“You Don’t Get a Choice”: Fallen Hero: Rebirth and Unsettling Expectations of Agency in Interactive Fiction

Authors

  • Tristan Sheridan Florida Atlantic University
  • Timothy Miller Florida Atlantic University

Abstract

Interactive fiction, by its very definition, grants its readers the ability to influence the direction of a text, much like the familiar Choose Your Own Adventure children’s books. However, the assumption that interactivity allows for increased reader agency has generated debate, as interactive texts can naturally only provide readers with as much agency as authors are willing to anticipate for and allow. The interactive novel series Fallen Hero is of particular relevance to this debate, as its protagonist’s struggle to maintain theiragency causes the series’ thematic content to mirror its form. Fallen Hero minimizes the reader’s agency even more than is strictly necessary within the formal constraints of the medium in order to enrich its narrative themes surrounding agency and build empathy for its protagonist, therefore embracing the limitations of agency that are inherently present within the interactive form as a strength rather than a failing.

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Published

2022-10-18

Issue

Vol. 11 (2022): FAU Undergraduate Research Journal

Section

Articles

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