The Problem with the Silent Protagonist

I've been reading books, watching movies, and playing games since I was a little girl. I think, for the most part, everyone has been doing something similar since they were children. It's something that people tend to enjoy well into their future. These activities are things that I still love doing.

However, I'm really starting to get agitated when it comes to the silent protagonist in video games. The concept fails to make sense to me, and the only explanation anyone has ever provided me is just plain silly. The explanation? "The people creating the game want you to feel the thoughts and feelings of the main character without force-feeding you their lines." Once upon a time, I would have blamed this on my lack of imagination; I would have tried to make up a story for this character. Today, it just seems like laziness on the part of the story creator and their staff.

When you read a book, the main character is never mute. The author tells you precisely what that character is thinking, feeling, and doing. They paint a picture in your mind of the scenes before you without overwhelming you with details (unless, of course, they're either a bad author or a control freak). In any piece of fiction, you're aware of what is going through the protagonist's mind; you know their responses. Even when I used to read "choose your own adventure" stories as a child, the authors never left it up to the imagination how the protagonist would respond to the situation; they already had the story they wanted in mind, regardless of what happened.

Movies are the same way. The protagonist's point of view is never something you're left to wonder about. If they're scared, you know it. You see their actions, you hear their words, and you can immediately sense their emotions. Not once do you come away wondering if they ever felt or thought something (unless the actor portraying that character was absolutely miserable).

Why, then, do we allow games to continue this concept of a silent protagonist? They tend to occur more in Japanese role-playing games from what I've noticed, but it's in poor taste. If you're into the genre of RPGs, then game series like Suikoden or Persona (Shin Megami Tensei) are not unheard of. These aren't poor quality games; they're actually a lot of fun. However, they all have games which are plagued by this problem: they all have silent protagonists who appear to not care.

For Shin Megami Tensei games, the world is frequently "about to end" or "change dramatically according to your decisions." That's the premise of the games. If the world is about to end or change drastically, I want a character who embodies both the leadership qualities the game implies he or she has and portrays a clear fear that something bad is happening or could happen. I'm glad the other characters seem to realize how amazing the main character is, but I'm not getting that impression. To me, they're just there; they serve a purpose in introducing you to the characters who actually mean something while being nothing more than a mute leader.

Suikoden attempts to solve the silence by giving the protagonist bodily expressions, such as flailing arms or mood-dependent stances during cutscenes. I hate to say this, but it fails constantly. While I can tell what the character's emotions are, it hurts to not see him actually respond. The games are so captivating in regards to other story elements, but they just fall short or hit a brick wall when they try to respond to something has terrible as a war with a character who flails. Or, and this bothers me even more, they use another character to respond in the progatonist's place. Why not just use the protagonist to start off with? It's cumbersome being told by a close friend of the main character how they feel.