A silent protagonist is a central character who does not verbally interact with other characters within a story's narrative. A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ...

In the context of the story they often simply observe events happening around them, and are usually given orders by others while not having to reply in return.

A common joke in video games is for a silent protagonist to have words put in his or her mouth (occasionally when it appears that they are finally going to say something). In other words, they have a lot of "one-sided conversations." “Computer and video games” redirects here. ...

In computer and video games

Silent protagonists are not uncommon in computer and video games. This practice began because of technological limitations and simplistic storylines that did not require any dialogue. As technology improved video games moved more and more away from this trend. However, in the early 90's, the silent protagonist became a bit of a trend in the RPG genre, and many successful games of that era featured non-speaking heroes as their lead. While most games have abandoned the idea of the silent protagonist for added realism, several series such as Half-Life , Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda and Dragon Quest have continued the tradition. The common counterpoint to the added "realism" of a speaking protagonist is that a non-speaking hero would allow the player to provide their own "voice" for the character, and thus a deeper immersion in the plot. These characters often have very undeveloped personalities and back stories for the same reason. This article is about the British magazine covering computer and video games. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... The official Pokémon logo. ... A Legend of Zelda series logo The Legend of Zelda series (often shortened to Zelda, TLoZ, or LoZ), by Nintendo, is a series of video games created by celebrated game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. ... Dragon Quest logo Dragon Quest ), published as Dragon Warrior in North America until the 2005 release of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, is a series of role-playing games produced by Enix (now Square Enix). ...

In some games, especially those geared toward older players, silent protagonists are used as an in-joke as a reference to the old stereotype. In Ultima VII, a play about the Avatar's adventures is being rehearsed, with the lead actor explaining that most of his lines consist of the dialogue system keywords "name", "job" and "bye". In the Half-Life series, there are several occasions in which non-player characters joke about protagonist Gordon Freeman's silence: "Man of few words..." Alyx Vance quips not long after their first meeting. In The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a joke about Link (the silent protagonist) is made by one of the townsfolk by saying, "Your voice carries quite well, as usual" even though Link doesn't speak. Another joke is made in that game when one character says: "Come on! Say something! Am I so beautiful that you have no words left?". Still another is made by a character in Grand Theft Auto III who explains to a radio host that "he (the player) doesn't talk too much" An in joke is a joke whose humour is clear only to those people who are in a group that has some prior knowledge (not known by the whole population) that makes the joke humorous. ... Ultima VII is the seventh part of the computer role-playing game series Ultima. ... While the games avoid overt references to religion, the system of Virtues is loosely based upon various aspects of Christianity and Buddhism, and the Avatar certainly shows some traits of a messiah. ... Half-Life For a quantity subject to exponential decay, the half-life is the time required for the quantity to fall to half of its initial value. ... An NPC from the video game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. ... Gordon Freeman, Ph. ... Alyx Vance is a fictional character and digital actor from Valves 2004 First Person Shooter computer game Half-Life 2, and its following episode: Half-Life 2: Episode One. ... Link ) is the protagonist of Nintendos The Legend of Zelda video game series, created by Shigeru Miyamoto. ... Grand Theft Auto III (sometimes abbreviated as GTA III or GTA3) is an action computer and video game developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North), published by Rockstar Games in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2 video game console, May 2002 for Windows-based personal computers, and in November 2003...

As storytelling devices

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Silent protagonists allow the player to create their own interpretation of a game character. By not being prompted by scripted character dialog, the nature of that character (and sometimes even his/her gender) and what they say is left up to the imagination of the player. The character is a blank slate, which can more easily and fully be inhabited by the player, immersing them as fully as possible into the game. In some cases, such as the Myst series, the player character is given no name or defining characteristics at all, meaning that the player themselves is effectively the protagonist of the game. This is in contrast to games such as Duke Nukem 3D, where the protagonist frequently interjects comments into play, and leaves the player in little doubt as to the nature of that character, and with the impression that they are simply puppeteering a distinct and separate character, rather than inhabiting the adventure themselves. Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... The Myst franchise consists of a series of computer games and novels, centering around the storyline of Atrus and his family, who are descendants of the fallen Dni civilization - a subterranean city whose people could link to other universes by writing a descriptive book about that world. ... The Stranger is how the player character of the Myst series of games is known in Myst canon. ... Duke Nukem 3D is a first-person shooter computer game developed by 3D Realms and published by Apogee Software. ...

This device is fairly close in principle to that of the "masking effect" mentioned in Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics - while the masking effect makes things such as facial features and body types in comic book and animated characters as generic as possible in order to allow for easier identification with protagonists, removing the notion of "otherness" from them, the silent protagonist is generic enough so that the player (usually silent himself while playing) feels no clash of personality or opinions during the game, or at least minimizes such a shock. Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod on June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and a leading popular scholar of comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium. ... Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art is a 215-page non-fiction graphic novel by Scott McCloud, widely considered the definitive text to date on the theory of comics (or sequential art) as an artform and a communications medium. ...

Technicalities

Although the silent protagonist doesn't have lines of text on screen, the player can still infer what the character is saying. When the character is answering questions directed at him, the prompt may sometimes give responses that go beyond "yes" and "no". For example:

"What should we do?"

• Sneak around the back
• Bust through the front

Occasionally, it is implied that the silent protagonist is actually verbally communicating with other characters, despite the player's lack of seeing (or hearing) this dialogue. This can be inferred when characters around the silent protagonist echo back statements or questions that are assumed to have come from the protagonist. Continuing the example, "What do you mean, sneaking around like cowards!?"

The Golden Sun series takes this role reversal a step further; in the first game, the main protagonist Isaac is silent, while Felix, a secondary character and antagonist, does speak. This is reversed in the sequel Golden Sun: The Lost Age, where Felix is the main character and thus silent, while Isaac talks as normal. Something similar happens in Persona 2: Innocent Sin and Persona 2: Eternal Punishment Golden Sun ) is the first installment of a series of role-playing video games developed by Camelot Software Planning and published by Nintendo. ... This article or section should include material from Jenna. ... Persona 2 is a console role-playing game for the Sony Playstation. ... Persona 2 is a console role-playing game for the Sony Playstation. ...

Often, the second in the party (the silent protagonist is usually the first in the party) will ask questions on behalf of the silent protagonist, such as Rui does in Pokémon Colosseum, or introduce him or her to NPCs (usually after all the others introduce themselves), as with Golden Sun's Garet (original Golden Sun) and Jenna (Golden Sun: The Lost Age). Pokémon Colosseum ) is the first GameCube incarnation of the Pokémon video game franchise. ...

The Ultima games take a different turn: The player is allowed to pick the keywords (the most famous being "name", "job", and "bye"), which become available as the player follows the dialogue. This allows for quite complicated dialogue, even when the player has to use his or her imagination to guess what the protagonist is actually saying. It has been suggested that Mongbat (Ultima) be merged into this article or section. ...

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars takes Mario's role as the silent protagonist to the extreme by making him seemingly incapable of speech. To communicate, Mario will nod "yes", shake his head "no", or jump high in the air to comfirm his identity. He even mimes out complicated "monologues", taking the physical form of the other characters involved in the story and inserting sound effects when appropriate. The other characters are usually able to decipher what Mario is trying to say, although occasionally there are misunderstandings. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (スーパーマリオRPG) was the last Mario game made and released for the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and was the last Square-produced game for a Nintendo video game console until 2003, with the debut... Mario ) is a video game character created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and the official mascot of Nintendo. ...

Another turn is taken by the Ys series: protagonist Adol Christin talks, but his dialogue is not shown. Instead, a summation of his dialogue in the third person is given; for example, "Adol explains what he saw at the shrine". Ys , IPA: ) (pronounced IPA: ) is a Japanese-origin computer role-playing game series, and Nihon Falcom corporations flagship franchise. ... Adol Christin is the main character of the Ys video game series created by Nihon Falcom Corporation, which, according to a rumor, was based on a mythical story. ...

In Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Mario's thoughts are conveyed through simple gestures, for example, when an NPC asks Mario a pointed question that the player knows the answer to (due to having played through a certain part of the game), Mario will raise his finger, and the NPC will respond to Mario's implied dialogue. Similarly, Mario shakes his head rapidly and a frustrated sound is played if an NPC is incorrect or mistaken about something. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is the sequel to the Nintendo 64 video game Paper Mario, and is the fourth in the series of Mario role-playing game titles that includes Super Mario RPG, Paper Mario, and Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga. ...

In film

Although it is more common for silent protagonists to appear in video games, there have been occasional silent protagonists in film. Examples are silent films, and slapstick characters such as Monsieur Hulot of Jaques Tati's movies continued the tradition despite sound came. Other characters took inspiration from Mr. Hulot such as Mr. Bean.^[1] However they all do actually speak but do so very seldom. Other examples includes Silent Bob of Jay and Silent Bob, Todd in the 1998 film Soldier, Spike from The Land Before Time films, or the protagonist Igarashi, in the Japanese film Blessing Bell [1]. There are also protagonists who as something that prevents them from speaking i.e. muteness such as Silence in Corbucci's The Great Silence and Ryu in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance or being an alien, like Joe Morton in The Brother From Another Planet. Monsieur Hulot in Mon Oncle A cameo appearance by Monsieur Hulot in Truffauts Bed and Board, here played by Jacques Cottin Monsieur Hulot is a character created and played by French comic Jacques Tati for a series of films in the 1950s and 60s, namely Les Vacances de Monsieur... Jacques Tati (October 9, 1908 - November 5, 1982) was a French film-maker. ... For the animated television series of the same name, see Mr. ... Jay and Silent Bob are the two fictional characters created by actor-writer-director Kevin Smith (who plays Silent Bob) and appearing in several of his movies. ... Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) and Jay (Jason Mewes) during the events of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back Jay and Silent Bob are fictional characters portrayed by Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith, respectively, in Kevin Smiths View Askewniverse. ... Soldier is a 1998 science fiction film directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. ... Spike, the spike-tail (Stegosaurus), is a friend of Littlefoot in The Land Before Time film series. ... This article is about the 1988 film. ... Speech disorders or speech impediments, as they are also called, are a type of communication disorders where normal speech is disrupted. ... The Great Silence (Il Grande Silenzio, 1968), or The Big Silence, is an Italian spaghetti western. ... Sympathy for Mr. ... Joseph Morton, Jr. ... The Brother from Another Planet is a 1984 film written and directed by John Sayles. ...

See also

• Unseen character

Unseen characters are a theatrical convention. ...

References

1. ^ BFI Film Releases, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday