What makes a Protagonist

What characteristics makes a character great, especially the protagonist of a story? What makes a protagonist a protagonist? What is it about this characters that makes them great? Is the main character always the best or popular character in a story? I was very curious about this so I went online to find some facts to solve my questions. First I decided to look for what exactly a protagonist is and what the oxford dictionary says is that "the leading character or one of the major characters in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text." Basically the central person of a moving plot. But it didn’t answer my question about what makes them a protagonist. Is it just the story focuses on them more or is there an outline that states what a protagonist is. 

So I went online and I often found that many sources have some commonality with each other. On a site called Fiction University I found some great things about what makes a protagonist great. A protagonist must have a problem that they need to solve, an ability to act and reasons, has something to lose or gain, might have the capacity to change, has an interesting quality, flaw and or a secret. Lastly and perhaps the most important aspect is that there is someone or something that is interfering with them and without a conflict in a story the entire plot would just fall apart. This wasn’t the only site that great advice other suggested many things until I realize that all those traits have something in common. They were qualities of a hero. But not all protagonist is a hero sometimes they can be an antihero or be a flat out villain in the story. But if they all have the traits described in the Fiction University site then there is a guarantee that the character will be successful as the protagonist in a story. 

I also learned  that sometimes a story will have a character as a  protagonist, instead  they end up being killed of unexpectedly. This is called a false protagonist often used to make the plot more exciting  by fooling the audience's preconceptions, by making  a character whom the audience assumes is the protagonist but is later revealed not to be. There usually introduced in the begging in is rid off later in the story often killed off. This technique is often used in thriller and suspense and most of the time an example it was  used in the movie, Psycho. 

Either way my question about what makes a character the protagonist  has been answered but why that character was chosen as the main character has yet been answered. But my guess is that they stand out in some way like they have a special skill or have a special heritage of some kind. So what I think a protagonist is that character that has something special about them that they use to solve what ever problem is in their way. Because don’t all stories are like that somehow?

Sarek

Ok I'm going to  blog about Sarek by A.C Crispin. This is one of my favorite star trek novels along with Dark Mirror, Star Trek; the novelization and any one of them that has Q centered around the story. But any way if you don’t understand a thing I am saying then I warn you that the only way you can understand if you were a trekker, trekkie or have some idea of what star trek is. And since I am a huge Trek Fan I am finally going to do a blog about Star Trek! and if you have a problem with that then sorry but I had to do a blog about this book considering the fact that I have read this book so many times that I should be sick of it.

In this book, Sarek has to go off and negotiate an important treaty for the Federation like he usually does. But instead his Wife Amanda Grayson was back on Vulcan dying and might not survive long enough for his return. But that isn't the only problem going on, there is the mysteries species that Keep their faces hidden and have mysteries ties to Romulans and Vulcan. That is pretty much the basic plot there but that part of the book isn't even my favorite part of the book. The parts that I keep rereading is both Sarek and Amanda's flashbacks. I really the one when Sarek proposed to Amanda and the time got lost in the desert. But everything else in the book is really good it even featured the entire Enterprise crew and Kirk's nephew. So you know that this book is going to be fantastic and if you’re a Star Trek fan you would definitely love this especially if you have a thing for Vulcans or Spock in general.

The Daughters of the Moon

You know I just realized that I did a post on The Sisters of Isis by Lynne Ewing but I never did one on The Daughters on the moon. But I did mentioned it in The Sisters of the moon blog. I think I mentioned that unlike the other series is that this one is finished and that I am further ahead in it but did not finish the series yet. My excuse for not finishing the series was because I was reading a different series at the time so I had to quit one of the other series so I could focused on the other one. But anyway lately I have been thinking about going back to finish the book series that I didn't finish. I also remember really liking that series but I think I started to hit the point in a long book series that I just completely get tired but I usually go back to the series but sometimes I go back after several years later.

I stopped reading at number eleven which was called the Prophecy in the series and the girl who was the protagonist of the book was Catty. She is the one that is able to go back in time. The other girls have different powers like Vanessa can became invisible, Serena can read other people’s mind, Jimena can see into the future and Tiana has the powers of telekinesis. But I think my favorite power is actually Catty’s even though Serena is my favorite character of all of the group.

What I really like most about the books is that they incorporate Greek mythology plus Superpowers plus scary shadow demon thingies that are equated in the lives of different teenage girls. I really liked the fact that all the girls are so different from each other like Vanessa is in the popular clique, Catty is in the artsy one, Serena is a musical gothic girl, Jimena was from the gangs and Tiana is a homeless girl that has been on the run from demons from a long time. In real these girls would not be the best of friends and because the books alternate from their points of view you get a sense of familiarity from each one of them.  But it has been a while since I have read the books like back in 2012 so I think I have to reread the books again. But it’ll be worth it.

The Golden Compass

I remember the first time when I saw the Golden Compass movie. Well I remember renting the movie from Family Video store but still I remember that in the movie the people in the movie had talking animals stuck to their side. It wasn't until many years later that I watched the movie again did I figured out that the talking animals were actually daemon, meaning that they are the other part of their soul. But anyway the second time that I watched the movie it made more sense and I actually really enjoyed it. So when I found out it was actually a book written by Phillip Pullman I rushed the next day to read the book. That all happened two years ago is why now I am blogging about it after these years? Two reasons actually, the first is because I recently own the movie the Golden Compass and the second reason is because I have yet to finish the trilogy. Yup there are two books after the golden compass, the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass.

I realized that I should continue to finish the second book the Subtle Knife. I was barely a few chapters in that book until I returned back to the library. I have no idea why stopped because I was actually on a good part of the book. Must have been finals stress because I remember being a bit anxious during around the time. But I’m going back to finished the book starting with watching the Golden Compass because I really don’t want to reread the book again. Besides the movie, if I remember correctly the movie was very close to the book. But anyway after the movie I am going back to finish The Subtle Knife and then after it will be the Amber Spyglass. Truthfully I actually have been wondering what happened to Lyra and Pan after they arrived to that other world and if you read the book you would know what I am talking about. But if you watched the movie I just gave you a hint to what happened to Lyra after the movie ended.

Need

One word….Pixie. I don’t mean the ones from Disney universe pixie that are small and help nature. The kind of Pixies I am talking about are our size and normally that contact the human world at all. Well until the Pixie King is driven craze with bloodlust and sends his servants to the human world to capture young men to torture to fulfill his bloodlust until his queen is evidentially found. So yeah…these are diffidently not what expect from pixies but they do still have gold dust like Tinkerbell but I don’t think that happy thoughts will make you fly with these dust. With qualities like this it’s a no wonder that Zara White named a new phobia after them Pixiophobia the fear of pixies.

To clarify on why I started this blog with a description of creepy and bloodthirsty paragraph I should tell why I am even talking about pixies. The latest book that I have obtained and nearly finished is written by Carrie Jones and is about Zara white (mentioned in first paragraph) a normal girl who suffering from a deep depression after her stepfather just died. Her mental state became so bad that her mother sent her to live with her grandmother from her stepfather side, to live in a sleepy small town in Maine. So far it seems everything is going on normal until Zara realize that there is some guy who is stalking her everywhere she goes and is leaving a trail of gold dust behind. But that isn’t the worst part of this situation no the worst part is that no one else can see this creep. Well until she arrives at Maine and meets Issie and Devyn who can also see him. But they both came into a conclusion that this stalker is actually a Pixie and is stalking Zara so she can be his queen. Also did I mention that there are werewolves in this book? Actually there called Weres or shifters because they have a variety of animal transformation.

But everything else in this book is somewhat normal (or not). But you have to read this book to find out what will happen to Zara. But I am not completely sure because this is a series and I am almost done with the first book Need.  So I will have to read more to find out what will happen as well because I really like this book. But what I most about it and it was also the first thing I noticed about this book is that this book has no chapters. Instead every few pages is split into sections that has a phobia titling the section along with a description on that phobia. I should also explain something else about Zara, she has a particular habit of chanting Phobias and what they mean. This habit is probably why I picked up this book in the first place because I really like learning about phobia. And if you like phobias too you might also like this book too.

Cinnamon Toast and the End of the World

 Not so long ago I was in the library trying a book to read. I stumbled upon a section of books on the table that had a rainbow bookmark inside all of them. When I picked one up I realized that I knew that book which was called Beyond Magenta and it was about non-fiction book about real people who were transgendered or something else completely. When I opened the book and saw the bookmark I realized that this section of books were all 2015 award winning LGBT books. I decided to look thought the section and found a book with this odd title which was called Cinnamon Toast and the end of the World by Janet E. Cameron. This book is different from other books I have read and no not because the protagonist is gay not that at all because I have already read other books with a LGBT main character. It was the fact that the setting was in Canada and the character is Canadian which is so weird because I have never read a book with a Canadian lead.

Other than discovering a book with Canadian Protagonist I really liked this book so much. I would not put it down because I wanted to know what would happen to Stephen in this fictional coming of age book about him. I especially like the parts when he is reminiscing about his past when he was much younger because it so hilarious how messed his childhood is and it makes me wonder if his parents were hippies because this book was placed around the 90’s or 80’s timeline even though it came out sometime in the 2010’s. My favorite part of this book is the beginning because it start out with Stephen thinking the world has ended because he is in love with his best friend Mark. That part was very unique because you don’t normally start out with a book with a melodramatic confession like that.

This is a truly good book and I recommend it to anyone who wants a light-hearted coming to age story or one that has a LGBT character. But unlike other LGBT stories this isn't depressing story or even an overly emotional either. In fact it is really funny but it does have some sad moments considering our protagonist Stephen is in love with his best friend who is actually a huge homophobic so right away you know that Stephen is going to be heartbroken somehow. But remember this is a coming of age so you know he is going to get past this somehow. But overall this was a great novel and good job to you miss Cameron for a great first novel debut and if you write anymore books I’ll gladly read them.

Warm Bodies

Have you recently seen the movie Warm bodies? I have not read it but I know it came out in 2013. It’s a zombie romance-comedy movie about well a zombie falling in love with a living girl. But did you know it was a best-selling novel written by Isaac Marion. Because I had no idea it was a novel until recently and I finished reading the book a week or two weeks maybe. But anyway I really liked the book and I was thinking about watching the movie even though seeing the trailers that the movie might not follow the book exactly. But I think I would still like the movie if it still had the basic plot in the book.

In the book the zombie R who has been dead for some time is like any zombie. He grunts and eats brains like any other, except he is in much better condition than his other zombiefied companions. So one day he was abnormally hungry and so he and a smaller group of other zombies went out to hunt. They find a group of humans and devour them. R eats this human guy named Perry but something strange happens when R eats Perry. Normally when a zombie eats a human they get brief flashes of that humans life that fulfills the zombies own miserable existence. But when R ate Perry he had a full-out flashback of Perry’s life and about Perry’s Girlfriend Julie and his feelings towards her. In that moment R, for the first time in his undead life he felt alive. So now him being slightly less dead and eventually falling in love with Julie it’s pretty like any love story. Well except that he is dead and ate her last boyfriend it’s pretty much like any love story.

A thing that I noticed is that in the movie, Julie didn't mind that R ate her boyfriend who also is in fact her ex-boyfriend. But in the book Perry was actually still her current boyfriend. Another thing was that Julie in the book didn't exactly know that R ate her boyfriend which made things kind of awkward for R.

After reading this book I wanted to find something that had zombies in it but not any kind of zombies. I wanted to find ones that would scare me senseless. But it has to be a novel or book series because I have absolutely no tolerance to any kind of horror movies. But luckily I did find one and perhaps I’ll do a blog on it. I just hope that this new book wont scare me too much.