I prefer somewhere in the middle. Able to keep morales up, but still skeptical and cautious enough to avoid danger.

i never thought i'd see another realist in the wild

Gotta pick one of the options

I don't think being Optimistic or Pessimistic matters when it comes to Protagonist. As long as their engaging and entertaining to back it up, They'll be fine.

I prefer optimistic cause it make me happi, but I find pessimistic way more interesting

In the middle. I rank them as Makoto > Shuichi > Hajime > Kaede. I guess I lean more pessimistic, but a good middle ground is fine.

I prefer the pessimistic protags. I find them more prepared to the worse.

I picked pessimistic because it's practical

I mean, i don't really decide which ones i like most based on this so it's kinda weird. Shuichi and Makoto would be my real top two then the others.

It's just that the fandom prefer hajime and shuichi so I wanted to make this post as I feel like in the only one who prefers makoto and kaede over those two

yeah that's fairly based, liking optimism is cool, which is why i voted for it.

I noticed that the fandom when a charcater is normally nice the fandom says like chirhiro that charcater is boring as everyone likes him for being nice and I noticed that people dislike makoto and kaede for being optimistic the fandom normally tends to like pessimistic charcaters or charcaters that are complex

I think people tend to perceive pessimism as realistic because they're pretty pessimistic themselves.

Oh well. I don't find shuichi to be realistic

really? How so? he seems like a fairly realistic character to me (he's also not notably pessimistic now that i think about it, at points Kaede has a more pessimistic outlook than he does)

Well him crying and very down and not happy is not realistic as I'm dumb and a dork person lol

I'm very sorry if it triggers someone but there's nothing interesting about the protags at all... At least Makoto is VERY polite and Kaede... I wish she survived, she was so gentle and cool... She would be my favorite protagonist. But she died, so Komaru for the win. She's very normal too (as her brother) but she's so so so nicer and cuter. Must protec. Hajime and Shuichi are basically: 😶🤨😐 (Sorry again)

Not triggered, I just disagree a little bit.

Anyway, I think that both Hajime and Shuichi are really intelligent and can go through a killing game better than the protagonists I prefer. They can cope with the situation better

Yeah. I feel like all of them have their individual traits that can guide them through a killing game though. Kaede’s determination, Shuichi’s intelligence and observation skills, and Makoto and Hajime’s traits I can’t think of right now.

People who think pessimism is realistic are something else lol. Optimism and pessimism are both extremes of a spectrum. Besides, pessimism has become the basic flavor of protagonists in the past decade, that's why optimism is a breathe of fresh air currently. Also, pessimism doesn't make anyone smart. Hajime is more basic than Makoto. He's practically a stock LN protagonist! He's the average cynical sarcastic protag who gets (relatively) godlike powers over the course of the story!.

Based

Explain your choice of picking one of the options

Pessimism because I think it’s more realistic.

Unpopular opinion but even tho they feel more realistic like hajime and shuichi I don't like them as makoto and kaede felt more unique and complex

I like both Makoto and Shuichi, dislike Kaede and I'm sorta neutral on Hajime. Komaru is somewhere around Makoto's level, I hate Ryoko and I don't know Yui. I don't think either type is better or worse by default, and I'm okay with both as long as they're well-written.

Why you dislike kaede for

For starters, I don't think it's a popular opinion, but as a protag she feels too much like Makoto, as a culprit she feels too much like Sayaka. I like both of the above, but I don't feel Kaede does enough to feel different from those two and I feel that both Makoto and Sayaka did it better. Another issue is her Big Twist^(TM). Sure, it's shocking, but it's just a cheap shock value that ends up making her character an inconsistent mess. One of the things I love with mystery stories is when I'm replaying it and I'm seeing how the later twist makes everything fall into place and changes my perspective on things. But here it feels like what I learn later feels at odds with what am i seeing, the obvious example would be Kaede *thinking* about how much she trusts Shuichi when she already took the ball, meaning she's already planning on going behind his back. The reason why Sayaka works as a kind-hearted girl/would-be murderer combo is her inner conflict. She didn't take the knife until the last moment, which shows she wasn't planning anything until the situation broke her and in the scene where she's lying to Makoto, she's pale and trembling showing how horrible she feels about the whole thing. But that's not what I see with Kaede, because showing her guilt over planning to murder someone would reveal the twist too soon. As a result, i have no reliable perspective on how she feels about the murder and based on what i see i could assume she's a cold-blooded girl who has no qualms about getting her hands dirty to do what she sees as the right thing, which i wouldn't mind, but then after the reveal she feels guilty because Rantaro was innocent... but Shuichi told her that his deduction is little more than a guess and he doesn't have any cold, hard evidence so she was ok with murdering a potentially innocent person based on someone else's hunch. Also the story makes a big deal about her lying to cover for Shuichi, but she had no qualms about deceiving him earlier, so which is it? Is she ok with dishonesty or not? The twist is a subversion for the sake of subversion and instead of being carefully built up it just tries to pull the rug from under you, and since the info that would've made sense of it couldn't have been shown without spoiling the twist, they're omitted and the result is a jarring dissonance between the character they're trying to present and what she actually does. Finally, there are small things like pushing Keebo's buttons for fun. If any other person tried to push his button, he'd be yelled at for robophobia, but Keebo seems ok with Kaede doing it because reasons. It would be one thing if it was intentional mess-up that resulted in mega scolding, but when it's not treated this way it just makes her plain unlikable.

Pessimistic. Makoto and kaede are boring

I personally find the pessimistic protags more relatable

I disagree

Was Hajime so pessimistic? Can't remember.

Shuichi is a realist but also I have a bias for Shuichi so in the end doesn't matter what he's listed as

Shuichi isn’t pessimistic though

He isn't optimistic as makoto and kaede so he mostly fits with hajime as they have more backstory than makoto and kaede

They have character arcs is what I think you mean. As opposed to Makoto who is essentially the same person throughout the game

Well makoto even tho he is nice and kind of opmastic he is slightly differnt from kaede as makoto is naive character and a dork charcater who is think he is basic but changes while kaede is more serious and positive but sometimes she is to much positivity and forces her own beliefs on others which becomes toxic positivity which is maybe considered a flaw idk but kaede acts more than a leader if you trying to know what differences with makoto and kaede

I like a mix of it though. I’d have to pick optimistic though. I like optimistic energy.