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Tweaking expys/ersatzs

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HaseoNatsume Since: Jan, 2001
#1: Nov 15th 2010 at 6:08:15 AM

When you outright decide to borrow appearances from other stories, what do you do to make them just different enough to be their own character?

Example: say I wanted to make an ersatz of Miku Hatsune?

Obviously I want a similar sort of feel to the character, but I don't want it to be immediately clear that I used the design.

One possible solution: Imagine that the character has had a child with another character, and use the resulting offspring as your character.

For example, let's say that Miku Hatsune and Sephiroth have a child together.

How would you determine what the offspring is like?

Slan Since: Nov, 2010
#2: Nov 22nd 2010 at 11:30:28 AM

On making the character different: Alternate Character Interpretation; your Expy started out the same as the first one but due to upbringing became less so in personality and/or looks; your character is a fan who actively looks and acts like the first, and so on.

On children: It depends on 1) what the relationship between the parents was like, and 2) how this affected whoever brought up the child.

Remember, however, to treat expies as proper characters who develop and change throughout the story. They might start out as a walking Shout-Out but their sole purpose shouldn't be to broadcast the nerdiness of the author.

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