# MC who is contagonist **URL:** \ **Category:** Uncategorized\ **Created:** [November 4, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307 "2017-11-04T00:06:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cora](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/cora/32/344_2.png) [@cora](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/cora)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/1 "2017-11-04T00:06:57Z")
Any examples of stories where the Main Character is also the contagonist in the Overall Story? Michael Clayton? ---
**Author:** ![jhull](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/jhull/32/3_2.png) [@jhull](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/jhull)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 2:08am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/2 "2017-11-04T02:08:22Z")
I think Michael is the Antagonist in _Michael Clayton_. He’s more Prevent and Avoid than Temptation and Hinder. ---
**Author:** ![cora](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/cora/32/344_2.png) [@cora](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/cora)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/3 "2017-11-04T14:47:59Z")
I thought Arthur Eden was the antagonist in Michael Clayton? And that Michael was hindering things by snooping around and giving Karen and the hitmen distraction, but still being ambivalent about the success/failure of the unorth settlement. in the end he finishes what Arthur started, definitely. ---
**Author:** ![HaroldLloyd](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/haroldlloyd/32/405_2.png) [@HaroldLloyd](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/HaroldLloyd)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/4 "2017-11-04T15:06:06Z")
Possibly _The Lives of Others._ The way I think about _Michael Clayton_ is: assuming Karen is the protagonist, then her main opposition while he’s alive is Arthur. So Arthur must be the antagonist. There is a brief period with no antagonist between Arthur’s death and when Michael changes sides and accepts the handoff to become antagonist. In most of the movie before that moment, Michael was trying to convince Arthur to get with the protagonist’s and law firm boss’s program, so this seems very guardian-like _in that world_. If the guardian is generally on the protagonist’s “side” and the contagonist is generally on the antagonists’ “side,” then if we only look at the “changing of sides” then Michael goes from “team protag” guardian to “team antag” contag–and it is only the absence of Arthur that de facto makes Michael the antag also. In other words, Michael is Karen’s/boss’s only real opposition once Michael accepts the baton from Arthur. Sure, one can offer the facile argument, “Michael is a complex not an archetypal character,” but that doesn’t answer the questions, “what is Michael’s role in the OS before Arthur’s death?” and “what is his role in the OS at the end?” Whatever the answers are, it seems like he has 2 very different roles–one early (pro-Karen/boss; anti-Anna) and one at the end (anti-Karen/boss; pro-Anna). ---
**Author:** ![cora](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/cora/32/344_2.png) [@cora](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/cora)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 3:54pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/5 "2017-11-04T15:54:22Z")
The greatness of Michael Clayton even as just a premise is that it’s about a figure whose job is hard to explain in a world of titles, clearly defined roles and sides. What does Michael do? Marty (his boss) implicitly knows what Michael does, but only out of experience, metis. You couldn’t tell your mom what Michael’s job is easily without just showing her the movie. To devote a movie to unpacking a complex figure within an ecosystem of known figures is such a great reason to make a movie. So it strikes me that Michael in dramatica OS terms moving from guardian, to contagonist, to antagonist is appropriate for such a hard-to-label figure. And now we can look at someone whose job is under the radar and hard to define, and say “that’s the michael clayton of X” ---
**Author:** ![mlucas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/mlucas/32/275_2.png) [@mlucas](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/mlucas)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/6 "2017-11-04T23:32:37Z")
> [@HaroldLloyd](#): > > Possibly The Lives of Others. Oh wow, good point! I’d second that. Certainly he gives into the temptation to hinder the investigation. The official analysis has it as Success, so that means his hindering was in service of the Story Goal. Whether or not he represents Temptation, or there was another character (maybe IC Dreyman’s girlfriend) who tempted _him_, is harder to parse out from my memory of the story. ---
**Author:** ![pattyloof](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/pattyloof/32/1464_2.png) [@pattyloof](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/pattyloof)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 1:17am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/7 "2017-11-07T01:17:03Z")
I’ve always thought that the original Star Wars trilogy was about Darth Vader, not Luke. Darth Vader drives the action (boards the ship, kills the aunt and uncle, pursues his son). Yet he is clearly hindering the OS (rebels vs Empire) and is a major source of temptation to Luke when he does find him. ---
**Author:** ![mlucas](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/mlucas/32/275_2.png) [@mlucas](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/mlucas)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 6:42pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/8 "2017-11-07T18:42:45Z")
I think what you’re feeling (in terms of the trilogy being “about” Vader) is that Darth Vader is the Influence Character for the trilogy-story, and also the Change character, with Luke remaining Steadfast. ---
**Author:** ![Prish](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/prish/32/33_2.png) [@Prish](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Prish)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/9 "2017-11-07T20:42:08Z")
Carousel (film) had an odd feel to it, when I saw it on TV. Billy was, definitely, not a traditional MC. ---
**Author:** ![HaroldLloyd](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/haroldlloyd/32/405_2.png) [@HaroldLloyd](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/HaroldLloyd)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 3:26am UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/10 "2017-11-21T03:26:34Z")
Possibly _The Queen_ & _Casablanca._ ---
**Author:** ![Audz](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/audz/32/2061_2.png) [@Audz](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Audz)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/11 "2017-11-27T16:59:08Z")
Would Paul Varjak be something like a contagonist in Breakfast at Tiffany’s? ---
**Author:** ![Prish](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex010/user_avatar/discuss.dramatica.com/prish/32/33_2.png) [@Prish](https://discuss.dramatica.com/u/Prish)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2017, 3:40pm UTC](https://discuss.dramatica.com/t/mc-who-is-contagonist/1307/12 "2017-11-28T15:40:29Z")
I wonder about No Way Out.