Line #52 Main/UselessProtagonist


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9	[[quoteright:164:[[WebComic/PlanetKaren https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pk3262006_3772.jpg]]]]
10	[[caption-width-right:164: Well you might as well have been!]]
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12	A Useless Protagonist is a Point of View character who can only watch as more capable supporting characters bust their asses saving both them and the world. They may become more badass later on, but they always start as something of a pansy.
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14	A Useless Protagonist is similar to a FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator, but they're not quite the same. The First-Person Peripheral Narrator isn't the key player, but can still be useful, often as the {{Sidekick}}. Meanwhile, a Useless Protagonist might ''be'' the center of attention but they don't ''do'' anything useful.
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16	Think of it this way: Arthur is TheChosenOne, but he is utterly powerless on his own and isn't even a BadassNormal, so he sits around doing nothing. Fortunately, he has Bob and Charlie to protect him, with Bob being the most important heroic force both in combat and in planning, and Charlie acting as his sidekick and, though not being as awesome as Bob, still being very useful. Think of Bob and Charlie as Batman and Robin, and Arthur as some poor schmuck in the story they have to save because he [[Literature/TheDaVinciCode is the living descendant of Jesus, and poses a threat to the Catholic Church simply by existing]].
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18	If Charlie is the narrator, then he is the FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator, because, even though he's incredibly useful, this obviously isn't his story. If Arthur is the narrator, then he is this trope, because he doesn't do anything useful at all. He is not the FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator, however, because he is TheChosenOne and the focus of the plot and action and this is ostensibly his story, even if Bob and Charlie do all the work.
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20	Note that this is not a one-time uselessness due to strange effects, or a long-term effect on someone who requires protection. It's a healthy character with no good excuse for {{cower\|Power}}ing behind their constant savior. The literary term for this is "agency": a character has agency when they ''act'' rather than ''react'', when the story proceeds ''because of'' their actions rather than through the actions of others. A character with little to no agency has the plot happen ''to'' them, with little control over the outcome, while a character with a lot of agency ''drives'' the plot: their actions force other characters to act or react.
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22	Another thing to think about is that this is not a place for "weak" protagonists. "Useless" entails someone who is completely ineffective in all story-important aspects. Some protagonists that lack physical strength are useful by being brilliant in some other fashion, a la TheChessmaster.
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24	Contrast PinballProtagonist where a character does have useful skills, but is incapable of acting on their own initiative because stronger characters have set the plot on rails. See also SelfDisposingVillain for when the antagonist is defeated without the hero's input. Not related to a SpotlightStealingSquad taking focus from the lead. Compare HelplessObserverProtagonist.
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27	!!Examples
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29	[[foldercontrol]]
30
31	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
32	* [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] in ''Manga/CellsAtWork''. The red blood cell is hopeless at fighting the [[MonsterOfTheWeek various pathogens that threaten the body]], but she's useful as a framing device for said fights. Several chapters/episodes also focus on her actually doing her job... not that she's much better at it (having NoSenseOfDirection is a very bad thing when you need to navigate something as complicated as the human body), but it's something.
33	* Hiro Hiyorimi of ''Manga/PrincessResurrection'' - much more so in the anime version, where he's generally completely incapacitated while Hime and the others take down the MonsterOfTheWeek.
34	* Yukiteru of ''Manga/FutureDiary'' frequently slipped into this, often sitting back and letting [[{{Yandere}} Yuno]] or someone else (like [[HoYay Akise]]) solve his problems for him for entire arcs at a time. He got better once he was [[BreakTheCutie broken]] and subsequently TookALevelInBadass.
35	* {{Defied\|Trope}} in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', where Shirou constantly tries to be important to combat even though Saber is clearly far stronger. [[spoiler:He eventually succeeds in all three routes, and in one timeline becomes [[FutureBadass Archer]] (though not without [[TookALevelInCynic cost]]).]]
36	* Ai and Yu in ''Anime/FinalFantasyUnlimited'' often find themselves overmatched by the sorcerers and monsters in Wonderland.
37	* The main character in the anime adaption of Creator/AgathaChristie's works rarely has any important roles beyond finding RedHerring clues. She does get ADayInTheLimelight when she substitutes a one-shot character who plays a crucial role in the novel that arc was based on.
38	* Minato of ''Manga/{{Sekirei}}'' starts out this way, but later on begins to be a bit of a [[TheStrategist planner]]. It can't really be helped considering he is [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway the heart]] in a series of super powered {{Action Girl}}s. He also winds up taking notes from Seo and accompanies his Sekirei in their missions as support. Plus, as an Ashikabi, [[spoiler: if he dies, so do all 6 of his Sekirei.]]
39	%%* Nina from ''Manga/MamotteLollipop''.
40	* Madoka Kaname from ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' until very late in the series, despite being the main character mostly seems to around to be tortured and for other characters to rescue. [[spoiler: As in, the very last episode. In the previous timelines, however, she kicks massive amounts of ass.]] Note that she's being kept in this role by Homura Akemi, who has [[AwfulTruth very good reasons]].
41	* Yuri from ''Manga/AlienNine''. She really only cries and has nightmares during the whole series.
42	* Italy from ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''. So much. Germany acts as his baby sitter. {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d as the title Hetalia comes from the Japanese words for 'useless' and 'Italy'.
43	* Played with in ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. Shinji isn't a Useless Protagonist but a number of other characters, including ''Shinji himself'', view him as this. It's a major part of the crippling inferiority complex Shinji has.
44	* Remove Misuzu from ''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}'' and all it would do is remove her arc.
45	* In defiance of the Harem Anime convention, Issei Hyoudou of ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD'' quickly realizes how useless he is compared to the rest of Rias' team and how his Sacred Gear is more valuable than he is, resulting in a minor breakdown and some early CharacterDevelopment. Over time, he eventually becomes TheChampion to Rias, and a much more competent individual with a personal stake in the plot.
46	* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamAGE'': Kio Asuno, the protagonist of the third story arc. His constant pleas for understanding always fall on deaf ears, his refusal to kill enemy pilots enables them to go on and kill supporting characters, and he refuses to ever see the writing on the wall. In the end the only time Kio manages to convince someone to see things his way involves MindRape.
47	* ''Manga/HeroUnionBBS'':
48	** One story has a hero end up OvershadowedByAwesome in his own party-an OldMaster who can OneHitKill everything, the son of the demon lord he needs to defeat, etc.
49	** Another has the hero stuck with four attractive women. As the other posters pour their scorn on the hero complaining about being stuck in a harem situation, it then turns out the only thing the girls hate more than each other is the hero (and ''not'' in the {{Tsundere}} way), and the hero is actually a girl. The posters quickly find a way to help the poor girl escape her predicament after that.
50	[[/folder]]
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52	[[folder:Comic Books]]
53	* Creator/DCComics' ''ComicBook/MajorBummer'' - he's the protagonist but he doesn't really ''do'' anything.
54	* Franchise/{{Superman}} in a story with [[ComicBook/Armageddon2001 Waverider]] and the Linear Men does nothing but try to talk reason with the other characters as they feud with each other, as Superman himself is dragged into the mess by Waverider himself.
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57	[[folder:Fan Works]]
58	* Surprisingly, Michael in ''Fanfic/ThePrayerWarriors [[Franchise/HarryPotter Battle with the Witches]]''. His mission at Hogwarts is to obtain the four keys to Dumbledore's office, as well as any information of Dumbledore's connection to the British government and/or involvement in planning an attack on Christians. His attempt to get information through Ginny fails when she is killed, and he only succeeds in retrieving her key from her corpse, while Ebony kills Harry and Ron, and gets Hermione to give her the fourth key. Dumbledore is killed by a nameless Prayer Warrior, Harry is killed ([[DeathIsCheap again]]) by a BoltOfDivineRetribution, and [[AbortedArc the plotline of finding information about Dumbledore is forgotten]].
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61	[[folder:Film]]
62	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' featured films with characters who would qualify.
63	** ''Film/ThePumaman'': While the title character does fight a number of villains, he's aided by his HypercompetentSidekick, Vadinho the Aztec priest, a BadassNormal who tells him what to do and holds his own without any of Puma Man's super powers. This aspect of the film was highlighted by the related episode.
64	** Mark English, the protagonist of ''Film/DevilDoll''. After spending the entire movie investigating the proceedings, the situation resolves itself without his help.
65	** ''Film/AgentForHARM'''s protagonist Adam Chance's main contributions to the narrative are killing {{Mooks}}, getting tricked, and failing to save the day. In the end his greatest contribution was taking out the villain's mooks so that the aging elderly scientist could finish the villain off himself.
66	* Jason from ''Film/TheForbiddenKingdom''. He's the protagonist of a Kung Fu film--starring alongside Creator/JackieChan and Creator/JetLi--yet even after his TrainingFromHell, he's only capable of beating enemy {{mooks}}. That's what happens when you're the stand-in for the priest in a retelling of ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''...
67	* Buscapé in ''Film/CityOfGod''. Though he meets and talks to several of the characters (and get in danger more than once) he doesn't interfere in any ways with the conflicts of the gangs, or even in the plot. He is meant to be nothing more than a witness of violence, and a narrator. His character is completely neutral: he doesn't act violent, but doesn't do anything against Ze Pequeno either.
68	* Tragically [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in ''Film/LeavingLasVegas''. Ben Sanderson, after losing everything thanks to his [[TheAlcoholic alcoholism]], decides to drive out to Las Vegas and [[DrivenToSuicide drink himself to death]]. While there, he befriends [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold a kind prostitute]] named Sera, who's wrapped up in a situation with her pimp and the gangsters sent after him. The whole film, Ben's too drunk and suicidal to improve his or Sera's circumstances, not even after [[spoiler: she ends up gang-raped. After he finally dies, she's left all alone]].
69	* Finn during most of ''Film/TheForceAwakens''. Though the majority of the film is focused on him, he doesn't do anything that makes him the protagonist. He spends most of that screen time following behind the other two characters whose actions better fit the role, and that's when he's not trying to run away from the First Order. Poe, the ace pilot for the resistance, has more of a presence in the beginning, and later Rey - [[spoiler: who is revealed to be the real protagonist, making Finn a DecoyProtagonist - fills the role as the next powerful Jedi in the sequel trilogy.]]
70	[[/folder]]
71
72	[[folder:Literature]]
73
74	* Ivanhoe in ''Literature/{{Ivanhoe}}''. For most of the book, he’s bedridden because of his wounds and takes practically no part in the action. Then he recovers just barely to participate in [[spoiler:Rebecca’s trial by combat]] – only for the combat not to take place because [[spoiler:Bois-Guilbert drops dead]].
75	%%* Otto in ''Otto of the Silver Hand''.
76	* Sheriff Bell in ''Literature/NoCountryForOldMen''. In both the book and film, he serves more as the role of {{narrator}} than a protagonist.
77	* Winston Smith of ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is a brutally {{justified\|Trope}} version of this trope. All he gets to do as the hero of the piece is keep a diary and have an affair [[spoiler:before being arrested, tortured, and brainwashed]], but the Totalitarian state he lives in considers these ''[[FelonyMisdemeanor very]]'' serious offences.
78	* Bella Swan from ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga''. What little actual action there is is performed by other characters; Bella mostly just hangs out and watches as people compete for her attention, fight each other, debate whether or not to fight each other, etc. Bella doesn't even watch that much.
79	* Wilbur from ''Literature/CharlottesWeb''. His job is to get his life saved by Charlotte. (Later, however, he takes steps to preserve Charlotte's eggs, acting as a surrogate parent to three of her children and many subsequent descendants.)
80	* Charlie from ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' does nothing to earn his happy ending except not be as awful as the other four kids. Adaptations of the book recognize this and try to flesh out his character and give him more to do.
81	* There may very well be no more useless a protagonist than George Dower of Creator/KWJeter's ''Infernal Devices''. His very existence is what kicks the plot in motion, as his father, a LegacyCharacter that George himself barely knew, was apparently a mad genius who devised all manner of clockwork wonders, many of which are highly sought after by numerous parties. His father now dead, George has inherited his watch shop, despite being no good at mending watches, and because of this, he becomes the target of, among others, the crazed remnants of Cromwell's "Godly Army", a strange race of fish-like creatures, a prostitution ring, a pair of thieves, a mysterious dark-skinned man, an elderly mad scientist who literally wants to destroy the world, and multiple lascivious women. All while doing absolutely nothing except what he can to preserve his life. Rarely does he show any pluck, and at no point does he morph into a noble hero. He never does anything to help anyone else, except very reluctantly, and usually because he hopes it will help to save him, as well. He is, from beginning to end, TheMillstone.
82	* Xuanzang from ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest''. While he's technically the main character, most of the legwork is done by his escorts, as Xuanzang himself is completely incapable of combat. Not surprisingly, most adaptations focus on [[EnsembleDarkhorse Sun Wukong the Monkey King]] rather than the relatively dull Xuanzang.
83	* The works of Creator/FranzKafka make such a brutally effective use of this that he might as well be the trope namer. His stories often have protagonists who have next to no agency in how the events unfold. This is not even necessarily because they actually lack any real power, but because they are unwilling to take action due to fear, uncertainty or (misplaced) faith in organizations and proper procedure.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
87	* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': Charlie Matheson is supposed to be the hero of the story, but for a while, she didn't really do much except to get Miles Matheson back into the game of fighting. In fact, Miles has had to save her several times. JustifiedTrope, because she is only a twenty-something-year-old with no real combat training. She did receive combat training in the episode "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E13TheSongRemainsTheSame The Song Remains the Same]]", and she led a mutiny to help a scientist and his family escape from the Monroe Republic and the Georgia Federation in the episode "[[Recap/RevolutionS1E16TheLoveBoat The Love Boat]]". It remains to be seen if and when she'll turn this into a SubvertedTrope.
88	* The main character, Todd, from ''Series/ToddAndTheBookOfPureEvil'' is this in season 1. He joins the gang solely to try and bang Jenny, and spends the season getting stoned, being a jerkass, and contributing absolutely nothing while his friends save the day. He gets a lot better in season 2.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Video Games]]
92	* Vaan and Penelo from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' come across more as the story’s TagAlongKid duo compared to the central story of Ashe's quest to save her kingdom
93	* Snake from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''. When you think about the story as a whole in the game, most of what he tries to accomplish ends up failing and when he does succeed, it's only because someone else planned it and did all the actual heroics, reducing Snake to nothing but a glorified delivery boy. [[spoiler: This, in fact, was always his role, from start to finish, from the first [[VideoGame/MetalGear1 game]] onwards. Snake was never intended to have agency, but to follow orders...which is what he does. It's when he accomplishes things ''in spite'' of outside machinations that he's at his most heroic: seemingly killing Big Boss in ''Metal Gear'' and ''Metal Gear 2'', for example, and frustrating the Patriots in ''Metal Gear Solid 4''.]]
94	* Dave in ''VideoGame/ManiacMansion'' leads the charge to rescue his girlfriend Sandy from Dr. Fred's clutches, but all he is is an ItemCaddy. Every other character has a skill they can lend to the cause on ''top'' of carrying items, even Jeff with his measly ability to repair the telephone.
95	[[/folder]]
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97	[[folder:Western Animation]]
98	* In ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'', evil foreign governments, multi-national corporations, and billionaire supervillains send henchmen in droves to steal from Benton Quest... there's not much that protagonist Jonny, a young child, can actually do about any of this. He's pretty worthless in most episodes, sometimes making things worse; but one way or another, it's either Benton Quest or Race Bannon who saves the day. Later adaptations would avert this trope, however.
99	%%** Played with, and averted, in the movie ''JonnyQuestVersusTheCyberInsects''.
100	* Despite having a huge array of cybernetic enhancements, WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget usually manages to accomplish very little while his niece and dog solve every problem along the way. Unlike most of these examples, this was {{inten\|dedAudienceReaction}}tional and PlayedForLaughs. And possibly justified in that ''he keeps a helicopter in his brain cavity.''
101	* ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'' tended to swerve between Rufus and Amberley as {{Hero Protagonist}}s or the Urpneys as {{Villain Protagonist}}s. Neither managed to accomplish much. Rufus and Amberley were {{The Fool}}s at best and WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget-level {{Invincible Incompetent}}s at worst (see above), while the Urpneys were {{Harmless Villain}}s [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption doomed to failure at their goal]]. Rufus and Amberley at least TookALevelInBadass during later episodes however.
102	[[/folder]]

Context Main / UselessProtagonist