: Re: Does my protagonist *have* to succeed? I'm thinking about a YA dystopian novel and have planned it quite thoroughly. However, when I look back, the antagonists tend to always be a few steps

@Ogunnowo420

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Ctl+f for tragedy and only found one hit! :O

So every story is a comedy or tragedy. Comedy has a "happy" ending and "tragedy" a sad ending. In almost, but not quite all cases, a tragedy involves the protagonist not getting what they want. This is the simplest example of failure. While happy endings dominate the industry, tragedies do break out and succeed now and again.

The second example would be where the protagonist isn't the main character. In that case you could have a comedy or tragedy, and the protagonist may fail. The protagonist is the one who wants something and acts to get it. In the Great Gatsby, the protagonist is not the main character, it is Gatsby.

And on it goes with many variations. It is simple to see that the answer is: yes, people lose all of the time, so can main characters. The question is, why is it still an engaging story and how do you make it satisfying.

I highly recommend you watch or read The prestige. It is an excellent story in which nearly everyone loses.

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