Talk:Nemo/@comment-4796421-20120308163505/@comment-28768715-20170917013628

Really late reply but...

Protagonist and main character does NOT mean the same thing. And protagonist and hero doesn't mean the same thing. Antagonist and villain aren't synonyms.

A main character doesn't have to be the hero or villain. In "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Scout is the narrator and protagonist, while her father, Atticus, is the main character.

In Finding Nemo, Nemo is a main character, but Marlin is the protagonist.

A protagonist is the person in the story you root for. The one who is the leading change in story and plot. They don't have to be a hero. (Cinderella wasn't a hero, but she was the protagonist of her story.)

A main character is the character that is important to a story and plot. There are many different main characters in a story. Examples: The protagonist, antagonistic, and major supporting characters. Marlin is the central main character, and Dory is the second central character.

T he story isn't about Nemo, but of Marlin and Dory's quest to find Nemo. Hence the name "Finding Nemo." If it was just about Nemo, then it would have been called "Nemo," just like how Hercules and Aladdin are named after their protagonist and central main characters.

An antagonist is the person going up against the protagonist. Simple as that. The antagonist doesn't have to be evil, but just the person who is in the protagonist's way.

Going back to Finding Nemo, many say that Darla is the antagonist. Darla wasn't evil-- she was just a child who was just a little too excited about having a pet fish. Yet, she was unwittingly keeping Marlin from finding Nemo for that short period of time that she had Nemo.