What would be the best thing to do with my next comic's protagonists?

[aqua03]

As I've been working on my next comic and fleshing out the characters, I've recently realized that I've come to a bit of a crossroads regarding who might be the best protagonist for it as I've fleshed out their character arcs and personalities more. Or maybe possibly a third solution entirely as well the more that I think of it...

Option 1: Selena

Selena's my current choice I have as the main protagonist. Her arc would have revolved around her trying to make a name and identity for herself by becoming a great hero due to her lack of identity due to her amnesia while also dealing with a disability that doesn't allow her to use her world's equivalent of magic as well as people normally can. Eventually, she gets her shot at becoming a hero when she gains special powers and joins a special order of knights to go on a quest to save their world from disaster while also learning stuff about identity and accepting yourself along the way.

Option 2: Flare Fafnir

Flare's my second choice given that he already plays a big part in the current story with Selena. Basically he's a knight with amnesia who was part of an order of holy knights that hunted down magic stealing monsters known as the Dredge, though unfortunately he was ostracized by a lot of the general inhabitants of his town due to his monstrous appearance. One day a Dredge attacks and destroys the town, leaving Flare as the sole survivor as he swears revenge on the Dredge. He eventually joins the same order of knights that Selena does, quest ensues, Flare learns important lessons about forgiveness and acceptance, there we go.

(Keeping them kinda vague so I don't spoil my comic for you all.)

The big problem is that both currently are very compelling characters both of which could easily carry the story if they were the main protagonist. (Though both do have their problems personality-wise as well. Flare's a bit too cynical and grumpy to have fun with as the main character and Selena can sometimes come off as a bit too naive and childlike to carry a relatively serious fantasy story I've found sometimes.) So I'm having a bit of trouble deciding which one would be the best for my comic's story going forward. Which leads me to....

Option 3: Combine the two.

Y'all know how writers say to "Kill your darlings and reduce the cast by cutting or combining unnecessary characters" and such? Well, what if I did that with Flare and Selena and combined them into one character? Like, take the best of both worlds and put them into one character...

Like let's name this hypothetical fusion character Sol Stormbringer (Keeping with their respective Moon and Sun themes respectively as a placeholder name.) Sol is an amnesiac who was the last survivor of her town after it was destroyed by a monster a while back. Ever since then, they've been ostracized by most people except their closest friends out of fear of being "A cursed Devil who brings nothing but misfortune." During a chance encounter, Sol gets their chance to join a special order of knights known as the Dragoons to set out on a quest to help save the world from an evil threat and a chance to avenge their adopted family and town from the monsters that ruined their life in the first place while also using this as a chance to carve out a new identity for themselves and prove to everyone that they're not a "Cursed Devil" like what society says about them.

Heck, Selena's optimism and perky attitude could help Balance out Flare's anger and cynicism if I did fuse the two together as well. Might even be interesting to have a character with both fire and water powers also. Maybe having Sol switch between a red fire-based form and a blue water-based form like something you'd see in Ultraman (which was a huge inspiration for me).

Though also I'm not sure if I wanna lose Flare and Selena as well given how much I love them individually, too. So I guess I feel like I'm at a bit of a crossroads regarding everything right now.

What do you guys all think of those possible options? Should I go another path altogether instead?

Thanks for the help and feedback guys.

[darthmongoose]

This is a tough one.

If you go the "keep them as they are" route, Selena is the obvious protagonist. She has motivation and an arc, and she has a clear protagonist setup in that there's a thing she wants (to be a cool, powerful, important knight) and a thing she actually needs but doesn't realise (to accept and love herself for who she is). Flare seems less fleshed out and more like a rival character who'd show up later to shake things up.

If you go the "combine them" route, you do get the opportunity to potentially make a more complex character, adding a hot-headedness into the mix, but I feel like adding this driven anger to a character who sounds more like an earnest optimist type feels a bit off. To me, Flare seems to work better as a foil to Selena....

Which leads me to the third road I'll suggest:
Keep these two characters, but exaggerate the differences between them. Also have Flare join the knights at the same time as Selena does, or shortly after, like when you've just established her character and she's just finding her footing BAM! This guy appears!
Remove the amnesiac angle from Flare. Instead have him fully remember that he has lost everything to the Dredge and he's ANGRY about it. He has been deeply hurt and to him it is infuriating that Selena lives in this blissful ignorance of not remembering her past or who or what she might have lost, and that she has this sunny, optimistic attitude. To Flare, the fact that she wants to be a knight just to make friends, find a purpose and become strong is frivolous, because he wants to be a knight to destroy the Dredge, and he doesn't want to make friends because he already had to deal with losing all his friends to them. He's ALSO pissed with Selena because she got super cool powers on luck because he had to work hard for his (but don't reveal this til later, make it seem like he's just effortlessly badass so Selena pisses him off without her realising).
Basically, use this guy both to show us through contrast what Selene is about, and then also give him an arc where his seriousness helps Selene become a stronger person who knuckles down and takes more pride in herself, while her open-heartedness helps him heal the scars of his past and become open to making new friends, which he can learn doesn't mean forgetting who he's lost. This way, you get the best of both worlds. You get both the characters, their personalities come out more strongly, and there will be audience members who LOVE this hot-headed rival with a tragic past.

[aqua03]

Huh, thanks for the well thought out feedback regarding this.

Yeah, it is a bit of a tough one. Especially because back during early drafts, Flare was the main protagonist and was kind of explicitly designed to homage a lot of tell-tale tropes of protagonists from RGPs, Animes, etc (like Cloud Strife, Megaman Zero, Dart from Legend of Dragoon, Toa Tahu, basically any Red Ranger from Super Sentai, etc.) mostly to then flip a lot of those tropes and stereotypes on their head with him as his character arc in that regard.

If there's really anyone Flare should be combined with if i do combine characters would be his rival from early drafts, Fubuki. Because in her current state she serves a similar role to what you suggested Flare should in terms of being Selena's more cynical and serious foil/rival due to the two being roommates and best friends whereas Flare's kind of the lone wolf of sorts with the protagonist party at the moment, often striking out for his own goals of revenge against the Dredge as of currently. So he's a little bit "detached" from Selena's arc currently at the moment compared to the other party members who are friends and family.

So yeah, a bit of a hard spot figuring out just the right way to have the character dynamics. Especially considering the group isa Sentai-esque team of six (though half the group isn't introduced/gets their powers until a few chapters later in the current draft.)

I'll probably figure out the right course of action to take the more i think about it and cut my attachment to the image I've built up over the years of how my story and characters :should be."

Thanks again for the help.

[DiegoPalacios]

Option 4: rotating protagonists.

Selena and Flare can both be prominent characters. You can make some arcs focus on Selena and others on Flare, and even some arcs that focus on both.

If the rest of the order has interesting characters to develop you can give them their day in the limelight too.

[aqua03]

Huh, that could work as well know that you mention it, Some pretty good food for thought as well. Thanks for the idea.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

@aqua03
I kinda like this one too. If you're really committed to subverting tropes, removing the typical "Red Ranger" as the defacto leader in a Sentai inspired setting is a good way to do so. Rotating the leadership role and giving the other characters a turn at the helm would possibly be a fresh take on the genre.
(Granted I'm not super knowledgeable on Sentai stuff so I don't know if other series have done that already)

[DiegoPalacios]

Another thing to consider is that leader doesn't always mean protagonist.....

[aqua03]

@DiegoPalacios

Yeah, good point there. That's something I was thinking as well. Might be fun to play around with possibly.

(Amusingly enough, there have been Sentai series where the Red one was the protagonist despite not being the leader as well, amusingly enough.)

[Prometheus]

My opinion is that they could both make great protagonists. The way I see it, a story doesn't need to have just one protagonist. Each character can have their own spotlight, and they can work off of each other to add conflict in the story. Or they don't have to create conflict - but they could. This is also just the way I like to write, though. I like making it where stories have more than one focus character.

Edit: I did not realize someone had already said this.

[aqua03]

Yeah, definitely right there. Though I've recently been wondering if I've bit off more than I can chew trying to make an ensemble cast story with the six (eventually seven) Dragoons in my comic....

[Prometheus]

If you're feeling like you've made too much to commit to, you could always choose one character to be the protagonist. It's all ultimately up to you. We can all say stuff, but it's up to you to choose what you want to do and where you want to go.

[aqua03]

Yeah, definitely right there. I just need to keep working on building enough creative confidence in myself to trust my own creative decisions enough to stick with them.