A mute as a Protagonist

As opposed to a 'silent protagonist' who simply doesn't have text, but apparently can communicate when needed. (Crono, Serge, Mario, Link, Pokemon MCs, etc.)

I have been constantly thinking about the possibility of a video character being mute, at first it was just to be an exaggerated version of this trope as a joke, but I figured if I were to do this I would want to make it more than that. I want to take advantage of the main character having a disability, not for the sake of feels, but having an actual believable character that is mute and has the realistic struggles of a mute.

I am not a mute, so I don't want to assume what it's like to be mute. I am currently doing a bit of research myself, but I want to know if anyone has any insights into how this type of character could be written.

Also, despite making an entire essay regarding how disabilities are commonly misrepresented in media, I know that even I am prone to making the same mistakes. In a more general topic regarding disabilities, what are examples of mistakes people often see in fiction that frustrates them?

I had a character like that in various medias. Always hesitated to get the transition in here. :)

Think of how you'd communicate with different cultures that do not talk your languages to get understood and it will inspire you as it is really close.

Refer to Christine from Dead Money. Although I am no medical expert, I imagine a mute communicates with expressions; their face, hands, body language.

have you played Half-Life?

Good series.

Square Enix has just that: The Quiet Man. (Well, he's deaf but I think he doesn't talk either)

I agree with Marquise*, imagine its like talking to a person from another country that doesn't understand english.

As someone who communicates with mute/deaf people on an almost daily basis, from my perception, I would say the trope where ALL mutes are always this cool or mysterious person because no one understands their intent even one bit because they can't talk is kinda misleading. They don't react much different from fully able people once you get to common communication ground with them. You can hold a conversation with them much like normal. They can be goofy, mellow etc depending on the person. In fact, one of them recently ecstatically told me that they were going on a vaccation to a beach in thailand and they are going to take many pictures while wearing a sexy bikini and drinking martinies! How bold!

One thing is for sure, mutes are very expressive with body language due to not being able to form vocal words. They make many facial expressions and mouth shapes matching word sounds to go with their hand signs to give more context to what they are 'saying'. Video call is a great benifit for them since now they too can call people instead of messages.

When around people who arent used to interacting with them or sign language, they tend to use gestures that everyone in their country has as common knowlage, like using a arm flex gesture to signify strong. Which is why I find the idea where they can't make anyone understand them at all in their native nation odd. For most people in the same country that is usually enough to get the barebones idea in a conversation across. When what they want to say still isn't conveyed, they will go ahead to writing letters on their own arm or ask for a peice of paper or phone to write words on.

At the begining, I only understood the common gestures. So 90% of the dialog looks like an alien language to me, I will ask questions to the point till they write it down for me if they really want to say something. So if the mute is around new people with no prior experiances with them, that could be a factor to take note off.

This is from my experiance conversing with those around me of course. And, Im sure there are plenty more other kinds experinces out there.

One way I found in the media is kinda defeating the purpose a bit. It's in an old game called Drakengard1. The protag originally can speak but one a verge of his own demise, he make a pact to a dragon to continue living by sacrificing his ability to speak. How the game show of his character is by having a dragon he made a pact with his own sidekick. The dragon can directly hear his thought so the dragon will occasionally comment on the protag's thought to give player clues to what he's thinking and also the surrounding character will mostly comment on his action.

An important aspect you need to know is whether the character was born mute or became mute - and if so, how recently.

Because of a health condition, almost ten years ago, I was unable, incapable to talk for a couple of months. I'm a rather talkative person and back then I was studying a social studies, which involves a lot of talking. So being unable to, while always being used to talking, really changes your life.

It wasn't just hard for me, but also for a lot of people around me. Casual talks became challenging. It was just after Summer, so people were keen on talking about how we spend our vacation and the like. The funny thing is though, some people I talked with always had me leading a conversation. But because of my condition, suddenly the introvert people became very talkative to me, while the extravert people became very quiet towards me, them not being sure how to handle my condition.

Knowing no sign language (not that anyone I knew at that point knew any either), I mostly flailed with my arms a lot, trying a full range of facial expressions and mostly getting very frustrated that I couldn't get my point across. Whenever I had to 'say' something important, I had to write it down, so I always had pen and paper with me. And if I didn't, I always had my old, indestructable phone I could use to bash someone's head in when I got too annoyed by my own handicap... or, you know, use it to write stuff down with. Eventually I became fairly proficient with making things clear by using gestures, up to the point that friends made a game out of it.

Those months were some of the worst in my life, but I learned a lot during that time. Especially how not to take talking for granted.

Having said that, it also had a lot of fun times too. People who started answering questions for me, because I was unable to. It was at the beginning of a new school year, right after Summer, and the homeroom teacher asked us all to introduce ourselves. When it was my turn, one of my classmates stood up instead and started introducing me. "This is Fladian, is x-years old, lives in x-city, does this and that in his free time."

I really appreciate the insights @Fladian and @dragoonwys, learning about these direct experiences helps a lot.

You could check how dark souls series does it, they do a pretty good job without any dialogue from player's character. You can use that as a base for a mute character.

You mean putting all the story in item descriptions and hopimg people think its good cause its hard to figure out.

Not necessarily, I was thinking of the dialogue between characters, such as interaction with the fire keeper or Andre the blacksmith in dark souls 3.

I think CrossCode might be a good game to look at for this matter. Lea, the main character, isn't mute, but she can't talk either (She is actually playing an online game and the speech module is broken). She does get a few simple words over time tho. But I think you could easily substitute those with simple handsigns and faces.