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 their mouth (occasionally when it appears that they are finally going to say something).

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 The Legend of Zelda and Breath of Fire 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.

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 when characters in the game make jokes about the protagonist Gordon Freeman's silence. "Man of few words, aren't you?", says Alyx Vance not long after meeting the player.

Notable games that feature silent heroes include:

Call of Duty series
Crono in Chrono Trigger (Partially due to the work the Dragon Quest team did on Chrono Trigger; the main character is given two lines in one of the game's several endings) & Chrono Cross (Where the Point when the Main Character "Speaks" is used as a clue to a turning point in the story)
Crusader series
Darkwatch first person shooter
The Doom series (However, the main reason the Doom Marine remains silent is because there is nobody to talk to; everyone else has either been killed or zombified)
Dragon Quest
Ness in EarthBound
The Hero from Fable (However, he can say "hey" and "shit")
F.E.A.R - First Encounter Assault Recon
The FreeSpace series.
Isaac in Golden Sun and Felix in The Lost Age (although Felix says "Why?" at one point in The Lost Age, it is likely a development error since the conversation did not pertain directly to him): strangely enough, since both characters appear in both games, Felix talks normally in Golden Sun, as does Isaac in Golden Sun: The Lost Age, apparently making muteness strictly tied to protagonist status. Furthermore, both characters speak freely during the ending sequence of Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
The Grand Theft Auto series, up to Grand Theft Auto III (it is also revealed GTA III's protagonist is a mute).
Gordon Freeman in the Half-Life series
Most of the games in the Harvest Moon series have silent characters.
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, because Daxter says, "Say Something, just this once!")
Legend of Legaia
Both male and female protagonists in Legend Of Mana. Although they actually speak one line after they get revived from death.
The Legend of Zelda series
Lost Kingdoms had a protagonist named Katia who didn't talk. Though she talks in the second, she is not a main character and only has one line. On top of that, she's dead. Tara has two lines. "Sol" and "Yes. It is nice to have friends again." However, the young version of her has a lot of lines.
Medal of Honor series
The Metroid series (except for Metroid Fusion, in which Samus has an internal monologue, and in Super Metroid and Zero Mission when she narrates the prologue covering the first two games' events (Super Metroid) or introducing the game's story (Zero Mission).)
Myst series
Panzer Dragoon & Panzer Dragoon Zwei
The Pokémon series (when the main character of Red and Blue Pokémon games appeared in Gold and Silver, his lines only consisted of ellipses)
The Suikoden series (all three protagonists in the third game are not silent, and those are the only exceptions).
The Super Mario series (although Mario has a voice since Super Mario 64, it is often used only for interjections).
- Super Mario RPG parodies the silent-narrator concept by having Mario pantomime events to other characters, complete with sound effects and split-second costume changes. Also, similar to Chrono Cross (above), a plot point is hinted at in The Thousand Year Door when a fake Mario speaks.
- In Superstar Saga, Mario and Luigi do not have any displyed dialogue of their own. They will occasionally mutter complete gibberish, but no on-screen dialogue accompanies this.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
In the Ys series, the protagonist, Adol Christin, is most often silent. This is inconsistent, however, and varies from game to game. Most recently, any words he is said to speak are given as a third-person, past tense summary (as in, "Adol thanked Dr. Flair for his help").

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 what they say is left up to the imagination of the player. 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.

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 them, the prompt may sometimes give two 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!?"

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: Adol 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 Movies

Although it is more common for silent protagonists to appear in video games, there have been occasional silent protagonists in film. Usually the protagonist has something that prevents them from speaking i.e. muteness or being an alien, like Joe Morton in The Brother From Another Planet. However there are also protagonists who do actually speak but do so very seldomly, such as Silent Bob of Jay and Silent Bob.

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In computer and video games

As storytelling devices

Technicalities

In Movies

See also