The Orphan Protagonist
Often in fiction, whether fantasy, science fiction or some dystopian setting, the protagonist is an orphan, or their parents are killed off early in the story. This can be seen in a number of stories such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Attack on Titan, Batman, Jane Eyre, The Last Kingdom, Captain America, Daredevil, Naruto, and Berserk to name a few.
Now, I am not saying that because of this trope these stories are inherently bad. In fact, some of these stories are some of my all-time favorite properties of fiction. I am however pointing out a common motif within storytelling. Why then do so many stories have protagonists that are orphans or quickly become orphans within the opening act? I believe it is because of three main reasons.
1. Easy Sympathy
If an author wants their audience to immediately get behind their protagonist a simple way to do so is to put their protagonist (who is normally a child) through extreme sorrow. And what could be more saddening than the loss of one’s parents? This plot device can instantly elicit feelings of sympathy from the audience. These orphan characters are stripped of their source of love. Therefore, the audience feels an obligation to love the character because the character has been deprived of it.
2. Quest Motivation
Any good story needs to have conflict. Without conflict there is no story. Sometimes the hardest part about writing a story is not writing exciting or interesting conflict but selling why the protagonist is involved with the conflict at all. How many times have you been watching a movie and wondered: “why is this thing/person so important to this character again?” When a protagonist is an orphan their involvement in the plot’s conflict is much easier to sell to the audience. Perhaps their parents have been murdered and they are seeking revenge or justice, as in the case with Batman. Maybe the only believable way to get the protagonist to ‘leave the farm’ is by eliminating their parents, thus freeing them from any prior obligations. This can be observed in Star Wars (even though it’s Luke’s aunt and uncle the same logic still applies).
3. Parents Can be Hard
Parents in fiction can present a number of challenges. Sometimes the parents overshadow the main character. Like what if the writer accidently makes the father too badass? The writer doesn’t want to detract from their protagonist early on in the story when they are still trying to convince their reader to like the main character. Fictional parents can also be difficult to write. Creating the protagonist’s background story is hard enough and writing an additional two more can simply be too challenging for some writers. Sometimes the writer just wants to jump right into their protagonist’s story.
Orphan protagonists are nothing new and will most likely continue to be staples of fiction. Despite the commonalty of orphan protagonists, stories who do not follow this trend can immediately set themselves apart from the rest. However, simply avoiding a trope does not automatically ensure success.
