Ross is the Main Character on Friends

Thanks to Marauder and the readers!Affirmative CaseThe Everyman & The Damsel in DistressWhen we meet Ross, he has few remarkable attributes and is easily one of the least unique members of the group. At the same time, he is surrounded by absurdity; his friends are odd, his wife left him for another woman, and the love of his life, Rachel, shows up one day in a wedding dress. An otherwise normal character who is faced with unusual circumstances is known as an Everyman [http://tinyurl.com...]. Famous examples include Leonard (The Big Bang Theory), Jerry (Seinfeld), and Ted (How I Met Your Mother). These characters are protagonists; their normalcy in the face of insanity provides the audience with someone to identify with and use as a standard by which to judge the progress of the story. Compare this with Rachel, who we first see alone, confused, and having just run out on her wedding. As we learn more about her, we discover that she is also rich, sheltered, cries constantly, and is ignorant of the world around her (she’s never done laundry, taken out the trash, etc.). Characters portrayed as helpless, attractive, and naive are known as Damsels in Distress [http://tinyurl.com...]. Famous examples include Penny (The Big Bang Theory, season 1) and Diane (Cheers). These characters’ quirks get them lots of laughs, but those same traits disqualify them as protagonists. Rachel, like Chandler, Monica, Joey, and Phoebe, is written to be a caricature and plays off of our “normal” hero, Ross. A Hero’s JourneyRoss faces challenges and evolves throughout the series in ways indicative of a protagonist growing along with the audience. Ross’ primary struggles - his relationship with his ex-wife, raising his son, overcoming his difficulties in relationships, and his unrequited love for Rachel - are long-term plot points. Each of these elements are introduced in the first season and recur time and time again, showing slow but significant advances throughout. While Rachel’s personality traits last throughout the show, her areas of growth pretty much happen entirely in the first season; she gets a job, makes new friends, and finds her independence. Based on Con’s own synopsis, the rest of her involvement in the show involves primarily dating various people and occasionally changing jobs. The Pursuer vs the PursuedConsider the roles Ross and Rachel play in developing the show’s primary plot: their relationship. Ross has always loved Rachel and from the beginning he was the pursuer. He initiated their first kiss, sleeps with the copier girl and causes their first break-up, gets them back together, says Rachel’s name at his wedding, breaks up with both Julie and Emily for Rachel, breaks up Rachel’s relationship with Joey, and the entire final season is about him finally winning Rachel’s heart. Rachel, on the other hand, is passive in all this. Her one attempt at making an impact - flying to London to stop Ross’ wedding - ends with her hugging him and telling him good luck. Protagonists propel the story forward and she has done nothing of the sort. RebuttalsThe show begins & ends with RachelCountless series begin with the boring life of the protagonist being shaken up by the entrance of a potential love interest. Consider the pilots of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. In both cases, the lives of our average protagonists (Leonard, Ted) are changed forever when a beautiful, available woman suddenly appears (Penny, Robin). Like Rachel, these women are main characters and pivotal in the story but they are not the protagonists. Rather, they represent the start of the protagonists' long-term relationship arc. As for Rachel leaving at the end, that is another example of my Pursuer vs Pursued argument. We see the entire ordeal through the eyes of Ross, which makes sense considering protagonists must be the one confronting and resolving conflicts, not simply experiencing events as they unfold. Rachel’s career improvesEvery main character on Friends showed significant job improvements throughout the series. Ross ended up as a professor, Rachel a fashion consultant, Joey a movie star, Phoebe a masseuse, Monica a chef, and Chandler an office worker. In terms of wealth and dream fulfillment, Joey attained the greatest career success. Rachel’s relationships Con mentions one of Rachel’s suitors: Gunther. Gunther pines for Rachel throughout the show and actively damages her relationship with Ross; he mocks Ross’ advances and even caused them to break up by revealing to her that Ross cheated. In literary terms, Gunther is known as an antagonist [http://tinyurl.com...]. Antagonists are directly at odds with protagonists and work to impede their progress and make their lives difficult. As Ross is the only target of Gunther's attacks and no other characters are faced with similar conflict, we can conclude that Ross is the show's protagonist. Con's second point is that Rachel’s relationships are highlighted in the show. He does this by running through each season and relates them each to who Rachel was dating. What he does not seem to acknowledge, however, is that every single one of these relationships except one involves Ross! The one outlier - Rachel’s brief fling with Joey - ends because of Ross. Thus, if these relationships are a point in Rachel’s favor, they are a point in Ross’ favor, as well. Rachel lives with the castCon mentions that Rachel lives with the other cast members. To start, this does not indicate that she is the protagonist. Daphne, the housekeeper on Frasier, lived with the other main characters and she obviously wasn’t the protagonist (that would be Frasier). Still, this point is irrelevant as Ross lived with the other 5 cast members, too. He lives with Monica during high school flashbacks (and visits her constantly at the beginning of the show), he moves in briefly with Phoebe, then with Joey and Chandler, and finally Rachel moves in with him at the end of the series.