McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

How powerful should a protagionist be?

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Erlkoeneg:
I would say that it depends on the character, and what the situation is going to be.

Most characters defiantely need a cap, because that's much mroe realitstic.
But there are exceptions. Like one of my characters, Sam Crescent. The guy is basically omnipotent, so all of his conflicts are emotional/psychological. These conflicts are often made even mreo dificult by the fact that it is impossible for him to feel the emotion 'love'

jib:
i think a protagonist must be different from everyone else, which means they must have qualities that make them better, stonger, cleverer, extraordinary or whatever. BUT the most important thing is that they remain human (even if they are vampire, werewolf or anything else). They need to have a certain amount of vulnerability to remain credible. They can develop new and amazing powers, but only inside the limits of the story, meaning new powers can't just pop up like daisies from the ground. They have to fit into the continuity and the protagonist's character. A protagonist should never be too powerful. Otherwise you end up having a second anita blake, who's pretty much unkillable, comes up with unexplained and ridiculous new powers just when she needs them and doesn't even have a proper story to justify all the 800 pages of way too graphic sex anymore. and we wouldn't want that, would we?  ;) anyway, that's what i think.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: jib on August 29, 2007, 07:49:56 AM ---A protagonist should never be too powerful.

--- End quote ---

I still disagree, and my favourite counterexample is Mike Carey's Lucifer, who in that setting is more powerful than anyone else except God, absolutely ruthless at the "will set the world on fire to light his cigarette" level, and still manages to get some fascinating stories and conflicts.  Partly because, in order not to get bored, he will play your game by your rules and win anyway; partly because he never, under any circumstances, breaks his word or tells anything other than the exact literal truth, but he does have a gift for letting people interpret what he says differently from how he means it.

Spectacular Sameth:
If you give them too much power, you can always attack them emotionally, though that tends to get old sometimes.

For instance, the Green Goblin in the first Spider-man movie says it best "Attack his heart, Osborne. Attack his heart." So what'd he do? He injured Peter's aunt and threatened to kill MJ and a bunch of kids. This is why Spider-Man wears a mask...if people don't know who he is, then they can't hurt his loved ones, but he can't always protect them. While Spider-Man is still human and can be killed by a bullet or something like that...he still has the emotional weaknesses. Overpower, but with a price or overpower, but with something to protect.

The Corvidian:
Dresden also limits himself because he scared of what he might become, the very thing that he fights against. I think in a sense, he is attacking that part of himself that he hates and fears.

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