Losing the Main Character/Passing the Torch

questions
#1

I was watching this TV show on Netflix the other day, and midway through the season, the Main Character was abruptly killed off. It utterly shocked me; how could the show go on without its central character? The answer was kind of intriguing. In the first episode after the Main Character’s death, they had an entire episode focused around the Influence Character. In the later episodes, they tried to continue the plot they’d set up previously, but with all the supporting characters motivated by the death of the Main Character. It was almost like they tried to fill the Main Character slot with the void the Main Character had left behind.

Personally, I don’t think this worked, and the reason why ties back to Dramatica’s understanding of character dynamics. The Influence Character is interesting, not on their own right, but in contrast to the Main Character. This makes it awkward to try and convert them into a Main Character because their perspective is meant to be foreign to us. The same goes for the later episodes where the story shifts to the perspectives of the supporting characters. These characters have always been understood in the context of the Main Character, in their orbit. Without the Main Character, it’s really hard to get invested in the story because everything feels unmoored. We have no “in” anymore, so we don’t connect to the characters in any meaningful way.

So after that, I was wondering if there are any positive examples of this happening. Do you know any good examples of stories killing off or transferring their Main Character? (Alternatively, if you want to complain about any other bad examples like mine, feel free. ;)) The only one which comes to mind for me is One Hundred Years of Solitude, which cheats a little by using the same names over and over again to clue you in to who’s who. (The other one might be Cloud Atlas, but that one is more like six short stories with an overlying theme than one single Grand Argument. It’s complicated. :stuck_out_tongue:) How do you fill in an MC power vacuum, especially with a character whose context was previously defined in terms of the previous MC? I ask, partially as a thought experiment, but also because I have the germ of an idea revolving around a multi-generational conflict where sons pick up their father’s swords.

#2

Wouldn’t there have to be another influence character introduced, too? I know I’ve seen it work, but it escapes me. Back after a ponder.

#3

Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto (a darker adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy mythos) does this, though I’d have to go find copies to read to tell you what it does to the storyform in particular. It does notably happen almost at the end of the series, so the main character arc is mostly uninterrupted.

I could also mention Gurren Lagann, though that involves a dying Influence Character.

#4

I’m curious what show you are talking about. Send me a PM, so you don’t spoil this for others.

Also, I haven’t read One Hundred Years of Solitude since forever, but Magical Realism stories are purposefully self-contradictory (as are other kinds of Postmodern Literature) which makes them poor candidates for GAS. (I’m not saying it doesn’t, I’m just saying, my gut tells me One Hundred won’t.)

Dying Influence Characters aren’t that uncommon. Obi Wan Kenobi for one. Hamlet’s father starts the play dead… There’s a super recent example, too, that I won’t go into for spoilers reasons.

#5

Yup, dying Influence Characters are a lot easier to do. The IC isn’t us, though, so it’s not quite the same effect. Also, notice how that Influence Character immediately gets replaced in the next episode with the love interest, though the original IC’s influence continues to linger.

#6

I have seen a novel use a diary format, but that is switching from one person/mc’s life to the person who wrote the diary, then back to the original person with a story windup. I can’t remember if two story forms would have been involved, or if the two mc’s kind of told the same story. I think the person gave an inheritance to the dead diarist’s family based on it, with the ic being a part of both lives, or some such. It was a present to past to present time frame.

TV series use that when an episode deals with past events and the star is playing a character in the past story, too.

I’ll keep pondering.

#7

Now that I think about it, a dying IC is just a different form of a handoff in many cases.

#8

In TV I think it would be easier to switch from MC to MC. GoT does it all the time. Maybe it has to be setup from the beginning. Shows I watch also will dedicate an entire episode or two to one of the supporting cast members. They are the MC for that episode. I have no problems following them emotionally.

#9

The TV show The Affair splits each episode into two approximately equal parts, one told from Noah’s perspective and one from Alison’s. I think each would be the Main Character in their half, with the other being the Influence Character, at least in most episodes. They are very deliberate about showing things very differently between the two halves, so you an definitely tell different perspectives and recollections are involved.

I think perhaps (at least with episodes or sequences that are complete storyforms) the OS and RS would be shared somehow. I’m not sure how that would work, with the way the model twists; it seems like it would invalidate the Grand Argument Story to switch the MC/IC perspective halfway like that. Though I think if it was kept at the Domain/Concern/Issue level it might work okay. We’re watching Season 2 now, which doesn’t seem as good, but perhaps there will be an episode that seems to have a valid storyform and I can see how they approach it.

#10

There used to be some discussion about relationships stories (romances, etc.) as stories where the mc/ic relationship is the main read and the os is lightly dealt with. I sometimes ponder whether there are two storyforms going on, with the flip of perspective flipping the mc/ic into a new storyform, since we are now seeing the story through the eyes of the other…if that makes sense.

1 Like
#11

I think you are talking about something else. It’s one thing to switch from one MC to another in the same story; it’s something else entirely to switch between storyforms.

#12

How do you know when you’re watching one or the other?

#13

One – the MC changing to a new MC – would be incredibly jarring. I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed it. (Though, The South Park Movie has a group MC – somehow that’s its own thing.)

Switching from Arya Stark to Jon Snow is not jarring because it’s clear that it is an entirely different story, so you don’t necessarily even register it.

I’m not sure I’ve answered your question – did I?

#14

(sorry, cross-posted with @MWollaeger. My tendency to ramble is way more obvious when compared to his succinct & spot-on posts!!)

To switch from one MC player to another within the same story, and still have a proper narrative, all the MC throughline story points would have to be the same. Like if Jimmy starts out as MC and his issues revolve around his overbearing mother, then later Susan becomes the MC she could have an overbearing father or older sister or teacher etc. Or it could be less obviously the same, but if Jimmy’s Problem was Control it would also be Susan’s; and Susan would have to struggle in the same Domain, Concern, Issue, Symptom, Response etc.

I think this is probably pretty rare – it certainly doesn’t sound like something I’d want to try and write! Plus, what would you do with the IC and RS, make sure they influenced and related to the new MC player the same way?

What might be more common is a shared MC role where you have multiple people that give you that personal viewpoint, and they’re totally in the same situation and just sort of go together. I can see this working with child MCs, say a brother and sister struggling with losing their parents. Stalag 17 looks like it also had a shared MC role.

I think most TV series, when they offer a new MC for “tonight’s episode”, have a different storyform for that episode. It’s a great way to change things up and give something fun and new to the audience – let’s see things from Rachel’s point of view today instead of Mike’s (I’m thinking of Suits: Zane Vs. Zane there). You’ll notice these kind of episodes tend to have a clear OS that is separate from the overarching season plot – they need to because with a different MC dealing with her own issues, you must have a different storyform.

Something like Game of Thrones is more complicated – if there are valid storyforms in there they seem to be all intertwined and you get bits of them in each episode, which can be amazing when these ‘arcs’ all work together, but it’s also likely to create a mess in some areas where some of these don’t get fully developed or fail to be resolved. (Sometimes to clean up the mess it’s easier to just kill off a particular storyform’s MC? LOL)

Just my two cents – I’m not a screenwriter.

#15

Do you just want a screenplay, or are you looking for mc ideas in novel writing, too? The reason I ask is that I ran across https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_on_the_Train_(novel), while looking for info about the upcoming film. It says it is about three people, all in first person, which you might find interesting.