Basic Trope: The main character who is not the main focus of the story.
- Straight: Alice is The Hero, but the story is told from Bob's POV.
- Exaggerated: The POV jumps to a different character every chapter; Bob, Charlie, Diane, Edwin... But never Alice.
- Downplayed: Alice and Bob share the POV between them but Alice is still The Hero and Bob is still her Sidekick.
- Justified:
- Bob has a hero complex and thinks he's The Hero but the story makes it clear that Alice is. However, Bob is still important to the story, so he's not a Decoy Protagonist.
- Bob is Alice's Sidekick.
- Bob sees himself as a Ridiculously Average Guy; that is, someone with no remarkable qualities to speak of that would make him worthy of deserving The Hero status.
- Inverted: Bob is not the real protagonist, but Alice is.
- Subverted: Alice is a Decoy Protagonist. After the second chapter, Bob takes over as The Protagonist and The Hero.
- Double Subverted: In the third chapter, Alice is back and roles are restored.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: The roles of protagonist and hero are swapped between Alice and Bob.
- Averted: The view point character and the main character are the same character.
- Enforced:
- Bob was the one who wrote the story, and he deliberately plays up Alice's contributions and minimizes his own involvement.
- Including Alice's POV would ruin the mystique of her character.
- The various Heroes coming to Bob's Fast Food joint and their interaction with the proprietor is the Framing Device for the Anthology Film.
- The executives want Bob in the cast as a Lead You Can Relate To. The writers know for a fact that Alice will be the Ensemble Dark Horse because she is so badass, and so technically cut out the middle man by making Bob less interesting (and focus-worthy).
- Lampshaded: "I'm not the hero of this story but it is still my story."
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Alice is writing the story of her adventures as they happen. She chooses to act like The Hero so she'll have something worth writing down.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
Back to Supporting Protagonist
