A Data Scientist Found Out Who the Real Main Character Was on “Friends”

The protagonist is the main character of the story, who holds the plot and, generally, is the center of attention of the story. They are better characterized than the rest of the characters, and a more significant amount of information about him or her is revealed with respect to the rest of the cast. The protagonist participates in the most relevant events in the show's history, and as a rule, it is his or her actions that make the plot advance.

In a story, there may be several protagonists, in which case all are equally relevant and all fundamentally trigger events in the plot. Often, when secondary characters participate in the story very often (like the inseparable friends of the protagonist), it is very common to confuse these with protagonists.

Who was the main character of Friends?

Friends was a series about six friends from New York. Each with their adventures and authentic dialogues. They got into the hearts of the generation of the ’90s and 2000s. However, between Chandler Bing, Phoebe Buffay, Monica Geller, Ross Geller, Rachel Green, and Joey Tribbiani, there was someone who stood out.

The data scientist Yashu Seth has presented a careful investigation in which he tries to solve an issue around fiction: who was the real protagonist of the six? Because however much it was a choral series, inevitably one of the “colleagues” would end up imposing the rest taking into consideration the plots that revolved around him, his number of dialogues and even time on screen.

The methodology of the quantitative analysis of the sitcom would delight the paleontologist grid: Seth downloaded a transcript of the ten seasons (236 episodes, to change) and used different parameters, among which are the number of lines of dialogue that corresponded to each character, the number of words per episode for each, and the number of appearances on stage, either alone or in a group.  The result will not be particularly surprising, or maybe it will.

According to the data researcher, Yashu Seth, the protagonist of the series was Ross Geller. The suffering lover and brother of Monica, according to various data, was the central axis among the friends who enjoyed going for coffee at Central Perk.

This is because Ross has more than 9,000 lines of dialogue -Rachel also crosses that mark-and he has the most solo scenes with the number being 150. Also, his dramatic arcs mark a significant part of the seasons. He is the one who has the most appearances in seasons 1, 2, 3 and 10. He is entirely the opposite of Phoebe, who has fewer solo and line moments, but she is the character that a lot of fans love the most due to her quirkinesses and animated style.

The conclusion:

However, it’s essential to realize that regardless of what the data says, it is the relationship between the characters that makes the story so lovable and successful and all of them had moments that have stolen a part of our heart.