Mika Otohime: The Reluctant Protagonist.

[Thesilentjackofalltrade]

Ok, this idea came from this:And an artist made a thing about it, and claims to be doing something with it later, but it has been 1-2 months now and nothing has happened. Here are the images:
Spacebattles started doing stuff for it, write ups that is, but I feel they are forgetting a lot of things.
Number one being that having a Main Character for a child is implied to be a BAD thing.
Number two is that they assume that people will know if they are good guys or bad guys growing up.
And number three is that they are not chaining events in meaningful ways.
I feel that in order to explain number 1 is by explaining number two, and by making it ominous.
You don't know if they are going to be a good buy or a bad guy. You might have made the next Gendo, or you have a good guy who dies a tragic death like Achilles.
the Ominous bit, you can add in ROB (Random Omnipotent Being.) He created this world based off of earth.
When a Main character is born, or in some cases added (as in people can become Main characters.) this ROB takes notice, and determines a plot line for that character.
This character, once their story is over, dies, and is reborn in another reality where this character is reborn for a new setting without the stigma of the knowledge of main characters.
And this is a known thing throughout the world, and Mika (the main character in this story line.) is trying to avoid that, or at least chose which genre she will become apart of.
As for chaining events, like in the image for example, the transfer student, the mecha pilot, and the prince.
The person in lover with her is the boy she refused to make a promise with as a child, who summons the demon to try to force her into loving that guy, and the magical object was given to her by that creeps little sister as a means to defend herself.
She also has full potential for half brothers and sisters to become issues later with her mother leaving.
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Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar

[robkelk]

"Mika-chan?"

"Yes, wise old Sensei?"

"Has anyone ever explained to you the difference between a main character and a lead character?"

"The difference between ... Sensei, does that mean I might have a normal life after all?"

"Probably not, but at least you have a chance of not being ultimately responsible for everything that happens to everyone you know."

"... It's a small victory, but I'll take it."

(ten minutes later, when Mika is http://allthetropes.orain.org/wiki/Fridge_Logic]at the fridge)
"Wait a minute - main characters who aren't lead characters end up dead early! Maybe that isn't a victory after all."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Thesilentjackofalltrade]

Sadly (for her.) she had to keep on dealing with the Plot trying to make her a lead character.

(On a different note, how many of you noticed the baby glaring?)
_____________
Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar

[Black Aeronaut]

All very well and good, brother of mine, however, this little bit tasks me...

Thesilentjackofalltrade wrote:

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the Ominous bit, you can add in ROB (Random Omnipotent Being.) He created this world based off of earth.
When
a Main character is born, or in some cases added (as in people can
become Main characters.) this ROB takes notice, and determines a plot
line for that character.
This character, once their story is
over, dies, and is reborn in another reality where this character is
reborn for a new setting without the stigma of the knowledge of main
characters.
And this is a known thing throughout the world, and
Mika (the main character in this story line.) is trying to avoid that,
or at least chose which genre she will become apart of.

What is the point of doing this?  How does it matter to the overall plot?  Do we get to see these Second Lives these people get to live?
To me this is like how in slapstick comedy cartoons when the main character gets nailed by the classic falling anvil... and then a lemon meringue pie drops on top of the anvil to add insult to injury.  Note that the 'just because I feel like it' thing only really works in slapstick comedy (although Curb Stomps are notorious for this, too - however, look carefully and you will see the elements of slapstick in just about any Stomp).
Also, can we get a little more constructive input here?  I apologize if he wasn't too clear, but he needs a bit of help in the world building and I'd love it if he would quit tying up my precious mental bandwidth with his fun plot bunnies. 

[s3yang]

Thesilentjackofalltrade wrote:

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Spacebattles started doing stuff for it, write ups that is, but I feel they are forgetting a lot of things.
Number one being that having a Main Character for a child is implied to be a BAD thing.
Number two is that they assume that people will know if they are good guys or bad guys growing up.
And number three is that they are not chaining events in meaningful ways.

I think you pulled that explanation out of nowhere, and it's kinda super convoluted for no reason. Your number one is super easy to explain without going very far. Have you _seen_ what tends to happen to the parents of Main characters? Single parents are allowed, but happily married couples are kinda rare. If you try to stay in a marriage and your kid's a main character there's like a... 50 percent chance of death.
Two and three I sorta agree with, but those are hardly necessary to agonize over since all spacebattles is doing is generating random amusing snippets.

[Thesilentjackofalltrade]

s3yang wrote:

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Thesilentjackofalltrade wrote:

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Spacebattles started doing stuff for it, write ups that is, but I feel they are forgetting a lot of things.
Number one being that having a Main Character for a child is implied to be a BAD thing.
Number two is that they assume that people will know if they are good guys or bad guys growing up.
And number three is that they are not chaining events in meaningful ways.

I think you pulled that explanation out of nowhere, and it's kinda super convoluted for no reason. Your number one is super easy to explain without going very far. Have you _seen_ what tends to happen to the parents of Main characters? Single parents are allowed, but happily married couples are kinda rare. If you try to stay in a marriage and your kid's a main character there's like a... 50 percent chance of death.
Two and three I sorta agree with, but those are hardly necessary to agonize over since all spacebattles is doing is generating random amusing snippets.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on the 50 percent chance of death bit....
That's for Lead characters, not necessarily Main Characters, as robkelk pointed out before.
_____________
Veni, vidi, vici. [I came, I saw, I conquered
Quote from Julius Caesar

[The Wanderer]

He was talking about parents of main characters, not about main characters themselves.

I can think of at least one counterexample, of a main character whose parents are alive and happily together for the entire length of canon, right off the top of my head. I'm not sure there are enough others to refute the alleged pattern, though.

[s3yang]

The Wanderer wrote:

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He was talking about parents of main characters, not about main characters themselves.

I can think of at least one counterexample, of a main character whose parents are alive and happily together for the entire length of canon, right off the top of my head. I'm not sure there are enough others to refute the alleged pattern, though.

Of course there's counterexamples. Heck. there are _plenty_ of counterexamples. That said, even if it's not 50%, Main characters, Lead characters, whatever, they tend to have 'tragic backstories'. And Tragic Backstories tend to involve dead parents (Or crazy parents, or abusive parents or... you know. whatever).
Leaving like she did, Mika's mother effectively forstalls a lot of the nastier options. That said, unless the parents are _super_ minor, they're almost required to fill _some_ sort of trope.
Whatever happens to, I don't really think you can argue that being the parent of a main/lead character will probably involve 'crap going wrong'.

[robkelk]

He was talking about parents of main characters, not about main characters themselves.

No, I wasn't.

I was talking about main characters who aren't lead characters. For example, Lynn Minmei was a lead character, while Roy Fokker was a main character - only one of them made it to the end of Macross.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[The Wanderer]

I meant that s3yang was talking about the parents of main characters, when he mentioned the "50 percent chance of death" thing. Thesilentjackofalltrade interpreted that 50% chance as being in reference to main or lead characters themselves, but AFAICT the reference was to the parents of main characters.

In hindsight I see how the pronoun is ambiguous, and easily misinterpreted with the wrong referent.

[Black Aeronaut]

The Wanderer wrote:

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In hindsight I see how the pronoun is ambiguous, and easily misinterpreted with the wrong referent.

I love the guy, but this is why talking to him about story stuff is so difficult at times.  He'll spend fifteen minutes trying to explain something to me, and then I'll finally twig to the fact that during his entire explanation he keeps making the same usage error...  over and over and over again.

[LilFluff]

After a year an announcement for Nope: Hesitant Heroine has been made. A starting date hasn't been given, but a partner and book length has been (Muun, aka Alex Singer, of Sfeer Theory; and 100 pages posted first as a webcomic then offered in print).
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Will the transhumanist future have catgirls? Does Japan still exist? Well, there is your answer.

[Black Aeronaut]

WHAT!?!?!

I thought this was just one of those non-starter plot bunnies! A Webcomic!?!?! AND PRINT!?