kissed any of his female love interests THAT hard, between him and Ushimitsu being a major bonus in his likable nature.

What type of character do you think makes a good protagonist? Their personality? Character traits? Comment below.

[Freemints30]

Really it all comes down to how much they can contribute to the plot and how intresting or entertaining the plot is from their perspective.

A character can be a sociopathic monster but still make a good protagonist, Light Yagami. We don't necessarily have to root for the protagonist in this case but we have to want to follow them.

Really its less personality (although its major factor just the requirements and traits all depend on the story). Its more, the reader should not be going "why the hell are we following them, instead of all the interesting people ."

[TheYaoiEmpire]

Yea, Akashi for example made me want him to succeed because of how his actions effected everyone else around him, not so much his 'I have to try to save literally everyone even strangers' outlook on life.

[Kaydreamer]

I'll gravitate toward a protagonist with a good sense of humour and charm, though they can lack those qualities and still be compelling. Ultimately, they need to actually entertain me. I want to truly care about them and their reactions to the world around them. I tend to be turned off a lot of series where the protagonist is just... bland. There's way more to personality than just 'be a hero', 'save the world', or 'generic everyman'.

So yeah, 'defined personality' is up there for me.

(I've also come to dislike the 'Ash Ketchum/Naruto' personalities so many shōnen protagonists have. I've just seen it way too many times.)

I really loved Adora in the new She-Ra series. Big strong girl-jock, that's a new one. (And funny!) I love Spike Spiegal's reluctant tolerance of life. Edward Elric's intelligence, determination and courage. Lyra Silvertounge, with her fierce, haughty nature. Usagi's quirky earnestness. Morpheus's other-worldliness. Captain Picard's levelheadedness and unshakeable values.

A good protagonist needn't fit a particular mould. They just need to have a defined personality and if it's one I find interesting, I'm there.

[darthmongoose]

To me, a good protagonist is somebody who makes interesting choices and decisions. Not necessarily good ones, but when faced with a situation, a compelling protagonist will choose a very active response that will create an exciting scenario.

If they discover that a corporation has gained the rights to bulldoze their house, the protagonist isn't the person who just writes a sternly worded letter to their council or the local paper and then grumpily is forced to move out, or if they do, that definitely won't be the end of the scenario, oh no... A protagonist is the kind of person who might do things like:

• Lie down in front of the bulldozer and cause the whole neighbourhood to gradually join in a protest that becomes local and then national news.
• Start a pyramid scheme in order to become rich enough that they can buy the company that wants to bulldoze their house.
• Break into the construction company warehouse with home made bombs and destroy all their bulldozers.
• Become a masked vigilante who blackmails and threatens heads of greedy corporations, starting out with the one that threatened them, but then after getting a taste for it making it their life's mission.
• Destroy the house of the corporation owner in revenge.
• Run for mayor to try to make their city better because they see this as a sign of how far their town has fallen.
• Take their house apart brick by brick and reassemble it perfectly in a new location.

And so on and so on... Basically, the protagonist does things, they take actions, and those actions may be completely ridiculous or seem way out of proportion, but that's why they're a protagonist. Some guy has a crappy day at the office then he finds a £5 note and buys a small pizza isn't a story worthy of a blockbuster movie, but a guy has a crappy day at the office so he decides to quit his job and become a bank robber? Or has a crappy day at the office so he starts his own company while having no money and only a wacky product idea? Now we're talking.

Love or hate Naruto, he's an effective protagonist. The whole ninja village shuns you and also you're bad at being a ninja? Well, that doesn't bother Naruto! He sets himself the goal of becoming ninja president and every time he hits an obstacle he "can't overcome" due to his shortcomings, he finds a bizarre solution. Most great Shounen heroes are like this; Luffy, Deku, any Jojo; they keep being confronted with "impossible" situations, but they choose to confront them and succeed through some kind of bizarre scheme nobody else would have the sheer guts to pull off.

[TheYaoiEmpire]

Some excellent points I love it all

[cherrystark]

For me, I prefer protagonists with their own independent voices and if they were flesh and blood people, would use their brains to help solve problems. If i can see the protagonist learning and changing over the series, I'm game.

I think it's too easy to slap one major "defining" characteristic and call it good. I can think of a lot of characters that are the same on the last page that they were on the first page. I want layers. I love Scooby-doo. Daphne Blake started out as a bland damsel in distress, obsessed with fashion . Over the years, they've let the character develop. Now, she still loves fashion but she's also a capable detective, protective fighter, pilot, mechanic, and an independent person with her own likes and dislikes. Development is important.

[Puck]

That´s something that changed for me over the years.
When I was a kid I liked Asterix, TinTin and all those characters.
They don´t make any bad moralistic choices but they also don´t have
a strong character. I still love Tintin but when I look at the books today
I can´t identify with him, he the most blank character in the book, there
is nothing to tell about him. That´s maybe the reason why those characters
work good for kids, it lets identify better with a blank character.

As a teen I liked chaotic characters, there are some european comics
where you can´t really tell if the protagonist are good or bad because
they are all a bit stupid, violent and chaotic which makes the comics
funny for some teenagers.

Nowadays I like protagonists which are bad or make wrong choices,
have regrets, criminal characters, antiheroes. It´s not necessary that
I like the character, just like in movies. As a kid you watch Mickey Mouse
when you grow up you watch Breaking Bad

[musicmordred]

The quality of a protagonist depends on how it interacts with the setting the story takes place in and the rest of the cast. It's the same for the secondaries. Their relationships, interactions, dialogues. This applies to the setting as well. A good example is Batman's relationship with Alfred, Robin and Gordon, how he views the city of Gotham and how Gotham affects him. Then you have the antagonistic relationship with villains like Two-Face and The Joker and some ideological differences with people who fight for the same goal of protecting people, like Red Hood and Harvey Bullock.

[BreakingChalk]

Depends, but I'd go for non-perfect, but somewhat competent characters with either strong character development, or believable and present ideals.

Characters like Yugi Muto (not Attem) and Edward Elric come to mind.

[TheYaoiEmpire]

Atem had weird character development, he went from a psychopathic evil spirit murdering people with games to, how he is in the current series. So I get that.

[TheYaoiEmpire]

Though if kingdom hearts is canon that just means Mickey is a bad King who leaves his kingdom in economic turmoil while he uses their tax money to fund his interactive vacation homes...

[Bokyongyo]

Think that varies from person to person, but I always found protagonists with very inherent flaws some of the most memorable. Just due to the fact that no person in reality is a perfect “hero do gooder”

There are times when we hate, fear, become jealous and all that, so characters that can embody that while also having positive character traits in order to balance them are very memorable

[tiredpigeon]

They should be likable- That's all. If the protag is a generally likable person who I don't want to kill, then there's a good chance I'll stick with the story. If the protag is horrible, I'll probably leave within the first two chapters.

The only exception is Nickelodeon cartoons. I hate most kids show protags just because they're plucky do gooders who crap on the villian. Nickelodeon does a really good job of having a balanced main cast, so even if the protag is the equivalent to trash, I'l still end up watching it.

[allenT]

I don't really mind if the protagonist is considered "good" or not, as long he's able to lead the story. Storytelling and theme are more important imo.

[DiegoPalacios]

What type of character do you think makes a good protagonist? Their personality? Character traits? Comment below.

The one that fits the story like a globe and the one that can keep your interest and/or get you emotionally invested.

[TheYaoiEmpire]

I feel the same way about it in all honesty

[CyberAxl]

I think one of the keys to a good protagonist is convincing the reader to be on their side. The protagonist could be a 'villain' or have evil intent but if the reader can be charmed and connected to the character and root for them, then I think you have a success.

[iHateFridays]

I'll be blunt: just make them interesting lol. Good, bad, neutral, I don't care, as long as they're an interesting character XD

[Stargazer31]

Frankly, I prefer Captain Haddock to Tintin, because Haddock had more of a personality.
(I heard that Herge did make Tintin a bland character so everybody could insert themselves in his place though.)