What are the true levels of importance for characters?

[MJN SEIFER]

(same pack, but different “level” – also different gender as well) are taken out of their home (typically just as something important was going to go down with one of them) and basically have to find their way back home. Sounds simple right? Well boys and girls, that’s one mistake we tend to make far too often – the journey they face is so gripping and intense, almost as much so as the growing relationship between the two of them (see? It’s all there!)

In a book, movie, game, or anything that has a storyline; what is the overall level of importance of the characters used? It's obviously the "Main Character" first right? That's why S/he is the Main Character - even if the other characters get a ton of background development, the Main Character is the main focus, I'm sure.

I'd like to assume that the "Interest" is next, not just because I'm a sucker for romance, but also because it makes sense. For most stories I'd say the Interest is like the second Main Character.

I dunno who's next, but obviously if there's a "Villain" in the storyline s/he is obviously very important too, since s/he is automatically the Main Character's enemy (regardless of whether they know each other yet or not), so will get a lot of focus in the storyline too. However I don't know if s/he is third on the list or not...

Thoughts?

[Jiro]

Your villain can have varying levels of importance. As a general rule though I would put your MC first, then your main villain, as the trade offs between these two are the story (usually). Your other protagonists and antagonists slot in however they fall.

[Pheesh]

If we're talking a very stock standard movie/book plot then you'd usually have a character who is brainier than the main character but not as heroic or courageous, they could slot in as fourth. Or you could put the character who is incredibly loveable and eventually has to die. Traitors are also prone to making appearances.

[Namingway]

Somewhere in there might be an "Experience" protagonist as well. A veteran of some kind, sort of like Auron in FFX.

[Vyk]

I'd say style or substance are really important and often over/under used which causes things to fall flat. If you've ever seen movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko, Brick, a lot of people liked those movies simply by how they were presented, despite how confusing they were to a lot of people, and even the people who understood them perfectly may have been turned off had they been presented differently

A movie that comes to mind right now is called Outlander. I'm not even sure how this movie got green-lighted for production. A space-man crash landing in viking times and having to team up with the vikings to help slay an alien that he accidentally brought with him. That kinda plot can easily fall flat on its face, and the first time I heard about it I figured it was going to be a ridiculous movie, considering how Hollywood works these days. But it was done extremely well. It took itself seriously and hit pretty much all the right chords, and presented a really well done "Grendel" type story

If you know what you're doing and how to present it, you can make garbage amazing. Style and substance are important. Just don't have too much of one or the other

[Crop]

Somewhere in there might be an "Experience" protagonist as well. A veteran of some kind, sort of like Auron in FFX.

Yeah, there are quite a few movies/books etc where most of the story revolves around the new guy and the veteran. You can have pretty much just those two as the only main characters and still work it really well. Se7en springs to mind. Although the focus of that movie wasn't on that fact that one was new and one was a veteran.

[Mirage]

I'd say style or substance are really important and often over/under used which causes things to fall flat. If you've ever seen movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Donnie Darko, Brick, a lot of people liked those movies simply by how they were presented, despite how confusing they were to a lot of people, and even the people who understood them perfectly may have been turned off had they been presented differently

I personally thought Eternal Sunshine [...] was really easy to understand, at least compared to Donnie Darko :p.

And that new movie you're talking about, I think it sounds like a crazy good time.