The protagonist is the one who drives the story and other important characters are linked to him or her. This makes me think how a feature would turn out without any protagonist. Would it attract any audience, would people like to see it? Even in documentaries we see a main character, maybe not in the physical sense but in the sense of a theme or a feeling of injustice, and the maker is one who tells the story. I think any story without a protagonist is just like an article from a newspaper, just a summon of facts.

Shari, you hit it right on the head as far as I'm concerned. In most movies, the Protagonist is the center point of the story. They provide an access point into the story for the moviegoer, a specific perspective through which we experience the story universe vicariously. And your other point - how the other characters are "linked" to him or her - is critical in the story development and crafting process. The way I look at it, each of those other characters has their own function, connected to the narrative as part of the Protagonist's metamorphosis journey. And that dovetails right into the idea of archetypes which I find to be hugely helpful as writing tools and ways to understand Story. It all begins with the Protagonist which is why the first question in our writing journey for any story is almost invariably this: Who is your Protagonist?

The protagonist is our hero, the character who undertakes the journey. The themes, other characters, plot points all are driven by the protagonist and his or her story. You are absolutely right, Scott. The first question that comes to my mind after developing a concept is Who is my protagonist. The foundation that all will be built around.

Because we don't invest ourselves in movies for the stuff that happens --- we invest ourselves to see the effects of stuff happening on the characters. And without that key character to invest our time and emotions in, all that stuff simply pales. We need someone to root for, relate to, sympathize with, learn from, long to understand, develop a crush on, emulate, loathe, laugh with, want to slap and yell "Snap out of it!!" a la Cher in Moonstruck. We need that someone's desires, wants, needs, goals, challenges to care about. We need to know who to follow and not wanna let go of for a few hours. Who's going to show their vulnerability before our very eyes??? Sure, stuff can still happen, good and bad -- buildings can blow up, bridges can crumble, meteors can shower down, volcanoes can erupt, tsunamis can hit shore, games can be won and lost, lotteries can yield jackpots, awards can be given -- but without that someone, that WHO against which to see and measure and discern that stuff, does the stuff really matter all that much?

I suppose you could say that the protagonist IS the story, in many ways. Certainly they’re the unique element that makes your story different from all the other crime thrillers or action comedies or whatever – because who they are and how they react shapes so much of what happens in the script…

[...] this week’s discussions, protagonist and antagonist (or a nemesis) were discussed in two different articles. I felt this topic deserved [...]