The Protagonist is an Omnipresent Trope that is present in almost every story, and therefore has spawned lots of Sub Tropes.
The "protagonist" is the central character of a story, the one whose viewpoint is used to tell the story. In most stories, there is only one of these, with similar characters called "Deuteragonist", "Tritagonist" or just "ensemble cast". There is no morality inherent to any of these terms.
Sometimes, for these tropes, due to the Omnipresence of one of the SubTropes, Hero Protagonist, "Hero" is often conflated with "Protagonist", when the two terms actually refer to different concepts. Specifically, "protagonist" refers to the role a character plays in the narrative, whereas a "hero" is a character archetype that can show up in any role in the narrative. See The Hero for more on that. That said, even on this site, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably in trope names.
See Antagonist Tropes for tropes about its opposite number.
Tropes:
- A Hero Is Born: The story begins with the protagonist as a newborn.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: When the protagonist character suddenly switches. Usually in Video Games, but sometimes not.
- Adaptational Protagonist: A minor or major character becomes The Protagonist in an adaptation or Continuity Reboot.
- Against the Grain: The protagonist doesn't want to fulfil their expected role.
- Birthday Beginning: When the story starts on the protagonist's birthday.
- Contrasting Sequel Main Character: In the sequel, the protagonist has a personality that contrasts with the protagonist of the original.
- Decoy Protagonist: Someone who appears to be the protagonist, but isn't actually.
- Featureless Protagonist
- Experienced Protagonist
- Gameplay Protagonist, Story Protagonist: There are two protagonists for a video game's gameplay and for its story.
- Helpless Observer Protagonist
- Heroes Gone Fishing: The protagonist takes a break from his or her mission to enjoy some fun and relaxation.
- Heroic Mime: A protagonist who can't speak, or is never heard speaking.
- Hero Protagonist: The Protagonist and The Hero happen to be the same character. This is very often the case, which is why the two terms are often treated as the same thing.
- Insecure Protagonist, Arrogant Antagonist: An insecure protagonist, contrasted with a more confident antagonist.
- Lead You Can Relate To
- Loser Protagonist
- Main Character Final Boss: The protagonist ends up playing the role of the final boss at the end of the story.
- Multiple Protagonists
- New Life in Another World Bonus
- Non-Action Protagonist: A protagonist who shows no combat ability, but overcomes obstacles through non-action means.
- Non P.O.V. Protagonist: All the main characters have chapters narrated from their point of view... except this one.
- Pinball Protagonist: A protagonist who bounces from situation to situation without making a significant impact on their own.
- Player and Protagonist Integration: A sliding scale of such.
- Player Character
- Princess Protagonist
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: An action or decision is considered morally justified simply because the protagonist made it.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain
- Protagonist Power-Up Privileges: The lead gets their standard power up before everyone does, or gets a unique better power up that no one else does.
- A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: A protagonist who leads people.
- Protagonist Title: Protagonist being mentioned in the title. An Omnipresent Trope of its own. Unlike most other tropes here, it's not a Characters Trope.
- Protagonist Without a Past
- Ridiculously Average Guy: The lead is the most normal guy possible.
- Rogue Protagonist: An old protagonist becomes the new antagonist in the sequel.
- Rotating Protagonist: Multiple people rotate between being the protagonist.
- Ruler Protagonist: The lead character is also the ruler.
- Second Year Protagonist: In a high school setting, the protagonist is in their second year of schooling.
- Supporting Protagonist: A protagonist who isn't The Hero or most important character.
- Switching P.O.V.: The point-of-view switches between multiple different perspectives.
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: The main character is a jerk, but who cares? Hilariously bad things happen to him.
- Unique Protagonist Asset: Something special that makes the protagonist, the protagonist.
- Vanilla Protagonist: The protagonist/central character is deliberately bland to better contrast with the colorful supporting cast. It is similar to a Straight Man.
- Villain Protagonist: The protagonist is someone who would normally be an antagonist in another story.
- White Male Lead: In Western media, more often than not the protagonist is a white guy.
