History Main / PinballProtagonist

* Conker from ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' is merely trying to find his way home. He has no idea whatsoever that the resident [[BigBad Panther King]] is currently hunting for him to use as a replacement table leg, a plot that ultimately matters nothing in the grand scheme of things considering the whole game is about him getting involved into various random escapades he has no real real control or stakes over (besides a few cash rewards).

* Conker from ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' is merely trying to find his way home. He has no idea whatsoever that the resident [[BigBad Panther King]] is currently hunting for him to use as a replacement table leg, a plot that ultimately matters nothing in the grand scheme of things since the whole game is just Conker getting involved into various escapades he rarely has any real control or stakes over (besides a few cash prizes).

* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'': Desmond spends most of his time experiencing the memories of his ancestors, who avert this trope and become more active and influential in the narrative. [[spoiler:By the time he gets the chance to be agent of volition, [[TheHeroDies he dies]].]] [[WebVideo/WatchMojo MojoPlays]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXXHvpvYuC0 even calls him out on this]].

The protagonist has spent a significant portion of the story bouncing around the tale (figuratively) like a {{pinball}}. He provides no plot impetus in and of himself, and has essentially spent the entire story thus far in a reactive state. Whatever is going on in the world, be it war or intrigue, it just drags him along in its wake.

* In ''Film/TheForeigner2017'', Quan (played by Creator/JackieChan) turns out to be a very proactive version of this trope. After his daughter is killed by a bomb set off by terrorists claiming to be affiliated with [[WesternTerrorists the IRA]], he sets his sights on Irish politician and former IRA member Liam Hennessy simply because of this connection. He subjects Hennessy to a campaign of psychological warfare, setting off nonlethal bombs around his properties and beating up his bodyguards in order to get the names of the bombers out of it. The thing is, Hennessy is already cooperating with the police in order to find the bombers, whose targeting of civilians horrifies him. By the time he knows the names and gives them to Quan, the police have already been informed as well. Quan finds the bombers and kills almost all of them, nearly causing even more deaths because the police (who had already gotten a raid ready to go when Quan showed up) needed to get the location of a final bomb out of the last surviving terrorist before it blew.
* Casey Brodsky in ''Film/IrreconcilableDifferences'', up until the end of the last flashback when she finally decides to file for emancipation from her parents. {{Justified|Trope}}, as she is a child who has no say in how she's raised.

%%* Otto in ''Otto of the Silver Hand'' by Creator/HowardPyle.

* Comicbook/{{Batman}} in ''ComicBook/TheLongHalloween''. He spends most of the story chasing around after whatever supervillain is around for each chapter. He doesn't save any of the victims from the Holiday killer, he doesn't save Harvey Dent from becoming Two-Face and he only catches the killer by [[spoiler:getting Sal Maroni killed by him]].

* Spider-Man himself tends to turn into this in any multipart story in his own series that has lots of guest stars. He's always been a guy who works best alone, and quickly takes a back seat as part of a team. The biggest example was the ''ComicBook/MaximumCarnage'' storyline; the cover of one issue even lampshaded the trope by having Spidey shout, "Hey! Whose mag is this, anyway?!" Fortunately, he was indeed the star at the climax, both defeating Carnage himself and preventing Venom from killing him to show he'd still hold onto his principles, despite all that had happened.
* In several issues of ComicBook/{{Venom}}'s first limited series, ComicBook/SpiderMan actually got more screen time. The subsequent ones fixed this problem.

* The protagonist and narrator of the Creator/IainMBanks novel ''A Song of Stone'' is an aristocrat called Abel living during in a civil war. He starts the novel trying to escape from the country with his [[BrotherSisterIncest wife/sister Morgan]] but gets caught up with a group of soldiers and has very little control over the plot from that point onwards.

* ''Stuck in Neutral'' by Terry Trueman has a justified example that's probably impossible to top. The main character can't control his muscle movements enough to communicate in any fashion, and it's commonly assumed by those around him that he doesn't even have a mind. The "plot", such as it is, is his commenting on how his life is and how people react to him, with him unable to change anything [[spoiler:even to save his own life.]]
* In [[http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/brazil/soaresj2.htm this review]] of Brazilian novel ''Twelve Fingers'', it's even stated that the [[BeenThereShapedHistory Forrest Gump-like protagonist]] "bounces around like a ball in a pinball machine, occasionally disappearing from view entirely for longer periods of time."

* In the Creator/MatthewReilly books, Shane Schofield spends the first few chapters of every book he's in in this state, usually because he's reacting to whatever group is trying to kill him this time and finding out what they want. ''Then'' he starts hitting back.

* Both Bella in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' and Wanderer in ''Literature/TheHost2008'' tend to fall into this during periods of action (which admittedly are in the minority in the slow, conversation-heavy books). They're both {{Extreme Doormat}}s, so it makes sense from an in-story standpoint, but it's one of the reasons Stephenie Meyer's works are so polarizing. Despite being the main protagonist and narrator, Bella does very little to move the plot forwards of her own accord, mostly just reacting to events around her whilst the others characters (mostly Edward or Jacob) resolve conflict for her. This may be partly justified in that she's human and so stands little chance against supernatural enemies; case in point, she only actively starts contributing to the plot of her own volition towards the end of ''Breaking Dawn'', [[spoiler: after she's turned into a vampire]].

** The Warrior of Light in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' is usually used as TheHeavy for the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and their allies. Besides being a HeroicMime for most of the story, the Warrior's main contributions are being pointed at whichever world-ending threat has shown up and kicking some butt. What dialogue choices the player has to choose from [[ButThouMust usually don't affect the story in any meaningful way]], and what few moments of character focus the Warrior does get are passed over very quickly.

* In ''Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe,'' the Pevensie siblings come to [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]] during an EndlessWinter--which is resolved by [[PhysicalGod Aslan]], off-page, before we meet him. [[JerkassWoobie Edmund]] betrays his siblings to [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen the White Witch]], but that doesn't actually help her catch them. The girls witness Aslan's death while the boys fight the final battle...which they lose, until a resurrected Aslan shows up to save the day. basically, the Pevenies are just there to become the new rulers of Narnia after Aslan has already solved all of its problems.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': While he is generally a major player in most stories, this has been known to happen with the Doctor on occasion. The companions sometimes get this too, even in ADayInTheLimelight:
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E5TheMassacre "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve"]] has the First Doctor go missing early on, leaving his companion Steven stranded in sixteenth-century Paris. Steven spends the story as main protagonist, but he completely fails to change events in the slightest, and has no real idea what is going on. He only just finds the Doctor in time to escape Paris and avoid the impending atrocity.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E7TheCelestialToymaker "The Celestial Toymaker"]] involves the crew being trapped in a parallel dimension run by a godlike immortal who just wants to play {{Deadly Game}}s with them, and demonstrates his power by phasing the First Doctor out of existence and forcing him to play "[[TowersOfHanoi the Trilogic Game]]". This means that the Doctor spends the whole plot able to do little other than argue with the Toymaker in {{ADR}}ed lines, and even Steven and Dodo have no real agency except to win the games the Toymaker set out for them until the Toymaker just gives them the TARDIS back.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E2TheTenthPlanet "The Tenth Planet"]] plays with this trope in an interesting way. The First Doctor has limited screentime in the story (William Hartnell's health was failing), and even spends a whole middle episode asleep (apparently for no reason); and his plan for dealing with the evil planet draining the Earth's energy is incredibly passive: simply to wait for it to die, which he says it will do in a couple of hours. Unfortunately, his expansive apparent knowledge followed by his sudden absence ramps up the paranoia among the humans to a fever pitch, to the point where everyone turns against him and the General even accuses him of killing his son. Even after his prediction turns out to be right and the planet dies, it's a hollow victory, as the Doctor's unconsciousness is revealed to be a ChekhovsGun foreshadowing to his regeneration.
*** Further played with '''decades''' later in [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime "Twice Upon a Time"]], which reveals the First Doctor spent the last stretch of his offstage time in the final ''Twelfth'' Doctor adventure. He has a little more agency as he works with (and spars with) his later self, and its events convince him to go ahead with his regeneration when he returns to Antarctica.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E6TheSpacePirates "The Space Pirates"]], the Second Doctor is barely in the first and last episodes. His only action that really affects the plot is increasing the power of the electromagnetism on the satellite segment, with most of the other victories being the payoffs of other cast members with ChronicBackstabbingDisorder.
** The Fourth Doctor spends most of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E5TheHornsOfNimon "The Horns of Nimon"]] fighting the NegativeSpaceWedgie while stuck in the TARDIS while Romana does the stuff the Doctor would normally do. He does help create a device for affecting the gravity problems but it's clearly shown Romana could have done it just as easily on her own and would have done it without his help. He is present while the Anethians get out of the labyrinth but K-9 is the one who actually does all of the work, and the Doctor even argues with K-9's solution and is proven wrong. Even getting Romana and K-9 there in the first place can't be attributed to him, since they all got pulled down there by the gravity device. The only things he does that affect the plot are getting K-9 back from Soldeed and discovering the Nimons' ship.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis "Logopolis"]]. In his last story before the regeneration, the Fourth Doctor only does three things that affect events at all, two of which are just landing the TARDIS in the first place (one to fall for the Police Box trap, and the other to go to Logopolis). The third is sending the Charged Vaccuum Emboitment into Cassiopeia.
** The Fifth Doctor spends almost half of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS19E3Kinda "Kinda"]] in a jail cell, and subsequently is mostly just there to explain what's going on to Todd while the Kinda solve their own problems. Tegan spends most of the story possessed and Nyssa is completely missing in action. The most proactive character from Team TARDIS is Adric; sure, everything he tries fails, but at least he's ''doing something''.
** Infamously in the case of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E6RevelationOfTheDaleks "Revelation of the Daleks"]], where it takes over half the story for the Sixth Doctor to even ''meet'' anyone involved in the main plot and, believe it or not, ''the Daleks'' save the day by swooping in and carrying Davros off as a prisoner. Orcini completes the job by blowing up Davros' new Dalek army, something he could have done without the Doctor's assistance, and the Doctor's sole contribution is to prevent collateral damage by helping evacuate the area first.
** One criticism levelled at [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E3PlanetOfTheOod "Planet of the Ood"]] is the fact that it ends with the Ood thanking the Tenth Doctor and Donna for saving them when they've spent most of the episode wandering around doing nothing after blundering into two plans set in motion before their arrival (Ood Sigma dosing Halpen's hair tonic to turn him into an Ood, and Ryder powering down the restraining field around the Ood brain in order to restore their free will). The Doctor ''does'' deactivate the explosives Halpen had set up to destroy the Ood brain but he's a very minor player in events.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks "Asylum of the Daleks"]] mostly has Oswin moving the plot along, while the Daleks set up events and the Eleventh Doctor concludes them. Rory is used as the viewpoint character for much of the episode, and doesn't influence events at all beyond being a prop through which Oswin can interact with the plot. Amy, meanwhile, is only there for some rather contrived CannotSpitItOut romantic drama, and has even less to do with anything that happens.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E10InTheForestOfTheNight "In the Forest of the Night"]]: The Twelfth Doctor, Clara, Danny and the children have little effect on the overall course of events except for broadcasting a plea (which is ignored) not to defoliate the trees.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E6DemonsOfThePunjab "Demons of the Punjab"]]: The Thirteenth Doctor and her companions can't change the course of events because of the GrandfatherParadox, so can only watch helplessly as the tragic events of the episode unfold.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones''
** Arya Stark starts Season 2 with the goal of reuniting with her family, but is dragged all over the war-torn Riverlands by one group after another for ''three entire seasons'' until a series of devastating disappointments lead her to abandon Westeros altogether.
** As a valuable piece in the game of thrones, Sansa Stark is deliberately kept powerless, which forces her to always react to events rather than take action herself, until Season Six.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Omar of ''WesternAnimation/RockAndRule'' just sits back and look petulant while his sidekicks take the initiative to find Angel. Once he realizes what kind of danger she's in, he turns around and actually comes off as quite heroic.
[[/folder]]

* All but the first of the ''Film/MadMax'' films have Max being bounced around through the plot by the characters. Only ''Film/MadMax1'' has Max doing something proactively, which is ironically the least interesting of the films since it's just a simple revenge drama.

-->-- Impishidea ''Literature/{{Maradonia|Saga}}'' Sporkings, [[http://impishidea.com/spork/maradonia-sporkings-part-thirty-one part 31]].

* Natsuru in ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}'' gets dragged around by other people and he just goes along with them in the end anyway. Much worse in the anime than in the manga and light novels, although it's still pretty bad in the latter two. The main difference is, in the latter, s/he at least ''tries'' to make a token effort to undermine the Kämpfer War and learn the truth behind it, whereas in the anime, s/he just sorta stands there with a confused expression.

* Kino from ''LightNovel/KinosJourney'' tries to be this type of character; being a Traveller, one is not supposed to pass judgment or meddle in the affairs of the places they visit and is only there to observe objectively. However, various circumstances typically get Kino wrapped up in the affairs of the places she comes to and forces her to act, whether she wants to or not.