Most protagonists are empty, hollow shells in need of something to fill them. Thus was our verdict, as handled by our own Stefan Samurai (this is the link to which this article is a response, by the way… CLICK IT!).
He's the Chosen One because he's so special
What followed, however, was an intriguing proposition, one that put the blame on us rather than on the developers. If protagonists are empty, that’s only because we, the players, failed to fill in this void with our imagination. In other words, all protagonists that lack development are not actually characters per se, but rather avatars.
It does make sense to some degree. For example, those of us who played the original Mario and Zelda without reading any of the stories in their respective manuals would indeed take these two guys fighting lizards to rescue their beloved as mere avatars. In fact, most of the narrative in those two games came from outside the game. Back in the day, only the ones who have either read the game’s instructions or finished Super Mario Bros. would actually know that Mario was trying to save a Princess named Toadstool.
It’s natural …
