10 Video Game Protagonists Who Were Doomed From The Start
The characters who had their ticket punched from the moment you popped in the disc
The protagonist of a video game is meant to be the avatar for the player. Even if they have their own personality, wants and needs, that fact is indisputable. So it's unlikely, in most games, that things won't eventually turn out in the protagonist's favor.
But that hasn't stopped some games from bucking this trend.
In fact, not only are some video game protagonists not destined for success, they can actually be doomed from the beginning to have a very sticky end. Whether it's dying at the end of the narrative, or something much more complex like - say - losing everything they had and needing to start all over again, some games tell you exactly how it's going to end the minute you press play.
These ten video game protagonists had nothing but misery awaiting them at the end of their stories, and they were the last ones to find out. And all that you, the player, could do, was sit there and watch them hoist themselves on their own petard.
MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW...
10. Hawke - Dragon Age II
No one knew what to make of Dragon Age 2 when it first came out - besides its more primitive game design compared to Origins, its story left a lot of folks unsatisfied. And unfortunately, many failed to make the necessary critical leaps to figure out why that was: that Dragon Age 2 is a classical tragedy.
All Hawke wanted when they came to their family's home of Kirkwall was to make a name for themselves and regain the family fortune. And at the end of Act 1, they get both of those things. But if you're familiar with the trajectory of tragic narratives, then this was the first of many red flags that things were not going to end well for Hawke.
See, this title and stature just end up making more trouble for them, as the city's problems swiftly become their problems. City officials rope them into the increasingly volatile politics of the region, and the hotbed that is Mage/Templar relations drives bigger and bigger wedges between them and their found family of weirdos.
By the end, it's their friend Anders that blows their entire life to hell by triggering the Mage/Templar war via the destruction of the city's Chantry, leaving Hawke with nothing as they have to flee the city.