The Plot without the Protagonist

[RootBeerBert]

How does the Plot of your story turn out with the protagonist absent from it? What do the main cast do without them?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

In most cases a different character becomes the protagonist to fill in the void. One story I am working on has the planned death of the initial MC around chapter 100 (currently in the 50s), so that his children get to take center stage and his "co-leads" shift to advisory roles for the next generation.

In other cases, the bad guys win and things get really bad. Really, really bad.

 

[NotaNuffian]

In most cases a different character becomes the protagonist to fill in the void. One story I am working on has the planned death of the initial MC around chapter 100 (currently in the 50s), so that his children get to take center stage and his "co-leads" shift to advisory roles for the next generation.

In other cases, the bad guys win and things get really bad. Really, really bad.

Yay~

 

[Jerynboe]

Continue to do bitch work on a pirate ship after being kidnapped and pressed into service, for most of the main cast.

Sebastien dies due to not having the MC to team up with to survive an undead siege. They lost like 40% of their men even with a group of powerful allies of convenience. Main cast wouldn’t be there because without the MC leading them they wouldn’t have gotten involved with Sebastien’s sister long enough to be dragged onto his crew when he got his own ship.

Sosima would continue to slowly break down and lose her sanity and individuality as her brain slowly rots away and all of the tools she used to maintain her sense of self after becoming a ghoul slowly fail without a third party that isn’t critically impaired going out of their way to assist her in finding an actual cure.

Rowe continues to be an enforcer in the goblin mafia until boredom prompts her to run away and join some other pirate crew.

The actual BBEG who isn’t even showing up until book 2 will be somewhat disappointed that Sebastien didn’t work out, but shrugs and moves on with her plans. Friendly rival catgirl probably ends up as the main impediment to her plans.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

The world is a better place

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

How does the Plot of your story turn out with the protagonist absent from it? What do the main cast do without them?

Hmmm... well, actually, the world stays pretty dystopian, but as things go...
It's honestly sad, but things would be a lot better as a whole without them. She's the center of a lot of plots and machinations by otherworldly forces, and she's that perfect combination that allows her to survive them all. In the end, she's a carrier.
If he survives, others have to die.
I mean, long, LOOONG term, they will have a net positive effect... but it is so far off in the future that most of humanity won't appreciate their for good deeds.

In most cases a different character becomes the protagonist to fill in the void. One story I am working on has the planned death of the initial MC around chapter 100 (currently in the 50s), so that his children get to take center stage and his "co-leads" shift to advisory roles for the next generation.

In other cases, the bad guys win and things get really bad. Really, really bad.

@CharlesEBrown I see we have a JoJo fan! Hello, fellow JoJo fan!

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

The plot can move without the protagonist.

It simply became a story with one less character.

Whether the Good guys win or the Bad guys win, all of them are simply a powershift after powershift.

 

[Jemini]

How does the Plot of your story turn out with the protagonist absent from it? What do the main cast do without them?

I'd say a much better question is necessary from a writer's perspective. What happens to your story if you substitute your main character out for literally anyone else with any other list of character traits?

Does the story still happen if it's literally anyone else in the protagonist's shoes? If yes, you have a bad plot AND bad characters.

A good and strong story is a story that actually requires it to be your protagonist and only your protagonist filling the role. If the story still happens almost unchanged with another character swapped in, then your story needs serious work.

Biggest point here, the best story is a story that is couched upon your character's very specific wants, flaws, or unique traits.

In my case, I am currently writing a story (currently unreleased) in which the entire reason the story happens is because the protagonist is just enough of an anxty teenager that she pisses off Fate and gets cursed by them because they just want her out of the world. But, she's not anxty enough for Time to be in agreement with Fate, and so Time decides to protect her.

 

[foxes]

A good and strong story is a story that actually requires it to be your protagonist and only your protagonist filling the role. If the story still happens almost unchanged with another character swapped in, then your story needs serious work.

You have in one fell swoop eliminated all historical chronicles of any state. And with it, evolution on planet earth.
But isn't that how all stories are built, starting with a not-so-great or completely worthless situation and then working up to its ending?

 

[theInmara]

If Meg gets removed from the story of girldragongizzard, then the book doesn't even happen, because she's the narrator and author.

None of the other characters are likely to write a book.

 

[Jocelyn_Uasal]

How does the Plot of your story turn out with the protagonist absent from it? What do the main cast do without them?

I suppose you could go off of works that don't have a solid protagonist, like Journal of a Plague Year or Middlemarch but most educated readers wouldn't call these novels in the truest sense. More of a catalogue of events.

Hard but not impossible, you'd have to abandon plot in favor of a concept to expunge on.

 

[Cipiteca396]

MC's dungeon never gets made. Her Creatures never exist- or, maybe they exist, but in different forms, in different dungeons. That's hundreds of lives lost right off the bat.

Her patron, Nyx, probably finds someone else to dote on. It's not like there was anything special about Selene, just the fact that she reached out to Nyx first through an oracle-type spell.

The supporting characters (who have yet to be introduced) probably don't get along very well.

Spoiler

The old lady tries to take care of her family, but they're too bullheaded to want or appreciate her.
The parody harem-seeker character probably gets bullied by whatever team he ends up in, and eventually fades into obscurity.
The mechamancer will probably be fine- she has enough explosions to survive. But maybe not thrive.
The kid is screwed. I don't even want to think about it.

And all of the Corrupted Chaos creatures she was supposed to deal with will not be dealt with by her. For the worse I think.

Alternate Answer: Indefinite Hiatus.

 

[Indicterra]

It's like banana shake without banana

 

[Elmir_Arch-Ham_of_Omega]

Assuming the MC didn't get Isekai'd, the Isekai'd ex-villainess Philia who joined the party would probably...

• Assuming she gets to summon the MC's familiar Cecil, they will work together. She will take advantage of his free-flying portal to stockpile more weapons before she enacts her "fake my death and runaway."
• Unlock the God of Abundance's blessing much earlier.
• Still tip Earth very close to another major war when she yeets her sentient AI to her Isekai world, making America think it was stolen by another country.
• Reactivate her sentient AI much earlier now that she has Cecil's extradimensional room.
• Unrestricted development and stockpiling of WMD's.
• Probably end up making more people "mysteriously disappear."
• Scare the hell out of the magical girls back on Earth as Cecil's left-behind graft keeps parroting his conversations to Philia, making it sound like she's still alive. Prompting them to go on a wild goose chase as they think she's planting bombs or chemical attacks in some place on Earth.
• When she reenacts her "fake my death and runaway" from the kingdom she grew up in, it will probably be more atrocious than simply tons of c-4 and thermite.
• 100% would still spare her nobody maid Gwen.
• 100% would still use the road roller.
• Would definitely consider using a nuclear artillery shell during her first Red Moon / Monster Stampede event.
• In the event she ends up recruiting the pre-sapient dog-sized mice, she would still definitely teach them how to shoot.
• Claim a monopoly on all the enchanted weapons and hand them out to her yes-men.
• Would probably still end up meeting the rest of the cast and they would all be packing heat much sooner.
• During the dungeon crawl arc, she would pull strings so she could just flood the dungeon with chemical gas and reap the windfall.
• When the time comes to help her cleric's crime-ridden town, she starts "fumigating" the mountains where the bandits live.
• Test her first nuclear ICBM on her old home. (to be fair, the country she reincarnated intro are all a-holes)
• Still install catboy Zefir as her proxy.
• Very likely would call up her own old familiar back on Earth when she has the chance, and give him the A-OK sign to start a full-scale invasion.
• Eggs Benedict will be the only eggs she eats for breakfast.
• MC's 50 dollars worth of balloons would eventually be recouped by the park.
• Happy Dino, MC's day-job mascot character, continues to scare children under a new actor as the park is too money-focused to be concerned about their pink t-rex looking like it's on bath salts.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Does the story still happen if it's literally anyone else in the protagonist's shoes? If yes, you have a bad plot AND bad characters.

All zero to hero stories with everyman protagonists thrust into unusual situations disagree with you

 

[Jemini]

All zero to hero stories with everyman protagonists thrust into unusual situations disagree with you

That sounds like an own-goal to me. Bring it on, Kirito!

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Seto looks for an egg donor and surrogate to become a single father because he doesn't trust women. Mokuba doesn't work up the courage to date until he's 30. Mokuba goes to therapy and leads a happy life with someone else.

 

[SuperMushroom]

A boy would be condemned to a life of mediocrity, a man's quest for revenge would take a turn for the even worse, and the question would never get a credible answer.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

@CharlesEBrown I see we have a JoJo fan! Hello, fellow JoJo fan!

Jojo? Actually not familiar with it beyond the trailer on Netflix.

 

[TheMonotonePuppet]

Jojo? Actually not familiar with it beyond the trailer on Netflix.

I wasn't familiar with it until recently, so that's understandable.