McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
How powerful should a protagionist be?
Willowhugger:
An interesting question and especially appropriate one to fiction where the protagonist might be a vampire, wizard, world's greatest fighter, or so on.
:-)
terioncalling:
Should never be too powerful. If they're too powerful, then there is nothing to throw them up against. The good protagonists are the one's where they have weaknesses that can be exploited by those around them and not be all powerful. They can be beaten down but will get up and fight back though they're beaten and battered to hell'n back.
Harry's a grand example of a good protagonist in my opinion.
Hence why Superman has never been a good protagonist in my mind. He's just too powerful and the only thing that can bring him down is kryptonite.
Willowhugger:
--- Quote from: terioncalling on December 25, 2006, 06:52:41 AM ---Hence why Superman has never been a good protagonist in my mind. He's just too powerful and the only thing that can bring him down is kryptonite.
--- End quote ---
Well obviously something works about Superman because he's been 70 years at this point without missing a beat and will easily make it to 100. I think the biggest problem with Superman is the "perception of power" with him. Superman can't accomplish everything but everyone feels he can.
Oftentimes, the perception of a lead's power is more important than his actual level of it.
SirThinks2Much:
--- Quote from: Willowhugger on December 25, 2006, 07:14:21 AM ---
Well obviously something works about Superman because he's been 70 years at this point without missing a beat and will easily make it to 100. I think the biggest problem with Superman is the "perception of power" with him. Superman can't accomplish everything but everyone feels he can.
Oftentimes, the perception of a lead's power is more important than his actual level of it.
--- End quote ---
A very good point. No matter how powerful a character is, if everyone just expects him to do everything, his limitations will become evident. Also, he'll cross the moral line of letting people decide their fate for themselves.
To quote Luthor from Superman: Red Son: "Why don't you just put the whole WORLD in a BOTTLE, Superman?"
In response to the OP, though, every protagonist should have a weakness that actually can hinder his/her performance. Take for example, Vampire Hunter D: he's got the goods, i.e. immortality, super strength/speed, some vampiric abilities--but is susceptible to sunlight and the darker side of his vampiric nature. Not to mention that everyone, human and vampire included, tend to hate his guts. (okay he kills all the bad guys anyway, he's kind of a bad example. :P )
In any case, a character can have weaknesses aside from physical limitations. Psychological, emotional, and personality issues can affect a protagonist negatively.
Abstruse:
Your protagonist's power is directly related to the antagonist's power. He should have JUST enough power to be able to beat the antagonist at the end, but only by the skin of his teeth and probably by using several things to his advantage (situational conditions, the Holy Magic Artifact of Gobbledygook, etc). Your main character can be a god as long as there's a stronger god smacking him down. Audiences love rooting for an underdog, but at the same time in most genres, they want larger than life characters. So your wizard/vampire/psychic alien android may be able to destroy and entire city with his powers, but the bad guy better be able to destroy the whole state (which is much more impressive in my hometown because I live in Austin, TX).
Oh, and remember that the baddie in Book 2 has to be stronger than the one in Book 1, otherwise it's boring. I mean, who wants to see Rocky kick the crap out of a heavyweight champion, then in the sequel fight some high school nerd?
The Abstruse One
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