Press X To Rage
A common trope that is prevalent in many video games today is the Angry Protagonist Character. These characters are usually defined to have a motive to be angry, like revenge, or betrayal. While every other character usually chooses logic to get past a situation, these guys decide to use brute force or violence as the answer to the issue. It’s understandable to be caught up on an issue, and depending on what that issue is, anger seems like a natural go to response. But after awhile, it should be dealt with and done with.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have bad memories that I am still bitter towards and holding grudges against. But I try my best to avoid the conflict altogether, instead of being angry when I have to deal with it. Where common sense would say “let it go” or “don’t try to be around that, since it makes you angry,” these characters decide to throw that out the window, and use anger as their weapon of choice. This leads impressionable gamers to a poor idea of what masculinity means and how to solve issues. While we can debate all day long at who’s at fault for impressionable gamers playing this game, we can acknowledge that the way these characters are written to have anger all of the time is wrong. Either way, let’s take a look at 5 games with characters who fit the trope of the Angry Male Protagonist character.
God Of War
This one is a good example, as the story of the God of War series has seen Kratos kill more gods than the Flyest Nihilist, Nietzsche. The story of God of War sees Kratos originally trying to do a favor for the greek gods, in order for them to take away the memories of him killing his wife and kids. This favor is killing his original master, Ares. Once killed, the gods make Kratos the new god of war. However, that ends when Kratos gets involved in the wars his armies are fighting and Zeus tricks him into getting rid of his godly powers.After getting killed by Zeus, Kratos decides to kill Zeus and every god who stands with him. Eventually, he almost every greek god, and then finally, he stabs himself. Thus ending the God of War series, before “Dad of War” decided to be released.
Well obviously these games show how not to deal with anger and betrayal. Kratos has to deal with the baggage of killing his own wife and daughter. While it is never suggested to go kill your family members, the guilt should be expressed and worked through in a healthy and safe environment. Instead of coming to grips with the horrible thing that Kratos has done, he takes out his anger on every enemy in the game and blames the gods for making him do it. Also, when Kratos was killed by Zeus, he didn’t go to Zeus and talk things out. He decided to go murder everyone associated with Zeus. This shows a level of violent, aggressive actions as a result of anger that should not be accepted. It’s obvious that Kratos fits this trope rather nicely.
Grand Theft Auto V
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvybREam2Uw
Now considering the success that Grand Theft Auto V has had over the course of 4.5–5 years, it’s no wonder that I have to bring mention to Trevor Phillips. Now whether or not you consider the three playable characters of the game as protagonists or antagonists is up for the debate of everyone else, but since you play as them, they’re the protagonists to me. From the moment you get the cutscene with Trevor after the prologue, you can already tell that this man has some screws loose in his head. Trevor is a man on the hunt for his old robbing buddy, Michael, and wants to stop at nothing to find him. Once found, the two begin doing missions together again, and bickering like sports players playing against hated rivals. Depending on the ending you choose, Trevor will either be alive and not Michael, vice versa, or both will be alive and will fix their friendship, I guess. It really depends on if you get them to hang out together or not.
Trevor has a lot of similarities to Kratos in terms of betrayal and anger. As we find out later in the story, Michael and the government were lying to Trevor about the person he was writing to in prison. Turns out the person was dead, and planted in Michael’s grave as a cover-up body. We see Trevor act up and get angry when things are going wrong, or not his way. The three main characters in the game have a special power that makes them more than just different audio tracks on the same characters. Michael’s slows down time on foot, Franklin’s slows down driving, and Trevor’s uses his rage in order to get kills easier. This is easily shown on in a set of Trevor exclusive mission titled Rampage. These missions show off Trevor getting into some incident where he gets angry and starts murdering people until he calms down, as you do. Instead of leaving the situation or trying to calm down, Trevor just jumps to rage and starts getting violent. Just needs to calm down a little, work it out, and not jump to violent anger.
Gears Of War
Marcus Fenix was a very influential figure in the days of the Xbox 360. He was a main character of the Gears of War series, and one of the most prominent figures of said game. He is a member of the cogs, an attempt at a military unit meant to combat the locusts. What do they use to stop the locusts ? Guns with chainsaws on them and lasers satellites. That sounds incredibly metal and cool. And anti climatic final bosses aside, the games were very fun and told a compelling story of human survival.
The only problem is, Marcus has a temper issue that can make things a little too aggressive. While the chainsaw on the gun is cool, it is a violent way to kill somebody. In the first game, Marcus was thrown into jail to fend for himself against the locusts. The backstory behind this is because Marcus made an error in a previous battle against the locusts. Because of this, Marcus leads with a little aggression in his commands and anger towards the locusts. Leading by anger leads to toxic and aggressive behavior that doesn’t work well for those influenced by it. Impressionable people might wanna steer clear of this game in order to avoid the violence.
Injustice 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMHtKFpChOM
A fighting game in a paper on angry protagonist characters. Am I mad ? Well yes, but this game outlines who the heroes are and who the villains are. The one we are gonna focus on today is the Red Lantern, known as Atrocitus. Many people think of him as a villain, but A) he has his own comic where he is one of the protagonists and B) in this game, Bruce Wayne states that “That every villain is the hero of his own story.”
The Red Lantern Corp is like the Green in many ways. Both get their powers from the emotional spectrum and both choose their members based on their abilities to show those emotions. However, where the Green Lanterns get their powers from Willpower, the Red Lantern Corp gets their power from Anger and Rage. The story goes that the members have been hurt or angered by someone. Once hurt, the rage they show is immense and the ring seeks them out. Atrocitus, being the leader of the corp, shows the most rage and uses the ring power most. He is the most violent member of the corp and even temps Hal Jordan, the game’s Green Lantern, to try and give in to the anger and rage that he feels. Atrocitus became a Red Lantern, when a group of robots, made by the Guardians of the Green Lantern Corp had an error in their programing and murdered all of the other people on Atrocitus’s planet.
Violence and a fighting game go hand in hand, but even then, all of Atrocitus’s attacks are fueled by his anger and rage. The way his character is written, he is more geared towards violence and trying to get revenge for the incidents that turn people into Red Lanterns. You can hear it in the super move that he uses, saying “Together, with our hellish hate, we’ll burn you all, that is your fate,” a reference to the Red Lantern oath that each uses to increase their power. His personality and attacks are geared more towards a bloodlust and violence, trying to incite rage in other people. While it seems hard for anyone to be influenced by an alien, it is best for those who have tendencies of copying what they see in games, away from images of this game and footage of it.
Asura’s Wrath
This was an interesting game and a fun one to play. However, this game is plagued by a glaring issue, paid ending. Sadly, Asura’s Wrath was made where the actual ending to the story was blocked off by a paywall in the form of dlc. But this doesn’t stop us from looking at our main protagonist of the game, Asura. The game takes place on the planet Gaea, where Asura is one of the Eight Generals in charge of protecting the planet. Asura is meant to take the fall for the death of the Emperor in place of the other generals. His wife is killed, his daughter is kidnapped, and he is sent to his death. When Asura awakens, he starts a plan to get his daughter back, killing everyone that stands in his way.
I cannot say I wouldn’t do the same thing if I were in Asura’s position, but to everyone else, this is not a good thing to do. Asura is violent throughout the game. He throws multiple punches with his fists and just chooses to use anger as the main go to emotion. You have to approach an issue with calmness and be collective with your decision. This over the top anger and punching plan just leads to more toxic and aggressive violence in order to solve the most mundane task. It paints the tale of “if someone wrongs you, just punch them to death and that will solve it.” This is not how to solve the problem, it just makes more of them.
Borderlands 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpNFq72sEdo
Borderlands 2 takes the crazy shooter elements of the first game and builds upon that with some awesome storylines and cool characters. Enter the dlc character of Kreig. Kreig is a character that takes one of the more notable enemies from the last game, the psycho, and allows you to play as one with all the craziness of the old game. He’s a fun character, but he has one interesting thing that is also defined in his character, crazy angry.
Krieg has a nact for trying to kill as many bad guys as possible. His personality goes for the violent acts that would try to kill and burn people. His super move goes for a buzz saw that can be thrown in order to kill people quicker. He also catches on fire in order to burn people and when he dies, he can run with TNT and explode to gain a second life if getting a kill. Kreig tries to be angry and violent towards the enemies of the game who give it right back. While the other characters are calm and collected, Kreig goes above and beyond to increase the violence and anger to take down the enemies and stop Handsome Jack. It is a fun character to play as, with many laughs at just what he will say next. But he is also a character that should not be played as by the most impressionable people. For he is a negative image of dealing with problems. The buzzsaw is not a tool to get back at enemies.
Mercenaries 2
Mercenaries 2 had a fun game to play gave a Grand Theft Auto experience in a rating system that isn’t as strong. It revolves around 3 characters who are all relatively interchangeable. The game revolves around a mercenary who gets screwed on a job by a dictator who takes over Venezuela and shoots the mercenary in the rear. The mercenary of choice then decides to side with different factions in order to take down the new dictator. Eventually, after many buildings are destroyed and people are shot, the dictator is taken down and Venezuela is freed.
The negative thing about this is that each mercenary takes up violence and revenge in order to get back at the man who shot them in the rear. No matter which one you choose, they all act the same. Each one goes for guns blazing and destroying buildings as they see fit and as the factions they side with need them. No other alternatives are taken in order to take revenge on the dictator. No other plans are used to get rid of him. All that is done is death and destruction in the name of revenge to the man who shot you in the rear. Innocent buildings of civilians, cars and people who did not do anything to tick the merc off, doesn’t matter. If they are in the way of the army of the dictator, they are taken out.
These characters send messages to those playing the games that it is ok to be violent and angry in order to get the job done. It tells men to go ahead and be violent and do what you need to. The trope takes these characters and uses anger or revenge that they have built up as a mechanic and a point of their character. This is not how the characters should be getting the problems taken care of. In a fighting game, it makes sense, but in games like God of War, this has negative effects on the men who play this game, as it makes them think that anger is the way to go. These guys need to make less of an appearance in the game in order to show men a better way to get the problem solved, instead of with violence and anger. Regardless of what the point of the game is, it does not need to be solved with anger. Those who struggle with it have enough to deal with, without their favorite game characters getting angry and telling them it is ok to be angry all the time. Maybe in the future, these characters can calm down and take a better approach. It is the only way to fix things and eliminate this trope altogether.
Sources Used
God of War Saga, Playstation 3 version, SCE Santa Monica Studios, 2012
Grand Theft Auto V, Playstation 4 version, Rockstar, 2015
Gears of War, Xbox One version, Microsoft Studios, 2015
Injustice 2, Playstation 4 version, NetherRealm Studios, 2017
Asura’s Wrath, Playstation 3 version, Capcom, 2012
Borderlands 2, Playstation 4 version, Gearbox Software, 2015
Mercenaries 2, Playstation 3, Electronic Arts, 2008
