What do you call someone who is neither/both an antagonist and a protagonist?
In the story I'm writing, I want to include a character who is a free radical. At some points she helps the main group and at some points she hinders them. She may even end up joining the main group if events lead to it.
So my question is, since she isn't really entirely an antagonist nor a protagonist, is there a third category that she would fall in?
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In classical theory, this character is known as the trickster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster They are the chaotic character. They create problem for the protagonist because they cannot be relied on, but nor are the necessarily an enemy.
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I think that the answer depends on whether this is a, or the, main character in the story.
The main character or main plot-driving character is the protagonist. Someone who opposes their goals is an antagonist--and often there is a "the antagonist" vibe, where the primary character opposing the protagonist is "the" antagonist.
Now, it's not always this neat. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, for example, arguably has two protagonists. In the 1993 The Fugitive, Tommy Lee Jones' character is arguably the antagonist, except toward the end he turns around and he's helpful. In The Great Gatsby, the main plot-driving character, Gatsby, is separate from the character that we identify with, Nick Carraway. And so on.
Nevertheless, I think that the designation of protagonist/antagonist depends on who the main plot-driving character is, whether the character you're trying to classify tends to champion or sabotage their goals, and how important that character is.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39589. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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