6 Dumb Video Game Protagonists Not Known for Their Smarts
Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes)
A skilled assassin though he may be, Travis isn’t going to win any awards for his intelligence anytime soon.
Drawn into the assassination business because he blew all of his money on a light saber, his primary motivation to keep it up is so that he can sleep with the scheming Sylvia Christel.
This remains true even as she makes it clear that she’s only using him to achieve her own goals, and by the end of the first game he loses almost all of the money he made through his assassinations after she cons him out of it and vanishes.
Likewise, by the time players see him in Travis Strikes Again, he’s been driven into hiding in the remote wilderness to avoid the assassins now after his own head.
It’s an unfortunate fate to be sure, but also one which he should have expected after all the assassins he killed and could have avoided by thinking through who he accepted work from in the first place.
6 Dumb Video Game Protagonists Not Known for Their Smarts
Chloe Price (Life is Strange)
Chloe Price is a character with plenty of depth and emotional complexity, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t had her moments of stupidity.
In addition to getting in deep with a drug dealer, Chloe regularly makes hot-headed decisions that have lasting ramifications on her life.
Case in point: She gets herself thrown out of school so that Rachel Amber can perform in a play, right after Rachel throws herself under the bus for her so that she can stay in school.
The same can be said of her decision to try and save Rachel’s mother without the help of the authorities or any sort of adult figure. Again, touching and speaks to her courage, but a really dumb decision once you think about it.
This is all to say nothing of her actions in the main game, where choices like shooting a junked out car’s steel bumper force her friend Max to rewind time so she doesn’t die from a ricocheted bullet to the gut.
6 Dumb Video Game Protagonists Not Known for Their Smarts
Arthur Morgan (Red Dead Redemption 2)
God bless him, as he is a good man at his core, but Arthur Morgan can be stupider than a sack of bricks sometimes.
Whereas Dutch and the rest of the gang are usually the masterminds behind the schemes and robberies that go south, Arthur is the simple soul who goes along with them, even if he sees the flaws.
Micah wants to shoot up a town right after being broken out of prison? Arthur doesn’t like it, but he helps Micah do it all the same.
A few gang members want to walk right into Rhodes, despite their conning the most prominent members of the town? He’ll walk right in with them, even though he’s well aware that the town has figured out they’re being had.
Granted, this could be chalked up to his loyalty for the gang and everyone in it (and you know, because it’s a game), but many times speaking up sooner or even stopping to think a little harder could have led to a better outcome for everyone.
Factor in the dumb decisions he makes himself – namely choosing some of the loudest and most violent methods for breaking his friends out of prison – and it’s hard not to see that Arthur could have stood to think a little harder from time to time.
6 Dumb Video Game Protagonists Not Known for Their Smarts
Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)
You know those friends who are good people but really need to think a bit more before they act? That’s Mae Borowski in a nutshell.
Between bringing up subjects her friends would really rather forget and putting herself in situations that only stand to hurt her in the long term, Mae consistently shows that her ability to think about her actions could use some work.
Sure, it might be entertaining to see her get sloshed at a big party her ex showed up to; and yeah, seeing her do verbal gymnastics after revealing a friend’s secret is a great setup for an emotional exchange between the two.
At their core though, most all of these moments could have been avoided if Mae stopped to think for even just a second longer, maybe choosing to drink less or stop to consider how her words could affect others before saying them.
It wouldn’t have made for as interesting of a story, but it would have saved her and her friends a lot of heartbreak in the longterm.
6 Dumb Video Game Protagonists Not Known for Their Smarts
Leon S. Kennedy (Resident Evil)
Leon S. Kennedy has had more than his fair share of naive and stupid decisions.
Across his many encounters with undead and infected hordes, Leon has been duped, tricked and used by people most any other human bring would instantly see red flags from, all the while failing to help those that are actually telling him the truth.
Some highlights include doubting the innocence of imprisoned reporter Ben in Resident Evil 2, with fatal results; and trusting Resident Evil 6’s “villain in disguise” Derek Simmons, whose white suit and facial hair scream evil schemer.
To be fair, it was more understandable in earlier entries. He was new to zombie apocalypse scenarios and still working his way through figuring out who would want to start them and why. After surviving all that he has though, he should probably have noticed by now that maybe the people in power can’t be trusted.
6 Dumb Video Game Protagonists Not Known for Their Smarts
Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
It’s hard not to see Kingdom Hearts’ Sora as particularly dumb, especially when he’s only gotten dumber as the series has gone on.
Starting off as a simple but earnest hero, Sora’s mental acuity seems to go into free fall between each game, with his ability to reason and make wise choices becoming more and more difficult.
This includes not knowing how to count and consistently forgetting the whole point of why he’s on his journey in Kingdom Hearts 3, consistently needing to be reminded by his friends to get back on track and to learn to use the Power of Awakening.
There’s also the many evil plots he falls for hook, line and sinker. Yes, it’s tragic when all of his friends get consumed by darkness, but given how few characters actually die or become truly evil in the series he should be able to work out that they’re still savable.
On one hand, it’s cause for some concern. After all, with the number of comas and consciousness lapses he’s suffered over the years, it’s not impossible he’s suffered some brain damage as a result.
On the other hand, him and his friends seem untroubled by it, making it much easier to assume that’s just how Sora is, for better or worse.
What are some especially dumb video game protagonists you’ve come across over the years? Let us know in the comments section below. For more interesting lists, check out our breakdown of five times video game endings were changed due to fan backlash.
Published: Mar 5, 2019 10:52 am