Prologue or No Prologue? That is the Question.

Prologue or No Prologue?

That is the Question.

by Danielle Karthauser

Prologues tend to feel like out of place plot dumps that couldn’t fit anywhere else in their narrative. While Firewatch’s prologue deftly sets up the arc of our main character, it can feel lost in translation by the end. Yet at the same time this is a deliberate choice. Just as Henry gets caught up in the “conspiracy” and forgets about what really matters, so does the player. Is there a concise answer to this debate? To have a prologue or to not have a prologue...that is the question.

AGAINST THE PROLOGUE

Reason 1

The information revealed to the player in the prologue should be revealed throughout the game. Henry’s story in the prologue can feel very distant from the plot due to the conspiracy element introduced. If the information about why Henry came to be a fire lookout was revealed to us alongside the conspiracy plot, things would feel much more connected. The ending would feel much more like a neat bow as the revelation of Henry’s bad choices come to a head at the same time Henry must leave the Shoshone.

Reason 2

The typewriter could be used as a tool for Henry to journal and vent his thoughts. Henry’s profession is never revealed but perhaps this could be another plot element. He is a struggling writer who has barely written anything in recent years and this frustration is partially a subconscious motivator for Henry’s poor decisions. Now he is alone with a typewriter. He could write about Julia and the things that happened in the prologue and the player could read these and slowly get to know Henry over time, helping to slowly reveal his backstory and creating that as another plotpoint alongside his time as a fire lookout. The more the player learns about Henry through these journals, the more Henry can reveal to Delilah within their conversations.

Reason 3

The big question is - if the journals aren’t read in an unskippable cut scene, what if the player doesn’t read Henry’s journals? What if Henry doesn’t tell anything to Delilah? Ambiguity as a plot point is a much stronger tool than a plot dump at the beginning of the story. It forces the player to decide what happened and come up with their own interpretation of events. A successful example of this is in the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald where it is randomly implies that Nick had a gay lover at one point during the narrative. It is never made clear and it doesn’t need to be. Ambiguity allows each person to have their own interpretation of the narrative and allows for a much more creative and immersive experience with stories.

FOR THE PROLOGUE

Reason 1

In the audio commentary version of the game, the developer’s explain that they created the prologue as a way to tell the player that they are not Henry but Henry is his own person. He has a life, he has made choices, and this is his story. This is due to the idea that video games are escapes into an alternate reality, and the playable character is an empty shell the player can inhabit. As discussed in the last issue about Banjo-Kazooie, neither Banjo or Kazooie have legitimate character arcs or complex thoughts. They are given one personality trait and the rest is up to the player. The prologue makes Henry a dynamic protagonist with his own established story. Since the player is controlling Henry, it makes sense that they know his backstory prior to the game.

Reason 2

Giving Henry a backstory is a perfect example of ludonarrative dissonance. Not only does Henry forget about the events of the prologue (the problems he is running from) but so does the player. Yes the prologue is setting up Henry’s arc but the plot itself is meant to be an anticlimax. The player, and Henry, should not feel a sense of content for a story wrapped up in a perfect bow. Instead, the ending is meant to be a disappointment.

Reason 3

The prologue provides limited choices for the player to make, allowing Henry’s personality and lack of healthy decision making to become evident to the player. Often times the player is given two different options and sometimes neither seems like a good choice to make...but that is the point. The player is limited by Henry’s personality and imperfections. The lack of choices points to Henry’s poor decision making and that he is probably not making a smart move becoming a fire lookout instead of staying with his wife.

CONCLUSIONS

My final stance on the matter is that there should be a prologue. This was not an easy decision for me to make being that I strongly dislike the prologues ability to plot dump elements that simply don’t fit within the narrative. In some respects, Firewatch’s prologue does this with the information it provides the player with and in that the overall look of it is so separate from the game itself. That being said, my bias against prologues could be due to how they typically function in novels. Video games are different. The prologue in Firewatch is the tutorial and setting up key gameplay elements while also telling the player that Henry is not them but his own person. While the prologue in this game gets a pass from me, it does not change my overall opinion that the prologue is out of place exposition dumps and that stories would be better off without them.

Photo credit: 2DSpaceMan / https://www.deviantart.com/2dspaceman / https://twitter.com/PaulBilick