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Q&A Does my protagonist need to be the most important character?

Indiana Jones was the obvious protagonist and main character in Raiders of the Lost Ark. But as to being "the most important character", if that quality is measured by contribution to the plot, it...

posted 5y ago by Ray Butterworth‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:07:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/48436
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Ray Butterworth‭ · 2019-12-08T13:07:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Indiana Jones was the obvious protagonist and main character in [Raiders of the Lost Ark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiders_of_the_Lost_Ark).

But as to being "the most important character", if that quality is measured by contribution to the plot, it definitely wasn't Jones.

The Indiana Jones character could have been trimmed back to a few scenes at the beginning (an expert providing background information), or even completely dropped from the story, and just about everything that happened would still have happened.

Jones was an observer, not a participant. He provided a point of view for the telling of the story, his presence tied the various parts together, but, in terms of actual plot, he contributed almost nothing and almost certainly didn't "save the day".

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-10-07T18:33:32Z (about 5 years ago)
Original score: 2