Basic Trope: A good guy who never talks.
- Straight: The player character never talks.
- Exaggerated:
- Featureless Protagonist.
- The hero literally cannot make any kind of sound. At all.
- Downplayed:
- The player character talks during loading screens or in cut scenes, but falls conspicuously completely silent whenever the player is in control of him (or vice versa).
- The hero does talk, it's just that (s)he speaks simlish, leaving his/her actual dialogue up to the imagination.
- Justified:
- The player character is mute.
- The player character has nobody to talk to.
- The player character is The Silent Bob. He doesn't need words to get his message across.
- The player character is a badass monk who has taken an oath of silence.
- The character never has a chance to talk, everybody else is talking too much to notice you, or at least until they need you to make a decision.
- The character has a magically destructive voice with Power Incontinence, so (s)he keeps completely silent, bottling the words in, just waiting for the Final Boss battle.
- The character has No Mouth.
- The player character is meant to be a self-insert, with the player being able to project themselves onto the protagonist or make a personality for them.
- Inverted:
- The player's character is so incredibly wordy that all NPCs can't get a single word in. And even then, they can't even manage to make sense of whatever the hell he's/she's saying.
- Silent Antagonist
- Subverted:
- The player doesn't talk, until the last cutscene.
- Once people don't notice his message, he yells it out.
- The player can talk, but gets interrupted every time he attempts to speak.
- The Hero does talk, but not very often. Like a true heroic mime, he doesn't talk to NPCs, and rarely talks in cutscenes.
- Double Subverted: At which point he clears his throat and says nothing.
- Parodied:
- A complicated charades mechanic is used for interaction with NPCs.
- The hero IS a mime.
- The hero is immune to being Muted. What is there to mute, anyway?
- Zig Zagged: The hero does not speak during a large segment of the story, in which there is no one for him to talk to. But in the presence of other people, it's impossible to get him to shut up. Later, the hero is captured, and his mouth is taped shut, forcing him to act as a Heroic Mime.
- Averted: The player character talks, expositions and holds conversations on equal line with the rest of the characters.
- Enforced:
- "If we have the character say something the player doesn't want to say, it will make the game less immersive."
- The creators of the game want to make the player character's line at the end a much greater surprise, and what better way to do that than by having the player character not talk for the rest of the game?
- Lampshaded:
- "You are a man of few words."
- When asked if he ever talks, the hero just shrugs.
- "ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME!?"
- Invoked: The hero doesn't like idle-chit-chat, and finds that not speaking is a small price to pay for not being bogged down with small talk when he's got a world to save.
- Exploited: Deutoragonists never have to put up with him arguing, or complaining, or saying anything annoying.
- Defied: "What, you're expecting me to shut up and be one of those 'never open my mouth' type people? I like talking."
- Discussed: "How come you never talk?" "..."
- Conversed: "You ever notice how the main character in these types of games never talk?"
- Deconstructed:
- He is driven paranoid by the fact that one little mistake on his part can kill him and leave the Big Bad free to take over the world.
- One part of the game sees the player character separated from the party and as such unable to talk to NPCs.
- The player character's inability to talk causes problems, as he is unable to properly communicate with people, including his own party members.
- Reconstructed:
- He doesn't talk because he feels his work is too important to waste time on trivial things like small talk.
- The player character meets Alice, whose brother is also mute. She helps him find the rest of the party.
- While the player character can't talk, he can still communicate through nonverbal means, such as writing or sign language.
- Plotted A Good Waste:
- The protagonist doesn't know the language everyone else is speaking in, has an actual speech impediment, or is a robot who simply lacks the necessary hardware.
- Or it's just to prevent the player character from saying something the player doesn't want to. Or the way the player character talks is through a separate microphone-type peripheral.
- Played For Laughs:
- The player character not only doesn't talk, but even when he's in serious pain. His mouth seems to be moving that signifies screams of agony but no sound at all.
- The player characters tries to get everyone for attention, and the group ends up playing charades with him to communicate. Although one character may mention on why he doesn't simply write it down.
- Played For Drama: A massive Player Punch occurs when there's an invasion going on and only the player character knows about. But because he cannot talk, and the group was too busy to read the stuff he wrote down (Or the game reveals he's illiterate). The Big Bad and his army rolled in and cause a Curb-Stomp Battle for the heroes. Later on, the survivors call the player character out for not warning them. One may even accuse that just because he doesn't talk, it makes him better that the rest of them. This comes back during a Bad Ending wherein the Big Bad kills the player character before taunting him one last time to call for help...but the hero can't.
Hero: (Motions toward the Heroic Mime page)
