: 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

@LarsenBagley300

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I think this could be done so long as the Protaganist's quality of limited successes out weigh the quantity of numerous defeats. I know Star Wars was brought up a lot, but learning from your mistakes and acceptance of Failure were major themes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Consider that the three "books", only the final one ended with a truly happy and upbeat ending (In book one, a major sacrafice was required to turn the tide of the battle. In book two, the heroes have to retreat so they can fight another war.). But this is constant in the entire book. Aang is plagued by his failure to stop the war from starting and running from his duties as Avatar. His impatient attitude often wounds him more than helps (In the first episode, he triggers a trap which alerts the fire nation to his location and the location of innocent people. In "Day of Black Sun" his choices lead to the failed invasion of the fire nation and the capture of most of the fighting forces.). With each failure, the enemy grows bolder and the stakes are raised until he finally cannot run and must face his foe.

But along the way, he is given victories that are important. Such as saving the Northern Water Tribe in the end of Book 1 or the Defense of Ba Sing Seh from the Fire Nation Drill. Even some of the darker and sadder moments work to small victories (like the retreats, which allow him to regroup and plan for another fight). These victories, while small, are decisive enough to keep him from falling completely to the antagonists and compelling to allow the reader to see that while there are a lot of things that go wrong, they go right enough in the right ways to make the game still winnable.

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