Aren't the Main Character and the Impact Character also part of the Overall Story?

The Main Character and the Impact Character will each have a role in the Overall Story besides their explorations of their own throughlines. From the Overall Story point of view we see all the story's Overall Story Characters and identify them by the functions they fulfill in the quest to reach the Overall Story Concern. The Overall Story throughline is what brings all the characters in the story together and describes what they do with one another to achieve this Concern.

It is important to be able to separate the Main Character throughline from the Overall Story throughline to see your story's structure accurately. It is equally important to make the distinction between the Impact Character and the Overall Story. Exploring these two characters' throughlines in a story requires a complete shift in the audience's perspective, away from the overall story that involves all the characters and into the subjective experiences that only these two characters have within the story. Thus, consider each of these throughlines individually.

The Main Character and the Impact Character will, however, each have at least one function to perform in the Overall Story as well. When we see them here, though, they both appear as Overall Story Characters. In the Overall Story all we see are the characteristics they represent in relation to the other Overall Story Characters.

So if your Main Character happens to be the Protagonist as well, then it is purely as the Protagonist that we will see him in the Overall Story. If your Impact Character is also an Archetypal Guardian, then his helping and conscience are all you should consider about that character in the Overall Story.

In every story, these two will at least engage in the Overall Story to represent the story's Crucial Element and its dynamic opposite. It is possible the Main and Impact Characters could have no other relationship with the Overall Story than these single characteristics. The importance of the Main Character and the Impact Character to the Overall Story is completely in terms of the Overall Story characteristics assigned to them.