A protagonist? is the main character of a movie set in the Tiradesverse whom the audience is ostensibly supposed to be rooting for, but generally is completely unlikable and will often have great things happen to them for no reason. A main character characterized as a protagonist? can also be a neutral-type (or a secondary "good guy") who the writers of the movie want the viewers to root for, but are given no discernible reason for them to do so. Another type of protagonist? is a person who is clearly on the side of good, but is so spectacularly stupid and/or oblivious that it is impossible to cheer them on. Yet another kind is a character that is written so confusingly that the viewer has no clue if they are supposed to be pulled for or not. In such cases, they are often just defaulted to "protagonist?" status.
A protagonist? is a foil to the real protagonist.
Examples[]
- Nomi Malone in Showgirls
- Max Connor in Kazaam
- Patience Phillips in Catwoman
- William Easton in Saw VI
- Johnny in The Room
- Jonnie in Battlefield Earth
- Nic Cage in The Wicker Man (2006)
- Captain America, Storm and Cyclops in Avengers VS. X-Men
- Edward Carnby, Tara Reid, and Richard Burke in Alone in the Dark
- Every single hero in The Last Airbender
- Sam Witwicky, Mikaela Banes, William Lennox (and the rest of the army guys) and all of the Autobots in the Transformers trilogy
- Bobby Dagen and Detective Gibson from Saw 3D
- Jeremiah Ecks and Sever in Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
- Basically everyone on the "good guy" side in SF: The Legend of Chun-Li
- The Photographer from Murder-Set-Pieces
- Almost every hero in the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA
- Josh Waits from Troll 2
- Billy Lee in Double Dragon
- Every hero in DOA
- Mike from Manos: The Hands of Fate
- Every 20-something-year-old in every Final Destination movie after the first one
- Jimmy Cuervo from The Crow: Wicked Prayer
- Rayne, Sebastian and Vladimir in Bloodrayne
- Aubrey Fleming and Dakota Moss in I Know Who Killed Me
- Every single character except Everard Maltravers and Rachel Camden in The Legend of the Titanic
- Son Goku, Chi-Chi, Bulma Briefs, and Yamcha in Dragonball Evolution
- Niko Tatopoulos and Audrey Timmonds in Godzilla (1998)
- Bella Swan and Edward Cullen in Twilight and it's sequels
- Yor the Hunter and Ka-Laa in Yor, the Hunter from the Future
- Every hero except Jax in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation
- Every good guy in Transformers: Age of Extinction
- Almost every good guy in Highlander: The Source
- The main trio from The Happening
- Howard the Duck and Beverly Switzler in Howard the Duck
- Joe Marshall and Frank Washington in Samurai Cop and Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance
- Heather Mason, Harry Mason, and Vincent Cooper in Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
- Santa in Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny
- Jupiter and Caine in Jupiter Ascending
- Joe and Diane from Deadfall
- Almost everyone in An Easter Bunny Puppy
- Elektra, Mark and Abby in Elektra
- J.T. Wayne, Lennon, Suarez and the rest of the unimportant good guy crew in The Apocalypse (1997)
- John Jaspers and Jade de Camp in Faust: Love of the Damned
- Jerrica Benton in Jem and the Holograms
- Scorpion, Nadir and Alma in Warriors of the Wasteland
- Kirsten in Elves
- Cypher and Kitai in After Earth
- Emma, Lamar, Allan and Seiji in Mega Shark VS Giant Octopus
- The Spirit/Danny Colt in The Spirit
- Dodger, Tangerine and the Kids in The Garbage Pail Kids