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Character Development Thread--Discussion

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Ryuhza Brother from San Diego County, California Since: Feb, 2012 Relationship Status: Tongue-tied
Brother
#26676: Dec 5th 2015 at 3:54:25 PM

Very terribly sorry about how long that took. Only one week left of class though, then I'll be able to post with greater freakwensie. Until then, I wouldn't expect to see much more of me. sad

They'll turn your world around
electronic-tragedy PAINKILLER from Wherever I need to be Since: Jan, 2014 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
PAINKILLER
#26677: Dec 5th 2015 at 4:31:24 PM

I'll post after I watch a movie :P

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.
Ryuhza Brother from San Diego County, California Since: Feb, 2012 Relationship Status: Tongue-tied
Brother
#26678: Dec 5th 2015 at 4:39:06 PM

You know what? You ENJOY that movie. You enjoy the HECK out of it.

They'll turn your world around
electronic-tragedy PAINKILLER from Wherever I need to be Since: Jan, 2014 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
PAINKILLER
#26679: Dec 5th 2015 at 6:17:18 PM

Ryuhza, barada nikto.

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.
Wolf1066 Crazy Kiwi from New Zealand (Veteran) Relationship Status: Dancing with myself
Crazy Kiwi
#26680: Dec 5th 2015 at 6:37:33 PM

OK, the "Terra Novans" have left Capital City, as has Gwion - and his mates from Black Knight Security.

Of course Teri, Kris and Wolfe will be heading for the Mountain Resort for some R&R (just as soon as they pick up Kris's bike from Terra Nova and repack) and in a couple of years they, along with Peggy, Karl and James, will wind up in Frontier...

electronic-tragedy PAINKILLER from Wherever I need to be Since: Jan, 2014 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
PAINKILLER
#26681: Dec 5th 2015 at 7:46:50 PM

Reminder for people to edit where their characters are on the page!

Also I posted, all are brief because I'm getting tired...

edited 5th Dec '15 7:47:29 PM by electronic-tragedy

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.
Masterofchaos Since: Dec, 2010
#26682: Dec 5th 2015 at 8:49:17 PM

Staying up late=deep stuff.

Now, I'm going to sleep.

CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#26683: Dec 5th 2015 at 9:10:45 PM

I moved around the characters in the hotel on the Frontier page, but nowhere else because I don't know what's going on outside the hotel.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#26684: Dec 6th 2015 at 2:00:13 AM

I meant to post in Capital, but I screwed up and now it's way too late at night. I'll get on it ASAP tomorrow.

Gault Laugh and grow dank! from beyond the kingdom Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: P.S. I love you
Laugh and grow dank!
#26685: Dec 6th 2015 at 10:54:16 AM

Has anyone here ever had this experience where you watch a piece of media and you discover a character you love so much it makes you want to change how you write your own characters?

yey
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#26686: Dec 6th 2015 at 11:01:36 AM

Given me ideas for character concepts, yes; changed how I create them, no. Then again, I don't really think too much about how my characters come about, only that the 'think up basic concept, mix and match backstory elements and traits until satisfied' process seems to work for me.

What did you see?

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
electronic-tragedy PAINKILLER from Wherever I need to be Since: Jan, 2014 Relationship Status: Healthy, deeply-felt respect for this here Shotgun
PAINKILLER
#26687: Dec 6th 2015 at 11:20:40 AM

I originally wanted Samuel to be a more fatherly Colonel Kilgore but he ended up a bit nicer... Though I can say he starts out that way :P

Life is hard, that's why no one survives.
Gault Laugh and grow dank! from beyond the kingdom Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: P.S. I love you
Laugh and grow dank!
#26688: Dec 6th 2015 at 11:55:43 AM

Well, here's the thing. I have this basic concept for a character. Her name is Elisif, you might have seen her in the threads before a couple times. She's an elf, and a very prototypical image of one at that: fair skinned, pure blond hair, pointy ears, all that. She's a competent adventurer and mercenary who's a little hard-bitten and has a non-trivial tendency towards wrath, but is otherwise a fundamentally good person.

That's Elisif. That's the character that, of all that I've come up with, is the most personally compelling as to be the closest thing there is I have to a proper protagonist. I actually started building the character after I got a certain image in my head that I couldn't get rid of. Just so you know where I'm coming from.

Now, recently I decided to watch a cartoon (I believe the colloquial term is Frenchime) named Wakfu. In it is a certain character that, over the past few days binge-watching the show, I've fallen in love with.

This is Evangelyne. She's an experienced adventurer and mercenary who's a little hard-bitten and has a non-trivial tendency towards wrath, but is otherwise a fundamentally good person.

You see my issue.

It's not just a matter of her character design either- which I adore. The similarity extends even down to minute character traits, such as having been a soldier from a young age or her pragmatic unconcern for any problems not directly relevant to herself or her group of friends.

Right now I feel as if Wakfu has done my idea of a character so much better than I myself have done, and that has left me frozen with indecision on whether Elisif should be more like Eva, because she's fucking awesome and I love the character, or less, so that she comes across as less of a blatant expy. Come to think of it, is it possible for a character to be an expy if the author didn't know of the original character's existence?

yey
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#26689: Dec 6th 2015 at 1:09:55 PM

Come to think of it, is it possible for a character to be an expy if the author didn't know of the original character's existence?

By the definition of Expy, absolutely not. (That's kind of a nitpick and doesn't really answer your broader question, but the outrageous level of shoehorning that page undergoes is a personal pet peeve).

I will say that while I'm not familiar with the show itself, that's not really how I pictured Elisif.

SnowyFoxes Drummer Boy from Club Room Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: I know
Drummer Boy
#26690: Dec 6th 2015 at 1:16:37 PM

CG: I've been working on a post for Arthur for a while, but I'm starting to feel like I've been writing him inconsistently and don't know him as well as I thought, so it might take a little while longer before I really know what to do. Fortunately, I may have a semi-plausible way to have Tsadro talk to one of his teammates while I reevaluate my goals for him. Really sorry about this and the quality of my posts lately, I hope I haven't been making you frustrated or anything. To make matters worse I'll be studying for finals, and I have another paper for English due this coming Friday. It has the same minimum page count as the last two, but we got the prompts a week and a half before the due date instead of two and a half like the others and I am utterly uninspired by the texts that this paper is supposed to analyze. Fun!

KC: So, the gist of your last post is Maridel is now made of air and fleeing, Maude is staying behind to hold off anyone who might try chasing the others, and the Queen of Diamonds is still running?

Gault: I haven't found myself in the same exact situation that you describe in your latest post, but I think I'm experiencing the storytelling version of it. I recently finished a pacifist run of Undertale. To start with, I've always strived to create such memorable characters, even though none of mine are accidental expies or anything like that. It told its story with the spirit that I've always wanted my stories to have, so now in my mind everything I do is just going to be overshadowed by Undertale. It also nailed the sense of humor that I've always wanted to be able to insert in my works, but I think it could be argued that it doesn't quite work in a purely written format anyway so I can't really blame myself for that. I want to get closer to capturing the same spirit, but at the same time I'm worried that I'll be so caught up in being like Undertale that my work will lose its own flavor and feel like a cheap imitation. But because I love that spirit too much to completely abandon it and take my stories in a different direction, I'm just going to wing it and see what happens.

edited 6th Dec '15 2:50:51 PM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#26691: Dec 6th 2015 at 1:40:26 PM

I haven't been able to post much faster than you can, plus I have two takehome finals to do and an in-class one on Thursday, so slowness is not an issue for the moment. Only problem is that my motivation to do anything other than shovel junk food in my mouth while scrolling through YouTube is kind of nil.

Also, I think your posts have been perfectly alright, writing-wise. I've been kind of feeling that Tsadro's being too talkative, but then again, philosophical musings on his people are kind of important to him and he probably won't get an opportunity to have a discussion like this with someone completely unfamiliar with Rivari in his home story.

I was also sort of hoping that Tsadro would get to meet someone from Arthur's team at some point, so if that's what you end up doing next, I would not be opposed to it.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
Corvidae It's a bird. from Somewhere Else Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: Non-Canon
It's a bird.
#26692: Dec 6th 2015 at 2:20:39 PM

Realized that I've been kind of ignoring Glitch since I introduced him/it. Gonna give him some more (simulated) personality.

Still a great "screw depression" song even after seven years.
KillerClowns Since: Jan, 2001
#26693: Dec 6th 2015 at 3:29:38 PM

[up][up][up]Yeah. I'm basically trying to clean up loose ends, not sure how well I'm doing. Seem to have lost everyone except you and Blackfire... c'est la vie, I've learned a few things.

Gault Laugh and grow dank! from beyond the kingdom Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: P.S. I love you
Laugh and grow dank!
#26694: Dec 7th 2015 at 12:22:28 AM

@Snowy Foxes, I get that. Big fan of that game, I really admire how well it does what it does. Though, interestingly, much like Nrjxll, I never quite imagined your story to be similar in intention to Undertale of all things.

Maybe this is just from what me and the others got to see of it, but I was under the impression that you were writing something where a small cast of characters have to navigate the greater social and political conflicts of their world as best they can.

yey
SnowyFoxes Drummer Boy from Club Room Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: I know
Drummer Boy
#26695: Dec 7th 2015 at 2:27:05 AM

CG, KC: I'll finish my Frontier post during lunch tomorrow, and then it'll probably be my last until Friday at the soonest.

Gault: I'm afraid that this might not make much sense, please bear with my confused soul.

The basic overarching external conflict of the series is pretty much how you describe it: five young adults struggling to keep afloat in the midst of war and social upheaval, dealing with their own mental health problems, and learning to get along with each other. Probably doesn't seem like it would have a lot of similarities with a story about a child navigating a world of monsters. But a pacifist run of Undertale and my ideal vision of Entropy have very similar souls/ emotional cores, and they share a particular tone. It just might be possible to write Entropy this way, but I'm afraid that I'll get so obsessed with capturing the particular spirit of Undertale that it'll end up looking like I sewed together a disjointed quilt instead of knitting my own blanket with a similar yarn. If that makes any sense.

Were there any specific details about what you assumed to be Entropy's plot that made you really surprised to hear that I wanted to write a story like Undertale? Though I'm kind of expecting your answer to be along the lines of "literally everything, what the heck are you talking about."

edited 7th Dec '15 2:35:59 AM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Gault Laugh and grow dank! from beyond the kingdom Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: P.S. I love you
Laugh and grow dank!
#26696: Dec 7th 2015 at 5:34:17 AM

No, by your description I think I have a fairly clear image of what Entropy is supposed to be like. If I have it right, you're going for this kind of understated, quasi-biographical story where the events of the world aren't so important as how they affect the main characters' lives. The plot isn't centered around some epic world-spanning quest, but rather the highly personal tale of a few normal folk trying to make sure everything doesn't end poorly for them and their close friends.

That about right?

yey
CrystalGlacia from at least we're not detroit (Living Relic)
#26697: Dec 7th 2015 at 6:24:30 AM

you're going for this kind of understated, quasi-biographical story where the events of the world aren't so important as how they affect the main characters' lives. The plot isn't centered around some epic world-spanning quest, but rather the highly personal tale of a few normal folk trying to make sure everything doesn't end poorly for them and their close friends.

That's also a fairly succinct description of almost every story that I plan on setting in Aitherion (descriptions on Troper page). I'm using more traditional external conflicts (overturning a government, picking up the pieces of said government and country, scientific discovery, war, worldwide sociopolitical upheaval, etc.) as backdrops for small-scale interpersonal conflicts between community members and immediate family. Also because writing about fantasy politics is kind of boring when you already have trouble following real-life politics.

I'll finish my Frontier post during lunch tomorrow, and then it'll probably be my last until Friday at the soonest.

Cool with that, gives me time to rest and recoup after my own finals.

"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#26698: Dec 7th 2015 at 10:36:11 AM

I should go ahead and say now that I need to get at least half of a paper done today, so until I have, I'm not going to post.

AustinHinton Since: Aug, 2015 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#26699: Dec 7th 2015 at 1:30:29 PM

I'm just going to stick with one character, less juggling to have to do, you know?

The platypus is my spirit animal.
SnowyFoxes Drummer Boy from Club Room Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: I know
Drummer Boy
#26700: Dec 7th 2015 at 2:15:58 PM

I just accidentally sent that post without writing for Cyrus but I have to haul my ass to an English review session so I'm just going to leave it like that for now and finish this evening. My brain is all over the place lately.

Gault: Yeah, that's... scarily accurate considering how you've never actually read any of Entropy, to my knowledge.

edited 7th Dec '15 2:16:08 PM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

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