GTA Online Protagonist

"I am honored to call you my son... By another mother, if you know what I mean?"

- Simeon Yetarian to the male Online Player.

The GTA Online Protagonist is the player-created playable character and protagonist of Grand Theft Auto Online.

The GTA Online Protagonist can be created according to the taste of the player to customize (gender or appearance). The player will choose a gender, then choose the parents and grandparents of the character to affect his/her appearance. Then, the player chooses how much the character spends his/her daily life; this will create the initial stats for the character and slightly change the appearance.

Background
Very little is known about the player's background, other than that they follow Lamar Davis on Lifeinvader. They take a flight to Los Santos. It is assumed that the reason the player moved to LS is because they and Lamar arranged a street race in the streets of Vinewood. The player does not move back to their old home, and stays in San Andreas.

Events of GTA Online

 * Main Page: Introduction Appearance

The player is first seen within the initial cinematic tutorial of Grand Theft Auto Online, and meets Lamar Davis when he picks the player up after their arrival in Los Santos from the airport. The two had met on Lifeinvader and became close friends.

They both enter Lamar's Emperor, where he gives the player a Pistol and welcomes them to the city of Los Santos. If the character is female, a different cutscene is shown where Lamar will try to get romantically involved with the protagonist but humorously fails. Lamar drives the player to a parking lot, where they begin to race each other. Regardless of who won the race, Lamar sees further potential in the character and introduces them to Gerald, a drug runner living in Davis. Gerald immediately proceeds to employ the character by asking them to ambush a deal between the Ballas and the Vagos.

As the character gains more and more reputation in Los Santos, they begin to be employed by powerful people in the criminal underworld such as Martin Madrazo, and are given increasingly tougher and higher-earning jobs. They are hired to take back drugs, steal aircrafts, and even infiltrate a chemical research facility. The player goes from a small-time two-bit gangster to a powerful figure in organized crime.

Events of GTA V
It is unknown what happened to the character by the time Grand Theft Auto V takes place. Lester still seems to be in touch with the character, and even considered them for the jewellery store robbery.

Personality
The Online Player, as shown in cutscenes, seems to be very calm and quiet when dealing with their bosses. They will take on any job as long as they get paid for their services (much like Claude in GTA III). They are known to keep their cool, especially when yelled at as shown in the initial cutscene with Trevor Philips. The Online Player, unlike most other characters, does not seem to fear Trevor. Trevor himself yelled at the player, exclaiming, "Why aren't you scared of me?!"

As with many other playable characters with in the GTA universe, the Online Player may display signs of psychosis (through player's choice) when mowing down unarmed civilians. Unlike other protagonists, the Online Player barely shows any emotion. However, it can be assumed that the character's personality is determined by the player themself, seeing as the character's mouth moves whenever the mic is used.

Parents
The player can choose who their parents can be during character customisation. The choice of parents affects the player's initial appearance. The Online Player shares several traits from each of their parents. For example, the Online Player may inherit a large nose from their father and pale skin from their mother. There is also a choice of grandparents, which affects the appearance of parents, which in-turn affects the appearance of the protagonist. The player can also choose who he/she resembles to either his/her mother or father. In addition to generic people to choose as parents, there is also the choice of using well-known characters from Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto IV. The protagonist (or a descendant of the aforementioned protagonist) of another Rockstar game, Red Dead Redemption, can also be chosen as a parent.

Male

 * Claude (Grand Theft Auto III)
 * Niko Bellic (Grand Theft Auto IV)
 * John Marston (Red Dead Redemption)

Female

 * Misty (Grand Theft Auto III)

Appearances
Grand Theft Auto Online
 * As the protagonist, they appear in every mission.

Grand Theft Auto V
 * Casing the Jewel Store (Mentioned)
 * Mr. Phillips (Mentioned)

Trivia

 * Lester Crest indirectly mentions the Online Player during the Story Mode mission "Casing the Jewel Store." After Michael De Santa asks if Lester has any contacts in Los Santos, Lester says that he has been working with someone, but that they're too unpredictable.
 * The Online Player's signature color is dark blue as seen in the HUD and UI, similar to Michael's signature color, although it was originally meant to be yellow as seen in the gameplay trailer and the HUD of the screen when switching to the Online Player. This could also be seen if you highlight the Online Player in the Character Wheel before the GTA Online patch. After the patch, it was changed to dark blue. This also inexplicably changed the colors in the credits sequence during "Prologue" and "Franklin and Lamar."
 * John Marston is the only non-GTA character to be a parent choice.
 * The Online Player has some similarities to Claude, the protagonist of GTA III, as they both never speak in any of their appearances. In addition, if the player bought the collector's edition of GTA V, you can use Claude as a parent of the Player.
 * The Online Player only speaks by coughing upon using a bong in certain apartments and rarely makes injury sounds.
 * It seems the idea of a non-voice character came to the fact that players can give voice to their characters through microphone, highly noticeable during the shop hold ups, where players can shout to the cashiers to hurry filling the bag of money. The character's mouth can also be seen moving when the player is talking, although the Protagonist's mouth do not match the player's dialogues.
 * When a player is disconnected suddenly from an online session, their online character will become a normal pedestrian and will walk towards the nearest pedestrian pathway. If the AI controlled character is approached violently, they will scream or yell.
 * Each time the player is killed in a session, scars and skin grafts will appear on the character, starting with on their face and then going on to their torso. They will disappear if the player leaves GTA Online.
 * All of the characters' parents' cameos option in GTA Online are non-canon.
 * This playable character is the first time the player has the option to play a female protagonist since Grand Theft Auto 1 or the GBC port of Grand Theft Auto 2.
 * There is a glitch in which the character's gender will be glitched, resulting in humorous situations. For example, the character may have a male's head/facial features on a female body, or vice versa.
 * This glitch also affects the character's race. When showering, the character may have a black person's head on a white person's body.
 * The player's rank color changes when the player reaches Rank 100, 500 and 1000. It will go from blue to bronze, silver and gold, respectively.
 * Despite the player being known to use Lifeinvader, they cannot access the Lifeinvader website in-game.
 * The Online Player appears to use Trevor's movement animations.
 * The Online Player also seems to use Michael De Santa's animations when holding a weapon or when shooting.
 * When in a job or mission the male Online Player will use Trevor Phillips weapon animation while the female Online Player will use Michael De Santa's animation.
 * The Online Player will refuse to smoke while driving any type of vehicle unless the vehicle is stationary.

Navigation
Online-Protagonist