How do you choose who is the protagonist?

[Verdant]

1) Its the contrary/ The story revolve around the MC

2) The reason you always saw this kind of story is :
a) You only read only a certain category (manga, manhua, manhwas, novels translated). You are stuck in a sealed environment/well, not knowing the outside "series" out there.
b) The recent series and not old ones, are MEGA OP MC focused
c) If you read chinese novels (raws) you could find easily more "diversity" (nah not the derogative america slang, the correct "diversity" one)
Movie director, variety show, time travel to the past, anime/manga creator (in another modern earth without the classics), sports, lawyer, dad plot, farming, fishing, etc etc list goes on

3) Reason of only having OP protags series now
is because of "modern taste"

You can say that Onepunch-man was a early sign of it
-----------If you check old series, there was something special to them but never THAT op.
Zach bell had a genius brain but overall random lambda schooler body MC
Steins gate was just a random chuuni university guy with a beard. Just that he had a passive to remember stuff between time changes.
Pokemon was just a random teen MC. Until he could tank fking laser beams, explosions, petrification to death, charges from 5tons animals etc
Fullmetal alchemist, beside the fact LIKE OTHER BLASPHEMERS(that seen god door guy) he can instant alchemy and a metal arm. He got nothing.
Re:zero. Not fan of it but MC was the most COMMON random guy.
To Aru majutsu. Again. Total normal guy. Beside his left hand that nullify powers. A random gun could kill him.
----------NOW
People dont have the timespan and curiosity to see the slow growth of a character.
To make it simple.
Look at McDonald popularity VS a random restaurant.
That easy to understand.
Its the dopamine, this quick drug to the brain that makes people like "OP MC" that have plot BE FAST.
Even me, that like slow stories, is beginning to be influenced and having hard time to stomach slow novels i find now.
Soda, games, mangas.
Its the fact that "pleasure" is FAST.
And why "school" is disliked. Because "pleasure/dopamine" isnt there and FAR TOO LONG to receive (big diploma > big job after XX years)

4)
You can say that basically, its like smut or FANTIA
Even if someone doesnt do smut or like writing slowplot or like drawing their favorite characters (niche one/side charac)
Seeing colleagues, getting all the attention, OR WORSE, ALL THE MONEY
then ofc they will switch to write/draw smut, annoyingly do FANTIA-paywalling, write fast food plot, draw popular characters that is buzzing (Stellar blade, Honkai, Genshin, MHA, Frieren, Konosuba, Spy family, etc)

Its the market fault. And the customers are the reason. And human nature.

There are "focused" people that never change, like example : Misaka Mikoto character, artists focusing on her despite no longer popular
but when they get 0 popularity, 0 likes (more like 50+), 0 comments. People would give up, but some dont.
Are they idiots ? Guess what. I would say no. But the majority of people would say Yes.

Some become successful thx to their skills and staying dedicated to this "niche/unpopular/previous characters"
but like Vtubers, and in every industry, the floor is full of "corpses". But everyone turn a blind eye to it. Because they dont care, nor know sometimes.
---You are one among thousands, dozen thousands, millions etc of "unpopular" creator.
Is it pitiful, yes. Do i feel bad for you, yes.
But sadly its the sad reality.
Its like the saying : Follow the times or be crushed by the times.
Its same for "market". Or creators follow the trend, surf on the wave trend. Or they will be crushed.

---Place & Time (crab eater logic)
SH is mostly focused on smut. Yuri/Futa. JP stuff. Isekai and fantasy.
Even the ex-number 1 SH series, "Slave harem". I am tired to repeat and others to hear me saying it, but the dude, directly BASHED/spit on the commenters that tried to help him "typo errors". Bc "its free", "not VIP readers-users of my own website", "Its PDF so its a pain to edit"
Its deleted now (his comments), but basically point is, be successful doesnt mean = be op creator.
In fact, "man of the house", "slave harem", had HORRIBLE flaws. That commenters criticized, only for author to double down "so what do you want me to do about it? you are dumb if you think MC can simply go kill the slave trader" (btw said slave trader, IN A TOTALLY DESERTED PLACE AND MC BE FAR STRONGER THAN HIM nor is there DETECTION or CORPSE READING or CRIME DETECTION magic, AND nearby TOWN EVEN ACCLAIMED HIM AS HERO)
But guess why THIS series was ex-number 1 popularity SH series ?
First smut series on SH. That simple.
It was trash. The MC sucked. The plot was KR bs of "drama behind dungeons". But it won bc SMUT. Harem smut. Nekomimi smut. SLAVE smut.
And yes its unfair for "good authors" or even "later smut authors with far better skills"

---Are all trends good ? No. NTR and social medias, are clearly bad. But the higher people wont bother to find solutions. Just like they dont give a f to pollution or other stuff. Or exposed of crimes. Just russia and "east big country" leader are big examples.

---Is it fine to follow what is popular ? Depends if the creator crave popularity.
Spy family was popular. Art spammed. Now no longer
Cyberpunk (rebecca) was popular ? Art spammed. Now no longer
Gyaru cosplay doll ? Rare art now
Gundam Suretta Miorine ? Had dozens of yuri futa ero fanfics on pixiv/week. Now not even 1/week or month.
Now creators are like migrating birds. They focus on what is CURRENTLY popular.
Because the "LIKES" addiction. Which (unlike before) can also result into "MONEY" (biggest motivation of all) is why people do it.
In fact, there is even "request oneshot writing" in pixiv. Creators get paid to write a oneshot of characters. AO3 writers too.
They simple like the popularity (AND corresponding money if they can)





The choice is now in your hands. In rome, do like the romans, or stay the same. One will lead to be included and the other will result to be ignored (unless a genius idea or miracle happens).
Which one is correct decision ?
Only the future, luck, your imagination and your (trusted) skills will tell.


TLDR : Its money fault.
Most problems, are due to money. In fact, even World peace would be achievable too if everyone had enough money.

That was.. quite the read there. Interesting though
I really like this comment!

Good. Nature is healing.
We have epidemic of special and overpowered protagonists. To the point that it is lately almost impossible to find anything without protagonist with "cheat level abilities."

That said no one will want to read about a farm boy who dies of cold in chapter two.

Take for example Frodo and Sam. Yes Frodo had some money, but Sam was just a gardener. They had no special powers, magic, or in fact fighting abilities. They basically were carried by rest of the team for the first half of their journey. And had help and some luck during second half. But were heroes because despite all adversities they were pushing forward. Each of them could not complete mission on his own.

It is nice to find a book, comic, anime, series where protagonist has to struggle to survive not limit himself to not destroy the whole world.
Unfortunately beginnings can become deceiving and after you got invested in story MC becomes overpowered.
See the popular lately "solo levelling." I was so let down by it that could not manage to read the second half.

TLDR:
It is good to make your protagonists down to earth, just don't overdo it so they eat dirt all the time.

I really like your comment! It summarizes some of the feelings I’ve had with unfortunately many of the novels and webcomics I’ve seen online.