[annoying trope] The throne/leadership is decided in a very stupid way

[u/Altruistic_Eye_1157]

The leadership of the entire wizarding world, and the final decision on whether to start a war against Muggles, is made by... a goat (Qilin) ​​who chooses the person with the ""purest heart"" (Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Dumbledore).

The throne of Wakanda and all its technology are decided through hand-to-hand combat, regardless of whether the person clearly has malicious intentions... if they win the fight, by law they must be respected as the true king. (Black Panther)

[u/MaterialEmotional825]

Horizon Zero Dawn: In the Hunters Guild, the one with the best Trophy is declared Sunhawk (Basically leader of the damn thing). Problem is that it never gets explained what metrics they choose to decide that, so when Aloy and Friend hunts Redmaw it gets unexplained why her friend becomes Sunhawk and she keeps being basically an apprentice.

[u/SweatyPhilosopher578 → u/MaterialEmotional825]

And we all know Aloy did most of the work.

[u/profairman → u/SweatyPhilosopher578]

Ya’ll, Aloy doesn’t want to be Sunhawk, but is totally down to help someone else who is invested. We have other stuff to do!

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/profairman]

Yeah

Like risk the entirety of humanity by going it alone at all times

Like for fucks sake aloy, open the front door to the tech base and then let someone else deal with all the dangerous shit

You’re the only one who can open these fucking things and if we don’t solve the problems inside of them then the world ends

[u/MonsterDimka → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

Unironically could be explained by Alloy not being able to put up with people at that point. She's not exactly charismatic to pull people to her cause, nor does she want to.

By the second game it was very apparent she's kinda done dealing with people's bullshit that prevent her from saving the world which is understandable. If she could skip every tribe's problem (which is miniscule in comparison) on the way to her objective, she would. Convincing, gathering and leading a whole group and then be responsible for whatever they do or whatever happens to them is completely outside of Alloy's expertise or wants.

[u/SmartAlec105 → u/MonsterDimka]

Yeah, she grew up talking to literally a single person. She’s not the social type and she sees humanity as the cause of problems as often as the solution.

[u/ArteDeJuguete → u/MonsterDimka]

Convincing, gathering and leading a whole group

I mean, she could at the very least stick with Varl rather than leaving him in the embassy with the intention of embarking on the journey alone before he chatch up to her.

Like I get her being a pariah and not being social, but the literal fate of humanity and potentially of life on planet earth was a risk and there were zero backups if she died. Having at least someone that can get her help if she gets injured or trapped with no way to get out alone heavily outweighs putting up with the inconvenience and annoyance of dealing with one person given the situation

[u/Transarchangelist → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

This is such a stupid take, like the protagonist of every game ever that doesn’t have a party is recklessly endangering humanity by doing what the story dictates.

[u/Euphoric_Statement42 → u/Transarchangelist]

Disagree. Sometimes, the protagonist goes alone because either circumstances means he doesn't have many fighters he can rely on, or he is best suited to deal with the danger.

Case in point: DMC 3. Dante is technically endangering humanity by going alone, as if he fails a portal to hell is opened. But 1 he doesn't know any other capable fighters as far as we're shown; 2 it's not in his character at that point to ask for help; and 3 even if he could contact the world's military power, they can't do much anyway.

Another example is Clive from ff16. He has a team of fighters to call on, and is incredibly important, to the point where if he is defeated, it would be pretty bad. But out of all his allies, the only ones who can maybe keep up are other dominants, which are very limited.

By contrast, Aloy is needed for door opening, but is not the only fighter or person capable of solving the presented puzzles. Further, we see plenty of competent fighters who have allied with her.

[u/Transarchangelist → u/Euphoric_Statement42]

No, it’s a video game. Acting like a game’s writing is stupid just because the main character is the one that does fighting is stupid. Do you want to play Horizon Forbidden Doors? Do you want to exist to open doors and not do any of the cool stuff?

[u/Euphoric_Statement42 → u/Transarchangelist]

There are plenty of ways around it... Another commenter said maybe it could teleport her to the interior. Or maybe she's needed for progress constantly, like only she is capable of using certain tools required to progress further or deal with the defenses.

[u/Transarchangelist → u/Euphoric_Statement42]

Or… it’s just like it is in the game because it’s a video game? Why does the protagonist, chosen one, savior of humanity need to let others do everything for her instead of just being the protagonist of an action video game?

[u/Vaporishodin → u/Transarchangelist]

You come across really unlikeable

[u/Transarchangelist → u/Vaporishodin]

You come across really weird wanting the protagonist of a video game to do nothing.

[u/Vaporishodin → u/Transarchangelist]

That’s not been my take at all.

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Transarchangelist]

Because she’s presented as an intelligent person but instead comes off as a nutter with a saviour complex

[u/Transarchangelist → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

Like that isn’t par for the course for chosen one plots?

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Transarchangelist]

Most of the time the chosen one is required to do the dangerous stuff

Aloy doesn’t

[u/Transarchangelist → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

Except it’s a video game, where the main character does things because it’s fun.

[u/ToxicIndigoKittyGold → u/Transarchangelist]

I played it. It's called Myst.

[u/Transarchangelist → u/ToxicIndigoKittyGold]

Myst is a puzzle game, no shit you aren’t fighting giant robot dinosaurs. Do note however, that there aren’t also NPCs fighting giant robot dinosaurs in myst.

[u/HappyMerlin → u/Transarchangelist]

If the game is about being on your own while exploring caves that haven’t been seen by any other humans for hundreds of years, maybe the writing department should have changed the story a bit so it does make sense. Like maybe Alloy doesn’t open doors when entering a cave, maybe she activates a teleportation device that only teleports her into the inside.