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# More rarely, it's not clear what the character is, exactly.
Enter the
See also [[The Watson]], whose job it is to merely ''set up'' exposition, and [[POV Boy, Poster Girl]], where the boy often resembles this. Compare and contrast with [[Designated Protagonist Syndrome]]. When a [[Biopic]] is made in this fashion, it is called a [[Sidelong Glance Biopic]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Rock in ''[[Black Lagoon]]''. The story is told from his point of view but it's pretty obvious the protagonist is Revy. As if the opening and ending animations being all about her wasn't enough to tip you off. The [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|"Why is he watching her so closely?"]] angle is played deliberately.
** Later chapters though are more focused on Rock and he becomes quite an interesting character himself.
* ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'': her name is stamped on the product and her face is everywhere in the opening, closing, and promotional material, but the story is told from the point of view of [[Unreliable Narrator]] Kyon.
* Einar after the prologue in ''[[Vinland Saga]]''.
* Saji Crossroad becomes this during the second season of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]''. The main character is obviously Setsuna F. Seiei. {{spoiler|Saji also pilots the support machine for Setsuna's eponymous mobile suit which acts as its catalyst.}}
* Tylor in ''[[The Irresponsible Captain Tylor]]'' is inscrutable, as no one can tell whether he's a lucky idiot or a [[Obfuscating Stupidity|genius.]] Yuriko and Yamamoto tend to be the viewpoint characters.
* For the first few eps. of ''[[Trigun]]'' we mostly see Vash from Meryl's point of view, and don't even get confirmation he is Vash for some time. This doesn't last- we get very deep in Vash's psyche by the end.
* Simon takes this role in the first third of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', up until {{spoiler|Kamina dies}}. In this case, however, it's not a viewpoint shift, but the viewpoint character becoming the protagonist as he comes into his own.
* Souryo Fuyumi's manga ''Cesare'' is about a sixteen-year-old Cesare Borgia, his servant Miguel, and the games of [[Xanatos Speed Chess]] the two are playing with various historical figures. It's actually told by Angelo, some kid who's at school with them (readers usually ''hate'' Angelo, which may or may not be intentional). This is one of those uses where it starts to seem like the Ishmael is a little [[Ho Yay|too fascinated]], though this too may be deliberate.
* Rachel from ''[[Baccano!]]'' We mostly find out about the events aboard the Flying Pussyfoot from her report to the President of the Daily Days.
** Subverted in ''The Rolling Bootlegs'': while it appears that Maiza relating the story about his friend and subordinate Firo to a Japanese tourist, {{spoiler|it's actually [[Actually, I Am Him|Firo himself]] telling the tale, and the tourist just assumed otherwise because Firo never properly introduced himself and was wearing glasses like Maiza's.}}
* Sakuno Ryuzaki, and the Freshmen Trio from ''[[Prince of Tennis]]'' (at least initially). Ryoma Echizen's undeniably the focus of the story, but his personality and development are mostly viewed through other characters due to his aloof nature.
* ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' is undeniably Lucy's story. Lucy's story about Natsu and Fairy Tail.
==
* Eva Procorpio has become this in ''[[Shakara]]'' - while Shakara is undoubtedly the protagonist, the story was primarily told through Eva's narration shortly after she was introduced. Then she started getting more screentime than Shakara.
* Evey Hammond in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' - V is certainly the lead character, but the story follows Evey as exposure to V changes her.
* [[Unfortunate Names|Sexton Furnival]] in ''[[The Sandman|Death: The High Cost of Living]]''. Death/Didi is the axis around which the story revolves, with Sexton just having been dragged in after her. But he's the one with real [[Character Development]]; hanging out with Death for the day renews his interest in living, rather than committing suicide out of sheer ennui like he wanted to do at the beginning.
* Lois Lane in ''[[Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?]]''.
* Dilios telling the story of ''[[300]]''.
* Johnny Frost in the graphic novel ''Joker'', who follows around the title character for a while. Funny thing is {{spoiler|he dies at the end going against what an First-Person Peripheral Narrator is.}}
== Film ==
* ''[[Stalag 17]]''. The real protagonist of the movie is the [[Anti-Hero]] Sefton. The story is narrated and seen through the eyes of his "sidekick" Cookie, a character so bland that his name appears ''dead last'' in the IMDb cast list for this movie.
* Paco (Edward James Olmos) in ''[[My Family Mi Familia]]'', who spends most of the film in the Navy.
* Red from ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]''.
* Traudl Junge fulfills this role in ''[[Downfall (film)|Downfall]]'' in regards to Hitler, which makes sense, since she was one of the few people in Hitler's bunker to survive and tell her story. [[Driven to Suicide|The movie]] [[Cyanide Pill|portrays this]] [[Ate His Gun|very blatantly.]] [[Herr Doktor|Dr. Schenck]] also falls into this to an extent, except in regards to the general [[The End of the World as We Know It|chaos]] and [[Scenery Gorn|destruction]] of besieged Berlin.
* The hospitalized old lady with the diary in ''[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]''. (She turns out to be {{spoiler|Benjamin's love interest from long ago}}, but Benjamin is the main character, of course.)
* Mr. Hundert in ''The Emperor's Club''—he's the narrator and gets quite a bit of character development in his own scenes, but he spends more time observing Sedgewick Bell than doing anything else.
* Captain Greville in ''[[The Madness of King George]]''.
* Kim and Peg in ''[[Edward Scissorhands]]''.
* Walter in ''[[Secondhand Lions]]'' and Uncle Garth in some of the in-film stories about his adventures with Uncle Hub.
* Henry Burton in ''[[Primary Colors]]''.
* [[David Cronenberg]] is fond of this trope, often telling his stories from the perspective of the romantic interest of the real lead.
** Frank Carveth in ''[[The Brood]]''. The actor, Art Hindle, isn't even mentioned on the cover, while Samantha Eggar and [[Oliver Reed]] (who were both bigger-name actors and play more interesting characters) get top billing.
** Veronica Quaife (Gina Davis) in ''[[The Fly]]''.
** Hart Read in ''Rabid''.
** Doctor St. Luc in ''Shivers''.
** To some extent, Cameron Vale of ''[[Scanners]]'', who has literally no personality, while Michael Ironside and Patrick MacGoohan get much less screen time but are far more memorable and interesting.
* Thomas, Marquis d'Apcher in ''[[Brotherhood of the Wolf]]''.
* The unnamed narrator in ''[[Withnail and I]]''.
* ''300'' has Herodotus as the narrator, despite the main character being Leonidas.
* {{spoiler|Sweet Pea}} in ''[[Sucker Punch]]''.
== Literature ==
* Ishmael in ''[[Moby Dick]]''. He's arguably the least interesting character in the book, we're given much more information about almost every other characters' backstory, and he stops participating in any of the events in the story entirely half way through the book, describing scenes that he couldn't possibly have been present to witness, and only becomes involved with things again in the book's epilogue.
** In his defense, [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|he occasionally gets nearly uncontrollable urges to go around knocking people's hats off.]] That's quite interesting.
* [[Only Sane Man|Sane man]] Duncan Idaho acts as an
* Nick Carraway in ''[[The Great Gatsby]]''
* The narrator in ''[[Ishmael]]'' is, coincidentally enough, an Ishmael. [[I Am Not Shazam|That's not his name, though.]]
* The book version of ''[[Shane]]''.
* Dr. Watson is
* Dostoyevsky's ''The Posessed'' (aka "The Demons") has an unnamed narrator who has a minor role in the events, but he knows everyone and described a lot of scenes he hasn't witnessed... ahem.
** Dostoevsky likes this technique. ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'' uses the same shtick, with an unnamed narrator implied to just be someone who has lived in the town for many many years and knows all the local gossip, but for all intents and purposes is effectively omniscient.
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** The various film versions tend to give him a more active role, sometimes as Moreau's final experiment (and success)
* Weirdly, Lockwood and Nelly in ''[[Wuthering Heights (novel)|Wuthering Heights]]''. The main story (about Cathy, Heathcliff, Edgar and that lot) is being told to Lockwood - an outsider to the area - by Nelly, a servant whose active role in the story varies a lot.
** Even more weirdly in the same novel, by Isabella, who writes a note about her time with Heathcliff later found by Nelly and recited from memory to Lockwood. Also, the contents of the entire novel are really Lockwood's diary. That's
* There are two main viewpoint characters in ''[[
** Originally Carrot was going to be the viewpoint character, but then Pratchett decided it would be more interesting to leave his thoughts out of the narrative, and shifted the viewpoint to Vimes. This ended up having [[Ensemble Darkhorse|very interesting results]]. In fact, in the entire series, there is exactly one page written from Carrot's point of view, even if the story is revolving around him. Sometimes the book spends some time on other characters' thoughts on what Carrot is thinking, because he's like a well: both extremely simple, and extremely deep.
* ''[[John Dies at the End]]'' is narrated by the titular John's best friend David, who, while quite interesting and conflicted and well-designed in general, is nothing compared to John's utter insanity. John is generally considered the protagonist.
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** ''Herbert West Reanimator'', ''The Dreams in the Witch House'' and ''The Thing on the Doorstep'' are noteworthy examples.
* Captain Hastings in [[Agatha Christie]]'s first ''[[Poirot]]'' novel, ''The Mysterious Affair at Styles''.
** She used a
** Also the vicar in ''Murder at the Vicarage'', where one of the three superficially similar, gossiping old ladies in the congregation solved the case. [[Miss Marple]] had a few other
* The ''[[Horrible Harry]]'' series of books are narrated by the main character's best friend, Doug, who acts as a foil to a lot of the characters.
* "Chief" Bromden from ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'', who takes center stage over the hero McMurphy because his hallucinations [[Rule of Symbolism|highlight the symbolism of the book]], and because we have to look up to McMurphy. We can't ''be'' him.
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** Marlowe does this again in ''Lord Jim''.
** This also applies to Marlowe's equivalent character, Willard, in ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.
* [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Thrawn]] is never, ''ever'' the viewpoint character. Starting in ''[[The Thrawn Trilogy]]'', where his scenes are witnessed by Pellaeon(who as his second-in-command and sometimes [[Commander Contrarian]] has ''very good'' reason for watching him), his thoughts and motives are always a mystery. The closest we ever get to seeing how he operates is in the ''Hand of Thrawn'' Duology where Pellaeon uses similarly [[Magnificent Bastard|magnificent]] tactics and in ''[[Outbound Flight]]'', where the young-ish, slightly less mysterious Thrawn talks a lot with the
** The ''[[Hand of Thrawn]]'' Duology has three Imperials working together to make it look like Thrawn has returned. The viewpoint character for them is Moff Disra, handler of political fallout. Neither Flim, the con artist and [[Dead Person Impersonation|physical impersonator of Thrawn]], nor Tierce, the tactical impersonator of Thrawn {{spoiler|and a clone attempt at replicating his genius}}, get their thoughts shown.
** ''[[Outbound Flight]]'' has
** In the ''[[X Wing Series|X-Wing]]'' books, the director of Imperial Intelligence and main villain, Ysanne Isard, is also never the viewpoint character, and it is similarly hard to discern her plans. This is different in the X-Wing ''comics'', set before the books, in which she has thought bubbles. In the last-set book to feature her, we get a little from her as the viewpoint character, but she certainly has
*** Notice how, even in her final appearance, she dances around the perennial question: whether she had sex with Emperor Palpatine (a question that sheds quite a bit of light on her mentality). If she had head time, the author would've had to spill the beans.
* ''[[Fried Green Tomatoes|Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe]]'' and its film version (simply called ''Fried Green Tomatoes'') has two perspectives; a woman at a nursing home, and the old lady who tells the woman her story. The old lady's stories are mostly about her adoptive sister and her relationship with another girl.
* The [[H. G. Wells]] novel ''[[The Time Machine]]'' is set up as a frame tale narrated by another, who relates what the time traveler has told him about his adventures.
** Similarly, his short story ''[[The Door In The Wall]]'' is told by someone
* Professor Arronax from [[Jules Verne]] novel ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]''. He is placed in the position of the
* In ''[[The Mad
* Captain [[Alatriste]]'s squire Íñigo de Balboa, although Íñigo sometimes furthers some plots himself.
* Richard MacDuff in ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'', whose main purpose is to be completely bewildered by title-character Dirk. In the second book, this device is abandoned, and it turns out Dirk himself is a lot more bewildered than he lets on.
* Verbal Kint in ''The Usual Suspects'' has exactly this relationship to Kaiser Sozye...but there's more to it.
* Susie, the narrator of ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'', is dead and in heaven. Most of the book is her following her friends and family as they deal with her death and move on, as well as the man who raped and killed her.
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] may have been trying to do this in his novel ''[[Podkayne
* Leo Borlock, the narrator of ''[[Stargirl]]'' by Jerry Spinelli, is a
* All four narrators of ''[[The Sound and
* Patrick, the nephew/narrator in ''[[Auntie Mame]]''.
* ''[[Danny, the Champion of the World]]'' doesn't necessarily come off this way throughout much of the narrative, but it ends like this:
{{quote|
What I have been trying to tell you all along is simply that my father, without the slightest doubt, was the most marvelous and exciting father any boy ever had. }}
* Nanapush and Pauline takes turns narrating Louise Erdrich's ''Tracks'', but the story revolves around Fleur Pillager.
* Richard Papen from [[Donna Tartt]]'s ''[[The Secret History]]''. The story is unquestionably about the other students in Professor Julian Morrow's clique, all of whom are far more sinister and have way more secrets, but Richard is our narrator.
* Fanny, the narrator of [[Nancy Mitford]]'s ''[[Love In A Cold Climate]]'' and ''The Pursuit of Love'' tells the stories of Linda, Polly and Cedric and only mentions concurrent events in her own life - such as her marriage and the birth of her children - in passing.
* Damien Vryce is the main viewpoint character of the ''[[Coldfire Trilogy|Coldfire]]'' trilogy, but for much of the series he functions as the
* The ''[[Everworld]]'' series has ''four.'' The primary four protagonists,(David, Christopher, April, and Jalil) are only protagonists at all, or indeed, in Everworld in the first place, because of they are all associated (in different ways) with the witch who binds all of the story and character arcs together, [[Barrier Maiden|as well as the rest of the two universes]]. Averted later in the series when the witch in question finally narrates a book, and Subverted in the eleventh when {{spoiler|the author [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|Drops A Bridge On Her]] and focuses on the four [[First Person Peripheral Narratorin]] the twelfth book entirely, instead.}}
* Phineas is the
* In ''[[The Master Of Ballantrae]]'', the story is told after all the important characters are dead by Mr. McKellar, the steward of the Durrisdeer estate, because he wants to set the record straight and clear the reputation of the late Lord Durrisdeer. McKelllar narrates the events he was present at in the first person, and his actions have some influence on the course of events, but he's not central.
* Tim Wynne Jones' short story [http://www.hapon.com/9pdf/kerdydickussty.pdf ''Save The Moon For Kerdy Dickus'']{{Dead link}} begins with the line "This is Ky's story."
* The ''[[Silverwing (novel)|Silverwing]]'' series' third book actually ''has'' a character named Ishmael, though he appears near the end of the story, isn't given much characterization, and [[Red Shirt|dies during the climactic battle]].
* Just about all of H.G. Wells' books, including the above-mentioned ''Island of Dr. Moreau'' and ''The Time Machine,'' fall prey to this. Perhaps the only novel to avert this is ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]],'' where the unnamed narrator is the protagonist by default because no other major characters last for more than a handful of chapters or have any real motives or character development.
* ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'' has Scout watching her father's heroic attempt to save Tom Robinson's life. Scout does have her own adventures, but Atticus is the real man of action.
* Death, rather than the eponymous character, narrates ''[[The Book Thief]].''
* Elmore Leonard's "Hombre": mainly for reason #2, as a big part of the point is John Russell's unwillingness to let anyone else see what he's thinking, or who he really is.
* [[Hyperion]] sequel ''Endymion'' has Raul as the [[First Person Peripheral Narratorto]] Aenea.
* ''[[Horatio Hornblower|Lieutenant Hornblower]]'' is told from the perspective of one of Hornblower's superior officers, starting with a poor first impression, and proceeding with the increasing awareness of the fact that Hornblower is [[The Chessmaster|manipulating him into basically following Hornblower's plan.]] He goes along with it because Hornblower tends to have very good ideas. Of course, the primary reason for this
* One of the popular criticisms of ''[[The Tenant of Wildfell Hall]]'' is that the [[Framing Device|frame]] narrator Gilbert Markham should be this trope, but [[Subverted Trope|instead]], he eventually becomes the protagonist Helen's love interest. Note Gilbert was created by the sister of Lockwood's creator.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "Beyond the Black River,"
* ''Conrad's Fate'' of the [[Chrestomanci]] series by [[Diana Wynne Jones]] is mostly about Christopher. Since he is older than in ''The Lives of Christopher Chant'' but younger than he is in the rest of the series, we get to see him be a bit reckless and mess up. Diana hadn't really had much of a chance to explain the mysterious Chrestomanci's thought processes to her readers until then. Conrad himself doesn't do very much more than observe how awesome Christopher is.
* In [[Gene Wolfe]]'s ''Book of the Long Sun, Silk is the protagonist but two of his pupils, Horn and Nettle, turn out to be the narrators.
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* Jack Burden narrates [[All the King's Men]] instead of Willie Stark.
* Jim Burden, in ''[[My Antonia]]'', has touches of this. His narration speaks mostly of the fascinating people around him than of his own life, though it is clear from some throwaway lines near the end of the book that he has had an interesting one.
* Dunstan, the narrator of ''[[Fifth Business]]'', could be considered this. He himself doesn't really do much, but the accompanying stories of Percy and Paul detail a story of revenge that takes sixty years to conclude. The title even references this; "fifth business" is a stage term meaning that one character who has no real part to play in the story except for the fact that they know a game breaking fact about the main character.
* Haldeth of ''The Master of Whitestorm'' played this role when in Korendir's company. When apart, Korendir's story was always told in third-person.
* The narrator in Aphra Behn's ''Oroonoko'' doesn't even get a name, even though we're clearly supposed to identify her with Behn herself. Either way Behn spends pretty much the entire novella gushing over the enslaved title character's nobility and strength (to the point where the subtext rapidly starts becoming . . . text) and describing events she couldn't possibly have seen (specifically events occurring in West Africa before Oroonoko and his beloved Imoinda were enslaved, and therefore the narrator would have been halfway around the planet from).
* The narrator of many of [[Damon Runyon]]'s stories—such as "Butch Minds the Baby"—is clearly present for all of the action, but rarely ''does'' anything more than relate what everyone else did around him.
==
* The new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' starts with the episode "Rose", which has the title character as [[The Watson]] and First-Person Peripheral Narrator to ease the audience into the series.
** In fact, the first few episodes featuring any new companion do a bit of this, as the Doctor has to re-explain who he is and what he does. A change in companions is a much better time for new viewers to get into the show than a change in Doctors.
** Unless, of course, both changes happen at once, like with the Eleventh Doctor.
** The [[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]] novels are typically all written from the perspective of the companions, or the random characters trying to work out what these weirdos are about. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in one novel set in the Land of Fiction, where the Master of the Land of Fiction laments ([[Meta Fiction|in the descriptive text]]) that even in Omniscient Narrator mode, he ''still'' doesn't know what the Doctor is thinking.
== New Media ==
* The viewpoint character in the archaeology segment of the [[Interactive Fiction]] work ''The Beetmonger's Journal'' is a textbook First-Person Peripheral Narrator; they're largely a complete cipher, and present primarily to chronicle the exploits of the more dynamic Lapot, and the ''other'' viewpoint character—the eponymous beetmonger—as dictated to them by Lapot from a journal they discovered.
== Theatre ==
* In the musical ''[[Rent]]'', Mark is an aspiring filmmaker who passively observes the dramas and adventures of the rest of the cast while he films them. His role is to narrate to the audience and reflect on their situations.
* The Stage Manager from ''[[Our Town]]''.
== Troper Works ==
* [[White Mage]] Hermea from ''[[Our Paradise (Darth Wiki)|Our Paradise]]'' is the viewpoint character, but she's clearly [[The Lancer]]. It seems the the whole point of it all is to keep the [[Silent Protagonist]] silent. Even his thoughts.
* The Student in ''[[Museum of Idiots]]'', doubling as [[The Straight Man]]. Mostly, his role is to observe [[Bunny Ears Lawyer|Chickensuit McChickensuit]] and stop him from getting too out-of-hand. He usually fails.
== Video Games ==
* Crono from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''. While he is certainly the protagonist, for the whole game he is a silent protagonist who simply is there to observe the decisions of his party and go along with them. The 'real' characters and character development happens to those around him.
** Well, minus ...{{spoiler|Vainly attempting to stop Lavos from killing all his friends [[And Zoidberg|and Magus]] and dying in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]]}}. That scene alone basically gives him some kind of characterization even if he's Silent, not unlike the Persona
* [[Legacy Character|The various]] Links act as this, but especially in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'', where the [[NPC
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]]'' too. Link just serves as an action guy for the real focus of the game: [[The Imp|Midna]].
** When you consider that Link was originally just supposed to be a stand-in for the player (which is to say, being the player's '[[Meaningful Name|link]]' to the game), this isn't really so surprising.
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* Harry Mason, Henry Townsend and Travis Grady may be the playable characters in their respective ''[[Silent Hill]]'' games, but they're coming into the story as (more or less) complete outsiders, trying to discover [[Catch Phrase|what the hell]] is up with the world around them. Heather Mason, James Sunderland, and Alex Shepherd start out like this, but then discover an [[Tomato in the Mirror|unpleasant surprise]].
* In ''[[Phantom Brave]]'', the real protagonist is Marona, as is immediately obvious... but the primary viewpoint character, and the one you control during downtime is her companion Ash. At least part of this is that Marona is too naive and too [[The Messiah|ready to love everything and everyone]] for her to provide an accurate perspective on what's happening and the prejudices she faces.
** And ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'', by the same people, takes this even
* The Wii title ''[[Deadly Creatures]]'' tells the story of two treasure hunters, but you spend the game playing as a scorpion and a tarantula and the story unfolds through their perspective. The events aren't even cut scenes, they just ''happen'' in places that you happen to be passing through.
* A common habit of ''[[Resident Evil]]'' games. In ''Resident Evil 0'', Rebecca and Billy are just wandering through the game, while Wesker, Birkin, and Marcus are setting things in motion around them. ''Resident Evil 2'' stars two people who wander into town during the zombie outbreak. ''Resident Evil Outbreak'' features eight people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. 1, 3, 4, 5, and C:V are much more personalized.
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* Done in the [[Interactive Fiction]] game ''[[Photopia]]'', where the real main character is only ever seen through others' eyes.
* Eddie Riggs of ''[[Brutal Legend]]'' does ''not'' fall under this trope... but he initially assumes he does. As a roadie, he figures he's there to play the [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]] to the "real" stars, and it takes him a while to realize he ''is'' the real star.
* The player character of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]: Oblivion'' is arguably
** Well, and Martin's best General, Bodyguard, and "maybe" friend to those who kept him with them as long as possible.
* The main player character in ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'' (Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson of Task Force 141) acts as the
* In ''[[Halo]] 3: ODST'', the primary player character is the [[The Voiceless|mute,]] [[He Who Must Not Be Seen|faceless]] Rookie. For the flashback missions, you take control of his different squadmates, and the real stars of the story are your CO, Gunnery Sgt. Buck, and Veronica Dare.
** He does become the main character by the end of the game though, when he catches up with the events that happened over the last 6 hours.
* Most of the actual story in ''[[Diablo II]]'' is narrated by Marius, a random person whom the Dark Wanderer (Diablo) takes along to carry his stuff or something. He is eventually given the task to enter Hell itself to destroy Baal's soulstone, ie. to actually do something, but understandably chickens out. What's interesting is that if Marius is seen as
* The ending to ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' reveals that the whole thing has essentially been the scrapbook of Elle, a (somewhat annoying) journalist who had made it her mission to document Squad 7's adventures.
* The narrator of [[Narcissu]], who is not even given a name in-game, largely serves as a chauffeur and plot-catalyst for the real focus of the story, Setsumi. {{spoiler|Justified by reason #1 above.}} Setsumi herself fits this role to some degree vis-a-vis Himeko in the prequel, but she does at least get quite a bit of character development.
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* Keiichi in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' is actually only the second most important character. He's certainly [[The Hero]], but the story isn't about [[The Hero]]. {{spoiler|The story is actually about the often overshadowed Furude Rika, which is kept a secret until the end because the only thing she doesn't know about the plot is the reason it's even necessary.}} This makes for an interesting case where Keiichi is not actually a ''full'' example of the trope because the actual protagonist is incredibly passive while undeniably being the focus of the story.
==
* [[No Name Given|{...}]] from ''[[Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name]],'' natch. [[The Pollyanna|Hanna]] himself is [[Ambiguously Human]] and is implied to have a [[Dark and Troubled Past]], which remains mysterious as {...} himself doesn't know anything about it. (Heck, [[Ghost Amnesia|he doesn't even know his own past]], for that matter.)
== Western Animation ==
* Pvt. Robert "Paperboy" Higgins from ''[[Starship Troopers|Roughnecks: Starship Trooper Chronicles]]'' is a FedNet reporter, basically embedded with the Mobile Infantry (except he's an enlisted man, not a non-combatant). Most of the show's narration is him speaking in the past tense, as though writing his memoirs, and he states in the first episode, regarding his comrade and the obvious male lead [[One-Man Army|Johnny Rico]], "I know he doesn't look like much now, but trust me, this guy's gonna be a legend."
* The Narrator (a pudgy snowman) in the famous Rankin/Bass animated adaptation of ''Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer''. Apparently, his only ''raison d'etre'' besides telling the audience the story is to sing and perform on the guitar songs that are only tangentially related to the plot. The story's ''real'' protagonist, of course, is Rudolph - but since we are viewing ''everything'' through the Narrator's perspective, Herbie the Elf and the Misfit Toys also are depicted as well-rounded characters, and arguably alternate protagonists themselves.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Narrator Tropes]]
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