Three Protagonists:Ā
As many of my followers probably know, I run a pixelart webcomic by the nameĀ āHero oh Heroā (read here).
Just to throw my thoughts into the ether, Iād like to share a few of the writing choices Iāve made throughout the production of my comic & why I decided to make those. Not sure if theyāre useful and/or interesting to anyone, but itās fun for me to reflect.
As of the writing of this post Iām at 2757 published pages & 3453 pages total if we include buffer, quite some content!Ā
The first thing Iād like to talk about is the general structure of the comic, I run three separate stories that feel relatively disconnected, despite taking place in the same world.
Noah, a bookish introvert whoās favorite hobby is being left alone & avoiding social situations at all costs. Heās also a magic child-soldier being forced to perform missions for a totalitarian government.
Tobi, an adventurous inventor-girl who comes from a world that operates by video-game logic, she gets flung into another world at some point & is trying to find her way back home.Ā
Comic Structure
So the big question here is: why tell three stories rather than just putting all focus on a single one? I think the biggest underlying reason for me is that a lot of games I played & series I watched had what Iād describe as aĀ āprotagonist-centric worldā.Ā
Itās obvious that the story itself will focus on the protagonist, they have that role for a reason, but it goes much further than a character being important/central to the narrative. In a lot of series I felt that the worldbuilding itself, the magic system, the legends and myths, all of it was often designed to accentuate the protagonistsā importance, or somehow add something toĀ āwhyā the protagonist in particular was worth following.
Very often thisād result in stuff like worlds where, if there were 4-types of magic power a person could have, the protagonist would be the one special person with access to 2, 3 or even 4 of those abilities.Ā
I donāt necessarily think this is bad writing in itself, but I did sometimes find, especially in series with interesting side characters/extended casts, that the way the universe seemed to revolve around the hero and their abilities often made the world itself seem less interesting or less real to me.Ā
What got me interested in multiple perspectives & multiple protagonists back in the day were games like Seiken Densetsu 3/Secret of Mana 2 where you had 6 main characters of equal importance & you could basically decide for yourself which of the 6 was your playthroughāsĀ āprotagonistā & which 2 out of the remaining chars would join you on the team. Similarly games like Treasure of the Rudras played around with multiple different heroes rather than aĀ ātrueā chosen one hero of more significance than everyone else.Ā
I noticed that a lot of these games that either split up the roles, or provided multiple canonical characters who technically couldāve done the job, aleviated a lot of the annoyances I had with singular-protagonist series, but also added the fascinating element of how different narratives/perspectives could intersect and affect each other.
Designing the Heroes.
So from the early onset Iāve decided that I really wanted to tell a story where rather than just a single central protagonist, I wanted several protagonists ofĀ āequal importanceā. The next question that follows is: If Iām going to have multiple heroes, what characters am I going to choose?
Burk came relatively easy as heās a character I made up for an old English class story back in highschool, though I did tweak him quite a bit from his original design. What I did want to try and do is contrast the other two characters from him, but not *just* in terms ofĀ āThis oneās strong, this oneās smart, this oneās ... hotā or something, but also more on their role within the story.
This is where I got the idea to try and really try to put a notable difference between the main characters & why theyāre even inĀ ātheir storyā.Ā Burkās a highly active protagonist who goes out of his way to look for adventure, Noah in contrast is absolutely reactive and is thrown into a plot entirely against his will. Tobi is hard to discuss without major spoilers, but Iām thinking that observant readers who are up to date probably know where she falls in this regard.
Once I figured out the biggest area of contrast between the three, it was pretty straightforward what setting would best accentuate that aspect of them. Burk & his narrative very closely follow a D&D-type ofĀ āletās find an adventure for the sake of it!ā plot, whereas I intentionally threw Noah in a dystopian Empire that has little interest in things such asĀ āpersonal agencyā andĀ āFreedomā.Ā