At the heart of any compelling story is conflict. One character wants something, another character (or force) doesn’t want them to have it. The characters locked in conflict are commonly referred to as the protagonist and antagonist. While this is technically correct, it is dramatically incomplete. 

In the days of the Greek theater, the protagonist was the most important character while their antagonist simply opposed them. Storytelling has evolved, becoming ever more complex. 

While the primary point of view (POV) of a story is frequently provided by a proactive protagonist – it doesn’t have to be. The primary POV character may also be reactive to their opposition’s goal. For instance, the protagonist decides their goal and pursues it while the hero is compelled into action by a villain’s nefarious goal. Without the villain, the hero would have no goal.

The protagonist and hero dramatically serve their stories in significantly different ways, but they are both main characters whose central conflict is resolved in the climax.

Here we will review the key characteristics and descriptions of all six main character types. In addition to the protagonist and the hero, there’s the resister, the trailblazer, the observer, and the leader.

We’ll also bring the story elements together in a single sentence to show how a logline might be written for each main character type, but not the only way. Instead of calling it a template, let’s call it “Logline Logic.” We’ll wrap up each main character type with an example logline.

Understanding how these main character types are used in a story will be necessary to accurately describe the story’s central conflict in a logline. Additionally, it will aid in developing conflict or diagnosing story issues. 

Charlie (Brendan Fraser) in The Whale. Photo courtesy of A24

1) The Protagonist 

Key Characteristics: Proactive, goal-seeking, flawed, has personal stakes.

Description: The protagonist drives the narrative. They maintain the predominant POV throughout the story. In the beginning, their status quo is interrupted. External triggering events force them to act towards a specific goal. This is the central conflict which will be resolved in the climax. If they fail to address their flaw, they will experience specific, deeply meaningful, personal negative consequences. 

Logline Logic: “In a specific setting, when triggering events change the circumstances for a flawed protagonist, they must set out to achieve an external, achievable goal against seemingly overwhelming opposition in order to avoid deeply personal stakes.”

Note: While this Logline Logic indicates generic conflict based on story elements, the logline itself must describe the story’s specific conflict. 

Logline Example: The Whale: “Facing his own mortality, a morbidly obese, agoraphobic English professor must reconcile with the daughter he abandoned years prior to prove to himself his life wasn’t wasted.”

Ken (Ryan Gosling) and Barbie (Margot Robbie) in Barbie. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

2) The Hero 

Key Characteristics: Reactive to a villain’s goal or an oppositional force, seeks justice/restoration on behalf of others.

Description: Heroes don’t always wear capes. They can be seemingly ordinary people, like doctors, lawyers, firemen, or toys.  While the opposition’s active “goal” drives the narrative, the hero has the predominant POV. It is the opponent’s goal that will be described in the logline. The triggering events make the opposition clear. Whether the opposition is a character or a force, the hero will need to find a way for others to endure or overcome. They may be reluctant – at first. Although the stakes are meaningful to the hero, they are not necessarily personal. They typically risk everything on behalf of others in their pursuit of justice or the restoration of the status quo. 

Logline Logic: In a specific setting, when an overpowering villain initiates a nefarious plan or when an overpowering oppositional force threatens society, a hero must find a way for others to endure or to restore their status quo.

Logline Example: Barbie: “Every day is perfect for Stereotypical Barbie – until she experiences strange existential thoughts, but when she ventures to the real world to fix it, Ken discovers the power of patriarchy, transforming Barbieland into Kenland, now she must prevent it from becoming permanent!”

J. Robert Oppenheiner (Cillian Murphy) in Oppenheimer. Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures.

3) The Trailblazer 

Key Characteristics: Has already changed, refuses to comply with the demands of society, not goal driven, personal stakes continually rise until a breaking point in the climax.

Description:  The trailblazer challenges established customs, thoughts, or beliefs, while the opposition demands conformity. This can be found in coming-of-age stories, where a naive main character is attempting to live in an unfamiliar but established environment. Triggering events lead to negative consequences that will continue to worsen until they are either accepted in the new world, or forced to flee or die. Their goal of acceptance is a reaction to the force of culture which demands they conform. Depending on context, conforming to the new world may be viewed as triumphant or tragic. The stakes are deeply meaningful and personal. 

Logline Logic: In an established society, a rebellious trailblazer challenges a powerful opposition that demands conformity, now they must somehow find acceptance, or be forced to flee.

Logline Example: Oppenheimer: “A decade after successfully developing the Atomic Bomb, a conflicted Oppenheimer warns of nuclear proliferation, but when his Top Secret clearance must be renewed, powerful men attempt to silence him using his past affiliations with known communists.”

Bella Baxter (Emma Stone) in Poor Things. Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

4) The Resister 

Key Characteristics: Wants to remain as they were, has no external goal other than to endure or survive, personal stakes continually rise until a breaking point in the climax.

Description: The resister is so named because they resist change. Their circumstances are changing, and they want nothing more than to remain as they were. Facing the wrath of Mother Nature, monsters, demons, and aliens, or simply holding steadfast to established customs or beliefs, the resister must find a way to endure or survive. Triggering events do not force the resister to pursue a goal. However, the negative consequences for not conforming keep rising until the resister either accepts the change, or they die, metaphorically or not. The important thing for the audience to understand is why the resister feels they must endure. This may be the result of a flawed way of thinking. 

Logline Logic: When the resister finds themself in a changing setting they cannot simply leave or ignore, they must survive or endure an oppositional force or overcome a monster that would destroy them.

Logline Example: Poor Things: “After a pregnant woman dies by suicide, a surgeon discovers her fetus is still alive and transplants the child’s brain into her mother’s re-animated body, creating a rapidly evolving sexual and intellectually curious woman who must endure an ever-pernicious patriarchy.” The first half of the logline conveys necessary context, while the second half defines the central conflict for a resister.

Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) in Killers Of The Flower Moon. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures/ Apple Original Films

5) The Observer 

Key Characteristics: Witnesses or narrates the story of another character known as the focus character.

Description: The observer is more than a simple storytelling device. When a character who is the focus of the story is not easily relatable, or when the subject is too difficult or complex, the audience may lose interest, or simply not engage. A solution can be to have a second character do the heavy lifting, helping the audience to understand what’s going on, or to be the first to empathize with the focus character if they are unrelatable. Nearly everything we learn about a focus character is conveyed through the POV of their observer. The focus character also lacks some story elements expected of a main character. Sometimes the focus character’s story illuminates the needs of the observer. In these instances, late in the story, a reluctant observer may finally take on the role of protagonist or hero. When writing the logline, both the observer and the focus characters make an appearance. 

Logline Logic: In a specific setting or context, triggering events express the story of a focus character and the effect they have on the observer, and perhaps forcing a reluctant observer into action.

Logline Example: Killers of the Flower Moon: “In 1920s Oklahoma, after oil is discovered on the Osage Reservation, a simple but unscrupulous war veteran marries a wealthy native woman as a part of his powerful uncle’s murderous scheme to inherit her family’s fortune.”

Jake (Sam Worthington) in Avatar: The Way Of The Water. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

6) The Leader 

Key Characteristics: Opposition drives the narrative, emerges from an ensemble cast to have the predominant POV.

Description: Whether the opposition is a villain, monster or any of the oppositional forces, an ensemble of potential victims allows the leader to rise and have the predominant POV, if not in the whole movie, at the very least in the climax. The leader may simply be the final survivor in a slasher horror or disaster flick. Each attack is a triggering event that pushes a character into the leader role. Each member of the ensemble provides an opportunity to raise the stakes. The leader may have an epiphany for how to defeat the opposition, setting in motion a climactic battle. Or they may sacrifice themselves to save others, like a hero. It may also be that the leader alone must endure the unimaginable. The logline focuses on the setting/context and the opposition. It should mention both the leader and ensemble, and describe their meaningful stakes.

Logline Logic: In a specific context or setting, when an overpowering villain or monster initiates a nefarious plan or when an overpowering oppositional force threatens a group, one of its members rises up to the challenge and defeat the opposition, to save others or to simply to survive.

Logline Example: Avatar: The Way of Water: “Sixteen years after repelling a paramilitary occupation, Jake and Neytiri peacefully raise their children, but when the ruthless Quaritch returns to Pandora in Avatar form, they relocate to a remote seaside village, but they can’t outrun his relentless pursuit.”