: Re: Are reactive protagonists inherently a bad thing? I'm just getting into writing and while reading about it I've found a lot of topics which claim that reactive protagonists are generally frowned

@Moriarity138

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There is no inherently bad way to create a protagonist. They come in many shapes and many sizes. Their personalities are varied and different because they've grown up in life with varied experiences. What matters isn't the base you are working with, but rather how you mold the character from that point forward. Look at Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games.

Spoilers:

She was fairly reactive: 1) volunteered to take Prim's place, 2) followed Peta's lead during the "advertising rounds" of the games, 3) trained the skills she already knew instead of branching out to learn something new, 4) never actively killing a single person...

When she did act, it was always because an outside force made her do so. Yet Katniss is generally praised for being a strong female lead and role model. There is no such thing as an "inherently bad character". Even a blank slate main character can be amazing in their own right. You just need to put the effort in to make them as such and not leave their characterization down to "reactive protagonist archetype." Give them their own strengths, flaws, skills, and weaknesses to work with and stay true to that information you have. Do that and you should be fine.

To follow up my point, you can also look at a "Mary Sue/Gary Stu" character. You'd think characters like that can only ever be a bad character, but as long as you're self-aware that the character is too perfect and make them come to the realization of that in their own time or start to break down walls that make them act that way, you can actually create amazingly realistic characters. Little Witch Academia did this quite well both with Diane and Akko.

Spoilers:

Akko was a Mary Sue in that she always messed up and was the epitome of imperfection, but her attitude and her luck allowed her to make everything okay in the end in the most annoyingly likable way possible. Diane was the exact opposite. She was THE perfect student in every respect, but we later see it was just a necessary act for her to get to where she wanted and that she had been jealous of Akko who got to live the very type of life Diane wanted.

While they both start the show off as Mary Sues, they then develop into actual characters with realistic feelings and motivations... ignoring the other issues the show had.

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