Contagonist

Update 12/09:

Ingo the prince is now both the skeptic, and contagonist.

Old Material:

A contagonist is a character who represents the opposite philosophical point of view from the main character.

I originally thought the contagonist would be another person who wants to prevent Kō from being with Love Interest, and enforce Kō’s social isolation. He also wanted Rangi and Papa to reunite. Maybe because this character is intensely devoted to the status quo, so that the rules and authority of the tribe are extraordinarily important, only trumped by the divinity of Rangi and Papa.

But now I’m not sure there needs to be another character since Tāwhirimātea is acting as the subjective counter-point to Kō’s philosophy.

On the other hand, since Kō’s arc goes through total belief in love above all else, to a more balanced view, and Tāwhirimātea also believes in love above all, maybe the contagonist can hold the opposite view: love is meaningless and the only thing that matters is social expectations.

Maybe this character should be Sidekick’s father, a chief who stands to gain by their marriage?

Another alternative, is that Sidekick himself is the contagonist. Since the structural role of the contagonist is just to deflect the protagonist from the story goal, maybe sidekick can be that deflection by simply bumbling: maybe his attempts to help as the sidekick cause more problems than they solve, and Kō is distracted by having to fix things for him.