Exploring Protagonist Characterization in Assassin’s Creed III (2012): A Transitivity Analysis

Vol. 25 No. 1, April 2025, pp. 16 – 32 DOI: 10.24071/joll.v25i1.9899 Available at https://e-journal.usd.ac.id/index.php/JOLL/index This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Exploring Protagonist Characterization in Assassin’s Creed III (2012): A Transitivity Analysis Rio Firman Wandana & Wawan Gunawan Faculty of Language and Literature Education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, INDONESIA Article information Abstract Numerous studies suggest that transitivity system is applicable to examine characters in traditional literatures such as novels or short stories. Today, videogame is considered as a modern literary work by offering interactive and innovative way to deliver the narrative. The present study investigates the characterization of Connor Kenway – the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed III (2012) videogame, using transitivity system. This study aims to examine the identified process types in terms of their contributions to Connor’s characterization. This study employs Creswell (2018) descriptive qualitative method involving textual analysis of the dialogues in the videogame. The dialogues were transcribed and analyzed following the concepts of Systemic Functional Linguistics on transitivity system. The study applies purposeful sampling technique, in which the data are categorized into three groups; dialogues spoken by Connor himself, the supporting characters, and the villain characters. Focusing on the use of transitivity system, the analysis found that the identified transitivity processes uniquely construe the portrayal of Connor’s complex characterization. Firstly, he is portrayed as a vengeful man. Secondly, he is portrayed as an intelligent man with high cognitive abilities. Thirdly, he is portrayed as a hero and savior according to the supporting characters while also as a criminal and savage according to the villain characters. Fourthly, he is portrayed as a man with cautious nature. Lastly, he is portrayed as a useful informant. The result of this study suggests that transitivity system is a versatile tool for examining the portrayal of characterization in videogames Received: 27 September 2024 Revised: 5 January 2025 Accepted: 8 January 2025 Keywords: Transitivity system; characterization; videogame; Assassin’s Creed Introduction Characters play an important role in literary work, as they reflect complex point of 16 views through the social interactions which portrayed by the author. They have internal and external aspects of personality which are gradually exposed through the interplays with other characters as the story progresses. These Journal of Language and Literature ISSN: 1410-5691 (print); 2580-5878 (online) Vol. 25 No. 1 – April 2025 transitivity which enables scholars to explicate the pattern of lexico-grammatical choices in clauses (Gebhard & Accurso, 2020). Transitivity system is mainly utilized to examine and reflect the patterns of clauses with regards to explaining how a being construe the world according to the inner, outer, and in between experiences (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014). interplays primarily realized through the activity of exchanging meanings and significations in the form of dialogues between the characters (Rashid, 2016 p.1). The method of portraying characters through their dialogues is an example of indirect characterization. Indirect characterization is a literary device revealing a character’s depiction, both in terms of appearance and personality, without explicitly stating them; which typically demonstrated through the character’s actions, speech, thoughts and how other characters reacted to them (Ellis, 2022). In theory, transitivity system involves analyzing the relationship between the components of the participant, process, and circumstance within a clause; in which the sequence itself reflects the representation of events, actions, or existences of a person/thing in a text (Halliday, 2014). Fowler (1991) argued that transitivity becomes the foundation of representation, as it is the way clause is analyzed to investigate events and situations as being of certain types (Zhang, 2017). Matthiesen (2004) explained that there are six major processes; material process, mental process, relational process, behavioral process, verbal process, existential process. This highlights the role of language in the form of dialogues, which is pivotal for elaborating the characters who are important in delivering the narrative aspects of a literary work. Gee (2005) argued that language that is presented in literary work enables the characters not only to communicate, but also to show their identity. In fact, language is used so that people are recognized as taking on certain identity or roles, which is imparted by how a speaker/writer configure and choose on what they are saying/writing. The choice of language can also embody other’s identity (Isti’anah, 2019 p. 223). Halliday (2014) expressed that language enables us to construct meaning using specific choice of words particularly about social identity, as well as to construe other’s personality based on our own perspective. As Bloor and Bloor (2004) said, “When people use language, meanings are constructed.” (Syed et al., 2021 p. 57). Current advancement in the Linguistics field have given the opportunity for scholars to view language to be functional, as if language selection is based on the context of its use (Dwiprasetyo et al, 2022). This laid the foundation for Halliday (1985) to propose Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Halliday pioneered the idea that language has the functions as a set of resources to achieve meaning for construing reality and experience. This is described by Halliday (2014) as the three metafunctions of language: ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function (Van, 2020). Eggins (2004, p.12) added that ideational function is mainly concerned in how we represent the experience of the world through language; a theory of human experience (Prakoso, 2022). The study of ideational function employs a system called Material process expresses action or change, which are acted out by the participant. (Haliday, 2014). Mental process expresses the sequence of events close to mind and psychology such as cognition, perception, desideration, and emotion (Siahaan, 2021). Relational process realizes experiences is related with another, under the processes of Identifying and attributive. Behavioral process typically involves simultaneous human physical and psychological behavior – a sort mix of action and emotion (Simpson, 2004). Verbal process represents the action covering the exchange of message and meaning (Rashid, 2016). Existential process represents existence of being, a thing, or something that happens (Halliday, 2014). As characters’ dialogues possess a significant role in literary works, using transitivity analysis may shed light towards the process of characterizatio (...truncated)