How do you guys feel about weak protagonists?

[CupcakeNinja]

Usually, strategy is shitty and stupid. I prefer brute force because it's honest.

Hmm, antihistamine helps me a lot, so I'm at least thankful that they exist.

Bad allergies, huh?

 

[Zirrboy]

suddenly turns into a genius chestmaster

I think that's more monster girl musume than sherlock holmes

 

[Cipiteca396]

I think that's more monster girl musume than sherlock holmes

What an oversight. But- if it works it works.

 

[BlackKnightX]

I actually love weak protagonists because of the tension involved in any combat situation they’re in, and how exciting it is when they actually do something cool. And because they’re so weak they’re forced to rely on side characters for help, more times than not developing and making those side characters memorable. And the protagonist won’t usually get through their problems with brute force and instead have to use their head which I get pretty hyped about. I wonder what you guys think about them?

I don’t like weak protagonist at all. I understand your point, though. Weak protagonist has flaws, which leads to tension and struggles, which leads to more exciting story.

But not everyone love a story with lots and lots of tensions.

Some people just want a tension-free and relaxing story—slice of life. Some people just want moderate tension and not over the top drama and angsts—just enough to get the excitement going.

Some people just want pure wish-fulfillment to escape from the harsh reality, or just simply want to have fun. Some people are just very horny and want some jerk-off materials…

For me personally, I like OP mc and wish-fulfillment. I hate weak mc. I don’t like it at all when the mc get trampled on by the villains so easily. The more it drags on, the more frustrating it will be.

I just want something light and fun and enjoyable.

And just because the mc is op doesn’t mean that he will face no challenge at all. He‘ll still face challenges, but not as intense as it is with weak mc.

The best example of what I like is this guy—one of my favorite characters of all time—Kazami Yuuji from Grisaia no Kajitsu.

He’s calm, cool, collected, and overall just badass.

I consider him to be op, but he still faces a lot of challenges throughout the entire story. There are some angst in the story, but it all happened in the past.

 

[RootBeerBert]

I don’t like weak protagonist at all. I understand your point, though. Weak protagonist has flaws, which leads to tension and struggles, which leads to more exciting story.

But not everyone love a story with lots and lots of tensions.

Some people just want a tension-free and relaxing story—slice of life. Some people just want moderate tension and not over the top drama and angsts—just enough to get the excitement going.

Some people just want pure wish-fulfillment to escape from the harsh reality, or just simply want to have fun. Some people are just very horny and want some jerk-off materials…

For me personally, I like OP mc and wish-fulfillment. I hate weak mc. I don’t like it at all when the mc get trampled on by the villains so easily. The more it drags on, the more frustrating it will be.

I just want something light and fun and enjoyable.

And just because the mc is op doesn’t mean that he will face no challenge at all. He‘ll still face challenges, but not as intense as it is with weak mc.

The best example of what I like is this guy—one of my favorite characters of all time—Kazami Yuuji from Grisaia no Kajitsu.

He’s calm, cool, collected, and overall just badass.

I consider him to be op, but he still faces a lot of challenges throughout the entire story. There are some angst in the story, but it all happened in the past.

To each their own. I don’t hate op protagonists, rather I just don’t like them much. Like you said op protagonists are usually part of wish fulfillment which I kind of hate, or at the very least get bored of quickly, so I almost never like op protagonists (I do like Saitama and Mob though).

 

[aattss]

I feel like the problem is that people think that the solution to strong protagonists is weak protagonists. Instead of medium protagonists which can potentially avoid the pitfalls and combine the advantages of both.

 

[RootBeerBert]

I feel like the problem is that people think that the solution to strong protagonists is weak protagonists. Instead of medium protagonists which can potentially avoid the pitfalls and combine the advantages of both.

Solution?

 

[Lloyd]

Usually, strategy is shitty and stupid. I prefer brute force because it's honest.

I am the greatest strategy writer of all time. At least on SH.

 

[LunaSoltaer]

Weak protagonists can be interesting, and it definitely makes the supporting cast feel more like a supporting cast.

It reminds me of a Pathfinder game my host ran, where the players were the weakest kids on the block, but they had changed the history of the planet FOREVER by allying with the tribe of monsters they were supposed to kill and staging a coup against the starting town.

I'm currently writing a Weak-To-Strong story that's pretty slow-burn, and I find a lot of challenge, and potential reward, in finding a progression curve that works well for my character. I don't want to keep them weak forever because I need them to grow stronger to tie into a primary theme in my work, but I don't want them to grow too ludicrously fast too quickly either.

One of the main things is, scaling the immediate conflict in accordance with your protagonist's resources. When your protagonist has friends and allies, then awesome, take that into account. But conflict doesn't have to be combat. It could be "Okay I'm in trouble with my teacher and I need to retrieve this thing with magic but I don't know the magic I need even though it's stupid simple and I can't let anyone else know because I'll be expelled" or some such, and seeing the antics one gets up to bridging the gap :3

 

[SakeVision]

Usually, strategy is shitty and stupid. I prefer brute force because it's honest.

Hmm, antihistamine helps me a lot, so I'm at least thankful that they exist.

Based delliriant user

I actually love weak protagonists because of the tension involved in any combat situation they’re in, and how exciting it is when they actually do something cool. And because they’re so weak they’re forced to rely on side characters for help, more times than not developing and making those side characters memorable. And the protagonist won’t usually get through their problems with brute force and instead have to use their head which I get pretty hyped about. I wonder what you guys think about them?

I love weak characters too, but for a slightly different reason.

Imagine pinning a weak to the wall, have them struggle in vein against your grasp, then bend them over and....

 

[BearlyAlive]

If done right, they're fun to read. But most of the time it's either "weak to powercreep" power trip stories or "woe is me" tragedies where the protag suffers for eternity.

A good weakling should either know they're weak and think about ways around their weaknesses or should be totally oblivious to their weakness and sprint through the flags like a fatty to a cake buffet. Second one is only for comedy, tho.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I just think weak characters are inherently more interesting. Just because a character is weak doesn’t mean they can’t defeat or overcome strong characters. If you’ve ever played a dark souls game or anything like it you’ll know that a boss enemy can kill you extremely quickly, attack faster than you, and has many times your own health, but people still beat them because the player character while weak in comparison has agency and strategy.

 

[Katsuya]

I think they're lame. though, some are cool, yes. But like, i would want them to get stronger. I mean, too op is... yeah. its nice, but it can be bad sometimes. and so like weak adds potential/development for the character.

 

[ShrimpShady]

I like weak protagonists when their victories feel earned. I want them to get their ass kicked and to kick their own ass in order to get better, before finally achieving victory by the skin of their teeth.