History Main / Narrator

*** The ''Dracula'' campaign in the HD version was narrated by a young soldier, who meets an old man in the ancient stronghold of Vlad Dracula who allow him and his comrades shelter. In the end of the campaign, where the young soldiers were planning to go to the monastery at Snagov to pay respect to Dracula's grave, asking the old man if he wish to accompanied them, which he accepts. In the HD version, the old man reveals himself as [[spoiler:Istvan, one of Dracula's companions]] but this was omitted in the ''Definitive Edition'', making the old man just one of Dracula's loyal soldier.

*** The ''El Dorado'' campaign was narrated by a conquistador who accompanied Francesco de Orellana's expedition in finding the lost city of gold deep within the Amazon rainforest.

*** The ''Gajah Mada'' campaign is narrated by the eponymous character in his elderly age, telling the player of his glory day in the Majapahit empire [[spoiler:before his downfall at Battle of Bubat]].

*** The ''Sforza'' campaign was narrated by an old Condottiero who remembers Francesco Sforza's rise from his beginning as a mercenary. In the HD edition, this Condottiero tells Sforza's story to a stranger, in which in the end of the campaign reveals himself to be [[spoiler:Niccolò Machiavelli, who was writing "The Prince" at the time]]. However, in the ''Definitive Edition'', the Condottiero reveals himself to be [[spoiler:Micheletto, Sforza's cousin who was betrayed by him when Milan and Venice were at war with each other with Sforza switching sides to Milan when they were both hired by Venice]].

*** The ''El Cid'' campaign is narrated by El Cid's widow, Jimena, telling the player about her late husband's exploits.
*** The ''Montezuma'' campaign is narrated by Cuauhtémoc, a warrior of the Aztec empire who would succeed Montezuma as the (last) emperor of the Aztec empire.

*** The ''Alaric'' campaign in the HD version was originally narrated by a wife of Alaric, but in the ''Definitive'' edition, she was replaced by Athaulf, Alaric's brother-in-law and successor.

*** The ''Tariq ibn Ziyad'' campaign was narrated by an anonymous Berber warrior, detailing the conquest under Tariq ibn Ziyad and his successor, Abd ar-Rahman al-Ghafiqi. In the end of the campaign, the Berber warrior end his story with the Berber having to defeat one Frankish king before they can truly conquer all of Europe. That king was Charles Martel, who was the protagonist of the "Tours" scenario in the Battle of the Conquerors, who defeated the Berber and ended their war in Europe.
*** The ''Sundjata'' campaign was narrated by a griot named Bala Faséké Kouyaté telling the Epic of Sundiata to the player. He also mentioned in the end of the campaign that he stolen Sumanguru's magical balafon before the Battle of Kirina (which was the fourth scenario in the campaign) that allowed Sundjata's army to be victorious.

*** The ''Gajah Mada'' campaign is narrated by the eponymous character in his elderly age, telling the player of his glory day in the Majapahit empire before his downfall at Battle of Bubat.

** ''Age of King'' campaign: The ''William Wallace'' campaign is narrated by a Scotsman who rally their warrior in fighting against Longshanks's conquest of Scotland. The ''Joan of Arc'' campaign is narrated by Guy Josselyne, who tells the exploit of Joan and her battle in the Hundred Year War. Interestingly, he appears in the last scenario as a hero and though his survival is optional, he will still be the narrator despite dying in the same scenario. The ''Saladin'' campaign is narrated by an anonymous Norman knight who follows the Saracen leader Saladin in his jihad against the Crusaders. The ''Genghis Khan'' campaign is narrated by a Mongolian author of the "The Secret History of the Mongol" as Genghis Khan leads the horde in a conquest of forming the largest empire in the world. And the ''Barbarossa'' campaign is narrated by a local customer in a German bar, telling the player about the reign of Barbarossa as he ruled the Holy Roman Empire. At the end of the campaign, he reveals himself to be [[spoiler:Henry the Lion, a German prince that fought both alongside and against Barbarossa throughout the campaign.]]
** ''The Conquerors'' campaign: The ''Attila the Hun'' campaign is narrated by a Frankish monk named Armand, who reminiscence the destruction and death during Attila's reign. The ''El Cid'' campaign is narrated by El Cid's widow, Jimena, telling the player about her late husband's exploits. The ''Montezuma'' campaign is narrated by Cuauhtémoc, a warrior of the Aztec empire who would succeed Montezuma as the (last) emperor of the Aztec empire. There is also the Battle of the Conquerors, which has a generic narrator with no relation to the scenarios in question.
%%** ''The Forgotten'' campaign: The ''Alaric'' campaign in the HD version was originally narrated by a wife of Alaric, but in the ''Definitive'' edition, she was replaced by Athaulf, Alaric's brother-in-law and successor. The ''Dracula'' campaign in the HD version

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires2'': In each campaigns, there will a narrator telling the story of the focus character in the campaign, telling the player about their exploits in history. Several of the campaigns often has twist of [[AndThatLittleGirlWasMe revealing themselves of being part of that history]].

* ''Film/ThreeHundred''. At the end of the film, the {{Narrator}} turns out to have been [[DirectLineToTheAuthor relating the entire tale]] to his fellow Spartans.

* The FramingDevice of ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' features TheNarrator, Varric Tethras, being interrogated by a person who is after the true story of Hawke, the PlayerCharacter and Varric's old friend/rival. Notably, every now and then Varric lapses into {{Tall Tale}}s, making the interrogator interrupt him and demand to return back to the truth. [[UnreliableNarrator How much more exaggeration Varric manages to sneak in without her noticing remains open.]]

* The Creator/AdamSandler flick ''WesternAnimation/EightCrazyNights'' had narration as well.

* Parodied until the break of dawn by the ''Film/GeorgeOfTheJungle'' [[TheFilmOfTheSeries movie]]. The narrator not only narrates the action, he talks to the audience (at one point assuring them "[[NeverSayDie Nobody dies in this movie]]... they just get really big boo-boos"), corrects the actors when they mishear his description and at one point gets into an argument with one of the {{Mooks}} over how he's describing him, even rewinding the movie just to give him a hard time.

* In the vein of that film is ''Film/{{Click}}'', in which the main character's life becomes a DVD of sorts. The narrator is James Earl Jones.
* The Wizard in ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'' [[DirectLineToTheAuthor explains much of the story]] while it's happening on screen. Then again, it's [[CompellingVoice Mako's voice]], so it's not that bad.
%%* Harry Lockheart in ''Film/KissKissBangBang''.
* ''Film/AChristmasStory'' is narrated by the adult Ralphie.
* ''Film/TheNeverendingStory'' suddenly sprouts a narrator only at the very, very end. It would be all too easy to construct a lofty critical reason for this, such as, "It's to emphasize thematically that the real story is only beginning etc..." but in all likelihood it was just because of earlier scenes being cut or a sloppy mistake in the film's writing or editing.
* ''Film/FiveHundredDaysOfSummer'' features a particularly [[LemonyNarrator citrusy]] one.
* The Criminologist fulfills this role in ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''.
** "I would like ([[AudienceParticipation You would, wouldn't you?]]), if I may (No, you may not), to take you on a strange journey (So strange they made a movie out of it!)."
* ''Film/TheHallelujahTrail:'' Veteran western character actor John Dehner provides an ongoing commentary on the supposed historical context surrounding events, sometimes including maps and arrows to help the viewer keep track of just where everyone is.
* ''Film/RocknRolla'' makes use of this by having the [[GenreSavvy genre-savvy]] [[TheDragon dragon]] Archy explain to the audience how his boss and London's underworld works.
* It's entirely possible to just listen to ''Film/{{Casino}}'' from another room and understand almost everything that's going on because of the detailed narration.
* The first two movies of Creator/LarsVonTrier's American trilogy, ''Film/{{Dogville}}'' and ''Manderlay'', feature Creator/JohnHurt as the narrator.
* PlayedForLaughs in the short film ''The Gunfighter'' (2014). The unnamed gunfighter walks into a Western saloon, only to find a mysterious voice describing everything that's about to happen, such as an impending gunfight. When the gunfighter urges everyone not to listen to the voice because he has no intention of killing anyone, the narrator starts describing embarrassing secrets everyone in the bar is hiding until the gunfight breaks out anyway.
* In the documentary ''Film/HeartsOfDarknessAFilmmakersApocalypse'', which chronicles the TroubledProduction of ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', Eleanor Coppola (the wife of director Creator/FrancisFordCoppola) narrates by reading excerpts from her diary in voiceover.
* ''Film/AllMyLovedOnes'': The beginning and ending is narrated by adult David Silberstein who is a boy and one of the the central characters in the story depicted in the film.
* ''Film/MollysGame,'' about a woman who runs high-stakes poker games. Molly narrates the film from beginning to end in voice-over, telling us what's going on and what she feels about it.

* The ''Manga/DragonBall'' series has a narrator who recaps the previous episodes, previews the next, occasionally narrates in the middle of episodes, and closes the final scene. In the Japanese version, Creator/JojiYanami was the narrator for all of the series until Creator/NaokiTatsuta replaced him, both sounding like an elderly man telling a folk story. In the Funimation dub, Brice Armstrong narrates ''Dragon Ball'', Creator/KyleHebert does ''Z'', Andy Chandler does ''GT'' and Doc Morgan does ''Kai''. The second one is rather infamous for his gravely-voiced delivery of "Last/next time, on Dragon Ball Z!"

* The narrator in ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' appears to be [[TheSmartGuy Armin]], based on also being voiced by Creator/MarinaInoue. He primarily narrates the opening to an episode, recounting important past events or narrating important pieces of information.

* ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' gives us Kyon, who gives us an on-the-fly narration [[InnerMonologue in his head]]... perhaps. The title character sometimes responds to his narrations. It's never really made certain as to whether he's saying much of the narration [[DidIJustSayThatOutLoud out loud]], or just to himself. Haruhi's own nature further confuses things.
** In the original novels, what Kyon says out loud is often (but not always) typeset as narration, which intentionally confuses the reader as to when he is speaking and when he is thinking.

* Some WebVideo/{{ASMR video}}s feature a scripted off-screen narration accompanying what the creator is doing on-screen. One particular instance is "clothing haul" videos, where the creator models clothes they have recently acquired while the narration talks about each item as it's shown.

* The opening prologue of ''VideoGame/ShinSakuraWars'' is narrated by Creator/ShowHayami, the voice of Tekkan Amamiya.

* The ''Manga/DragonBall'' series. Recaps the previous episodes. And closes the final scene. On occasion, he narrates in the middle of episodes. The Funimation Texas dub narrators are infamous for gravely voiced, "Last time, on Dragon Ball Z!" The Japanese version sounds like an elder man telling a story.
** In the Japanese version, Creator/JojiYanami was the narrator for all of the series until Creator/NaokiTatsuta replaced him. In the Funimation dub, Brice Armstrong narrates DB, Creator/KyleHebert does DBZ, Andy Chandler does DBGT and Doc Morgan does DBZ Kai.

[[folder:Fanworks]]

* Kuzco in ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'' narrates much of the first two acts of the movie. Eventually, the ''onscreen'' Kuzco [[HeelRealization gets fed up with his "past self" trying to convince the audience he's a blameless victim]] and tells him to shut up, and the rest of the movie continues without any narration.

* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Epic Narrator]] is {{implied}} to be taking on this role in ''WebVideo/TheMostEpicStoryEverToldInAllOfHumanHistory''.

* In ''Podcast/WelcomeToNightVale'', public radio host Cecil is always the narrator (we rarely even hear other characters speak), often a bystander to events, and occasionally a protagonist in them. And hoo boy, is he [[LemonyNarrator Lemony]] at times, although he tries to maintain at least the pretense of journalistic distance.
* Corin Deeth the III acts as this for the ''Podcast/KakosIndustries'' shareholder announcements. He is also the main character and him playing this part only seems to be one of his many job requirements.
* In ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' Jonathan the archivist serves as narrator for the series as a whole, reading out each statement about an alleged supernatural encounter and giving his comments. Through him, each statement-maker is also the first-person narrator of their own story (occasionally we instead hear it in their own voice, when the archivist makes a recording of a new statement instead of one he found in the archive, though Jonathan still adds comments of his own).

* Some WebVideo/{{ASMR video}}s feature a scripted off-screen narration accompanying what the creator is doing on-screen. One particular instance is "clothing haul" videos, where the creator models clothes they have recently acquired while the narration talks about each item as it's shown.
* In ''LetsPlay/{{Mahu}}'' always uses a series of different narrators for his narrative let's plays.

* Richard Dean Anderson sometimes serves as a narrator in ''Series/MacGyver'', either to reveal a chunk of backstory or to describe the principles of his BambooTechnology.
** Lucas Till does the same thing in the [[MacGyver2016 reboot series]].

* The narrator in Anime/CodeGeass appears to be [[MaleGaze C.C.]], based on also being voiced by Creator/{{Yukana}}. She primarily narrates the opening to an episode, recounting important past events or narrating important pieces of information.

* ''{{Manga/HunterXHunter}}'' has a narrator who typically speaks at the ending of the episode and later on, particularly in the Chimera Ant arc, extensively explains the characters' powers, mental states, and miscellaneous information important for the story.

* ''Manga/GingaTeikokuKouboushi'': The original works constantly use an omniscient third-person narration to establish character thoughts and body language, but this adaptation greatly restricts its use (not counting the ''[[EncyclopediaExposita Encyclopedia Galactica]]'' entry at the start of each storyarc). When there is narration, the text is rendered in a rectangular box.