Poll: Do you ever feel sorry for a protagonist?

[Auninteligentname]

From the top of my head..., no can't remember any protagonists which I have had symphaties for, but I know I've had some... However, I do have symphaties for everyone which have a sad backstory. Like lord Malak from KOTOR.

Spoiler

The story which makes me have symphaties for him, is that I played it as a lightsided Jedi, and at the end, he asked me, what would have happened if he got the second chance which I got? If I hadn't led him down the path of the dark side in the first place? And in his last words:''And in the end, as the darkness takes me, I am nothing''. That is a tear jerker, and I felt sorry for him. And he had blown up several planets.

 

[Vault101]

Total downer.

damn ninja'd

for me its especially the fallout 3 protagonist, I mean at least in fallout 1 he/she volunteered and knew more or less what they were getting into (ok it still doesnt make the ending any happyer)

in fallout 3 just thinking about it actually gets to me, losing your father, your home and mabye all hope...

the only one that isnt particualy sad is the courier, I mean its more open to interpretation mabye he/she lost their memory and their identity, they could have had familiy somwhere...or not I dont know (eather way it actually turned otu pretty well for them)

 

[Loud Hawk]

Pretty much all of them from Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2.


Captcha: Sacred Cow

 

[Maddi Rostron]

Hawke from Dragon Age 2.

If you ever loved your mother you know which quest I'm talking about. And because it's so immersive it's almost like it's happening to you. My heart ached so bad there.

And to top it off it happened right after Fenris hit it and quit it. A sad day all round in Kirkwall.

 

[Maddi Rostron]

double post

 

[Sir Boss]

John Marston Red Dead Redemption yes, like about half of the people on this thread have already said.
I still get choked up thinking about that ending...
*sniff*
dammit.

Also my Colonist/Sole Survivor Shepard.

 

[A Gent of Villainous Intent]

Hmmmm.

Wander for one. Noble dude gets tricked BIG TIME.

John Marston, and my Dalish Elf Warden in DA:O.

Why? Because I had no idea that:

Spoiler

If in a romance with you, and you do not undertake Morrigan's ritual, Alistar will always sacrifice himself if you bring him along. I was heartbroken.

 

[Zeema]

Lucy from Elfen Lied....that is all.

NINJA

but yeah HER

she is the most unlucky Protagonist EVER

 

[Number-14]

Yes, can't I sympathize with the main character? Unless he's a psycho mass murderer *cough*Alex*cough*Mercer*cough* then no.

 

[Dalek Caan]

Master Cheif, sure he is a super powered Man in a exo-suit but the events of Halo 1 to 3 take place in a couple of weeks. First there's the covenant, then the flood, then blowing up Halo, then the story of First Strike(Halo book), then New Mombasa blowing, then another Halo, then more flood, then going to Earth on a Ship filled with Hostiles, then landing very hard on earth, then the portal, then the ark, then more flood, then cortana and finally getting stuck in space. I think between all that he gets like half a days sleep.

 

[Farther than stars]

I voted "Not all of the time, but a few times". Mostly it's in movies and books though, because the protagonist is really a third person there. In games not so much, because since you control the main character ít's more of a first person vision the way you acknowledge their existence.
And since I don't believe in self-pity I have a hard time sympathising for the protagonist and it's usually the NPCs that I will usually get attachted to, if anyone at all.
Though I must say that in recent video games I've played, one example stands out blatantly and that's Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Admittedly most of the story is told through cutscenes, so the relation to the characters is more that of a movie relationship than through a game one. But actually ingame the ability to choose between the two brothers per mission (granted), means that both are an NPC and a playable character at the same time, opening up a whole new frame of involvement.
Plus some of the good writing and great voice acting really helped identification with the situation.
So yeah, not always, but there are examples of brilliantly immersive characters in video games here and there.

(Yay, 2nd post. Think I'm beginning to get the hang of this.)

 

[ctuncks]

As mentioned preously Cole McGrath however....

Spoiler

Even as the evil incarnation it's not all fun, games and evil cackling. Having decided to suppot John's plan Cole ultimately has to face off against his best friend Zeke and ultimately kills him, he looks neither proud or happy at having to commit this act.

 

[Jacob Haggarty]

I do and for link, He does all this crap beacuse he's randomly dragged into for a lame excuse for a reason... And receives nothing. The most I saw him receive was a kiss, No gold, No house.... Nothing...

Well, not counting the vast fortune he makes from destroying enemies, vandalising property, and cutting grass. Besides that, he gets nothing. Apart from a whole arsenal of various miscellanious magical maguffins, that quite literally make him the most powerful being in hyrule.

Although, what gets to me most about how link is treated (along with player characters in fable games) is the fact that you can travel accross mountain tops, battle lava creatures that should by rights be classed as WMDs, search far and wide for the most sacred articles and trinkets known to history, brave countless encounters with hideous monsters and finally go toe to toe with a creature made of pure malevolence, saving the princess and restoring honour and virtue to a land ruled by that stage by chaos and rife with torment...

Only to have absolutley no recognition for any of these acts. Seriously, the moment you're done with all that, you instantly go back to being a nobody, and somehow not a soul knows of your exploits.

If i was link, i would either not agree in the first place, suddenly turn evil after having beaten the last boss, or froth at the mouth and go on a killing bender, utilising all possible pain making properties of all the maguffins i had to collect on a quest where the most i get is... well, like Javarock says, NOTHING.

/rant

This is particularly gauling in fable 3, when you finally become king... and people STILL have the balls to insult you in public, and boo you, and shoo you out of their house... I OWN THAT HOUSE YOU SON OF A *****!

/rant for real this time.

 

[AngryNerd]

The protagonist from Dragon Quest 9. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone.

 

[Flamezdudes]

The guy from Clannad, Tomoya.

Spoiler

He loses his wife in child birth and then loses his child.

 

[CRRPGMykael]

Ezio,from the Assassin's Creed series.But then I remember that he's FUCKING AWESOME and keep slashin' guards.

 

[baddude1337]

Pretty much most of MGS4. You really get the sense of a battered man who is only still going through sheer willpower. In paticular,

Spoiler

The 'corridor' scene is heart breaking.

In terms of other media, the boy in the book 'The Road'.

Spoiler

The only person he has ever really known, his dad, dies. And he is left completely on his own for awhile. I definitely cried for him.

 

[suitepee7]

I feel really, really bad for Sazh from FF13.

Spoiler

Losing your wife...and then losing your son to moment you meet him again

I also feel terrible for Good Cole in inFamous 2. He's villainized by a lot of the people he's trying to help.

Look on the bright side, he becomes a saint in the end. To me, that's probably the highest reward a video game protagonist could earn, yeah Kratos became a god but all he had to do was kill the last guy. Cole actually did a lot of good and earned the title of Saint, St.Cole MacGrath. That's probably the highest honor I've seen a protagonist earn! Plus he's not dead, remember that bolt of lighting that hit the freighter in the ending and how John (aka the Beast) said a truly powerful Conduit can bring themselves back to life? That bolt could be Cole's defibrillator, he could go from Patron Saint of New Marais to Patron Saint of Conduits.

BTW:

Spoiler

Conduits can still be alive, the generation of Conduits that were alive when Cole activated the RFI may have died but the gene still exists. It's like
X-Men rules, the parents aren't mutants but the kids are. It's like CC=non-Conduit, cc=Conduit, Cc=non-Conduit majority. There could still be Cc Conduit carriers in the world, maybe Zeke is Cc and finds a girl thats Cc and give birth to a boy that is a Conduit, and name him Cole.

so, you /spoiler some, but still reveal some spoilers before hand? nice one.

i feel sorry for a lot of them, particularly isaac clarke and your character from bioshock, you have a really really simple objective, and you know something is gonna jump out as soon as you walk halfway over the floor but there's fuck all you can do to progress expect for literally walk into the trap.

 

[Regiment]

My sympathies are usually tempered by the fact that these protagonists tend to do very well. To use an example from the game I've been replaying, it's like, "poor Alec Mason. His brother was murdered and now he's public enemy #1. Nothing to do but one-man army his way through an oppressive government with a disentegrator rifle and rocket launchers before ending up with the girl."

 

[Shes Your Adversary]

I always did feel bad for Jack from Bioshock, Chell from Portal, and Isaac Clarke from Dead Space.
Normal people having to deal with a bunch of bullshit they didn't ask for...