I'm trying to tinker around with an idea I have been fostering for a while now. The basic run down is that each chapter takes a view from different character. The plot takes place in and around a period of times similar to the Crusades. The important piece I need help with is what type of character to use for my eastern half of the story. There are two prospective characters that could serve as my viewpoint character. A) A disgraced knight/noble turned mercenary who is barely surviving on the fringes of the "Muslim" Empire. His goal in life is to earn enough money to basically buy his way back into the "Catholic Europe" Kingdoms. As a result of his mercenary work he acquires a slave women and number of retainers that urge him to use the Crusade as a launching point for his comeback. B) A knight who was disgraced from his noble and well-established family because of a basic disagreement of opinions that lead to a violent engagement. Basically, he is kicked out of his family for questioning the statues quo of "Catholic Europe". He rose on to a hero for the peasant class. He flees to the "Muslim" Empire and eventually joins up with Character A. In the process of their travels Character B is enthralled by the workings of the "Muslim" fringes and becomes something of a mythic hero for the East. There also may or may not be a legend that Character B is trying to emulate. Basically what I'm asking is: My initial idea was to use character A and use B as one of his companions, but as I developed B he became far more interesting than character A. My dilemma is this: Does your viewpoint character necessarily have to be the most interesting guy around?
I'd say no he doesn't. It's like how people might not have the main character as their favorite character. It all depends on the way people view your characters. Someone might think character A is more interesting than B, but it's all up to how you present them really. Good luck with the story!
It's totally ok to have side characters that are way more interesting than the main. Take Harry Potter for example, many characters both good and bad come across far more interesting than Harry himself, even though Harry is the hero of the story
Make your main character whoever best serves for telling the story, then make all of your characters as interesting as you can. It doesn't matter if another character overshadows him and steals scenes - if it worked with Han Solo and Jack Sparrow, it can work for you too.
Thor is the star, but his brother have a bigger fan club It's normal in movies, and depends of the charisma of the actor (and people forget the dwarves when Thandruil appears ) And it can happen in the books too. People will always identify with different chars: some with the hero, some with the villain, and with the funny guy... I read once (don't remember where) that chars are real people, and day by day you know they better, and they become "alive" as much as you allow. And no, the POV don't need to be most interesting.
