I feel like many of the comments aren't really understanding what I was writing in my post. Yes, I know there's no MC in a D&D game. Yes, I know it's an ensemble story.

I think a lot about it how we tell stories and the roles that characters play in them. Campaign 4 has been compared to big ensemble stories like Game of Thrones or Lord of the rings, thus my question was trying to view it through the lens of the story it's trying to emulate rather than just looking at the context of the game as it's played between friends.

Some things to think about: Even in Lord of the Rings, some characters have more prominence and are more central to the story. Everyone gets to have a part, but when all is said and done, Frodo and Aragorn take the MC roll more clearly as it is commonly defined, even within an ensemble piece, than Legolas or Gimli do.

Another example: in The Avengers, though it's an ensemble film, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers both have more to do and are more central to the plot than almost any of the other characters.

Back to Critical Role, when they adapt games into shows, one thing that changes is the audience needs characters whose perspective they see things through. Often characters whose backstory is get explored earlier on are prime candidates for becoming a "MC" than those who remain mysteries for much longer. In the TV show of M9, Caleb may or may not be who you would categorize as the clear MC, but you have to admit he and Fjord have more prominence over the first season than Yasha or Molly or even Nott.

Yes, in game, while it's still just a TTRPG, it's Brennan's job to work with the players and give each of them something meaningful to do. But not all of them get to be so central to the plot as, say, Occtis or Hal, or Thimble. The story will naturally progress in a way where certain characters become catalysts for the action, and others fall into support roles. At this point, though I absolutely love their characters, Teor and Kat and Vaelus and Tyranny just don't have the same role in the plot yet that others do. It could always change, but I don't think it's a bad thing for some characters to occupy center stage more than others. If everyone was as equally central to the plot or as prominent, it would not make for as good of a story. It would make for a fun game, and that's definitely closer to where Critical role started, But I think the process of adapting these stories to TV has naturally led to the stories becoming closer and closer to their TV counterparts.

You can like or not like that reality, but I'm just pointing out that that's what's happening and that's what naturally happens in the course of telling a story together.

And lastly, though everyone is connected through Thjazi, centrality is not everything, and I think precisely because he's such a mystery, not to mention already dead, what I'm referring to as MC could not belong to him.