Does a story need a hero?

[zemo]

A dramatisation of real life events is always as much a doccumentary as it is a story. As such there are no real heroes or villains, as there aren't in real life.

[Morrison_Lad]

"The Godfather" doesn't really have a hero.

[Corrina]

The godfather does have a protagonist, however. Michael. And you understand exactly what he's doing and why.

As for Watchmen, I'd say Rorschach is the protagonist--and he's almost too sympathetic. We understand his motives so well that we're almost on his side.

[Lester C.]

Watchmen has no heroes.

Not true, Watchmen is saturated with heroes. This example is now dated but Watchmen is an 80s version of Marvel Civil War where the entire storyline revolves around the heroes fighting amongst themselves on how to keep the world safe. For my money the "villian" was right.

[DungeonMasterJim]

For my enjoyment, a story has to have a protagonist. And that person has to appeal to me in some way or I'm likely to not bother finishing the story.

[Impulse]

unless they're some sort of experimental work, stories need conflict. that said, the conflict doesn't need to be between human beings or analogues of such.

I'm not entirely sure I agree. Something like My Neighbour Totoro doesn't really have a conflict - the girls' mother is ill but it's distinctly something they can't fight. The story is one of whimsy and escapism.

A story needs a protagonist, not necessarily a hero.

Again, some disagreement here. Take series such as the anime Durarara!! or even Game of Thrones - both have so many plot threads going on, and give equal focus to so many characters, that it's hard to pin down any one protagonist or 'main character'. I suppose you could view them as X number of individual protagonists involved in their own stories, all wrapped into one interlinked whole, but I think that diminishes from how the works are meant to be taken as a whole entity.

[Little Scandal]

Watchmen has no heroes.

That movie should never have been made...ever.

But to answer the question: yes. anyone watching/reading anything should have someone to 'connect' too or be that 'anchor' that balances the story/theme whether they are the good guys or bad. If you don't then it would feel like the subject matter or whatever point they are trying to make, is being shoved down your throat.

[FanboyStranger]

Tucci played Adolf Eichmann, he was the organizer of the meeting. The biggest holdouts were Colin Firth (Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart) and David Threlfall (Ministerialdirektor Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Kritzinger). Stuckart objected on what one might call pragmatic grounds (If we kill the Jews that are married to Germans who gets the inheritance? Do we issue divorce papers? Can they re-marry? Etc.) and Kritzinger almost made a moral objection, but he never managed to actually say "This is wrong" and Heydrich (The monster) managed to secure his threatened cooperation before they reached the climax. So, really, there wasn't even a holdout; it ended with all of them saying "We're agreed? Good, let's get to work." There was never even a final persuasion.

Yeah, I realized after I wrote the post that Tucci's character was very much acting as Kenneth Branagh's clerk in the film. (I saw the movie when it first came out years ago, and while the themes and arguments of the movie are very much in my memory, I couldn't remember who played and where they stood, except Brannagh and the fat guy who was more concerned about eating than genocide.)

That's the difference between a protagonist and a hero. A protagonist drives the action, and Threlfall's character did resist Heydrich's arguments throughout most of the movie creating the drama. A hero would stand up to Heydrich's arguments on a moral ground.

[FanboyStranger]

Again, some disagreement here. Take series such as the anime Durarara!! or even Game of Thrones - both have so many plot threads going on, and give equal focus to so many characters, that it's hard to pin down any one protagonist or 'main character'. I suppose you could view them as X number of individual protagonists involved in their own stories, all wrapped into one interlinked whole, but I think that diminishes from how the works are meant to be taken as a whole entity.

Everytime the point of view changes in A Game of Thrones, you have a new protagonist. When Tyrion is the focus, Tyrion is the protagonist. When Dany is the focus, Dany is the protagonist. Those individual stories add up to a whole story.

[Morrison_Lad]

The godfather does have a protagonist, however. Michael. And you understand exactly what he's doing and why.

As for Watchmen, I'd say Rorschach is the protagonist--and he's almost too sympathetic. We understand his motives so well that we're almost on his side.

Oh "The Godfather" definitely has a protagonist, I agree. And it even, at least for me, has a more or less sympathetic character -- well, not sympathetic, bust someone you can "like" -- in Don Corleone. But there really isn't anyone who is a hero.