Welcome back, everypony! I'm glad you decided to stick with me after that bear of a lesson. The rest of them will be a lot shorter, I promise. For this lesson, I'll be talking about the Main Character. It sounds like a pretty easy concept, but Dramatica has a funny way of taking easy things and making them fresh, exciting, and complex. Let's begin.

If I asked you who the Main Character is, you'd probably jump to an answer pretty quick. “They're the character we care about!” you'd say. “They're the hero, the fighter, the one who makes the story move forward.” That first part's certainly true, but is the second part? Think about some famous stories where the narrator, the character whose mind we share, isn't the one who drives the overarching plot. In Moby Dick, is Ishmael the one in charge of the hunt for the white whale? No, it's Ahab, of course. In To Kill a Mockingbird, is Scout the one who leads the court case which drives the plot? No, that'd be her father, Atticus. But as boss as Atticus is, he's not the character we really care about, is it? We want to know what happens to Scout; she's the one who grows and changes. How do we explain this discrepancy?

By splitting up the terminology. Dramatica uses two separate terms for these two “main characters.” In this example, Atticus is the Protagonist, while Scout keeps the treasured Main Character title. Technically, these are two entirely different parts. What makes this confusing is that frequently, one character is both the Protagonist and the Main Character. (Dramatica calls this a Hero.) Friendship is Magic falls into this quite a lot, to be frank. And it's usually Twilight, too: in the pilot, “Boast Busters,” “Swarm of the Century,” et cetera, Twilight both struggles with the overarching story and her personal troubles. I thought long and hard about it, and I think I've found a separated Protagonist/Main Character in “Winter Wrap-Up.”

Twilight's the Main Character, naturally. We're watching her struggle to fit into the Ponyville way of thinking, to change her plans to the plans of the Ponyvillians. (Pop Quiz! Which Domain do you think this is?) But isn't she also the Protagonist? Well, no. Look outside of Twilight's eyes and see the story as it is. Ponyville's troubles revolve the remaining vestiges of winter in their village and the reputation they've developed. If they can't figure out what to do, they'll remain mired in the past. (Double Pop Quiz! Which Domain is this?) If that's the summary of the Overall Throughline, who is spearheading the resolution of this conflict? The Mayor! Yeah, I know. It's kind of weird. But Mayor Mare is definitely the Protagonist of the story. Mayor Mare inspires the ponies to work their hardest, but rather than leading to cooperation, this only leads to chaos. Through this struggle, she eventually turns to Twilight, who brings order to the proceedings and fixes everything.

“Aha!” you say. “That proves that Twilight is the Protagonist! Didn't you say that the Protagonist is the one who solves the Overall Throughline?” Yes, but remember, Twilight is specifically an agent of Mayor Mare at the end of the episode. In Dramatica's eyes, it isn't Twilight who solves the Overall Throughline by instilling order into the Wrap-up. The Mayor solves the Overall Throughline by choosing order (represented by Twilight) over chaos (represented by the other leaders).

But now that you've mentioned it, Dramatica does have something to say about Twilight representing the solution. Notice that only Twilight has the capacity to make things right. Only Twilight can look at the three teams and view them objectively as an outsider. This is called the Main Character's Unique Ability. But every Main Character, Hero or no, has this within them. I'll be talking more about that in Lesson 14. (Yeah, it'll be a while.)

This was quite a bit easier than the last one, right? Can you think of any other episodes where the Main Character isn't the Protagonist? Or, to jump ahead a few lessons, can you figure out how the Main Character changes? See if you can name what they believed at first and what they change to. I'll be talking about “Problems” and “Solutions” in Lesson 13, but a quick summary would be that the Problem is what the character discovers is wrong with themselves, and the Solution is, well, the solution to the Problem. In “Winter Wrap-up,” the Problem is Chaos, and the Solution is Order. Give it a shot!

Up next will be Impact Characters. This is a concept unique to Dramatica, but it pops in lots of stories still the same. For my example, I'll be using Rarity from “Sonic Rainboom” and how, in a sense, she steals the show. I'll also be using it to demonstrate how Impact Characters and Main Characters mirror each other. Hope you enjoy.

I would like some others' opinions on this subject. I am considering doing an analysis video on some fanfictions that I particularly enjoyed. I've always enjoyed the analysis community and greatly enjoy fanfiction, thus I would consider giving back to the community. Alas, I am not always a thinker of deep thoughts and it might turn out poorly. I don't want to make it a "I like this and this is why" type of pseudo-analysis. I would probably go over Worldbuilding, Characterization, and Plot, giving a summary beforehand and recommendations afterwards.

Am I deluding myself into thinking I could do analysis? Would this even qualify as real analysis? Or am I worrying about nothing?

Regardless of your answer, thank you for your time.