: Re: How to trick the reader into thinking they're following a redshirt instead of the protagonist? I'm currently planning a "magical girl" story, and I thought of an interesting way to start it,

@Bryan361

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Misdirection works better if there is something to be misdirected to. To extend the metaphor you used in your question, if you want to make people think someone is a redshirt, it helps to have an apparent yellowshirt. So, for instance, you can have a police detective investigating mysterious deaths. Then a girl comes along that matches the pattern of victims. Will the detective reach her in time?

If you're willing to break audience trust for the sake of a twist, you can use the title and cover art to help set someone else up as the protagonist.

One problem that your idea of "subverting" this cliche is that this cliche is itself a subversion. Thing of Scream. We were clearly meant to think that this character played by a big-name actress was being set up as the protagonist. But now this "twist" has become so common that it has itself become a cliche. Now you want your reader to think that you think they will think that your character is the protagonist, so they will think she's a red shirt, so they will be surprised when she's actually the protagonist. That's a lot of levels to expect your readers to be operating on.

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