“NPC” is the meme that keeps on giving…
The NPC meme had been around for a few years, ignored and unused until a woke video game news website published a piece bemoaning the NPC and whining about how it “dehumanizes” people. As a result, the Streisand Effect was put into full force, and now it’s everywhere.
“Dehumanization” is the public face of the outrage about NPC. It’s the excuse that Twitter used to block a whole bunch of NPC-themed accounts, as well as accounts that switched to an NPC avatar. But I don’t think that the SJWs whoa re upset about being compared to NPCs are really primarily upset about the fact that NPCs aren’t human. What I think upsets them is that the fact that the NPCs aren’t the heroes in the story. They are meaningless bit players, interchangeable and ultimately forgettable bit parts in someone else’s story. This plays hell with the self image your average activist (of any kind) tends to have. Political and religious activists tend to see themselves as the Little Guy bravely standing up to The Forces Of Evil, thinking that when their pluck, determination and absolute moral superiority inevitably triumphs, they will be recognized as the Great Person that they feel that they are. Being called an NPC reminds them that, nope, they are just a small cog in a big damn machine, and when they’re off the stage nobody will remember them. For people whose self image revolves solely around their own self importance… being made to consider that they are *not* important is the sort of world-shaking revelation they cannot allow. it’s the sort of realization that every adult had to go through at some point when they were transitioning away from childhood. But a lot of the screeching NPCs seemingly have yet to grow up, and retain their infantile sense of ultimate selfishness.
“The Crow” had a bit of wisdom on that, courtesy Top Dollar, one of the all time great cinematic villains.