Human vs Nonhuman MCs?

[ThisAdamGuy]

I won't ask which you like more since the answer will inevitably be "Either, as long as they're well written," so instead I'll ask this: if all you knew was that one book had a human main character and the other had a nonhuman one, which would you immediately be more inclined to check out?

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

The one that's a dragon.

 

[aleister_draven]

I like vampires for real.

 

[Empress_Omnii]

Either, as long as they're well written

I prefer setting and plot over the character's species.

But non-human allows some interesting themes that a human protagonist generally lacks... Also half elves and various other species are often just humans with slightly pointy ears or minor differences... so there often isn't much difference between the two.

 

[kosamsel]

Depending on the setting, probably the non-human MC! I am a sucker for fun fantasy cultural differences haha

 

[Fallen_Void]

Human mc, cause let's be real if the mc is non-human suppose a slime, dog, wolf, dragon or any fantasy creature. At the end of the day they will change into a human form... And that just kills the non-human part of the story... just my opinion though.

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Blobs of cancerous growths ftw.

 

[expentio]

Non-human that was a human and actually still has a human self. Not the kind who just deliberately becomes monstrous.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Would depend on the author for me. I mean, the Circle of Light series had animals (much like Brian Jacques Redwall, which my wife loved but I have not read, but more varied), and, technically, both The Hobbit (Bilbo) and Lord of the Rings (Frodo) have non-human leads.
But sometimes it's easy to forget the leads are not human in some of those. And sometimes it doesn't matter, either good or bad.

For that matter, is The Creature (aka Frankenstein's Monster) a human (he kind of shares the MC status with his Creator)? Are ghosts? is an AI or other synthetic life-form? What exactly defines a "human" or "non-human" lead?

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Non human.

 

[Paul__Michaels]

beep boop ?

 

[Anonjohn20]

I'll ask this: if all you knew was that one book had a human main character and the other had a nonhuman one, which would you immediately be more inclined to check out?

Whichever one is futa, LOL JK. I'm in a "reading non-human stories" phase right now.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Whichever one is futa, LOL JK. I'm in a "reading non-human stories" phase right now.

It's not a phase for me -_\\

 

[RepresentingDesire]

The one that conforms least to the average norms of the society we currently exist in!

 

[Anonjohn20]

It's not a phase for me -_\\

As I read your response, I assumed you meant liking futas is not a phase for you. I had to slow down and realize that you meant reading non-human stories is not a phase.

 

[Tempokai]

Non-human has a lot of randomness. Just by including everything from sentient objects to eldritch horrors, it's basically rolling d20 20 times to get something likeable. Human books, however, have a proper human inside of it. Sure, it could be about the most boring human human on earth, but the chance of such case happening is lower compared to non-human, where there are ~10 sentient rocks that don't do anything for one boring human. Based on probability, human books would be average, but at least something will happen, compared to consistently inconsistent non-human books.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Non-human.
For the simple reason that you're no longer bound by human limitations, bodies, shapes, sizes and colors.
It provides a greater challenge to authors and a special delight, I feel, to readers.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

As I read your response, I assumed you meant liking futas is not a phase for you. I had to slow down and realize that you meant reading non-human stories is not a phase.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Humans.

 

[MasterY001]

Where's the "both" button? I like stories that feature both regularly in leading roles.