Examples of Contrasting Sequel Main Character in Literature.
- Amaranthine Saga:
- Tsumiko, the heroine of the first book, is an extremely powerful Beacon, who can bring the most powerful Amaranthine to their knees with the sheer brillance of her soul. However, she was raised in a highly sheltered religious school, and did not know she was a Reaver or of the existence of the Amaranthine, even post-Emergence until she was uncovered as the Hajime heir. She is an orphan with a younger brother, with whom she has an uncomplicated, loving relationship, as her sole family,allowing her to be easily folded into the world of her love interest, and she generally takes a passive role.
- Kimiko, the heroine of the second book, has so little power she's barely a Reaver. Even her love interest describes her soul as a "tiny star," and her presence barely registers when other Reavers are in the room. She was raised as a Reaver, however, and has a highly specialized skill set that shows intimate knowledge of Amaranthine culture. Her family is large and interferring, and Kimiko has no intention of leaving them. The story is deliberately framed so Kimiko must take the active role in her courtship, and she continues to be the "public figure" in her relationship.
- The third book's heroine, Tamiko, attempts to take a sort of medium path between Tsumiko and Kimiko, making her a middle-of-the-road Reaver, who didn't know she had any powers, but also has strong and unbreakable ties to her family, and is a take-charge kind of person forced to play a more passive role. Considering all three characters originated as Expies of Kagome, there's a surprising amount of contrast.
- Black Jewels: Jaenelle in the main trilogy, and Cassidy in the sequel novels The Shadow Queen and Shalador's Lady.
- Jaenelle is a Superpower Lottery winner and a mythic figure - Witch, Dreams Made Flesh, the Living Myth. This has had its downsides - in her youth, she had difficulty with basic Mundane Utility magic because her overwhelming magical strength interfered with fine control, and her parents didn't understand her powers and experiences and doubted her mental stability. She first appears in the books as a preteen child. Jaenelle becomes estranged from her biological family and her adopted father is the king of the underworld.
- Cassidy is fairly low-powered - rank four out of thirteen according to the setting's power ranking system - and possesses no unique special powers. Her lack of overt specialness has caused her trouble in the past - she lost her first position as a Queen because her followers deserted her for someone more glamorous. Cassidy first appears in the books as a grown woman in her early thirties. Cassidy gets along well with her birth parents and her father is a carpenter.
- Ikhsior, the protagonist of Cantata in Coral and Ivory is a former sea captain, strong and good at wrestling, that's from a well off territory and is way out of place at the Coral Palace. The protagonist of Pavane in Pearl and Emerald, Kide, is The Social Expert and is dependent on his knowledge of court manners and art to survive, with no athletic skills worth mentioning.
- The Cosmere: Vin of Mistborn: The Original Trilogy and Waxillium (aka Wax) of The Alloy of Law. Vin started out as a mistrustful and abused Street Urchin while Wax came from a noble family and ran off to the untamed wilds to become The Sheriff. Vin is somewhat Book Dumb, but thinks quickly on her feet; Wax is more intellectual, relying more on science and plans things out. Also Marasi the female lead of Alloy contrasts Vin in that Vin is a badass Action Girl but also has some more feminine interests like dancing and dresses, while Marasi is more of a girly girl but is a member of her school's gun club and studies criminology, both of which are quite stereotypically masculine interests.
- The title character in the Discworld novel Mort (first in the Death subseries) is a vaguely well-meaning young man who "thinks too much" about useless things (like why the sun comes out during the day, when the light would be more useful at night) and is prone to going along with things because it's easier than arguing. His daughter Susan, in Soul Music and subsequent Death books, is a highly determined and practically-minded young woman who has very strong opinions on everything.
- Dora Wilk, of her eponymous series, is a Fiery Redhead who sees the best in everyone and is quick to make friends; by contrast, Nikita of the spin-off The Girl from the Miracles District is quiet, aloof, and distrustful.
- Douluo Dalu has one with each installment.
- The first protagonist is Tang San, an extremely gifted prodigy who is living his second life after committing suicide in his first. He was born with dual spirits, an extreme rarity, and specialized in binding his opponents with his Blue Silver Grass and debilitating them with poison. He was also born into the Clear Sky Clan, one of the most powerful families in the world, which he didn't learn about until he's in his late teens as he grew up as the son of a blacksmith in a tiny village.
- The second series' protagonist is Huo Yuhao. He's a Heroic Bastard born into the Mubai clan but was ostracized and thrown out along with his mother, who died of illness from neglect, making Yuhao swear revenge. He wasn't a natural born genius but instead stumbled upon Daydream, a 1 million-year-old Spirit Beast who wanted to help Yuhao become a god so they can both achieve immortality. In combat, Yuhao is coldly calculating and pragmatic like Tang San, but his tactics differ in that he focuses on mental attacks and the use of illusions to bewilder and crush the minds of his foes while using Absolute Ice for attack and defense.
- The third series' protagonist is Tang Wulin. Raised by a working-class family, he's down-to-earth, cheerful, and something of a Genius Ditz, being a prodigious blacksmith. He's known for his Big Eater tendencies, being referred to as "Rice Bucket" both affectionately and derisively for being able to consume bowl after bowl of rice and toppings and his friends frequently use food as a bribe to get him to do stuff for them. He relies far more on the brute force provided by the Golden Dragon King resting within his body, creating scales along his arms for Instant Armor, but also has access to the same Blue Silver Grass used by Tang San.
- Evernight: Skye Tierney is the female lead of Balthazar and is a foil to Bianca Olivier, the lead of the main series, in many ways.
- Bianca starts out as unconfident and shy to the point of mild social anxiety, with her character development revolving around her becoming more confident and resilient. While Skye has insecurities, she's comparatively a lot more self-confident and assertive, with her character development being more about her learning to be vulnerable and not bottle-up her feelings.
- Bianca's parents are very loving and devoted to their daughter, to the point of being overprotective. While Skye's parents do love her, they tend to be more distant from her (physically and emotionally), to point of being borderline neglectful.
- Bianca lived a sheltered life and never had anything terrible happen prior to the first book. Skye understands loss and heartbreak all too well; her older brother died and her boyfriend dumped her for another girl shortly after.
- Bianca is inexperienced with romance prior to meeting Lucas and aside from a brief dalliance with Balthazar, Lucas remains her first and only love. Skye was in a relationship with Craig for nearly three years until he broke up with her; she subsequently falls in love with Balthazar.
- Skye and Bianca both grew up knowing about parts of the supernatural world but being ignorant of others. Bianca's parents are vampires and she's part vampire, but she knew nothing about wraiths; Skye grew up in a haunted house but had no idea vampires existed.
- Bianca never liked the idea of attending Evernight Academy, misses her small-town high school and doesn't much enjoy her time at Evernight, while Skye loved Evernight and misses it after being forced to return to her old school in a small town.
- The Heartstrikers: The main character of Heartstrikers is Julius Heartstriker, a dragon who acts too much like a human. In the sequel series DFZ, the main character is Opal Yong-ae, a human who acts like a dragon (despite how much she denies it).
- In The Hobbit, Bilbo is a respectable gentle hobbit who wants nothing to do with adventures, but is prodded into it and comes back happier, having traded his reputation at home for many friends throughout Middle-earth and mostly good memories. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo, Bilbo's cousin and adopted son, is seen as odd (even before he starts idolizing Bilbo) and very much wants to go on an adventure like his cousin; when he does, it takes a heavy physical and emotional toll on him and leaves him unable to live in peace in Middle-earth.
- Jumanji ends with the game falling into the hands of two boys, Walter and Danny, with a tendency to start games without reading the instructions, unlike Jumanji protagonists Judy and Peter. When Walter and Danny received their own book, Zathura, said book also revealed them as more prone to arguing.
- In The Locked Tomb the main protagonist in each book is wildly different from each other. Gideon is poorly educated, vulgar, and straightforward with great physical prowess. Harrow is a feeble but studious and brilliant necromancer with No Social Skills. Nona is kindhearted and optimistic but ignorant and childlike, with a supernatural ability to read body language and understand all of them, and the only one who likes the person she is. Meanwhile from first impressions, Alecto is inhuman and wrathful.
- Jane Austen wrote Mansfield Park to be "less light, bright, and sparkling" than Pride and Prejudice. Rather than a Spirited Young Lady like Elizabeth Bennet, Fanny Price is a Shrinking Violet who only gains a sense of true self-worth after long struggle. Mary Crawford, her rival, is like Elizabeth on the surface but without Elizabeth's willingness to undertake self-reflection and personal growth. Henry Crawford, the "wrong" suitor, does Fanny a favor out of love but it's an easy task done with the express purpose of gaining her gratitude (as opposed to Darcy making a genuine sacrifice and trying to keep it secret to avoid Elizabeth feeling obliged). Overall, the protagonists in Pride and Prejudice deal largely with faults of behavior, while Mansfield Park looks at faults of character.
- Odysseus in The Odyssey might be the Ur-Example. Where Achilles in The Iliad was a demigod who inspired terror in all challengers with his superhuman strength, was prone to rapid changes in temperament, and lived for the glory of combat, Odysseus is a human with no powers who typically secures his victories through cleverness rather than brute force, remains doggedly focused on one goal for years on end, and takes no joy in fighting except when necessary to protect himself or his family.
- In Provenance, by Ann Leckie, which is a standalone spin-off from Leckie's Ancillary Justice novels, the heroine, Ingray, is deliberately the opposite in many respects of Breq, the protagonist of the Ancillary books. Whereas Breq began her series as an Experienced Protagonist and is consistently a Consummate Professional, Ingray basically starts out as The Ingenue with vivaciousness. Notably, both books start out with their main characters rescuing someone who was in storage, but whereas one of Breq's first scenes involves her effortless curb stomping attackers outside of a bar, Ingray starts out with A Simple Plan immediately unraveling, as her transporter refuses to carry her person in a box off-planet unless he gets the cargo's consent once defrosted, and shortly after that, Ingray finds out she's apparently had the wrong person broken out of jail. Further, whereas Breq is from The Empire that's an absolute monarchy essentially ruled by a God-Emperor, and her society has no gender roles but a default female pronoun, Ingray is from an oligarchic republic with multiple genders and pronouns.
- Redwall: In Mariel of Redwall, the fourth in the series, Brian Jacques intentionally made Mariel very distinct from Matthias, Martin, and Mattimeo, the protagonists of the first three books. Most obviously he made her female, but her revenge motive and a relative dose of combat pragmatism serve to distinguish her personality. Her weapon, the Gullwhacker, is even designed to be as unlike the Sword of Martin as possible, being a disposable object (it is revealed in The Bellmaker that she keeps replacing the original) instead of an ancestral heirloom weapon. She is also very Hot-Blooded, unlike her more calmer male counterparts.
- The works of Rick Riordan:
- The three initial protagonists of The Heroes of Olympus are counterparts to Percy, Annabeth and Grover from Percy Jackson and the Olympians, but there are some differences. Jason is more serious and heroic compared to Percy, Leo is far more reckless and dangerous compared to mild and cautious Grover, and Piper is timider and (initially) uncomfortable in battle compared to Annabeth. Those two have an especially obvious contrast in their divine parentage, being daughters of Aphrodite and Athena, respectively.
- In Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard, Magnus is more obviously this to Percy. Percy is an adept fighter who becomes a great warrior and embraces his demigod lifestyle, while Magnus is a Non-Action Guy with healing powers who accepts his new situation very reluctantly. Percy hates reading due to his dyslexia, while Magnus loves books. He's more likely to think or talk through a problem than fight, is less physically affectionate, and is generally less emotionally open and friendly. Percy spent his whole life wondering who his father was, but feels very awkward when he actually meets Poseidon; Magnus never really cared, but still went in for a hug when he first met his father. In a particularly silly example, Magnus also hates the color blue, which is Percy's favorite color.
- In The Ship Who..., the first three protagonist shellpeople are women, installed into spaceships, and start their careers and come of age during the books that they star in. The fourth book, The City Who Fought, stars Simeon, who's male, part of a Space Station, uses a human avatar on screens, and is introduced shortly after the retirement of a long-term brawn. (The fifth book stars Carielle, who's female and a ship but likewise not fresh from graduation).
- Star Trek: New Frontier gives us Captain Calhoun, who is far more pragmatic, almost ruthless, compared to the other Starfleet captain protagonists. In particular, he is the only person besides Kirk to pass the Kobiyashimaru test, but they used polar opposite methods: Kirk simply cheated by tampering with the testing computer, while Calhoun made the unprecedented decision to Shoot the Dog.
- The Supervillainy Saga: Specifically, Tales Of Supervillainy: Cindy's Seven. As the first book not starring Gary Karkofsky AKA Merciless: The Supervillain without MercyTM, we see how she differs. Cindy Wakowski AKA Red Riding Hood is much more driven by whimsy, ruthless, and uncaring about collateral damage. Also, where Gary is a Papa Wolf, Cindy is a ambivalent parent at best.
- Aya Tachibana, the protagonist of Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note, is constantly worrying, mildly introverted, and meticulous; while her sister Nako who stars in the Genie Team G Jiken Note spinoff is outgoing, carefree, and ditzy.
- Tortall Universe: Each sub-series has a quite different main character from the previous.
- Daine of The Immortals isn't as different from Alanna as the rest, but she's a Nature Hero and foreigner to Tortall who is exclusively an archer and Beastmaster with Voluntary Transformation skills, rather than a Magic Knight.
- Keladry of Protector of the Small is a spiritual successor to Alanna of Song of the Lioness as a knight-in-training, but they're quite different to each other. Alanna is short, quick-tempered, quick to fight, has a very powerful magic Gift, and has a Missing Mom and a neglectful father who eventually dies too. Kel is very tall and keeps growing (5'8" last time we see it mentioned) and quite The Stoic — while not averse to a fight, she doesn't like to if it's not needful. She's also a Badass Normal without even a sniff of magic and has Good Parents who remain quite alive throughout her books. Kel's nascent leadership skills mean she notices the people around her, and their skills and strengths, in a different way than lone warrior Alanna does. Their motives for choosing to become a knight are also different: Alanna does it for adventure and to escape from life as a Proper Lady, while Kel does it to protect others.
- Aly of the Trickster's Duet is a Consummate Liar and The Spymaster, while the previous three ladies are quite straightforward and honorable. Her story also takes place almost entirely outside of Tortall, a first in the series.
- Beka Cooper is a commoner living in Corus' slums, and as such her life and morality is a lot messier than any of the previous protagonists, and she meets most nobles at a distance.note She's also a Shrinking Violet who keeps a journal.
- Arram Draper in The Numair Chronicles is... a boy! He's a Non-Action Guy who doesn't develop any physical skills more strenuous than herb-grinding or juggling and is uncomfortable at the very idea of harming someone with his magic. (though as this is a prequel, we know that he becomes more willing later) While he lives in a city that's got problems on a level with the slums of Corus, he spends about ninety percent of his time at a magic school and is more sheltered and comfortable than any of the previous leads, so he goes through less stress and strain.
- The Vampire Hunter D prequel series Another Vampire Hunter has the Noble Greylancer in contrast to D. While D is a half-vampire that works as a lone hunter, Greylancer is a vampire lord that rules over his own territory with armies at his disposal. Whereas D is distant, stoic and doesn't let people get too close, Greylancer is more sociable and approachable in addition to relying on his family for counsel and advice.
- Warrior Cats:
- In the second series, the three main protagonists are very different from Firestar: Brambleclaw, the closest comparison to Firestar, is bolder and more assertive, but he also doubts himself much more, fearing that he's destined to be like his evil father. Squirrelflight is feisty and disobedient just for the sake of it, unlike her much more serious father, despite their similar physical appearance. Leafpool is a medicine cat apprentice, rather than a warrior apprentice, following an entirely different path in life.
- Jayfeather in the third series particularly stands out from the earlier main characters in that he's blind and that his path in life is one he actively didn't want at first.
- Alderheart in the sixth series is, compared to other protagonists, far more sensitive, anxious, and uncertain of himself; he blames himself for everything that goes wrong.
- In L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the protagonist Dorothy Gale was famously written as a Fish out of Water Audience Surrogate, an ordinary Kansas farm girl who finds herself whisked away to the Land of Oz by a tornado and spends the whole novel desperately trying to get home. For the first sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, Baum replaced Dorothy with the new protagonist Tip, a young boy who's a native of Oz, and turns out to be Ozma, the long-lost Queen of Oz, magically de-aged and gender-flipped and unaware of her true identity.
