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Or protagonists whom were adopted?

I've been seeing a lot of them popping out recently (Usually one or the other, but I remember seeing at least one who was both) and was just wondering how people out there feel about them.

Personally I don't really have anything against these plot devices, but often times I do wish the twists weren't so predictable or boring. By this, I mean a character's amnesia is usually the result of brainwashing or some kind of made-up drug, or the character just found out he was adopted and doesn't remember it despite being like 7 or 8 at the time of adoption (If that was the case). I mean, my 13 year old nephew remembers the time when he was adopted at age 4 as well as the circumstances revolving around why he was orphaned, and one of my elementary school friends who was 9 at the time even knows that he's an adopted child (Though I guess it is possible that his parents told him).

As ashamed as I am to admit it, the lead protagonist of my story falls under these cliches as well. However, my character does point out in the very beginning that he has been suffering from retrograde amnesia seven years prior to the story instead of finding out he can't remember anything like right at the start of the story, as well as asked to be taken care of by his adoptive father until he can remember his past rather than finding out later through reveals that he was adopted after his real parents were killed by the villain.

So, what are your guys' opinions on these two plot devices?

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Recently? I'm pretty sure it's been happening for a while now.

Generally it's a lazy way of skipping to the action, creating confict and mystery or convienently setting the story up. Generally I don't like it. It's not much that it's there, it's how it's done. You rarely ever get to see the character struggle with amenesia or adopotion. It's generally waved off with a shrug. Amenesia characters don't seem too concerned they have no idea who they are and suffer no problems with that massive gap. A character who finds themselves adopated doesn't often go into how they feel about it. Plus, there are other ways to do the same action, to skip to the action, to set up a story, to create conflict. Ask yourself why the character has either of the two in the first, and if you removed it, could you figure out another way to still tell the story?

Also, Amnesia and Story Structure http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/am ... -structure

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It's one of the overused cliche. It's not happening recently or for a while... it's been happening for a very long time. I know several SNES game featuring amnesic (and/or adopted) protagonist.

Personally, I don't really mind with both, as long as the story is interesting and there's a good reason why the protagonist is amnesic (and it have to be very important and related to the plot).

IMO, Ryu from BOFIV and Terra from FFVI are good examples of good amnesic protagonist.

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It's been there and it's been done, but originality shouldn't be the end-all to it. It weirds me out though, when amnesia doesn't really seem to affect the characters. They just get a blank slate and then set out to adventure and maybe uncover a couple of pieces of their past. Even worse, they'll forget important things in their world like armies, countries, and important rules (so that those can be explained to them) but nothing else. If I got amnesia and forgot my own name, and surroundings, I'll assume that I'll have at least a little difficulty in navigating the world/social scene.

It's the same thing with 'Stumbled into another world' stories. A lot of the time, modern characters adapt to medieval/sci-fi settings without batting many eyelashes, and don't seem to be in a hurry to get home. A good example of this would be FFTactics 2, where the central plot is basically lolhavfun. If you compare it to the one on the Gameboy Advance, the characters who stumbled into the world all have different motives. One wants to go home desperately, while others want to stay there in order to hide from some of their real world problems and will fight him to stay. Some were being bullied, and one was a handicap that could walk in the new world, and because of that, there's a lot of good emotional conflict. That's the kind of complexity that should have in amnesiac stories - even if you want it as just a tool for explanation, you should flesh it out in order to make it believable and relevant to the story.

Overall, I'm not too keen on amnesia, but if it's done well I'll certainly accept it. No problems with adoption on my end though. It's as valid as any other plot for me. (Unless he developed deep, scarring emotional problems from it and must brood every other sentence which in case I would sigh.)

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I know they've been out for a long time, but what I meant was like a lot of them are coming out even more so than they did before.

@Auro-Cyanide

I agree with you there. Characters not worrying about their missing memories is one of my gripes about the trope, which is why I was careful in giving my own character the amnesiac treatment. For confidentiality reasons I won't go into details, but one thing I can say is that my character actually tries to restore his childhood memories throughout the story. And thanks for the link to the vid by the way. It was pretty helpful .

@LVUER

As I said above to Auro-Cyanide, the lead protagonist spends much of the game's portion as well as the past seven years trying to recover his memories. Of course he's not gonna be doing this 100% of the time since he still needs to help people resolve their issues.

@Zylinder

I also agree with you on the part of characters being too carefree when they stumble into the realm of unfamiliarity. I've been doing some roleplay as my lead protagonist for the past few days in order to understand him better, such as his reactions to situations and interactions with things that are unfamiliar to him. Though I admit it's difficult at first, I at least found some leeway in developing how his personality and actions are affected by his condition.

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Real people get amnesia and/or are adopted all the time, so I don't think it's a problem in and of itself... But amnesia is usually used as an all-too-convenient plot device and I'm honestly kind of tired of seeing it. It's like coming up with a fully developed character and giving them a conflict/goal is too difficult, so writers give the character amnesia and make the amnesia 99% of the character's conflict. And then in the end the amnesia is just there so that it can make for a cheap plot twist once it goes away. (that everyone always sees coming from miles away) Also, the characters with amnesia generally just end up with one of two personalities: a cold rock like Cloud from Final Fantasy VII or the very happy-go-lucky type like Reith from Magna Carta. o_x

There are less tropes/cliches about characters who are adopted, but those exist, too. I think if you can write this in a way that avoids all the obvious tropes (or at least puts a unique spin on them), good for you. I love how the trope was turned on its head in Tales of the Abyss. But seriously contemplate whether the amnesia/adoption is necessary to the character/story or if you're throwing it in "just because".

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Do you mind providing some examples of what to avoid? I can easily change them around if needed.

Amnesia is pretty much necessary to the character and his development, which is why the symptom is lampshaded ahead of time and not because it happens at the start like the examples the Extra Credit video provided. Adoption was added in because the character needed to survive somehow. I mean, if you were alone at the age of 13, how are you gonna take care of yourself? I doubt you can survive on the streets when you have no idea what is going on or what to do. I also highly doubt you would find out anything about yourself either if you worked alone. Him being orphaned is necessary in order to understand the villain's motives and the plot as well.

Despite the possibility that his adoptive father could turn out to be either the big bad or the nice guy, the protagonist's primary goal is to find out who he is. If his father turned out to be a criminal, he would probably blindly assist him in his path if it means he'll make some progress or a full recovery.

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Are you sure?


Are you sure?

If you're using these devices because you can't think of another way, consider brainstorming other alternatives before you get started on your project. Of course you should go with this idea if you're really in love with it and this is the story you want to tell, but it sort of sounds like you're accepting these cliches because you haven't thought of something more interesting. Sometimes ideas need to percolate.


Finding out "who you are" when you're a kid is tough, period. You don't necessarily have to be amnesiac and adopted by a guy who might be the dude that murdered your parents (or another baddie-type). You know what I mean? I don't think that amnesia is strictly a necessary plot device if the main theme is personal discovery.

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Speaking of brainstorming, I'm just going to run with a few of these concepts for a bit. I have no idea what your project is actually about, so don't take this as criticism, just thinking things through.

So, we have a protagonist who loses his family and his memory at a young age. Assuming this is a semi-realistic modern day story, how does that happen? Even if you don't know who you are, other people do. Your family, your friends, your classmates... And what happens to a kid who shows up wandering the streets with no family and no memory? Could do research into social services in the area your story is set.

If the authorities find a lost kid, they're going to try to find out who he is. Any possessions he has on him, even his clothing, will be analysed for clues. His picture's going to be in the paper and the local news, maybe even national news if the story is dramatic and the kid is photogenic. He's likely to be crosschecked against a list of missing children, most countries have a huge list of kids who've run away, been kidnapped, or just vanished.

In order for him _not_ to have his identity found out, there needs to be something more than just his amnesia in the way. Perhaps he was lost far from his home, so that local news broadcasts don't show his face to anyone who'd know him. Perhaps the Incident that took his memory also included changing his appearance somehow so that no one recognises him. Perhaps everyone in his old home thought his family was moving, so with his parents gone and him confused, there's no one to report him missing. Perhaps his former home life involved him being locked in a basement so that no one knew he existed.

How does he manage to get adopted? That tends to take a while, and is less common with older children... and with medical issues and amnesia I expect he'll get sent through a lot of doctors and foster situations, not to mention that it may not be LEGAL to adopt a child if you don't know if the parents are around. It would take a lot of time, unless someone makes a believable claim that he belongs to them... Someone whose child was on that missing list and a close match might try to take him for themselves.

Of course, if you're young enough, seven years is a HUGE amount of time. After that much time has passed you are a totally different person than you were before, even without memory loss and family change in the process. Even if you hadn't forgotten them, you probably wouldn't still be friends with or even recognise many of your old schoolmates without prompting. After seven years, you'll almost certainly have given up and moved on... until a huge clue hits you in the face.

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@saguaro

1. Yes I'm sure. He was written before I came up with the plot, as I tend to make the characters first in order to provide the foundation and a jumpstart for the storyline. So the plot was pretty much written with his condition and backstory taken into account as well as every other characters and their history.

2. I can do away with the whole adoption thing and just say that he is being watched over by a concerned neighbor, but the point remains that he needs someone to help point him in the right direction, as well as looking after his well being as he's growing up considering he has no one to depend on given his circumstances at the time.

3. Let me rephrase it a bit. The plot isn't about him discovering who he is. Searching for his real self is his self-motivation for coping with his memory loss, and it's because of his efforts that he is able to learn why he has amnesia (Though I still haven't decided yet if I want all of his memories to return or not) as well as why everything in the story is happening.

And as I said in #2, I can do away with the adoption part, but what happens to him then is how he gets introduced to the plot and settings of the game. At least by the time the game starts, he's already an adult and independent from his caretaker, but stays connected to him through their occupation and work place.

@papillion

Don't worry about it. Just throw anything you can at me, as I find them to be more helpful than harmful after all.

Pretty much all of what you've stated has been given due consideration when I was creating the plot, and some of those actions were already taken by the caretaker due to his occupation before actually agreeing to raise the protagonist. Though I must admit I didn't really think about the legality issue of adopting a child whose parents may possibly still be around (Though they actually aren't anymore at the time the game begins), I guess it might not matter since in the end no one knew who he was anyway and there were no records of him anywhere where they could legally look.

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Just a few more ideas to bounce around in regards to justifying how the child would not have been found:

One possible idea is to have him be found washed ashore (which can be cliched in itself) or have some other way for the child to have a null citizenship. I suppose you would have to do more research, but I'm guessing there isn't a whole lot that the government could do in that situation. That could possibly also explain the amnesia (although it sounds like you already have a reason in mind).

Another idea is to have him be found after walking the streets for a while. From what I've heard, after being missing for more than 72 hours chances of finding the missing person/where they came from drop dramatically, and police would move on to cases that are more likely to be solved.

Again, these are just ideas that popped into my head, and I'm not sure how applicable they would be to the story.