Wednesday DE: What's my motivation

[angry_friendship_wolf]

What is your character's role in their canon's story? What is their connection to the overall storyline?

Comments

[skyhigh_seance]

Klaus: 99% comedic relief, 1% rescuing hero (I know! Can you believe?).

Cecil: Narrator, so almost everything is shaded with his POV (though the Monologue episodes provide a whole 'nother view, and it's awesome), not really the hero though. Not usually. Every once in a while (we're looking at you, Condos), but not usually.

Jon: Narrator usually, one of the main protagonists, becoming more of a power player (I'm about a season behind at the moment, so this could change). If the tape recorders that sprout up around the Archive can be blamed on him (and I think they can), he manages to provide a balanced POV by getting other thoughts on current events on tape. Even if those thoughts are 'omfg WHO BROUGHT A TAPE RECORDER HERE?'.

[bjornwilde]

Ahsoka started as the plucky sidekick/audience stand-in and moved to become the protagonist in her own right pretty quickly. Then in Rebels, she became a sort of bridge between the past and future.

Ben Hargreeves is a sort of a silent Jimmeny Cricket to Klaus (with a dash of snarky comic relief) for most of the show, then helps with his 1% (see above).

Tybalt is the frenemy to lover, as well as...well, he's not quite a tank but close to it. He can take a lot of damage but it's more about how much he dishes out. He's also Toby's quick transport.

More later maybe. I have coffee to drink and an introductory speech to write by tomorrow. (Bleck)

[inlovewithwords]

Lois is the protagonist, first-person point of view, and frankly the driving force of much of the storyline, as sure things would be happening around her but the way they promptly fall to pieces is directly because she meddles.

R2-D2 is theoretically a sidekick. Realistically, he's the one with a lot of wisdom and knowledge who keeps it quiet and is something of a good-aligned trickster. He routinely acquires a lot of life experiences of his humans and stores it and keeps his mouth firmly shut on their secrets.

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader: I would argue that Anakin is:
- the deuteragonist to Obi-wan's protagonist in the prequel trilogy and deuteragonist to Ahsoka's protagonist in Clone Wars
- secondary antagonist overall in anything Imperial era, taken as a whole
- the primary antagonist of the original trilogy taken as a whole (the breakdown by movie is secondary antagonist to Tarkin, primary antagonist, secondary antagonist to Palpatine)
- the primary protagonist of the prequel and original trilogies taken as one whole
- for whatever god-forsaken reason, the antagonist-turns-deuteragonist's primary motivation??? before and in the sequel trilogy until it turns into an obsession with the protagonist instead
- A major plot device driving factor in the entire Fuck Off Sheev Palpatine arc

Derius: Does not have canon! And is in fact just a last-page baby. I'd say that for the first part of his life he's mostly the, like, protagonist of his private bildungsroman, and afterwards settles into "benevolent authority figure who sometimes provides characters' motivations (or exposition)."

Tavi: canon protagonist and and one of four close-third-person POV (with two about-equal deuteragonists). He's-- he. He drives a lot of the story. He keeps stepping into hornet nests and upsetting everyone else's plans, sometimes by existing, and kicks off the primary plot (other than political stuff in motion before he steps up) literally by being massively irresponsible. He's basically the fulcrum around which everything turns. Later in life he's gonna settle into "benevolent authority figure providing motivations/exposition/mentorship" and that's honestly starting right now in his life.

[death_gone_mad]

Amascut: Minor villain who has enough influence over a certain geographic area and some influence over the afterlife to interfere with main plot and lots of side plots that might become main plot. Kind of like a Dr. Doom showing up in non-Fantastic Four stories kind of thing.

Fairy Fixit: Minor character in a sidequest that is so irrelevant to main plot that it takes place on the moon. But enables quick travel via a teleportation network with no magic cost.

[imagines_the_ocean]

Protagonist.

Provides motivation for every Force user (including Finn) or Skywalker family member.

[cameoflage]

Bastion: Ensemble cast member; being playable means fans treat them as a member of the 'core cast' (I don't think this attitude is really what the creators wanted, but I'm not sure how they could have avoided it) but they're fairly peripheral to the story of Overwatch. Mainly they're there to demonstrate the way omnics can change and grow even in ways that go directly against their origins, and to fuel Torbjörn's character development.

Wilson: Protagonist/series mascot. It's not that he's the most plot-important, the leader, or the emotional core of the main cast, although he did do one important plot thing by ending Maxwell's reign over the Constant. Mostly, though, it's that he was the first character developed for the game and usually gets picked (either by himself or as part of a group) when the creators are drawing up demonstrations of new content, so he gets lots of screen time in which to suffer and struggle. That, and he's first in the character list and before Don't Starve Together everyone had to start by playing him and unlock the rest of the characters as they went.

Aradia: Secondary character. The trolls' Sgrub session happening at all and going the way it did is because of her actions, which meant they were able to create the humans' universe (embodied in a giant cosmic frog because Homestuck is weird like that), but a lot of this is offscreen and she doesn't exert a ton of influence on the events afterwards with the humans or the ghosts, though she does talk to both sets of characters rather than avoiding them the way Sollux did.

Cirava: Side character of a spin-off story, and part of a large rotating ensemble in a spin-off of the spin-off; a small speck in the vast cosmos of Homestuck. Might participate in a future instalment of the plot, but so far they're there purely to further flesh out the trolls' culture, like nearly everyone else in Hiveswap Friendsim.

Thurlow: Player-character RPG protagonist and narrator for most of the story. Lots of plot happens around them because of the actions of other characters, but they often get to decide which way that plot falls, and over the course of the game they gain quite a bit of power and influence just in general.

Wormwood: Ensemble cast member from the same universe as Wilson, albeit a different part of it. Their appearance in Don't Starve Together establishes that they survived their role in the Hamlet expansion pack, but other than that it's completely up to the player (and their proficiency with the game) what effect they had on the place. Also they have a connection to the ongoing moon storyline! Though probably not an important connection, since they're an optional character in DST.

[splash_of_blue]

Sam - protagonist. Alleged hero (he's dubious).

Molly - co-protagonist. Simultaneously the team's baby sister and their tank. Generally speaking she's the voice of truth and innocence, although she does tend to pick her moments with regards to that.

McGonagall - mentor, disciplinary parental figure (...some of the time) and, very occasionally, the voice of common sense.

War - Fuckin' up alllllllll the things. (What can she say - it's a talent!) Technically she's a villain, although interestingly most of the villains have extremely limited contact with any of the heroes.

Victoria - Team Mum - or, perhaps more accurately, Team Big Sister. Frequently the voice of common sense, and often the cavalry.

Raoul - Another mentor, and the voice of reason. King of the reasonable authority figures.

Snow Leopard Woman - In the children's book I first found her in, she's the protagonist, and also the mother-figure. In general I guess the (substitute-)mother and protector figure?

Coulson - In the MCU, he's initially a hindrance to the protagonists, developing into a (Semi-)Reasonable Authority Figure; later on, he's the morality pet/heroic sacrifice (yeah... thanks, boss). In Agents of SHIELD, he's a mentor - specifically, he's Team Mom (Agent May, of course, being Team Dad). Either way, he's a voice of reason. Ish.

Poe - Initially the damsel in distress, later the cavalry and not-entirely-reasonable authority figure oh God I honestly have no idea what the later movies were trying to do with him why was TROS such a mess

BB-8 - Definitely the morality pet, although he'd strenuously object to that terminology. Sometimes the cavalry, quite often the comic relief.

Max - The expert, the best friend, occasionally the sarcastic comic relief. At one point the damsel in distress, generally the mentor/voice of reason/Only Sane Man (in the sense of being the only one of these idiots who borders on being emotionally competent).