I’ve read a couple of books lately which have what I’ve started to think of as “spoiled protagonists”.

“Spoiled” in the sense that everyone treats them like a princess (or a prince – one is male), even though they’re very ordinary people. When they come on the scene, people with serious responsibilities will neglect them in order to help with whatever the spoiled protagonist is doing. Villains go out of their way to give them grief, but it’s all right, because everyone else is their humble servant. Their relatively small successes are treated as world-saving  triumphs and the cause for endless gratitude. They break the rules, or even the law, and are blithely forgiven by the toughest authorities when they explain their reasons.

If they want to go stupidly and unnecessarily into a dangerous situation (and they do), they only need to whine a little and stamp their feet for people who should know better to let them do so. Nameless spearcarriers or even minor characters will then be sacrificed to protect them, without a cross word being spoken to the precious spoiled protagonist.

It didn’t take me long to work out a theory of why this is happening. The authors have been reading too many Chosen One stories. The spoiled protagonist is the Chosen One by stealth.

See, a Chosen One is typically of humble origins, but everyone in the world wants to either oppose them or help them. They’re destined to save the world, but first they have to grow up, and that involves making stupid decisions that have a cost mainly to other people. Because they’re the focus of the Prophecy, it’s literally all about them.

The spoiled protagonist is the Chosen One without the justification of the prophecy. They’re a person who actually is ordinary, injudicious and inexperienced who’s stumbling around, doing a poor job of dealing with a situation that they weren’t prepared for. The unrealistic part is that everyone is downing tools and either helping or hindering them as if they were the most important person in the world.

To the author, of course, the main character is the most important person in the world. The world exists because of the character. But the other people in the world shouldn’t act as if they know that.

Stop spoiling your protagonists, authors. If they’re whiny, headstrong and inept, drop the consequences on them, not on hapless, uncomplaining minions around them. Better still, don’t make them whiny, headstrong and inept in the first place.

Mike Reeves-McMillan

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Mike Reeves-McMillan lives in Auckland, New Zealand, the setting of his Auckland Allies contemporary urban fantasy series; and also in his head, where the weather is more reliable, and there are a lot more wizards. He also writes the Gryphon Clerks series (steampunk/magepunk), the Hand of the Trickster series (sword-and-sorcery heist capers), and short stories which have appeared in venues such as Compelling Science Fiction and Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores.