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A Useless Protagonist is exactly that, a Point of View character who can only watch as the Bad Ass supporting characters bust their asses saving both him/her and the world. They may become more Bad Ass later on, but they always start as something of a pansy.
This may seem similar to First Person Peripheral Narrator, but it's not quite the same. The First Person Peripheral Narrator isn't the most key player, but can still be useful, often as the Sidekick. A character falling under this trope might really be the center of attention but is simply incapable of doing anything useful.
Think of it this way: Arthur is The Chosen One, but he is utterly powerless on his own and isn't even a Badass Normal, 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 is the living descendant of Jesus, and poses a threat to the Catholic Church simply by existing.
If Charlie is the narrator, then he is the First Person Peripheral Narrator, 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 First Person Peripheral Narrator, however, because he is The Chosen One and the focus of the plot and action and this is ostensibly his story, even if Bob and Charlie do all the work.
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 cowering behind their constant savior.
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 the Chessmaster.
Contrast Pinball Protagonist where a character does have useful skills, but is incapable of acting on her own initiative because stronger characters have set the plot on rails.
Examples
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Anime & Manga
- Nearly every male lead-type character in Harem Anime and Exotic Girlfriend shows will tend towards this trope, often being an incredibly bland character completely overshadowed by the girls to the point of not even appearing on the promo images and trailers for the show.
- Sakai Yuuji of Shakugan no Shana. The Reiji Maigo is the only reason he even gets to remain in the world, and he tends to hide behind his semi-protective flaming swordswoman when push comes to shove. Except in the last two arcs of the second season. And VERY MUCH not so for the third season.
- Hiro Hiyorimi of Princess Resurrection - much more so in the anime version, where he's generally completely incapacitated while Hime and the others take down the Monster of the Week.
- Yukiteru of Mirai Nikki frequently slipped into this, often sitting back and letting Yuno or someone else (like Akise) solve his problems for him for entire arcs at a time. He got better once he was broken and subsequently Took a Level in Badass.
- Defied in Fate/stay night, where Shirou constantly tries to be important to combat even though Saber is clearly far stronger. He eventually succeeds, and in one timeline becomes Archer.
- The kids in Final Fantasy: Unlimited.
- The main character in the anime adaption of Agatha Christie's works is somewhat of a Mary Sue, who rarely has any important roles beyond finding Red Herring clues. She does get A Day in the Limelight when she substitutes a one-shot character who plays a crucial role in the novel that arc was based on.
- Minato of Sekirei starts out this way, but later on begins to be a bit of a planner. It can't really be helped considering he is the heart in a series of super powered Action Girls. He also winds up taking notes from Seo and accompanies his Sekirei in their missions as support.
- Plus, as an Ashkabi, if he dies, so do all 6 of his Sekirei.
- Nina from Mamotte! Lollipop.
- Madoka Kaname from Puella Magi Madoka Magica until very late in the series. 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 very good reasons.
- Yuri from Alien Nine. She really only cries and has nightmares during the whole series.
- Italy from Axis Powers Hetalia. So much. Germany acts as his baby sitter.
- Lampshaded. The title Hetalia comes from the Japanese words for 'useless' and 'Italy'.
- Played with in Neon Genesis Evangelion. Shinji isn't a Useless Protagonist but Shinji himself and a number of other characters view him as this. It's a major part of the crippling inferiority complex Shinji has.
- Pick a Hentai anime or manga. 1): Does it revolve primarily around rape? 2): Is the focus character a rape victim rather than a rapist? If the answer to both questions is yes, he or she will probably be this. (Exceptions tend to be Pinball Protagonists or Faux Action Girls, or occasionally Faux Action Guys—after all, if they were capable of defending themselves, why would they be constantly getting raped?)
- The main character in Sailor Moon, when it comes to a by-the-numbers monster fight. Her only attack is the Finishing Move, which means if she does anything, the fight's over. This means the formula for a Sailor Moon battle is as follows: Usagi finds out there's a monster. Usagi's attempt to actually fight is hilariously pathetic. Tuxedo Mask appears, and/or her teammates bail her out with their attacks. They get the monster against the ropes. Usagi uses her powers for the first and last time in the episode, finishing off the monster once its on its last legs. Ladies and gentlemen, the hero destined to save us all.
Comic Books
- A possible example would be DC Comics' Major Bummer
 - he's the protagonist but he doesn't really do anything.
Film
- Puma Man! To the extent than Vadinho the Aztec priest has to do anything more difficult that jumping around like an idiot or wrestling Donald Pleasance.
- Also from the realm of MST3K; Mark English, the protagonist of Devil Doll. After spending the entire movie investigating the proceedings, the situation resolves itself without his help.
- Jason from The Forbidden Kingdom. He's the protagonist of a Kung Fu film—starring alongside Jackie Chan and Jet Li—yet even after his Training from Hell, 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 Journey to the West...
- Indiana Jones, at least in Raiders of the Lost Ark. While he does plenty of heroic stuff, his actions have absolutely no effect on the plot of the movie or its resolution. Remove him from the story and pretty much exactly the same things would have happened.
- Well, Marian would have been slowly and painfully tortured to death by Nazis without his intervention, so he's got that going for him.
- The Ark would never have been found, as the Nazis were digging in the wrong spot.
- Only because one side of the medallion was burned into Toht's hand. Without Indy, they likely would have gotten the original medallion from Marion.
- Jason in Diary of the Dead does nothing but recording whatever happened to the team. While the rest of the group are actually racking up zombie casualties, he's simply there to record it as it happens. It became egregious in the later parts of the film where one of the girls was chased by a zombie and Jason is right behind the zombie chasing her and yet he didn't even try to attack the zombie that was right in front of him.
- Except that he did that time. He had her lure it toward him, where he beat it in the head with a stick. Only problem is that he was too stupid to finish it off, as it later got up and killed on of his friends, and then later Jason himself. Also while Jason was being attacked he was still holding that fucking camera.
- The MST3K-subject Agent for H.A.R.M.'s protagonist Adam Chance's main contributions to the narrative are killing Mooks, getting tricked, and failing to save the day.
- Buscapé in City of God. 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 completly neutral: he doesn't act violent, but doesn't do anything against Ze Pequeno either.
- Frodo Baggins is often considered to be this in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Especially by fans of the original novel.
Literature
- Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby is very much this trope. He does nothing. Ever.
- Well, he does reunite Daisy and Gatsby.
- Poor Sherlock Holmes adaptations tend to Flanderize Dr. Watson into this role. In the original stories, he was of above-average intelligence (despite not being as brilliant as Holmes) who was vital to helping Holmes solve his cases; in many adaptations, he is instead made a useless idiot whose only purpose is to give Holmes someone to explain everything to.
- Ivanhoe in Ivanhoe. Not entirely useless but useless for most of the book.
- Otto in Otto of the Silver Hand.
- Sheriff Bell in No Country for Old Men. In both the book and film, he serves more as the role of narrator than a protagonist.
- Winston Smith of Nineteen Eighty Four is a brutally Justified version of this trope. All he gets to do as the hero of the piece is keep a diary and have an affair before being arrested, tortured, and brainwashed, but the Totalitarian state he lives in considers these very serious offences.
- Wilbur from Charlottes Web. His job is get his life saved by Charlotte.*
He does, however, afterward man up and take steps to preserve Charlotte's eggs, acting as a surrogate parent to three of her children and many subsequent descendants
- Charlie from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory does nothing to earn his happy ending except not be as awful as the other four kids. Both film versions recognize this and at least give him a moral decision to make at the end of the movie.
Live-Action TV
- 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. Justified Trope, because she is only a twenty-something-year-old who has never really been combat-trained. She did receive combat training in the episode "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 "The Love Boat". It remains to be seen if and when she'll turn this into a Subverted Trope.
Video Games
- Hawke, the Main Character of Dragon Age II. For all the Bad Ass heroism Hawke performs, for all the talk about how his/her actions changed the world, the so-called Champion of Kirkwall amounts to nothing in the grand scheme of things and is ultimately a spectator to others who do irrevocably change the course of history. It is implied, however, that Hawke's role in the grand scheme of things will truly come out in the sequel.
- Vaan of Final Fantasy XII, plot wise, who despite being the POV character is almost useless to the rebellion compared to Basch and Ashe after the princess joins. He's decent in the gameplay, though.
- He seems out of place likely because he was added at the last minute after Balthier and Basch were glossed over for the lead role. His purpose was supposedly to tie the game better into the whole Ivalice universe, so take that as you will.
- The customizable main character in White Knight Chronicles has a tendency to just kind of stand around in the background as all the other characters do things.
Western Animation
- In Jonny Quest, 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.
- Despite having a huge array of cybernetic enhancements, Inspector Gadget manages to accomplish very little while his niece and dog solve every problem along the way. Possibly justified in that he keeps a helicopter in his brain cavity.
- Although, unlike most of these examples, this was intentional and Played for Laughs.
- Only as far as he doesn't realize that he's always well into the act of infiltrating Dr Claw's latest scheme and easily seeks out Dr. Claw's henchmen or that he's just escaped a deathtrap because his gadget summoning gave him the "wrong gadget" again. He's seriously much better at what he does than most people think; he just doesn't know that's he's doing it wrong in the first place. Gadget came in rather handy completely by accident!
- About five instances out the 86 episode long original series, Gadget uses genuine (and deliberate) competence to help thwart MAD or save someone (usually Penny). They are rare, but often quite a sight to behold.
- The Dreamstone tended to swerve between Rufus and Amberley as Hero Protagonists or the Urpneys as Villain Protagonists. Neither managed to accomplish much. Rufus and Amberley were The Fools at best and Inspector Gadget-level Invincible Incompetents at worst (see above), while the Urpneys were Harmless Villains doomed to failure at their goal. A couple of early episodes give exceptions for Rufus, but not by that much.
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