: Re: Investing in the 'wrong' character, is it a problem with the story? Since starting to learn a little about writing I've noticed that I'm more critical when I read things. This has led to

@Carla500

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It sounds like you're seeing this problem in Hero's Journey stories, which have a pretty standard arc (Hero leaves Home, gains Mentors and Helpers, faces Challenge at Threshold, returns Home with Knowledge) and you aren't as interested in the Hero as you are in the Mentor characters.

If you find this is happening in every Hero's Journey you read, from
the Belgariad to Star Wars, then it just means that you don't enjoy that
kind of story. Nothing wrong with knowing your tastes. I don't care for romantic comedies and "overgrown adolescent/poorly launched twenty-something acts stupidly" stories. That doesn't mean they're bad, just that they are for others to enjoy.
If you find this in every book you read no matter what the structure
— you prefer Lestrade to Holmes and Watson, the comic-relief
sidekick to the romantic heroine, Cindy Lou Who over the Grinch — then it sounds like you're thinking too hard about the
creation of the story and not allowing yourself to suspend your
disbelief enough to enjoy the tale.
If you find this in, how shall I say this, books geared to the
Twilight audience, then you're just reading a lot of lousy books. ;)

For most books and most readers, the protagonist is the person in whom they are most interested. It's not typical for book readers to say "I wish these books were about Sirius and Remus rather than Harry." (the typical response to that is "hie thee to AO3 and start reading/writing fanfic.")

(I would say this is not necessarily the case with most movies, by the way; I often read in movie reviews — particularly of romcoms, particularly of female sidekick characters in any genre — that the side characters and the people who play them are more interesting/better actors than the lead characters.)

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