McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

How powerful should a protagionist be?

<< < (5/9) > >>

WonderandAwe:
You also much consider the situation that your protagionist is in.  Let's use Harry Dresden for an example.  In a magical battle (where he has had time to prepare), Harry is pretty hard to beat.  In the last battle of Summer Knight, he was able to take out one of the major Fae powers because he had time to plan.  However, in other areas, Harry is basically screwed.  The scene in Death Masks, where Harry has to defend his actions at Bianca's mansion to the White Council, he royally screwed that up.  Tactful Harry Dresden is not.  If it wasn't for Mab, he would have been boxed up and served to the Red Court.  Harry's strengths, outthinking and taking down bad guys, don't really work when the good guys are gunning for you.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: SirThinks2Much on December 25, 2006, 09:55:18 AM ---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?"

--- End quote ---

The biggest problem I have with Red Son, which other than that I pretty much love unreservedly, is that for a Superman brought up the way that one was, the in-character answer is "Why not ?", and for a classic pre-CoIE Superman who is genuinely both massively more intelligent than everyone else in the world and good to the very core, he sdoes know better than you and he is right to run the world his way.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- 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 ---

Superman's weakness is his moral rectitude. Convince him that not doing what you want endangers innocent lives and he'll do what you tell him.

prime_spirit:
It is essentially the protagonist's story you're writing about and thus, he/she must have certain issues that the reader could relate to. Such as taking the bus or driving the car to work or take on the bad guys in a battlefield or sneak into the fortress. It's the choices the protagonist makes, rather than the best of his abilities (indeed maybe the lack of his abilities) which makes a charcter who/what we can love and cheer to.

Oh gods and freaks, I think I subconciously quoted JKRowling's Dumbledore of COS :o.

But still, the system works. The character grows, he loses his abilities and makes different choices. You question what if he still had the power and then which way would it force him/her to do the best thing or the right thing.

Indeed, I plan to make my character with super-potential and super-strong but her choices restricts her from acheiving top level. Not to mention getting crippled socially, physically, magically and emotionally (in that order). But remember, what makes a book is the characters. Plural. There are others that would support my protagonist along the way, those she had helped before. They wouldn't want her to give up no matter how much she just wants to lay down and disappear.

So it doesn't matter how tough/weak your protagonist is. Preferably, the tougher he is, the more people needed to bing him down. He could be a god with phenomenal cosmic power but it still comes down to either sacrifice his family/friends so their pure blood can heal the planet or rescue them to a temporary heaven and risk bleeding reality to the demons. It's the walk that goes with the talk ;).

Cathy Clamp:
I, too, like an antagonist that would NORMALLY be able to kick butt on the hero, except that something has happened to change the dynamics. Whether the hero has sought out help (like Harry asking for the werewolves' or Summer Lady's help, etc.) or has crafted some sort of response in the form of magic, etc.--it shouldn't be a walk in the park. Likewise, paying a price, even in a single title book, is a good idea. If it's easy, there's not enough conflict, IMO.  :D

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page