Character inspirations

All I'm saying is that you have a large cast, in a neutral sense.

All of my characters are Expies.

Every last one.

Sometimes two of the same character in one story.

I have no idea how they get to be so different.

@nrjxll: How does a recurring extra attract fans?

Anything recurring attracts fans. They're gonna be like, "whoa, it's that thing again, wonder if that means something?".

Most of the characters in Legacies are superficially expies in order to give the reader some sense of familiarity with the settings and how the characters fit therein.. What I usually did was find a character or concept I liked and then played around with it. An example would be Nostomo:

"What if the Silver Age Aquaman was treated as a badass, but had elements of both Thor and the Captain Marvel mythos?"

How could you notice the same element recurring if you weren't already a fan?

... well, that's why I said it's for attracting fans, not turning people into fans. A better way to put it is to keep your fans.

Because not everyone who encounters a work will be a fan, but they'll notice internal continuity and think you're clever.

When I say that a recurring extra attracts fans, I mean it attracts fans of that character. It's not going to attract fans to the work.

Like an Ensemble Dark Horse, in other words.

Exactly - an Ensemble Dark Horse is this phenomenon taken to its extreme.

I was actually thinking that when you said it, but apparently the wording was a bit vague. Which is unfortunate, as the point was a good one, if an obvious one.

I'm rambling now.

A few more inspirations:

• Kyrio is basically an Expy of Sosuke Aizen in terms of powers and some of his personality, except he has a loved one to make him more human, namely the protagonist, his son Matthew. But he differs in that he is a Benevolent Boss, he is well intentioned, and he has some funny moments.
• Matthew has the appearance of an old school friend, the self sacrificing nature of Shirou Emiya, and the powers (and hair color) of Gilgamesh. He does, however, evolve into his own character over the course of the first novel. That's also kinda the point of him. Matthew has to become his own man to be an effective Hero.
• Liam was brought into the story because I talked to an old friend from high school who inspired him.
• ...Do not know where Shane came from. He just kept evolving as a character concept.
• The Seer was brought in because I envisioned the personification of the Jackass Genie trope. He is also based on the first villain who ever scared me as a kid. Cookies for anyone who can guess who this is.
• Anathema...I think she is a little inspired by Nehellenia, but also the Angel of Darkness song by Nightcore.
• Adrian was just thought up because I needed someone to lead the Quirky Miniboss Squad.
• Medraut was thought up in response to Aerosmith's Dude Looks Like A Lady song. Does not explain why he is so campy, though. I just liked that characterization so much I'm willing to make it go further and further...
• Lyle Skelter is basically a Shout-Out to Kazutaka Muraki, and he also draws inspiration from Mengele. This just makes his flirtatious lines to Matthew even creepier.

edited 19th Feb '12 8:05:13 PM by NickTheSwing

For some reason I tend to take a lot of inspiration from Super Robot protagonists, even though Curaecor is not in any way related to the genre. (In fact, it's Heroic Fantasy)

edited 19th Feb '12 8:41:10 PM by Lennik