Is Michael the best GTA 5 protagonist?

GTA 5 is the first game in the series to ramp things up to the extent of featuring three extremely diverse and equally divisive playable characters.

Part of the reason why the franchise has grown in popularity is that Rockstar isn't afraid to shake things up a little. For instance, GTA 4 strayed from the tradition of crime-centered games by featuring a protagonist who couldn't care less about the underworld but was swept into its twisted folds to an irrevocable degree.

GTA 5, too, is one of the most innovative games of all time and holds a bunch of records that are impossible to break. It owes a considerable part, if not all, of its fame to the exemplary leads whose journeys players get to follow .

Each character in the game is incredibly fleshed out and likable in his own right; except maybe Trevor who often makes it hard for players to uphold him in high regard.

Franklin is rather underrated. It's a pity really. He is one of the funniest characters in the entire series. Michael is the one who gets most of the buzz in the community, even though he, too, is a madman at heart just like any other Grand Theft Auto character.

This article explains why Michael is the most raved-about character from GTA 5.

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Is Michael the best protagonist from GTA 5?

Michael is the most muddled person in the world (Image via gta5-mods.com)

"Look, you wake up one day and your legs, they just give, and you just can't run anymore."

Some might say that Michael is always wallowing in self-pity and while that may be true to some extent, no one can deny that he is at least self-aware, unlike most of the characters in GTA 5.

Michael is the most muddled person in the world. Haunted by his past and the glory of his old days, Michael, a retired bank robber and career criminal, soon finds himself resenting the safe cocoon he's built for his family and yearning for something more.

He spends an awful lot of time in his head, trying to contemplate the difference between "good" and "evil" and reminiscing about the good ol' days when he didn't feel like a "fat washed up jock."

His ruminations only lead him back to square one , the only thing he's ever felt a strong passion for: crime and, as he so precisely puts it, a price on his head.

Michael is better than, say, Trevor from GTA 5. The only reason he is still a part of the underworld is because he wanted to do something with his sorry, irrelevant life. Not because his ultimate goal in life was to be rich. He is already rich. In fact, he's got everything one could possibly wish for. A beautiful house, a pretty wife, two spoiled but precious kids.

Michael knows wealth. He knows fame. Now he wants to go back to the things that once made him feel alive.

This torn, bewildering confusion is exactly what makes him the best protagonist of GTA 5. Michael is the embodiment of the fear people are often confronted with when they hit 40 without having done any of the things they wanted to do.