Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp - Posts Tagged "protagonists"

More on the hero of The Straggler's Mask.



He's not the first of my main characters even in his setting (Aurel would hold that distinction, though there's a version of Mirari that's even older), but not only did he end up to be the first one to be published, ever since his conception the vast majority of my story ideas involve him. I guess it's his inherent underdogness – small, weak, and meek – the near-guarantee that he'll be at a serious disadvantage in almost any situation he's put, that makes it easy to write stuff about him. I like underdogs.

Peal hatched in midsummer of the year 1554, as the phase of storm was shifting to rift, under particularly inauspicious auguries. At that time an especially violent thunderstorm was rolling its way above the hills, the forests, the town of Floris, and this one bugbear burrow. Then just as the very first crack appeared in an egg, just as the shaman lit a candle so that a shadow was cast and the newborn was granted a soul - the whole tribe was shaken by the absolutely loudest thunderclap that anyone could remember, like the skies themselves were seriously angered by something no underdweller could even begin to guess.

And so he was named, Peal-Of-Peeved-Heaven. Just Peal, for short. (I don't think he's ever given his full name to anyone actually.)

To a human this may sound like a pretty cool name with a badass origin, but to a bugbear it's... well, imagine if a really awesome and well-respected seer came over when you were born, looked at her seeing stones and fish guts and what have you, then solemnly named you Blind Joe. Even though your eyes work fine. How would that make you feel? How do you think other children would take it, and how would they treat you?

Bugbears like to pride themselves for their stealth, being unseen and silent, and see these traits as the only reason they can survive or prosper in the world at all. Being named basically the antithesis of the whole thing, Peal had few friends in his childhood, and was bullied a lot. No one gave him any respect: he tried hard to be as quiet as the others, but they'd always just laugh and (falsely) claim they could hear him coming from three tunnels away. In truth he was only ever, at worst, a little bit less quiet than the rest - even that because of his insecurities and lack of encouragement.

Usually he'd timidly take all this abuse, but every once in a while his temper would blow over and he would stand up to himself... loudly. As you might imagine, this only made things worse. He got into a few fights that - being nearly always outnumbered - he was bound to lose.

One of the few exceptions to this treatment was a girl bugbear named Floe. A bit older and bigger than him or his peers, she dissuaded the others from picking on him where she could, treated his injuries, comforted him, and was generally really nice to him - a tiny glimmer of warmth in an otherwise rather gloomy life. This not only led to him developing a crush the size of a moon towards her, it had a profound impact on him that would carry on to the rest of his days.

In the emberspring of 1561, some time before his seventh birthday, a number of his peers got each other dared into going outside the burrow, having a breath of the greater world around them, and seeing their shadows. At an age equivalent to a thirteen-year-old human, Peal was pressured into joining, and Floe (who'd gone through the same dare a year before) went along with them to make sure it'd all be okay. This is where things flipped around in a way that no one could foresee and that came to have a lasting impact in not just his life, but the world as a whole.

For a reason or another, Peal was just slightly more taken by the outside world than the others, and a little bit less frightened. He lingered for a bit to look at the stars... then followed a noise, wanted to have a look at the spoils of a battlefield, and came face to face with a dying human hero that gave him the Call to Adventure.

And for all his fears and insecurities, great many desires conspired to accept this Call: he wanted to see more of the world, to get his hands to this treasure promised at the end, to show off to his peers, and to impress his crush.

(A bit of spoilers for The Straggler's Mask follow. Spoiler tags don't seem to work, for reasons I can't tell.)

He had his highs and lows.

He got to experience true and overwhelming loneliness for the first time in his life, but he also made a number of genuine lifelong friends. He got to see endless expanses of the world and even beyond it, realize that there was more to see than he could see in a thousand lifetimes - but it all also nearly got him killed more often than he could count. He learned that the magic mask of courage on him was actually not magic at all, and that the courage was inside of him the whole time. He got his share of the treasure, but by that time had learned that the true treasure he'd attained was something far more than gold or jewelry. He grew to fill the shoes of the hero everyone thought he was, and irrevocably altered the destiny of a world far greater than himself. He returned home at the back of a dragon, to the tune of Return To The Tribe by Edguy.

But it was no longer the home he'd left behind.

No one bullied him anymore. Instead, unexpectedly to him, they came to fear and detest him for all the things he'd seen and done, having truly walked the world above and returned: it's like you never left your house and then went on to spend a year in hell. He had changed: he'd become something none of them, not even Floe, could understand anymore - nor could he understand them in turn.

And he couldn't fit in any better: it felt like such a small place now, cramped and stifling, when the wide world above called for him.

He lasted for maybe a few months - through his eighth birthday - before heading on out once again. He would still visit home, every once in a while over the years - but each visit would be after a longer time than the last, and each time he'd find that they remembered less of him, having reduced him to the status of a folk hero, a cautionary tale, or even a terror in the dark, a haunter, a living shadow.




Over the years to come, Peal goes on to leave his mark into the world in many ways. His activities run the whole gamut between saving children from predators, and taking an active side in the cosmic war between the forces of Law and Chaos. He brings balance to little towns, but also has a hand in toppling entire evil empires as much as rebuilding good ones. He travels to other worlds, alternate dimensions, even the streams of time itself. The high and the mighty come to know his name, and great many of the rest can feel the impact of his deeds.

Problem is, he's not cut for the job at all.

Even having discovered his courage and confidence, it turned out that there isn't much of either in him. He's far from the tall, handsome, and mighty warrior-sorcerer that you'd typically imagine in this line of work. Put him next to his predecessor, Aurel, and he'd look like nothing at all. Indeed, it's often doubtful that he could take on as many as three thugs in a fair fight at once, let alone hordes of mooks like most other heroes could. With almost everyone he ever meets being twice his size, he's easily intimidated. He's naturally a pack creature, yet for his size and meekness - combined with him often facing prejudice for being some weird monstrous little goblin - he has a hard time making friends. Things are often tough for him, especially when he first arrives to a new place and has to tackle all the stares and what have you until he manages to get through someone.

What he needs the most, usually, is for someone to hold on to him, comfort him, and help him unwind all the mental and physical scars his many issues tend to leave behind - and like with Floe, doing so is more than likely to evoke feelings of deeper attraction, which in turn tends to lead to heartbreak. He has a terrible love life and is pretty much inherently incapable of long-term relationships: he'll grow to recognize this eventually, I think, but I'm not at all sure he will ever find a way to amend this flaw.

He adores children. They're small and harmless, and tend to take him for what he is - unburdened by expectations or preconceptions, all they see is some cuddly creature to shower with hugs and affection. Anyone that would harm a child, or knowingly put a child in harm's way, is in for a bad time: he'll pull all stops to put the fear of darkness in such heinous folk.

Really he just wants to see the world, marvel the sights, try the foods and drinks (apple juice is his favourite), befriend the locals, sample everything there is to offer to him, maybe fall in love and actually not blow it for once, instead of getting involved in all these heroics and cosmic wars. But still he persists, because he feels like he can make a stand - and therefore should. Give him some darkness and shadows to lurk in, a few friends to give support, and he'll get the job done.

If he survives, long enough for it to become too much to bear and for his body to start breaking up under him, he'll probably retire somewhere involving children. Perhaps he'll haunt a school or an orphanage somewhere.





(Art credits, in order: Chai, jemmyky, Ink-Stained Matchbox)

You've got your heroes who start out weak, and overcome their challenges by getting stronger, and just keep the cycle going until the story ends with them being the strongest around and having beaten everyone up. You've got your underdogs, who start out weak and never get stronger, and prevail by being quick and clever instead, and/or by relying on stronger friends. And you've got your supermen who are the strongest around, yet are constantly challenged by even stronger foes and higher stakes, or else the story is a power fantasy where we get to feel the thrill or hilarity as they beat things up with ease...

...or they're someone like Saitama.



He's the fastest thing around, nothing can harm him, and he famously beats all his challenges with a single, usually half-assed, punch. He's ridiculously OP - nothing can stand up to him. And yet in every other aspect of his being... he kind of sucks. He's just a regular guy. He has trouble managing his finances, isn't very good at video games, and struggles with the sheer boredom and ennui that his superpowers have brought him. It's a great juxtaposition, demonstarting that just because you possess godlike power doesn't mean your life - even mundane existence - isn't without its problems, and your godlike power might even make things worse.

Sadly, One-Punch Man is quite prone to forget its greatest strength, the superhero parody premise, and all too often devolves back into your usual stock shonen fights where enormous power and inhuman abilities duke it out. It's not bad shonen stuff, by any means, but it's kind of a missed opportunity. I'd like to see more of Saitama just trying to manage his mundane life. There was the short bit with video games once, but still.



The same story also features King, who possesses the fearsome reputation of an unbeatable hero... and only the reputation. In truth he's just a perfectly regular person, barring his phenomenal skill at video games. Basically the exact opposite of Saitama, and just as compelling to me: he gets around by staring his foes down until they submit, or coming up with some bullshit to convince them out of it, but there's a good deal of tension there in that as soon as this doesn't work, he's mush.

You see how I might like this kind of heroes the best of them all? Heroes that are basically unbeatable in one thing (doesn't have to be strength, or even related to fights at all), and beat any challenge without trouble so long as it's within their comfort zone, yet have just as much, even more, trouble as a normal person in other aspects of their lives. They can tap into a lot of experience and knowledge, but they also have great weaknesses that they all too often need to get around. It's the best of both worlds - underdogs, and the occasional power fantasy!

Not to mention, it's a perfect reason to make friends: bring forth some more well-rounded heroes to support them, to play off of them, and to have great mutual character growth and friendship and romance. Perhaps these friends are also really good at something but suck at something else, giving an even greater contrast and more things to distinct them. If I didn't do that, I'd just have to rely on subtle stuff like personalities and goals and likes and dislikes... like an actual good author would. No thanks.

Let's count the guys.

There's Peal, of course. He's far beyond just your regular sneaky little rodent - he has a deep inborn insight to all matters of stealth, subterfuge, and subtlety. He can hind himself or others or things up to a vast starship, set up your internet on absolute incognito mode with like a dozen proxies, and find Waldo, all with about equal ease. And yet he tends to crumble in social situations, is easily browbeaten or charmed if you can see him and stare him down, is hard to be taken seriously what with how cute and cuddly he looks - and he's plain starved for affection and can't handle being alone, ensuring this weakness will always come up sooner or later.

His best friend, Ivar Stormling, is also his exact opposite in this regard. He's a people person - charismatic, handsome, with big presence and a loud voice, not to mention a great personality and desire for good things for everybody. He can rouse the entire kingdom to follow his lead in a pinch. Yet, he's terribly unsubtle and simple-minded, and tends to have trouble approaching challenges from any other direction than straight head-on. He's honest and honourable to a fault, less because he thinks this leaves the best impact in the world (though he does), and more because he just doesn't have the imagination to lie or cheat. And when put in a bind, he tends to default to violence: often it catches the foe off-guard and gets him the advantage, but just as often it leads to even bigger trouble.

But when the two of them join forces, they can complement their strength while eliminating each other's weaknesses. Together, there's almost nothing they cannot do.

Sadly, the next three aren't as lucky.

Mirari Aedelwine is also good with people, albeit more with individuals than with crowds. She knows how other people work, what they think, what they feel, and can with quite the ease figure out their motivations and background, just from a quick conversation. And it's just as easy for her to get under their skin, make them want to do what she wants them to do, or destroy them verbally. Good at sleight of hand and misdirection, as well. But when she doesn't have anyone to talk to or swindle, in the case of beasts or eldritch horrors or some environmental challenge... well, she's not incompetent, but she is in trouble just the same. Not quite as extreme a minmaxed example as some others here, but she definitely counts.

Keam Vitrio is the fastest man in the cosmos - no one in the two galaxies of the setting can come even close to a match. If he's ever involved in a race, all the bets concern themselves with the second place, because the first place's decided before anything even happens. And he's a smug, unrepentant douche about it. Terribly high opinion of himself. Most people can't handle his company very long. It's lonely at the top - and boring, far more so than even he himself realizes. He wins on the racetrack, but typically loses elsewhere at the same time.



Last, and the latest in my line of heroes, Toryōshi Otsugi is one of the finest duelists in the land: she learned the way of the blade from her father, a notorious sword-saint, who had no sons and therefore had to groom his daughter into the position - and she demonstrated great talent and aptitude to it, picking up his arts and then some, almost without trying too hard. And indeed she did not try too hard - because she simply did not give a shit. She never wanted to be a warrior. She's plain sick of all the wandering swordsmen coming around to challenge her, and doesn't see the point in dueling to see who's best. She would have liked to learn to do other things, but can't find enough time for it. And perhaps worst of all, she's desperately lonely: no man would care to court her, in this feudal and patriarchal world, because she's as far away from your traditional delicate wallflower as she can get.

You could almost see her as a deconstruction of your common, by-the-numbers, Strong Female Character: she can kick ass and take names, show the men what for, yet she was thrust onto that path against her will, by a man, and now everyone around her sees her as more a man than a woman. So she's hardly your independent feminist icon. Her arc involves finding agency, deciding for herself, and growing to be her own person. But... that's really a talk for its own blog post.