SILENT PROTAGONIST

A 'silent protagonist' is a central character who does not verbally interact with other characters within a story's narrative.
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."

Contents

In computer and video games

As storytelling devices

Technicalities

In film

See also

In computer and video games

Silent protagonists are prevalent 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 of the most 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 backstories for the same reason.
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, aren't you?" Alyx Vance asks not long after their first meeting. In '', 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.
Notable games that feature silent heroes include:

★ ''The Elder Scrolls'' series (Technically, the player character does speak via options by the player, but is listed as silent here because of the fact that the main character is the only one in the series that does not have a voice actor during dialogue scenes, although they can be heard in small sequences during in-game acts, similar to many other silent protagonists.)

★ ''Ace Combat'' series (though in AC5, the player may respond to questions with "yes" or "no")

★ ''Alundra''

★ The ''Armored Core'' series

★ ''Breath of Fire'' series (except '', in which the protagonist Ryu speaks, but the character of Nina does not)

★ ''Call of Duty'' series

★ ''Cave Story''

★ ''Chrono (series) (except for a special ending in Chrono Trigger)

★ ''Command & Conquer'' series, being the player an unnamed and unseen commander who is spoken directly by the characters in the cutscenes (except '', which used proper characters for the commanders. However, the expansion pack '' returned to the traditional format).

★ Crash Bandicoot series, at least in the earlier games, he is given a voice later on, although he never actually speaks, just babbles. He says "Uh-oh" and "duh-duh-duh-duh" in the first game and actually speaks later in CTR:Crash Team Racing

★ ''Crusader'' series; aside from grunts of pain when the character is struck, the Silencer makes no noise and has no lines.

★ ''Dark Cloud'', though the sequel, ''Dark Cloud 2'', would break this trend.

★ ''Darkwatch'' first person shooter

★ The ''Diablo'' series, where the characters only listens to monologues held by NPCs.

★ The ''Doom'' series (However, the main reason the Marine remains silent is because there is nobody to talk to; everyone else has either been killed or zombified)

★ "Downtown" (the player character) in Heatseeker (video game).

★ The ''Quake'' series (The reason the protagonist remains silent is the same as Doom (above).)

★ ''Dragon Quest'' (the main hero is always silent)

★ ''Need for Speed'' series

★ Ninten in ''Mother (video game)'', Ness in ''EarthBound'', and the acting protagonists in each of ''Mother 3's chapters, including the characters Flint, Duster, Salsa and Lucas.

★ '', the protagonist is never heard speaking outside of limited selectable "expressions" which the protagonist will say one-liners such as "Sorry" and "Come on!"

★ ''F.E.A.R - First Encounter Assault Recon'', the player is referred to as F.E.A.R Point Man or Operative. Betters sometimes calls him "buddy".

★ Final Fantasy In the first Final Fantasy, the four warriors of light do not speak.

★ Fire Emblem In Fire Emblem, the player has no speech, however, the characters may sometimes ask a question, then reply as if an answer has been given, although no text is shown.

★ The '' series.

★ The ''Golden Sun'' series. Isaac is silent through the entirety of the first game, save for his one line of "!!!," but he becomes a supporting character in the second game and is given a voice (via text boxes). Felix speaks in the first game as a supporting character, but is silent throughout the second game, although his avatar often appears next to a text box with ellipses. He does speak, however, as he is being introduced to the trials by a tribal leader, as well as in the epilogue after the credits. His only word during the game is "Why?"

★ ''Gungrave'', as 'Beyond The Grave' is a silent protagonist, he is later revealed to be Brandon Heat.

★ The ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, up to and including ''Grand Theft Auto III''. In '', GTA III's silent protagonist, Claude makes a cameo appearance, once again not talking. Later on, CJ refers to him as "that mute asshole".

★ Gordon Freeman, Adrian Shephard and Barney Calhoun in the ''Half-Life'' series (in ''Half-Life 2'', Barney is an NPC and speaks frequently).

★ In mostly every Harvest Moon game, the main character only replies with yes or no.

★ ''Jak and Daxter'' (Jak, the silent protagonist, is given speech in the sequels ''Jak II'' and ''Jak 3''. His first words are a slight parody; Daxter yells, "Say something, just this once!" right before Jak's first spoken line. This is parodied again a little later in the game; after Jak addresses someone quite rudely, Daxter apologizes on his behalf: "Sorry, he's new to the whole 'conversation' thing." Still later, when Jak and Daxter first meet Torn, who refuses to speak to them at first, Daxter quips to Jak "Maybe this guy's a mute, like you used to be.")

★ The ''Journeyman Project'' franchise. The protagonist is a time traveller and does not speak or interact with people since it would alter history. The plot of '' is based on a one-sided conversion with the protagonist's future self. During the intro and ending sequences of '' the protagonist is no longer silent. During gameplay he interacts with characters from history by posing as other historical figures and speaks through an artificial intelligence.

★ ''Katamari Damacy'': The Prince of All Cosmos and the Royal cousins never utter a line. The King of All Cosmos, speaks for them instead.

★ ''Legend of Legaia''

★ The ''The Legend of Zelda'' series. While Link was given a voice in '' and most subsequent games, his voice only consists of battle cries, grunts of pain, etc. except for '' where the phrase “Come on!” was clearly audible.

★ Both male and female protagonists in Legend Of Mana. Although they actually speak one line after they get revived from death.

★ ''Medal of Honor series''

★ Metroid series. Samus Aran only gives dialog during the introduction of Super Metroid and Metroid Zero Mission, but says nothing else for the rest of either game. Metroid Fusion is an exception because she talks to Adam and narrates her thoughts throughout the game (in text form). Metroid Prime includes a few pained noises and a death scream, but no actual dialogue. It remains somewhat questionable as to what extent Samus is a silent protagonist since in most of the Metroid games there is no dialogue from any of the characters anyway, which would make giving Samus dialogue in these situations rather pointless.

★ ''Myst series''. The character is not seen, either, excluding in .

★ ''Need For Speed'', where the player character is a silent and unseen race car driver both in-game and in the FMV (in arrest cut-scenes however, the protagonist can be seen but with his head covered by mosaic).

★ Amaterasu in ''Ōkami''

★ Chezni, the spiritualist hero of Paladin's Quest has no dialogue, save for a brief personal message displayed in a single status window.

★ ''Panzer Dragoon''

★ The ''Pokémon'' series. However, in Pokemon ''Red'', ''Blue'', ''Yellow'' and its remakes ''FireRed'' and ''LeafGreen'', as well as in ''Gold'', ''Silver'', and ''Crystal'', there is one point when the protagonist speaks while speaking to Copycat in Saffron City. Since Copycat copies everything that is spoken to her, the player gets a rare chance to hear the main character speak: "Hi! I'm [name]! Do you like Pokemon? Huh? You're weird!" In-game, the protagonist still remains silent; however, starting with Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire, the player has a limited vocabulary to choose from when interviewed. In ''Gold'', ''Silver'', and ''Crystal'', the final boss (named "Red" in reference to the original games) is also silent, his lines consisting only of ellipses.

★ Scott Monroe in ''Red Steel''

★ Brian in ''Quest 64'' (he says nothing even when he finds his father and is severely hurt)

★ ''Saints Row'' (Except for one line near the end of each 'plot')

★ The Shining Force series (except for the remake, Resurrection of Dark Dragon, in which Max is given lines and an expanded role)

★ The Shin Megami Tensei series, as well as the Megami Tensei series. Notables include Aleph, Serph and Tamaki, who goes on to have a speaking role in the Persona spin-offs.

★ In Sonic the Hedgehog, none of the characters had any speeches and they interacted by expressions and gestures. All characters gained the ability to speak after the release of Sonic Adventure though.

★ ''StarCraft'', being the player an unnamed and unseen commander referred by most of the characters in the briefings and cutscenes.

★ '' (Technically, the player character does speak via options by the player, but is listed as silent here because of the fact that the main character is the only one in the series that does not have a voice actor during dialogue scenes, although they can be heard in small sequences during in-game acts, similar to many other silent protagonists.)

★ The series. Though later identified in the Expanded Universe as Keyan Farlander and Marek Steele, respectively, the protagonists in and , respectively, are silent. Though a more fully realized character within the game, Ace Azzameen, of X-Wing Alliance, doesn't have any lines in-game.

★ ''The Suffering'' (Torque does talk in '' though. But in the first game he is completely silent)

★ The Suikoden series (all three protagonists in the third game are not silent, and the hero of the second game speaks during flashbacks though his words are short questions or one worded answers).

★ The ''Super Mario'' series (although Mario has had a voice since ''Super Mario 64'', it is often used only for interjections).

★
★ '' parodies the silent-narrator concept by having Mario pantomime events to other characters, complete with sound effects and split-second appearance changes. However, whenever a character uses a healing spell or a Pick-me-up in battle, he says "Thank You".
★
★

★ In The Paper Mario series, Mario only makes 1-word phrases noises, like ''oh" and "hi".

★ In '', Mario and Luigi do not have any displayed dialogue of their own. They will occasionally talk to each other and other characters in a mock-Italian gibberish language, together with hand motions, but no on-screen dialogue accompanies this, with the exception of a scene in which Luigi impersonates Princess Peach. The only other words they say are "Mario!" or "Luigi!" which the other yells when one is defeated and when they switch their field abilities they will name them (i.e. when you switch to the jump ability Mario or Luigi will say "jump")

★
★ In '', Mario and Luigi both have a small amount of displayed dialogue as well as spoken mock-Italian. They also speak a few interjections in English, notably "Let's go!", "Okey-dokey," "Okay," "Oh no!" and "Mama mia!"

★
★ In ''Mario Superstar Baseball'', Mario is the only captain without any dialogue.

★
★ In ''Luigi's Mansion'', Mario has on-screen dialogue when first seen in the painting, but Luigi lacks any (except for when he searches objects in the mansion with his Game Boy Horror).

★ ''Time Crisis' Richard Miller.

★ ''Tomba!'' only makes weird sounds.

★ In the original Unreal, the player character never talks. except for some grunt noises when jumping or in pain.

★ ''Wild Arms'' and ''

★ The protagonist of the ''Ys'' series Adol Christin never speaks, but a text description of his words and actions sometimes appears. Everyone else in the series speaks normally.

★ ''Zork'', particularly '' in which because the player/protagonist can't say anything (let alone tell the Dungeon Master his/her name) the player is referred to as AFGNCAAP or Ageless, Faceless, Gender-Neutral, Culturally Ambiguous Adventure Person for the entirety of the game.

As storytelling devices

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.
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.

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 , 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
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, 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'').
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.
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".
In , 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.

In film

Although it is more common for silent protagonists to appear in video games, there have been occasional silent protagonists in film. The tradition came from 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. However they all do actually speak but do so very seldomly. Other exemples 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''.

See also

★ Unseen character