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Q&A What do you call someone who is neither/both an antagonist and a protagonist?

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 ...

posted 6y ago by RamblingChicken‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:01:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39589
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar RamblingChicken‭ · 2019-12-08T06:01:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-10-22T23:54:34Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 1