Is the main character actually the main character?
In every story, there’s always a main character. The story revolves around this character, and follows the character as it journeys through worlds of terror, love, adventure, self-exploration— we could go on. The other characters have the job of relying on the main character’s decisions. They could be mentors that help the character or villains who threaten to destroy the character. But no matter what, both the plot and supporting characters play the same role in the story: to revolve around the main character.
But… are they actually the main character?
It’s hard to say. Every character has their own story. In books, we might be hearing the story from one character’s perspective, but some of the other characters might actually be going through twice as much as the main character is— you just don’t know it. Every story is important and worth being heard. Every character develops throughout the story, has their own plotline, and faces their own obstacles. Which makes me think: a main character might be the main character of a specific story, but one story has so much more than just a main character.
Comments
Your point about the struggles of sidekicks being more intense or just plain worse is super true! Personally, when I'm writing and don't have a ton of experience with a struggle but I still want to have diversity in the experiences of my characters, I will give the struggle to one of the side characters, though I often think about if it's better to have more mostly good representation for certain struggles, or less really good representation. (Sorry that was a bit of rambling), but anyways, I really like this piece!
thank you so much!
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