Protagonist: A Case Study (Why Aang is the Best of Us)

Today, let us discuss protagonists.

You know them.
But, why do you know them?
Why do we care?
I believe there are a couple of distinct class of protagonists.

1. Average
2. Anti 
3. Villain 
4. Super
5. Transcendent

So what is a protagonist?

You can see I have worked on this problem in previous posts.

I don't have an exact definition, but a couple of working definitions:

• the character who undergoes the largest change/situational shift over the course of the story (rags to riches/riches to rags)
• the character we most sympathize with/the lens through which we view the story
• the character set in opposition to the world/antagonistic forces of the story

Why these definitions?

Because they are what I have observed in countless stories.

Let us go with an average example to start.

A good, solid protagonist for the series in which they find themselves

1) (Average) Protagonist:

HARRY POTTER

Some of you may be shouting.

HARRY! AVERAGE?!

Calm your nethers.

Yes, average. As in, he is a solid example of protagonist.

The story I would characterize as transcendent, but Harry is...not lackluster...just not what we are ideally looking for.

He exemplifies a couple of typical protagonist traits:

• he is ignorant about his wizarding heritage/the magical world
• the big bad i.e. Voldemort is directly opposed to him specifically because...reasons
• he comes from a bad family that treats him badly
• he is poor

How is this protagonist material?

Well, it sets him up nice doesn't it?

He can grow from here unlike almost anyone else in the world.

Hermione knows everything and Ron can fill in the cultural gaps.

And Neville is a god:

(Sorry Jo)

Harry eventually becomes the messiah of the world.

• he knows more about Voldemort than anyone else living
• the big bad: Voldemort and what he represents (death/self love) are directly opposed to Harry and what he represents (life/family/love)
• he gains a family that spans whole groups of people including the students and faculty of Hogwarts
• he is rich

His circumstances are completely changed by the end of the series and through that change: 

• love
• sacrifice
• relying on others where your own strengths fail

He is able to overcome the biggest threat to the wizarding world.

Harry is surrounded by his friends in the last battle.

Voldemort is alone in the last battle.

And how does Harry defeat him?

By disarming him, using the spell: Expelliarmus, he disarms Voldemort's power, rebounding it onto Voldemort, killing him instantly.

That there is some good stuff.

Harry Potter is one of my favorite stories (and not just because I grew up with it), but because every aspect of it reinforces another.

Even where Harry is deficient (intellect, stick-to-it-ness, etc.) he has friends and family that more than make up for it.

2) Anti-Protagonist

An example would be Macbeth/Richard III

What I call an anti-protagonist. (academic word. Not super accurate)

This is a bit of a misnomer (they are still the protagonist)

Another might be Light Yagami from Death Note

Light Yagami is an anti-protagonist.

Meaning he is the opposite of how a protagonist normally operates e.g. opposite of a hero.

• He makes all of the easy choices.
• He is gifted with preternatural power (the ability to kill anyone with only a name and a face)
• He terrorizes humanity and becomes a despot

This doesn't sound like a hero, but he is undoubtedly the protagonist of the story.

Now, I am going to dredge up a couple of ideas real quick:

Story is an idea illustrated through action.

Meaning:

Protagonist/antagonist are the manifestations of opposing ideas

the story is the argument 

and the climax is the conclusion of that argument

Therefore; Protagonist and antagonist are interchangeable, it only matters what side you end up on given the context.
(Is the Light Side of the Force really the Right Side of the Force?)

So in Death Note we get our antagonist (who is really our hero) L/Ryuzaki:

Sorry.

L.
Our hero.
No, really, he is a god damn hero.
He follows all of our criteria for heroship:

• always makes the difficult choice
• always self-sacrificing
• always looking out for others
• caring
• loving

Everything that Light is not.

But, it is still a compelling story.

Unlike our third type

3) Villain-Protagonist

What are these?
I wish you didn't ask.

I have trouble naming them because in my opinion they are not heroes.

In my opinion,  protagonists should be heroes (most of the time).

There are exceptions, but they have to be damn good to catch my interest.

Villain-protagonists are a breed unto themselves.

An example is Rand Al'thor in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series

Yeah...he looks real trustworthy.

He basically screams megalomaniac. 

And yet, people follow him.

This is fan art by the way.

This is how the fans choose to see their protagonist.

Why is this?

Because he is a villain and a bully and I hate him.

Heroes are something special and we will get to them in just a moment.

Heroes always makes the hard choice for the greater good.

Bland (rand) Al'thor does not qualify as a hero.

To give examples from the story:

• he is insane (no literally, drawing on magic drives him to insanity)
• he never trusts anyone (while Harry is building relationships, Bland is accusing everyone of witchery)
• he hides his true gifts/self in order to appear 'normal'
• he literally murders 20 people looking for him in cold blood because he THINKS they are after him

These are like the least of his crimes.

• He also has no regard for other people's safety
• even his friends don't trust him (and for good reason)
• he ostracizes himself and his whole community
• He trusts no one's actions, only his first impressions of them
• He believes no one, not even his trusted advisors
• He uses his power to dominate/force people to submit to his policies
• He establishes democracies where he is the only candidate (sound familiar?)

I could go on and on and on, but I won't.

So he is not a hero.

And he shouldn't be the protagonist.

Now, this is a tricky concept to convey.

Because I have already discussed anti-protagonists, why doesn't/shouldn't Bland qualify?

To start with, he is a villain.

This doesn't exempt him (as I have already demonstrated), but there is a trick happening.

Jordan uses it and Rick Riordan uses it. 

That's right!
Percy Jackson falls into this category.
PERCY JACKSON IS A VILLAIN

Don't believe me?

Let us look at what typifies these characters:

• they both have ridiculous amounts of power, Bland has the most magic of anyone and Percy is the son of (arguably) the strongest of all the gods
• they have slavishly loyal followers that they exploit/sacrifice in order to gain their ends
• they are nothing if not introspective (they are narcissistic), but never in all their inner monologues consider the moral ramifications of what they have done (this may be a bit unfair to Percy, I don't remember an instance, but there may be one)
• they become leaders of their respective troupes (arguably kings) through no other qualification than being "the most powerful"

This is not the laundry list of what makes a hero.

This is what makes a villain.

Using these criteria and these alone ask anyone to name a character it describes you might get:

EMPEROR PALPATINE

FIRE LORD OZAI

Their protagonists are villains.
So what? Big deal.
Light is a villain. Macbeth is a villain.
What makes Rick Riordan and Robert Jordan (to name a few) less better than Shakespeare?

Simple.
They don't let their characters be anti-protagonists.

And that is where I get off the.

Because it would be really cool/interesting to see an OP protagonist (we will talk about them in just a moment) in a position of power.
We see it all the time.
Injustice: Gods Among Us

But, the fact that these characters are not treated as villains is inexcusable.

To dress up a villain and pretend that they are a protagonist is just terrible in the truest sense of the word.

And then to have no one call them on their hypocrisy is worse.

4) Super Protagonists

These are the biggest and the baddest (though not necessarily best)

Here we get protagonists like

SUPERMAN

SON GOKU

These characters taught me more about heroism and morality than any religion.

I am dead serious.

These characters are really important.

Because the antagonistic forces have to come at them sideways to have an effect.

In Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. the might of the enemy is the prevailing/dominating characteristic.

The idea of Death/Selfishness as personified by Voldemort manifests like this: 

When, in fact, Voldemort is very much alone and is better personified in this light:

At the end of it all, Voldemort is a crippled infantile thing unable to take care of itself.

So how does this relate?

Well, there is almost nothing in the universe that Superman cannot overcome by simply exerting a little force.

Seriously, he is notoriously difficult to write well because of things like this: 

He can stop bullets with his eyes!

So physical conflict goes right out the window.

You just feel like, even when he is being pummeled, if he just flexed his muscles a little bit more he would win.

And you are right.

There is a problem though.

Superman is too strong.

Consistently he has to hold himself back (canonically)

In this video Superman even says it!

"That man won't stop so long as he still draws breath. None of my teammates will. Me? I've got a different problem."

Superman has different problems than other superheroes.
What are they?

I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard. Always taking constant care not to break something. Break someone. Never allowing myself to lose control even for a moment because someone could die! 

And there it is.
Superman will never cut loose completely because he might kill someone.
Something he is morally totally opposed to doing.

This is not the whole fight.

It gets brutal.

This is the hyper violent Superman that we could have had.

The Superman that proved Might as Right.

But, he talks about it in the end:

They saw violence as a solution and it frightened them.

Because Superman does not kill.
He does not use violence in order to dominate or subjugate.
In one of the most touching addresses the United Nations he says in response to, "You have the power to end criminals, why don't you?":

"I'm not anyone's judge and jury, professor Baxter--definitely not an executioner. My powers do not put me above the law....First, I don't believe the world is broken--because when we say the world, we're really talking about people. It's always been my belief that people, at their core, are good."

"Humanity has a limitless potential for good. My purpose is to help people reach that potential."

That is Superman's sole purpose.
 And because of it, he is one of the greatest protagonists (even if his stories sometimes suck).

Superman is a troublesome protagonist because physical might means nothing to him.
But, like all heroes, he has a noble creed by which he lives and dies.
And because of that he is still vulnerable to Murphy's Law.

I will talk about this guy in another post:

(for those who don't know, this is Saitama from One Punch Man)

So now we move on to our final category:

5) Transcendent Protagonists

This is a god damn hard category.
Because only a handful of people manage to make it into it.
I even exclude Superman and Goku (which kills me).
(Not all of their stories and not all of the time, but if we look at a whole canon as a whole story, then yes, Superman does not make the grade.)

To be a transcendent protagonist you have to

• make all of the hard choices in a positive direction

Yeah.

That is pretty much it.

Sound easy?

Harry Potter doesn't even do this.

Not Harry.

Nor Bilbo

But you know who does?

Nausicaa

And Aang

I swear, these two.

I cry.

If you haven't seen these, then go. 

Just go right now.

My blog is seriously nothing compared to these works of art.

So.

Aang.

*sobs*

This guy is the best!

No seriously.

He fights a war.

An eleven year old boy fights a war!

How does he do it?

With laughter and joy and whim.

Look at his freaking face!

That is in the middle of a war torn world that he is (arguably) solely responsible for!

So what does he do?

He fixes it.

How does he do it?

• He makes friends
• who become allies
• He fights the Fire Nation with these allies
• He makes mistakes
• He learns from them
• He grows more powerful
• And he fights the Fire Lord

Now, if you don't know the context, here is some:

Fire Lord Ozai is basically the most evil awful person in the universe.

Played by Mark Hamill

You know.

This guy:

Anywho.
We spend the entire series and I mean the entire series building up to the ultimate showdown
Aang vs. Fire Lord
And it is palpable.
Only one thing.
Aang is a Buddhist (Air Nomad) Monk!
so........
How is he going to stop Fire Lord Ozai?

(HE HAS TO KILL HIM)
He asks his friends.

(YOU HAVE TO KILL HIM)

He asks his neighbors.

(YOU HAVE TO KILL HIM)

He asks his past lives

(YOU HAVE TO KILL HIM)

Basically everyone in the world tells him that he is going to have to violate his own creed in order to achieve his ultimate function: save the world.

In order to save the world Aang has to lose himself.

Whoa.

And I thought this was a kid's show.

So does he do it?

Wha....

What?!

He overcomes the prejudice that the only road to victory is through slaughter.

Aang transcends that behavior, that belief.

And he does it (similar to Superman) by removing the power that almost wholly defines Ozai.

But, more than that, by effectively using his friends and allies, he is able to bring low the entire Fire Nation and end a war.

And he accomplishes this by never killing.

Not once.

Aang.

You are my hero.

Even Superman with all his power is unable to stop the war in Superman vs The Elite.

Even Harry Potter is unable to save Tom Riddle from his death.

Only characters like Aang are able to prevail against the overriding narrative:

• Violence is the only solution
• You cannot overcome conflict without death

They transcend it entirely.

Nausicaa's story is almost identical in every way.

• A war is happening between mankind, nature, and different nations
• The fighting spills into her country
• She has a unique skill of speaking with insects
• She acts as the bridge between the two and fights
• not with violence, but with her glider, her friends, an insect caller, some flash bombs, and her love for growing things

Hers is a truly remarkable journey

She throws herself at the mercy of raging insects that are unstoppable, unceasing, uncaring of human pain.

And what is the result?

They stop for her.

She averts an all out war, stops an apocalypse, and begins the healing of her broken world.

These are the ultimate protagonists.

Not ultimate because of their power (like Superman and Son Goku), but because of their love, their capacity to change, not only themselves, but the world and the story wherein they find themselves.

There is no reason Aang should be so happy in times of war save for his ignorance.

Once he realizes what is happening, he very easily could have turned down another path:

Instead, he maintains his whim and his humor and makes the world a better, more positive place.