# Let's name & discuss stories in which the title character is not the protagonist. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 18, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924 "2010-03-18T19:25:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/101 "2010-03-19T22:20:23Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Still, it’s debatable. She’s a character within a story within the film. Sorry, I can’t see it. She is never seen on-screen. She has no lines of dialogue. It’s not enough to be MENTIONED, or the founding fathers are all characters in National Treasure. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/102 "2010-03-19T22:42:56Z")
Thread nazi! ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/103 "2010-03-19T22:44:33Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Thread nazi! The term you are looking for is “sick, twisted bastard.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/104 "2010-03-19T23:30:57Z")
How about **The Name of the Rose**? “The Rose” is a character (depending on how you interpret the title), but she is not the protagonist. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/105 "2010-03-20T01:01:42Z")
It’s not really clear at all what the title of _The Name of the Rose_ refers to. It could be the peasant girl, it could be the Library, it could be life in general, it could be all of them at once. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/106 "2010-03-20T01:09:36Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > “Finding Nemo,” “Zodiac,” and “The Golden Child” are all spot on, but Glengarry Glen Ross" is not the name of a character in the play or film; it’s a real estate project, I think. … “Nemo” is the perfect example. I’m not sure I agree. I think that there were two strands to the story in Finding Nemo, and Nemo was the protagonist in his own strand. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/107 "2010-03-20T02:08:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It’s not really clear at all what the title of _The Name of the Rose_ refers to. It could be the peasant girl, it could be the Library, it could be life in general, it could be all of them at once. Like I said…“depending on how you interpret the title” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/108 "2010-03-20T18:22:01Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > I’m not sure I agree. I think that there were two strands to the story in Finding Nemo, and Nemo was the protagonist in his own strand. You may well remember the story better than me; I haven’t seen it since it was in theaters, and I was distracted by the murderous rage I was suppressing at the parent who bought his kid to the movie. Yeah, I know, kid’s movie, of course there were kids there. But the little girl was absolutely terrified by the sequence in which Nemo’s mother and siblings were killed (even though it was just implied) and spent the movie crying hysterically and begging to be taken out because she didn’t want to watch it any more, and her father made her stay. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/109 "2010-03-20T18:39:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Dracula, the novel. The character is talked about, but after the first part of Jonathan Harker’s letters (journal? been a while sisnce I read it) is rarely seen. Given the format, hard to say who the protaganist is. Kim Newman wrote _Anno Dracula_ (and some sequels) where Dracula was not defeated by Van Helsing and the Harkers. _Anno Dracula_ is set several years after the events in Dracula but it’s about people living in vampire-ruled England and their attempts to overthrow Dracula’s regime. Dracula himself is only a minor character who appears briefly. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/110 "2010-03-20T19:31:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Kim Newman wrote _Anno Dracula_ (and some sequels) where Dracula was not defeated by Van Helsing and the Harkers. _Anno Dracula_ is set several years after the events in Dracula but it’s about people living in vampire-ruled England and their attempts to overthrow Dracula’s regime. Dracula himself is only a minor character who appears briefly. Is that the one with the naked vampire Queen Victoria and the batmonster Red Baron? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/111 "2010-03-20T19:40:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Is that the one with thenaked vampire Queen Victoria and the batmonster Red Baron Yes and no.Queen Victoria was in _Anno Dracula_. But it was Dracula who was naked not her. The Red Baron was in one of Newman’s sequel, _The Bloody Red Baron_. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/112 "2010-03-20T21:25:18Z")
_Julia._ The protagonist is Julia’s friend Lillian Hellman. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/113 "2010-03-22T15:13:13Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Yes, but by your logic I don’t get to rant! Touche. Consider the objection withdrawn… Or maybe I’ll stand by it, just for spite and my own amusement. 😃 > [@cjepson](#): > > I think a lot of fantasy books probably are named after villains, gods, etc. […] _The Last Unicorn._ If you don’t think the last unicorn is the protagonist of _The Last Unicorn_, who would you propose? At worst, you’ve got an ensemble cast with her as one of the protagonists; she’s by no means a minor character. > [@Alka\_Seltzer](#): > > I thought Pan was the faun. Looking on IMDB, Pan seems to be a loose translation of faun. The original title is “El laberinto del fauno”, or the labyrinth of the faun. Pan is \*a \*faun, but he is not \*the \*faun in the film. The American release of the movie was titled \*Pan’s Labyrinth \*instead of a more direct translation like \*The Faun’s Labyrinth \*because the studio apparently thought Americans were too stupid to know what the hell a faun is. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/114 "2010-03-22T16:25:33Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > If you don’t think the last unicorn is the protagonist of _The Last Unicorn_, who would you propose? At worst, you’ve got an ensemble cast with her as one of the protagonists; she’s by no means a minor character. Yeah, after posting that I thought that was not a good example. I was thinking Schmendrick, but really, the unicorn is at least as much the protagonist as he is. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/115 "2010-03-22T16:44:30Z")
The book and movie Shiloh. Shiloh is a dog and the main character is Marty, the boy trying to rescue Shiloh from the mean Judd Travers. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/116 "2010-03-23T17:18:31Z")
A while ago in another thread someone mentioned the movie serial [Custer’s Last Stand](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1029938432/tt0027488). They were confused by the poster, and said that neither guy looks anything like Custer. It was pointed out that Custer is only a minor character in the story. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924/117 "2010-03-23T19:41:42Z")
_The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus_, unless you’re only counting titles that reference the character only. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-discuss-stories-in-which-the-title-character-is-not-the-protagonist/532924.md?page=5)