No Celebrities Were Harmed: Your OCs

Okay, admit it: From time to time, you've based a character of yours on an already-existing one (whether fictional or not). So gather 'round, everybody! Share, share! I'll get things started:

• One of my characters was partially influenced, appearance-wise, by Freddie Mercury. Originally, I was gonna give him an Ambiguous Gender; I decided eventually to make him male, just have some people be uncertain upon first meeting. The fact that he's bisexual makes it a little disconcerting as well.
• One of my friends described a character of his as follows: "Take Jaime Pressly, dye her hair dark brown, and giver her a Brooklyn accent, and that's Maggie."
• Another character of mine is a dead ringer for Dean Venture, in appearance and attire. Like Calvin and Walter Mitty, he tends to have daydream fantasies where he's various Badass characters.

Nim is Lupin if he were a lesbian in short-shorts.

Erela is Zenigata if he were a straight chick with great tits who snarked more than shouted.

Go on, guess who has a crush on her.

Two characters of mine were inspired by Marion and Harry from Requiem For A Dream. They've evolved in a completely different direction, though the doomed relationship aspect still remains.

A superheroine-esque character was inspired by Superman and other examples of The Cape and acts as a foil to the harsher, anti-hero main protagonist.

Ferris was based off a certain web-comic artist.

Another character I have is an actor who became famous and define by a certain character he plays in a series of movies and gets typecast and eventually constantly mistaken for him in real life. He was inspired by a lot actors, but particularly Leonard Nimoy and Sean Connery.

I had been writing with Arane for a while before watching Shakugan No Shana. I decided to make Arane a naive Tsundere Pettanko that liked pastries and kicked butt with a talking goddess in her head. It sure saved her from total Mary Sue-dom, I would say— before that, she was a Tsundere Pettanko that kicked butt and... nothing.

I subconsciously made Wylfing a nerd because of Lupin, not to mention that they're both werewolves. Strangely, Yuji from Shakugan No Shana also changed his character a bit— Wylfing was orignally a nice guy, but Yuji annoyed me so much I made Wylfing more like Gale from The Hunger Games.

I based Lini and Lumi (they're twins) off of my best friend. They have talking goddesses in their heads, too.

edited 15th Oct '10 11:06:10 PM by snowfoxofdeath

Two of my protagonist started as expys of Steel Ball Run characters before spiraling off into my own insanity.

One of said character's fathers is however a no celebrities were harmed version of Bruce Willis and another is slightly based on Alan Moore.

edited 15th Oct '10 11:56:12 PM by toalordsothe

The Herald is Nyarlathotep. Not even an expy, just one of his many, many forms. He's never referred with his "real" name tho, other than one time when he lists of his many names and includes "the favoured of Nyarlat" among them (that's what Nyarlathotep means in ancient Egyptian). There's also one minor character based on Henry Armitage from The Dunwitch Horror, called John Armitage (there's a Lovecraft character theme naming going on in the story).

The OC of my upcoming work is actually named after a local actress and her personality is partly based on the character type that said actress was typecasted as.

In appearance, one of my (female) characters looks vaguely like a trap!Ciel Phantomhive from Kuroshitsuji in that they both have dark green hair and blue eyes. However, her personality is completely different, being a sort of mild and pushovery girl.

Another one of my characters bears eerie resemblance to Mir from Ar Tonelico too...probably cause I made her right after I played the game...

For the life of me, I can't figure out why a dragon the size of a station wagon has Judi Dench's voice, but I love it.

I have two characters that imitate Sanji's and Zoro's dynamics...if they were screwing that is.

In my current project, the President of the United States is, for all intents and purposes, Stephen Colbert. He's sort of halfway between Colbert, the Real Life person, and Colbert, the character. He will have a scene where he impales an assassin on a flagpole. Seriously.

In the same story, I'd like to have a cameo by Queen Olympia (from E.T.A. Hoffamnn's short story "Der Sandmann"), who would look and act a lot like Lady Gaga. This is also an in-joke on my part, as I like to joke that Gaga is a clockwork living doll. That's what it's like to live in my head, folks.

In another story, I have a Fantasy Counterpart Culture not to a real culture, but to the Mandalorians. Yeah, I'm a nerd.

I have more Ersatzes of fictional characters than I can count.

But I only have two that are at least a little based off of actual celebrities.

The first is a Knight Templar ex Section 9 agent who looks a bit like John Turturro, who keeps a small community of corrupt businessmen under his thumb by having tricked them into a usurious loan, so if they cross him they will be required to pay him back, or for something particularly Egregious he will simply have them killed.

The second is the current Big Bad of the game, while initially I meant him to sort of look like a green haired Byakuya, he could also resemble Ivan Doroschuk from the band Men Without Hats, of Safety Dance fame.

I have fond memories of the first time someone on my MSN list took a good hard look at a drawing of one of my characters and said "...WTF, he's a black Leonard Cohen!"

With J-rock hair, admittedly.

(A 75-year-old man with J-rock hair.)

A hooker that appears in one of the drafts for Bjorn Westlander, Agent Retriever was modeled after Liz Vicious and even named "Lisbeth".

Disregard this, I was in error.

edited 21st Oct '10 2:39:20 PM by HaseoNatsume

My OC, Daniel Tombs, has basically the same appearance as Daniel Graves (from the band Aesthetic Perfection): Snakebite piercings, shaved head, sideburns, large eyes.

Also, I've got Ike Patrick, who has a similar voice (or many voices) to Mike Patton.

King Moe is ruler of Funkitopia, and his advisers are named Larry and Curly.

I was never good at subtlety.

The character I take my handle from was loosely - insanely loosely - based on Beowulf.

Well, Sampson from Stuck is based on Stephen Fry, and very visibly so.

Also, Jacob Tilling is somewhere between Oprah and Conan O'Brien. (Yeah, I know, weird combo, but still, he's a talk show host.)

My female protagonist, Autumn Price, is based off a good friend's LARP character. The character was a Fairest Autumn Court and went crazy because of her Court membership; so her name "Autumn Price" is a joke and a shout-out.

My male protagonist, Morgan Kelgrave...I based his look off Viggo Mortensen (if you can picture him blond) and his attitude off of Daniel Craig's James Bond.

Another character, Gustav Luscaris, I based off a real person; see "Charlie Wilson's War"...the hefty Greek CIA agent who puts a hammer through his boss's window near the beginning. Love that guy.

The two Russian mobsters I plan to introduce in my Shadowrun adventure/campaign are brothers: Pyotr and Nikolai Bryanko. The surname comes from some random misspelling of Konstantin Brayko's name I found back at some forum (and their father's name is Konstantin, no less!). Pyotr is based on South African rapper Ninja and Nikolai on Ilya Tretiak, The Dragon from The Saint movie (the one with Val Kilmer).

The mercenary Olga Voronina, from the same campaign, is basically Balalaika with cybernetic arms and right eye. And the explanation how did she get them is pretty squicky (napalm drop during a black op somewhere in the Caucasus burnt most of her arms and half of her face off).

And manager of the band "Matrixcrash '64" is not only named Philo Gant, but also looks like Michael Wincott.

United States President For Life Winfrey. This talk show host-cum-tyranical dictator is completely and totally not Oprah in any way whatsoever.

edited 4th Nov '10 9:42:02 PM by Anaheyla

My characters are often based off aspects of my personality, but I have borrowed from fictional characters occasionally, usually just as a starting point.

• One character started out like a cross between Peter Pan and Mowgli from the Jungle Book, but more realistic than Peter Pan (as the character has developed over time he's become more and more original, as of now he's like Peter Pan only in concept).

• Another borrows from Bill the Butcher in Gangs Of New York

• The Big Bad has shades of Freeza and Cell from Dragon Ball Z

• Another character has elements of the Happy Mask Salesman from The Legend Of Zelda Majoras Mask, and Clopin from Disney's The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (though now that I've read the original book he's a bit like the original Clopin too).

I do this a lot.

Two in Side Effects: The corrupt Senator, Mara Ornoff, is inspired by Real Life Virginia Beach mayor Mayera Oberndorf, who totally fucked the city up the ass by getting in bed with the real estate companies; her Strawman Political Expy is in bed with pharmaceutical companies instead, and facilitates the apocalypse. Then there's Mrs. Carradine, a religious wacko clearly inspired by Mrs. Carmody, who gets her brains blown out (the logical reaction that was delayed much too long in the book) the very first time she suggests a human sacrifice.

In Music City: Alicia Keys is modeled after, well, Alicia Keys (if she wore a spandex Spy Catsuit, worked as a lockpicker/safecracker and loved to play with dynamite, but all the physical appearance tropes are there and The Names The Same, so it counts). Lacrymosa is modeled after Amy Lee, if she were a High Octane Nightmare Fuel anthropomorphic Eldritch Abomination with extensive Mind Rape capabilities (again, though, the physical appearance tropes are all there, including wardrobe this time around).

In the Mythology 101 Cycle: Carina is what Elizabeth Bathory would have likely become had she been an actual vampire, but turned Up To Eleven and played for Fetish Fuel as well as Nightmare Fuel.

In the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot series, Count William III is inspired by Julian Luna, and his Battle Butler Rex is inspired by Sabretooth. There's also another female vampire inspired by Elizabeth Bathory... possibly some Author Appeal is at work here.

In Freedom's Children: The President is Hitler, and the Surgeon General is Josef Mengele (needless to say, it's a Crapsack World... of course, other depictions of the year 2298 probably have been as well). Kim is inspired physically by fitness model Kimberly Paul, but even a fitness model probably isn't as big an Action Girl as Kim is... she's got Memetic Badass potential. Also, Kimberly Paul presumably ages.

edited 4th Nov '10 11:35:54 PM by Pinata

• Though his personality is his own, Lux III's physical appearance is very much ripped off Osamu Tezuka's expy Rock. IMHO, as far as his cumulative role in Tezuka's works go, I'm still yet to read a better villain. That's worth a homage.

• The character of Hans Lyon borrows just a tiny bit from Star Trek's Dr. McCoy, and the rationale for him fits, too—at the other end of the city, Demetrius isn't merely The Spock; he's the fucking emperor of Vulcan. Someone's got to balance him out. There's a catch, though. Beneath his cool (and frightening) exterior, Demetrius is as hormonal and emotionally screwy as any teenager ever. Likewise, Hans's work is pretty technical, and he's so good at it that he could break into this very forum and bitch about his own story.

• Finally, while Lux II and his brother Vox aren't taken from anyone in particular, films Casino Royale (1967) and Dune (1984) were pretty instrumental in coming up with them. In both films, the villains are intentionally and unintentionally played as so ineffectively over the top that I lol'd hard and wondered how fun it would be to write a story about a villainous family that has so deeply degenerated in sanity over the centuries that the current spawn is too ridiculous to take seriously anymore.

edited 5th Nov '10 3:37:21 AM by SPACETRAVEL