Ensemble Cast: Difference between revisions
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In most cases, the protagonist is a defining element of fiction. It is he whom the plot revolves around and, usually, the one the audience is supposed to empathize with most.
However, some shows decide to do something different - There is no protagonist. The plot and its narrative don't revolve around a single, "most important" main character. Instead, it shares a cast of characters with (almost) equal screentime and importance to the plot. This is called an
In addition, it allows the writers to focus on different characters in different episodes freely, without worrying about giving the main character not enough screen time.
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* ''[[Lost]]'' is a borderline case. There is an Ensemble Cast, but Jack has a more central position than the rest (as was finally made clear in the last season). Just not enough to call him the "protagonist".
* ''[[Modern Family]]'' really doesn't have a main character, and focuses on all three branches of the family pretty much equally.
* ''[[Friends]]'' famously had six main characters, or two [[Power Trio
* ''[[Heartbeat]]'' originally focused on village bobby Nick Rowan, but as the cast changed and expanded, the show developed an Ensemble Cast.
* ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Star Trek Deep Space Nine]]'' was one of these. Unlike the other Trek series where the focus was firmly on The Captain, DS 9 gave pretty much equal airtime and weight to all its characters from Rom on upwards.
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== Webcomics ==
* [[Rumors of War]] combines an
* ''[[Homestuck]]'', thanks to its extremely large cast and tendency to switch between their points of view very rapidly. John is nominally the main character, but he is only the focus in the first, second, and fourth acts. The third (arguably) focuses on Jade, and John didn't even appear for the first part of Act Five.
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'' tends to focus on groups of two or more more of the main 8 characters and a few supporting characters at a time.
* [[Drowtales]] started off with focus on Ariel but the cast kept growing until there was 4-5 important story arcs running at the same time with equally important characters. Currently there was nearly a year where Ariel was never seen with more important plot lines hogging the pages. All those layers of plots of even greater importance that live in the background and probably will burst into foreground in the future.
* ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]''
* ''Goblins'' divides its focus between three groups of characters: the titular sextet of Goblins (of which none can be accurately called the main character,) Dies Horribly and his fellows, and [[Min Max]] and Forgath, a pair of human adventurers. All three groups are given roughly equal screentime, despite one of them not consisting of any goblins at all.
* ''[[Charby the Vampirate]]'' confuses some new readers because while the comic is named after Charby, he's only one of many main characters. The story tends to rotate focus through the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]].
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