Third Wheel or Trifecta Gold? The Tritagonist’s Place in Storytelling

A tritagonist is the third most important character in a story, a step behind the protagonist and whoever the second most important character is (deuteragonist, antagonist, or otherwise). 

Like most theatrical concepts, the tritagonist can be traced back to ancient Greece, where theater troupes consisted of only three main actors (outside of a sizable chorus). One actor would take on the role of protagonist, or the main character, and the other two, called the deuteragonist and the tritagonist, would have to play everyone else. 

In a modern context, the tritagonist is simply a character who is really important — just not quite as important as the two main ones. They sound similar, but it’s important not to confuse tritagonists with tertiary characters, who are minor characters by definition.

Characteristics of tritagonists

Whether you’re trying to write your own tritagonist or recognize one in a narrative, keep in mind that tritagonists have the following qualities.

• Critical to the plot: “Third most important” doesn’t necessarily sound like the superlative you’d want in your high school yearbook, but consider that stories often have dozens of characters. If a character isn’t actively moving the plot along, they probably aren’t the tritagonist.
• Three-dimensional: Tritagonists should have their own wants, needs, and clear motivations.
• Can support or oppose the protagonist: Tritagonists are often friends of the protagonist, but they don’t have to be. Some serve as loving adversaries, keeping the protagonist in check, while others are blatant antagonists.
• Part of a trio: As the name implies, the most obvious way to use a tritagonist is in a group of three. As anyone who’s ever been in a group of three friends knows, the relationships are rarely perfectly balanced. That’s true in art as well. Whichever trio member has the weaker bond with the clear protagonist will end up in the tritagonist position by default.
• May not exist: If you can’t find a way to work in an obvious tritagonist, don’t sweat it. Unlike protagonists and antagonists, a tritagonist doesn’t have to exist to have a clear dramatic structure. In more ensemble-heavy pieces, it may not be clear who takes on the role, if there is one at all.

Jenna Maroney and Tracy Jordan, “30 Rock” (2006–2013)

At its core, the workplace sitcom’s main conflict is between head writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) and her boss Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) over the fate of her late-night sketch show, “TGS.” If the tritagonist can’t be “TGS” itself, it’s certainly personified by its main actors, vain and airheaded Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) and erratic and goofy Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan). Both are ultimately loveable (if not insufferable), but trying to wrangle both characters’ giant personalities becomes a main focus of the series. And although their bad behavior is a constant foil to Liz trying to put on a decent show, they also serve that tritagonist confidant role, occasionally offering Liz genuine friendship and help—whether on accident or on purpose.

Mabel Mora, “Only Murders in the Building” (2021–present)

This murder mystery sitcom follows three unlikely friends on their quest to solve crime in their Upper West Side apartment building: aging actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), washed up director Oliver Putnam (Martin Short), and struggling artist Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez). It’s a bit less clear which of the three is the protagonist (our bets are on Charles), but it’s Mabel who emerges as the clear tritagonist. In every way, Mabel is the outsider. She’s young, she’s a woman, and she’s a new tenant in the building where the other two have lived for decades. But with that outsider status comes the benefit of independence, and season after season, Mabel is the most likely to strike out on her own and call her own shots. She’s trustworthy and comparatively quick (both literally and figuratively), and her lack of shared history means she’s not afraid to call out the other two when they’re out of line.

Jay Pritchett, “Modern Family” (2009–2020)

“Modern Family” centers around three interconnected families: loveable curmudgeon Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), who has remarried a much younger woman, Gloria (Sofia Vergara), as well as his two adult children, Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), who both have families of their own. While there’s no doubt patriarch Jay is a standout in this ensemble comedy, he’s the likely tritagonist not because of his importance to the family, but due to the ways he interacts with the plot. Jay is incredibly stubborn and stuck in his ways, making him more likely to act as a roadblock to his children than the other way around. Between that and a buddy-buddy sibling dynamic between Mitchell and Claire that Jay can’t compete with, it’s clear he’s the third most important member of the trio to the story.

If you’ve never heard of a tritagonist and not every story even has a tritagonist, why bother using them at all? You may want to consider incorporating a tritagonist if you want to:

• Keep things interesting: If the examples listed are any indication, tritagonists are especially useful in the context of longer narratives such as sitcoms and other television shows, where the protagonist/antagonist setup may get redundant very quickly.
• Take the sidekick to the next level: What’s better than one sidekick for your protagonist? Two sidekicks. Audiences love trios, and just because one may emerge as slightly more important than the other doesn’t mean it’s not a dynamic worth exploring.
• Diversify your main characters: The tritagonist often adds a different perspective from that of your protagonist, whether it’s due to their differing age, gender, race, or life experience. Use that to your advantage, since a variety of worldviews can only serve to enrich your piece and widen its appeal to a larger audience.