aka: First Person Narrative
This trope applies when the story is told from "inside the head" of one person. If there is a narrative, it will be told as if that person were speaking to us. If there is a camera, it will be looking through that person's eyes. (A related perspective is third person limited, which likewise follows a single character's point of view, but views that character from outside.) It's most commonly used in literature as a narrative technique and in video games as a genre. It is noticeable and notable when it appears outside of those two areas, especially in movie and film where it's relatively rare to see anything directly from a characters perspective, rarer still for it to be maintained throughout. It was a major breakthrough in art when this was subverted and perspectives that no human could reasonably see started to be used in painting, such as a birds eye view. This, especially when accompanied by first person narration, can also unintentionally function as a Spoiler Opening to a Genre Savvy audience, who subconsciously assume (with good reason) that regardless of what happens during the story (who dies, etc.) the viewpoint character must survive the events in order to be in a position to relate the tale to the audience later. First Person stories have the advantage that it is very hard for the reader to not feel sympathetic towards the narrator. While a character being very perceptive or making good guesses is considered acceptable, one of the common mistakes people make in writing First Person is giving the reader the feeling that either the narrator is always right, psychic, or is omnipotent in some way. Sometimes the nattator can think 'at' the reader, asking rhetorical questions and making Deadpan Snarker comments. Successful First Person means the narrator is still often wrong about what is going on outside of their line of sight and knows nothing of the thoughts of others, and may even view past events in a different light. First Person can be written in the immediate Present Tense, which means that the writer must additionally be careful that the narrator does not know the future, but has the advantage of the narrator not necesserily surviving the story. Sibling trope of Second-Person Narration.
- The All-Concealing I
- All First Person Narrators Write Like Novelists
- Captain's Log
- First-Person Shooter
- First-Person Peripheral Narrator
- First-Person Smartass
- Point of View
- P.O.V. Cam
- Private Eye Monologue
- In the Doom movie there's a sequence shot in first person meant to reflect its First-Person Shooter roots.
- In later seasons NUMB3RS used gun barrel perspective as the FBI agents performed operations intercut with more regular footage.
- In Kick-Ass when Hit-Girl rescues Kick Ass and Big Daddy from Johnny G's thugs, it's done in a First-Person Shooter style.
- In the original Halloween movie the opening sequence in which a young Michael Myers spies on then murders his older sister is done from his point of view.
- Neogicia is told from Saly Asigar's point of view.
- The Vampire Academy books are told entirely through Rose Hathaway's perspective.