MetaMonday DE

[bjornwilde]

Oh hey, it's Monday morning isn't it?

So what is your character's role in their canon? Are they the straight shooter or the audience view point? Are they the antagonist or the protagonist? Are they a prop to get the plot moving or are they a challenge the protagonist needs to overcome? Feel free to get as meta as you'd like.

ETA: Don't blame me if you fall down TV tropes in answering your question. ; P

Comments

[cottoncandypink]

I've been thinking about this for a little bit, and... I'm still not sure. Three or four years ago, I would have said he's definitely the main character, and probably the protagonist? Now I think he's an NPC who thinks he's the protagonist, but I only come to that because he's a central character. A lot of the other characters in his canon definitely see him as the bad guy right now. Originally, he was the means by which to bring Slender Man into the real world to bring some weight and consequences to the games. That role was immediately abandoned when they made him a fugitive, and when he went back to being a TV reporter, he was the punchline, rather than the person he was interviewing. Now he's.... hanging out at disco halls, possibly divorced, and being chased by the ghost of someone he killed.

TL;DR, I have no idea how to answer this question, because canon hasn't figured out what his role is yet.


Nichola, on the other hand, is the person I think everyone wishes they could be to an extent, as her sole appearance in canon is shouting and raging at Wilford for being such a colossal moron.

[exiled_heir_of_the_eighth]

In his own book, Sahaal's both the villain and the protagonist. He's a viewpoint character, and a lot of the plot is driven by his desire to reclaim what's been stolen from him. But to accomplish his goals, he has to perform some very morally reprehensible actions - directly killing hundreds, indirectly killing thousands, and dooming a planet among them. There's no getting around it, he's not a good person. At the same time, however, his opponents are no better than he is, and he even shows more humanity and compassion than they do at times. So it's somewhere between the hero and villain.

In wider 40k? He's a nobody. No one really knows or cares about him. It's that crapsack of a galaxy that him getting the population of a planet killed probably wasn't the worst thing to happen that week. Even his own Legion, the Night Lords, don't really care. Some actively want him dead. Really, he's just another exile on the fringes of an uncaring universe.

[bjornwilde]

Talking straight up writer's intentions, I think Ahsoka is the gateway character for the younger demographic. She's the stand in for the kids to view the Clone Wars. In my head, she's so many things. She's the chance to show Anakin really was a hero and had a heart and a good side. She also is all the good Anakin could have been, had he been anyone else and had an emotional support network, cause let's face it, he'd needed a lot more than one or two people. She's also the Order's innocence and a test the Force put in their path which they failed. She could be what the Jedi could've grown to become, had they not failed. (OK, fanning stopping now.)

Sabine is a main character, but most often is not a protagonist. She's also kind of a straight shooter, in that she calls out things. She's also leans into the role of deux ex machina in that her skills are so varied. She's also an example of the theme of how you can overcome your past and become a better person, something that is pretty much one of the dominate themes of Rebels.

Sam Wilson is a side kick and support for Steve. He's also comic relief and he's very good at it.

Dog, to me, is the flip side of Yrael. She's the yin to his yang, if you like (though there is nothing passive about her). She also serves to push the protagonist forward and helps her become ready for her destiny.

Viv is the new face. She's a straight shooter the Smart Guy/The Spock, who points out things her teammates miss. She serves as the team's Oracle (both the DC character and the more mystic character type). Oddly, she also is emotional support for many of the team later in the series, and I say oddly as she still hasn't really accessed her emotions, yet she has enough empathy to know when her team mates need support.

I need to eat now, so I'll see if the others want to speak later.

And the rest.

[bjornwilde]

Danny Rand is the protagonist who is almost always overshadowed by his supporting cast. Hard truth but a factual one. Granted that's more on the writing. He's also a great motivation for Colleen to develop, as well as Luke Cage. And they in turn help him develop as a person/character as well.

So protagonist, who also is a catalyst for other character's development? I'm being vague as there's spoilers for Luke Cage season 02, and Iron Fist season 02 here.

Oh, also in The Defenders, he's the damsel in distress for a bit. ; p

Jessica Drew is a snarky, reluctant hero. She gets pulled into things, she doesn't leap into them. She's also recently become a mentor to two spider women and a D-list villain who wants to change sides. Narratively, I'd say she tends to be comic relief and the voice of experience who doesn't take itself too seriously. She's the type of mentor who leads by example and is just there to listen. Don't expect her to lead and hold your hand.

She is remarkably good at this.

Hank McCoy is very much Charles' side kick and Raven's unrequited love interest. Or maybe unfulfilled love interest might be a better turn of phrase. He's also the one who builded things to help mutants control their powers and build any devices or tech the team needs; from computers to transportation.

Tybalt begins the series as a frenemy and reluctant ally, but swings towards love interest. He serves as Toby's (the protagonist) instant transport, muscle, and blood hound, albeit reluctantly but with growing amusement. He's also an anchor for her, being a very dependable person she can rely on. And he is the greatest snarker of canon.

[sunbaked_baker]

Sunshine is the narrative voice and main protagonist of her canon. The narrative is in past tense and first-person, as though it were a story she is telling afterwards, and includes enough side-information about her world and its situation that it really sounds like she's telling the story to someone from a different world than hers. :)

That being said, Sunshine is something of an unreliable narrator. She often takes in and learns information about people or situations but doesn't combine those disparate facts together to reach a reasonable conclusion. She also doesn't clue in the audience about those conclusions until she gets to the point in the story when she herself learned of the information's implications. There are a lot of things in her world that "everyone knows," that turn out to be wrong, and there are a lot of implied conclusions she could have explored but chooses not to.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

In 01, Yamato is an archetypal Lancer, and the series' deuteragonist. 01 is sort of built around Taichi and Yamato's friendship, both in the ways they're different (Yamato's quiet, cautious, and analytical; Taichi's boisterous, reckless, and figures things out as he goes, etc), and in the ways they're the same (both are older brothers; both are kind of proud and competitive; both are leaders; both have a streak of maybe liking to fight too much).

There's a case to be made that Yamato is Taichi's rival, but Adventure seems unsure on if it wants to make it: The series alternates between them treating each other like friendly rivals and Yamato bursting out laughing at the very idea, while the video game tie-in frames them as properly rivals, and the novels barely touch on the idea at all. For story purposes, they tend to function as the ideal that the other one is straining to catch up with -- Yam's arc is in part about him wanting to be charismatic, inspiring, and personable like Taichi is; and Taichi's arc is in part about him wanting to be strategic, caring, and loyal like Yamato is.

In 02, he's a mentor character. He's not even the main mentor, Taichi and Koushiro are both more active mentors, and Sora, Yamato, Jyou, and Mimi only really enter the equation as episodic mentors who impart a lesson and then leave.

In Tri, he's back to being the deuteragonist, with a story arc about him becoming a leader who can take over for Taichi, with him eventually having to temporarily step into Taichi's shoes (and the implication he might have to do so again for longer in future). His arc parallels Taichi's in a way: Taichi and Yamato are in conflict, then Taichi learns to be more like Yamato and Yamato learns to be more like Taichi, and then they both incorporate those aspects into themselves while staying true to their respective philosophies.

[genarti]

Oh, interesting question!

Thor: It's a bit complicated, because it depends on which movie we're talking about. For any of the Thor movies, he's the protagonist. (Got his name on the title screen and everything!) I mean in movie 1 he's also a challenge he needs to overcome, but. In the Avengers movies, though, he's part of the heroic ensemble, and not always one of the primary focus parts; not all of the writers and directors have really known what to do with him, and also it's just a cast that starts big and becomes huge. He's one of the heaviest hitters, and he's the one who can go off solo and do interplanetary magic stuff and provide infodumps about how the glowy rock is a magic artifact.

Enjolras is the incarnation of the violent righteous justice of the revolution, and the death of the Great Man model of history in favor of mass popular movements. (That's all basically right there in the text, because Victor Hugo is not necessarily subtle with his symbolism.) He's at the heart of one of the symbolic hearts of the text; he's not the protagonist, nor even around for large swathes of the book, but honestly if Les Misérables even has a protagonist it's Paris, so.

Cosette, similarly, is the incarnation of France and the hope for future happiness! Also, in a more character-related way, her love and happiness is a motivation and reward for multiple central characters.

Kazul is... hmm. One of the trickier to categorize, despite her canon being full of people specifically living up to tropey roles! I guess she's the protagonist's mentor in some ways, but also kind of the Quest Object; the protagonist achieves her goals and grows into herself in part through helping solve Kazul's problems.

And Doctor Dinosaur is 100% absurd comic relief antagonist. He's not even so much a challenge Robo needs to overcome as just a petty and noisy annoyance, to be honest.

[shinyhappygoth]

Enzo's a little fiddly to describe. In the first two seasons, he's the tritagonist, and what TV Tropes dubs the Tagalong Kid; he was literally just created to be the kid because the producer said they needed one. In the third season, he gets bumped up to protagonist during Bob's absence (they eventually get Bob back, but he's arguably still only deuteragonist for the balance of the season). At the end of Season 3, backup!Enzo (my version) is created, and arguably returns to his original status in the cast, except by then the good guys' team is too big for pro-, deu-, tri- (and the dynamics are rather different from the early seasons anyway, I'm not sure I'd even peg a single character as the protagonist at that point, I think the protagonist for Season 4 is The Team).

Zecora was originally devised as a mentor figure, and occasionally serves that role, but mostly she's a supporting character with an amusing linguistic quirk, who's not actually a mentor but is older and often wiser than the main characters and can therefore deliver the occasional moral, and otherwise has a useful skill set that lets her be helpful in other ways.

[fairy_fixit]

Since I am on this account, Fairy Fixit gets the first answer.

Fairy Fixit is literally just a NPC that tells you to talk to another NPC. Sure, she talks your ear off but after you interrupt her to ask the question you were meaning to ask -

"You'll have to ask my manager about that. She's over there."

Kind of, anyhow. I am too lazy to look up the exact dialogue.

Amascut is pretty much an antagonist, and an evil mastermind behind the scenes besides that. She never engages with direct violence except for killing a few of her own minions. She does, however, briefly serve as the player character's tutor in the art of slaying various dangerous beasties and will sell slayer equipment to the player. She's seriously that committed to not breaking character.

[oldmancreed]

Tess starts out as an antagonist and ends up as a supporting character.

Rose is the protagonist. Thorn is an antagonist and partial protagonist, as well as a challenge the protagonist needs to overcome.

Kylo, hmmm. HMMMM. Antagonist.

Creed, in comics it depends on the title. He can be both protagonist and antagonist. Movie-wise, he's the antagonist.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

Overwatch has an ensemble cast, but even among the playable characters, some are bigger deals than others. Bastion isn't one of the main protagonists except in their animated short; even their comic is told from Torbjörn's perspective, and they've sort of ended up as what TV Tropes would call his Morality Pet, the vulnerable character who gets him to show a softer side. In The Last Bastion they're a challenge for themself to overcome; in Binary Torb sees them as more of a ticking time bomb with legs up until he sees them up close and has a crisis of conscience.

Aradia is part of Homestuck's B-list. She does plot-important stuff on multiple occasions but doesn't have a lot of POV time or as much screen time in general as the original set of human kids or the most central of the troll kids. Early on when she's dead, she's sort of morally ambiguous and scary, but after coming back to life she's more of a good guy and a lot friendlier. Cirava's from one of the spinoffs; they had a Friendship Simulator route in the second volume and cameos in a few later friendsim episodes, so they're a minor character in the broader Homestuck universe but more prominent than many of the other friendsim trolls.

Dr Thurlow is the protagonist, the player character, and the narrator of Fallen London, or at least they're the version of the PC I made up. What kind of person the Delicious Friend is depends on what directions you take them in-game and what stats you prioritise, like any good RPG player character.

[irish_vagabond]

Cassidy is a protagonist who's one of three central characters, all carrying equal weight. He's most certainly comic relief, and has actually been key in moving the plot along in several instances. Though he's a loyal friend to both Jesse and Tulip, he often ends up as the third wheel (and has even commented in canon about being treated like a sidekick). To Jesse, he offers common sense, pragmatism, and he makes him laugh; to Tulip, he gives her an attentive ear when Jesse is...off being a dick or something. Basically he wants to help. And for a trio whose moral compasses are already spinning wildly out of control, Cassidy is usually the first one to do the right thing. Or at least suggest it. Which, you'd think, is odd for a vampire to be the heart and the conscience, but that's what makes him different. ugh I love this garbage cinnamon roll

In the bigger picture, I think he is the source of Jesse's redemption in the end.

I like this DE and I'll try to do the others tomorrow when I have more time and brain.

[ceitfianna]

Cassian is one of the main protagonists as well as a representation of the high cost of fighting the Empire. Rogue One is a movie that's a mixture of an ensemble film while also having pairs of characters in it. Cassian acts mainly as a foil and catalyst to Jyn, while she does the same to him. Yet he's also the one who sees Bodhi and makes sure he gets out. His interaction with Baze and Chirrut is more in opposition to them as they connect with Jyn and her sense of faith. One reason I love Rogue One is how complicated it is and that Cassian especially is chosen as not the usual type of action character.

Quentin begins as an unwanted student/squire to Toby before becoming a clear support part of her team as well as an adopted child in many ways. He also represents the pureblood and noble Fae, someone who's been taught how things are done and shows Toby's influence.

Charles is either a protagonist paired with Erik or the powerful mentor in the back, at times also an obstacle depending on who's writing.

Sameth starts out as shared main character with Lirael but as the books go on, he becomes more of the third compared to Nick and more of the creator of useful things. I recently reread Goldenhand and there he's really almost a cameo near the end, someone to fight beside Ferin while Nick and Lirael are taking on the main plot.

Ivan is the comic relief while also being a not exactly foil but representation of another way to grow up on Barrayar compared to Miles. He becomes more active as the books progress until he's the protagonist of his own book. Tor's doing a reread of that book at the moment which is the one that really got me wanting to play him.

I'll come back to the others, still not feeling that healthy but it looks like I'm going to have a really quiet day.