Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Difference between revisions

The downside to having a phenomenal ensemble cast. This [[Trope]] is when, compared to the many compelling supporting characters, the character who'swhose point of view we have to look through is seen as boring, or even [[The Scrappy|downright annoying]]. This can cause the side plots (those involving the supporting cast) to be seen as more interesting than the main storyline, and every time the main character appears on screen, the audience wants them to hurry up and leave.

This trope is when it seems like the entire cast (other than the lead) has become more popular because the audience likes them more than the supposed main character. This is the result of [[Fan Dumb]] as often as it is the fault of bad characterization or writing. [[Standardized Leader]] is a [[Sub-Trope]], and the two often overlap. Contrast [[First-Person Peripheral Narrator]] and [[SupportingFocal ProtagonistCharacter]].

It sometimes happens as a result of making the protagonist an [[Audience Surrogate]] or [[Every Man]]. They're generic to help the audience identify with them, but this means that there isn't anything particularly special about them. A [[Pinball Protagonist]] may also result in this trope--thetrope—the poor guy/gal is simply dragged around the plot by stronger characters that s/he encounters.

* ''[[Naruto]]'' has been accused of this as well. [[The Messiah|Naruto]], [[Rival Turned Evil|Sasuke]], and [[The Chick|Sakura]] all have much larger hatedoms than the ensemble cast supporting them, especially since Sasuke is considered the [[Creator's Pet]], Sakura has varying shades of being [[The Scrappy]], and Naruto himself is a massive [[Base Breaker]].

* ''[[Bleach]]'' has this on both sides. The [[Five-Man Band]] are regularly overshadowed in popularity and screentime by the [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad|Gotei 13]], leading to [[The Big Guy|Chad]] and [[The Smart Guy|Ishida]] being referred to as main characters ''sarcastically''. However, the inverse is also true; [[Big Bad|Sosuke Aizen]] has become the [[Creator's Pet]] for a massive portion of the fanbase, primarily due to over-reliance on [[Gambit Roulette|Gambit Roulettes]]s, [[Complexity Addiction]] and his [[Villain Decay|descent]] into an insufferable [[Smug Snake]].

** To elaborate on the protagonists' side, [[Gentle Giant|Yasutora "Chad" Sado]] is often disliked for his [[The Worf Effect|ridiculous tendency to lose battles]], his [[Narm|narmynarm]]y speeches regarding [[The Power of Friendship]], his severe case of [[Demoted to Extra]], and his cessesion in his [[Character Development]], to the point where it's [[Satellite Character|affected and influenced almost entirely by another, more prominent character]].

** [[Genki Girl|Orihime Inoue]] is '''hounded''' for refusing to be an [[Action Girl]], for being [[The Messiah|a goodie-goodie even to her enemies]], and for focusing almost entirely on Ichigo, enough that her [[Character Development]] suffers each time Ichigo is involved. Some fans go as low as attacking for ''anything'' related to her role in the Arrancar Arcs, but mostly getting kidnapped.<ref>(Then again, her guard/jailer was the fourth strongest soul-eating monster. What could you do?)</ref>. And, with her being an [[Actual Pacifist]], many people hit her for not fighting.

** [[Aloof Ally|Uryu Ishida]] is often cited as the best-liked member of the [[Five-Man Band]] on the human side, namely for lasting the longest in a fight, being thoroughly independent as a character and a fighter, [[Friendly Enemy|regularly]] [[Sugar and Ice Personality|antagonizing]] Ichigo, and having a strained relationship with his father (everyone else's parents are dead, missing or goofy). The problem? He still gets [[The Worf Effect|mopped around the floor]], he minimally contributes to the overall plot (e.g. primarily just fights, or gets handicapped for an extended time) and he often gets shafted once he finishes up his role in the arc.

** [[Sixth Ranger|Renji Abarai]] has an endearing backstory, but his [[Character Development]] was essentially resolved by the end of the Soul Society arc, so he mostly just tags along in a particular event or fight, which he usually loses in order to make the villains look [[Badass]]. In a sense, he's basically been [[Demoted to Extra]] because there really isn't much else left to tell from him, besides getting new abilities and trying to surpass his captain.

** It's worth noting that most fans tend to view [[The Lancer|Rukia Kuchiki]] in a positive light (some even call her the most interesting of the main cast), but she's been [[Demoted to Extra]] ever since she regained her powers; it's an odd inverse of an [[Ensemble Darkhorse]] being a main character, when said main character hasn't done much for a long time. However, there ''are'' fans that still find her to be uninteresting (in personality and backstory) and/or condescending, but they have less of a problem with her lack of screen-time than they do with how much praise she gets from her fans.

** In fact, it seems that whenever Bleach is declining in popularity to the Japanese fandom (i.e. the fourth movie and the current manga arc), that's because the shinigami captains and lieutenants aren't getting as much focus.

* A variation of this is common in shows with [[Harem Genre|harems]] or [[Love Triangle|Love Triangles]]s. Often, the first girl or obvious winner is much more down-to-earth than the competition.

* ''[[Angel Sanctuary]]'': Many readers find little to distinguish [[I Just Want to Be Normal|Setsuna]] and Sara Mudo from other Shojo manga protagonists. (Aside from...[[Brother-Sister Incest|well, y'know...]]) By contrast, the rest of the cast comes off as by far more complex, original and likable, seeing as most of them have more pressing (not to mention sympathetic) concerns than [[Wangst|wangstingwangst]]ing over incestuous love. Then there's the fact that both Mudos stop the plot at various times to develop their romance ''[[What the Hell, Hero?|when they both know]] [[The End of the World as We Know It|the apocalypse is hanging over everyone's heads]]''.

** This is no surprise, considering that Yami is the one who does almost all the dueling (at least in the anime), leading to many [[Crowning Moments]], while Yugi mostly just sits around and/or runs into trouble.

* Touma from ''[[ToA AruCertain Majutsu noMagical Index]]'' is seen as this by much of the fandom. Though not an [[Idiot Hero]], he often comes off as reckless and naive as well as quite [[Unlucky Everydude|plain and uninteresting]]. It's not helped by the major side stories focusing on {{spoiler|[[Crazy Awesome|Accel]][[Sociopathic Hero|erator]] going on rampages to save [[Morality Pet|Last Order]].}}

** For example. Mikoto's ''[[ToA AruCertain Kagaku noScientific Railgun]]'' is much more popular than the main plot following Touma, but this is a subversion as Mikoto is a pretty run-of-the-mill [[Tsundere]] and her supporting cast isn't any better than Touma's, just more popular too. Touma could even be seen as more original, having a more passive power rather than an offensive ability, which leads to interesting battles where he must protect himself first and figure how his opponent's special power works to be able to do something, making each fight unique and interesting. Mikoto has standard electric powers and thus fights more normally, albeit she's the [[Lightning Can Do Anything]] variety at least, so she isn't terrible either.

* Brad and Janet are the main characters/heroes in ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'', and, while they do have a pretty decent number of fans, they're nowhere '''near''' as popular as Dr. Frank N. Furter, Riff Raff, Magenta, Columbia, or Rocky Horror himself. It's pretty telling that their fan nicknames are Asshole and Slut.

* In his review of ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]: [[Prince Caspian]]'', Roger Ebert invokes this trope. Mr. Ebert writes about how charismatic is the centaur Glenstorm on screen in comparison with the eponymous character, and regrets [https://web.archive.org/web/20130209004143/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080515/REVIEWS/710237003%2F20080515%2FREVIEWS%2F710237003 "his fate was decided a long time ago... by an Irish writer who dwelt in England's green and pleasant land"].

* Some books in the ''[[Troubleshooter]]'' series have this issue, though fans argue about which books this applies to.

* [[Terry Pratchett]] says that when he wrote ''[[Discworld/Guards Guards|Guards! Guards!]]'', he thought Carrot was the main character. He compares it to [[Marx Brothers]] movies starring Zeppo - technically some of them do, but no one goes to see a [[Marx Brothers]] film because Zeppo's in it.

* The protagonists of ''[[Hothouse Flower and The Nine Plants of Desire]]'' are, for the most part, either [[Static Character|static characters]], [[Jerkass|jerkassesjerkass]]es, or [[Flat Character|otherwise devoid of any sort of personality]]. The secondary characters (however [[Archetypal Character]] they may be) somehow manage to display more personality in they few chapters they appear in than the protagonists do in the entire book.

* September, the protagonist of ''[[The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making]]'', is a clear [[Audience Surrogate]], to the point where she's outshone by ''every single other character in the book''.

== Live-Action TV ==

* Many fans of ''[[Lost]]'' have an intense dislike for Jack, the presumed "hero" of the show. This is related, at least in part, to his being a much less interesting character than other characters like Locke, Sayid, or Ben. Then again, he was supposed to die in the first episode, and the general consensus is that Jack [[Rescued Fromfrom the Scrappy Heap|got a lot better]] toward the end.

* The eponymous character of ''[[Doogie Howser, M.D.]]'' was the clear main character for the entire course of the show, but he became less and less prominent as time went on. As he matured, he was able to sidestep most problems; the writers realized that sitcoms were reliant on crazy situations, but Doogie [[Only Sane Man|was too smart to ever get stuck in them in the first place]]. By the fourth season, he was still the title character, but none of the plots were about ''him'' anymore -- theyanymore—they were about the troubles of people around him, particularly his best friend Vinnie.

* This was a serious problem for ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek the Original Series]].'' While all of the seven-plus main characters ''could'' support a story, Kirk was conceived as the star, and Shatner aggressively campaigned for more screen time. Attempts to rotate the secondary characters into the spotlight (e.g., doing Kirk-and-Spock episodes, Kirk-and-Scotty episodes, Kirk-and-Sulu episodes, etc.) failed because Spock was so darn popular, and the [[The Kirk|Kirk]]-[[The Spock|Spock]]-[[The McCoy|McCoy]] [[Power Trio]] dynamic worked so well.

* Many fans of ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' find Ted to be the most boring out of the five main characters.

* Sookie Stackhouse from ''[[True Blood]]''. Bill also gets this treatment a lot, even though his character's less in focus than he used to be.

** And on the hero side alone, Peter is considered the dullest between having an absolutely broken power and just being dumb as a sack of hammers.

{{quote| You say you want things, but you're never willing to work for them. You're never willing to make the sacrifice. You keep expecting to just charm your way through life.}}

** Elena also falls into this. Occasionally there's a tentative foray into giving her characteristics, but mostly she's the Good Girl who everyone obsesses over for some reason. Her self-described flaw is that she's "too good".

* Shermy and Patty (not Peppermint Patty, she came later) of ''[[Peanuts]]''. The original cast, which also consisted of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and later Violet, had next to no personality, besides Charlie Brown being an occasional nuisance to the girls and Violet being an aspiring homemaker. Once Schroeder, Lucy, and Linus showed up, Charlie Brown grew into the sad-sack we all know and love, and Snoopy began thinking, Shermy was left with little to do and by the mid-sixties had all but vanished. Patty and Violet then took up mocking Charlie Brown, but this eventually became Lucy's role once she got her [[Plot-Relevant Age-Up]], and Patty faded away while Violet briefly became a [[Rich Bitch]] before disappearing as well. In short, many of the original protagonists were so bland they barely made it a fifth of the way into the strip's run.

** It doesn't help that April seemed to be [[The Unfavourite]], and that anything she did or liked was automatically bad or lame for no apparent reason.

** Two well known characters have managed to avoid this well, however. Link of ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' is a [[Memetic Badass]] despite the large and colourful supporting cast (though he still managed to be [[Ensemble Darkhorse|massively overshadowed]] by Midna in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]''), while Chrono of ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' is a VERY useful character in a game with a three-person limit, so this helped him win the fans' hearts.

** Alex is a peculiar case in that his stint as the protagonist is widely overlooked despite him having ties to the [[Big Bad]] (most would probably tell you that Ryu is still [[The Hero]], which isn't too farfetched considering that Ryu's been integral to the plots of the first game, ''Alpha'', and ''IV''), but he's still widely regarded to be a popular character in the grand scheme of the series. For example, his surprise appearance on the roster of ''[[Tatsunokovs Capcom|Tatsunoko vs. Capcom]]'' was warmly received.

* You can't have this trope without mentioning ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''; [[In a World]] with energy-wielding ninjas, [[Physical God|Physical Gods]]s, fantastic creatures, [[Hollywood Cyborg|Hollywood Cyborgs]]s, et all, the most anyone seems to remember about Liu Kang, the actual protagonist of the series, is that he's [[Fan Nickname|the Turkey Boy]]. Shuujinko is also an example.

* In a sense, ''[[Captain Planet and the Planeteers]]''. He would probably be considered the Designated Protagonist just because his name is in the title, but he was never characterized beyond being an [[Invincible Hero]] who spoke almost entirely in [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Incredibly Lame Puns]]s. The Planeteers were obviously meant to carry the show.

* ''[[The Dreamstone]]'' [[Depending on the Writer|goes in and out]] with this for Rufus and Amberley, who were arguably [[Master of None|the least effective]] of the hero ensemble, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|often causing more problems than they solved]] and being reliant on the other heroes ([[The Fool|or pure luck]]) to save the day. Not to mention a lot of episodes give more [[Sympathetic POV]] on the Urpneys, with the actual hero alliance [[Good Is Boring|somewhat one dimensional]] in comparison and [[The Villain Makes the Plot|less capable of setting up plot devices on their own]]. The fact it was [[Minion with an F In Evil|so hard]] [[Designated Villain|to root]] [[Iron Butt Monkey|against]] [[Jerkass Woobie|the Urpneys]] only worsened this. A large amount of times, Rufus and Amberley bordered on being cardboard [[Hero Antagonist|Hero Antagonists]]s.