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How have your characters evolved?
worffan101
Member Posts: 9,518 Arc User
So I've realized something recently. When watching Chuck Sonnenburg's review of JJTrek 1 for laughs and reading the prequel comics to inflame my JJ ulcer (cutting room floor is NOT canon, JJ!), I realized that, purely by accident, I've made D'trel into pretty much exactly what Nero could've and should've been.
Lost a loved one? Check. Went insane from the loss? Check. Endless rage that rules them? Check. Sympathetic, almost Broken Bird portrayal? Check.
Only difference that I can see is that I hope D'trel isn't an emo, and she doesn't use a trident.
Anyway...this got me to thinking about my concept for the character, and how she's evolved over the year and a half or so that I've been writing her. In the process, I thought a bit about my other characters, and wondered if anyone else wanted to share how their own character concepts have evolved over the years.
With D'trel, I originally started with the standard Romulan Republic playthrough backstory, and said "OK, I'm going to make this more personal and remove as much of Tovan Khev as I can." Then I did some background research on Vulcanoids, and found a bit of information about Vulcan emotions being more violent and fiery than the Human average; so I said, "alright, I've established that she lost her lover and still holds a grudge over it after more than 45 years, and I've established that she was a Unificationist, so that implies copious emotional trauma, which in a Romulan, left untreated for so long, would cause massive PTSD."
So I started writing in the homocidal rage more, relying more on emotional rather than sensory writing. At some point I realized that even the Republic needs a good excuse to employ someone so mentally ill, so I gave her a support network, and started writing therapy references.
By this point, she'd really transcended her origins, in my opinion; I couldn't think of her as "worffan101's randomly-named Romulan tac toon" anymore; she had gained an identity of her own, and so I gave her a name that I could actually pronounce. Which led to the fun idea of having her use aliases for most of her pre-Republic history, which I've begun to explore.
With First Omek'ti'kallan, I have to admit that he was just that free Jem tac boff from the facility 4028 mission. I named him to sound a bit like Omet'iklan, the dude who shot Weyoun 5 (which is a moment I will eternally cherish), said that he worshiped Odo specifically because I wanted a unique touch and I love Odo to little blobbish bits. Then I realized "hey, this guy could be pretty cool, and it'd be a challenge to write a religious guy".
Despite our religious differences, I've got to say that Omek is my favorite character. He's become this genuinely kind, nice guy who's still tough as nails, who is utterly convinced that a being who explicitly states that he doesn't want to be worshiped is god. This is really useful because I can play it for laughs, or deadly serious.
Plus, I just imagine him in that black body armor suit the Operative wears in Serenity. It's a super cool image.
With Three...she started as a berserk hybrid of a Mary Sue parody I made once and a SCP I was going to submit before I read 684 and realized that 684 had everything I had, only better. I started out writing her as mostly human, playing her psychosis for laughs in the style of Richard and Belkar Bitterleaf, but then I realized, as the stories piled up, that she wasn't acting like a human, but rather as a malfunctioning robot.
Which culminated in a discussion with takeshi6 on another site where I compared Three to the Omnidroid v.X10 from "The Incredibles", at which point I realized that there were a whole lot of implications that I could explore, which gave me one last thing to do with the character before I kill her. Which is good, because I hate to have a character go out with a whimper.
Anyway...enough about me and my characters. Has anyone else considered their concepts of their characters and how they've changed?
Lost a loved one? Check. Went insane from the loss? Check. Endless rage that rules them? Check. Sympathetic, almost Broken Bird portrayal? Check.
Only difference that I can see is that I hope D'trel isn't an emo, and she doesn't use a trident.
Anyway...this got me to thinking about my concept for the character, and how she's evolved over the year and a half or so that I've been writing her. In the process, I thought a bit about my other characters, and wondered if anyone else wanted to share how their own character concepts have evolved over the years.
With D'trel, I originally started with the standard Romulan Republic playthrough backstory, and said "OK, I'm going to make this more personal and remove as much of Tovan Khev as I can." Then I did some background research on Vulcanoids, and found a bit of information about Vulcan emotions being more violent and fiery than the Human average; so I said, "alright, I've established that she lost her lover and still holds a grudge over it after more than 45 years, and I've established that she was a Unificationist, so that implies copious emotional trauma, which in a Romulan, left untreated for so long, would cause massive PTSD."
So I started writing in the homocidal rage more, relying more on emotional rather than sensory writing. At some point I realized that even the Republic needs a good excuse to employ someone so mentally ill, so I gave her a support network, and started writing therapy references.
By this point, she'd really transcended her origins, in my opinion; I couldn't think of her as "worffan101's randomly-named Romulan tac toon" anymore; she had gained an identity of her own, and so I gave her a name that I could actually pronounce. Which led to the fun idea of having her use aliases for most of her pre-Republic history, which I've begun to explore.
With First Omek'ti'kallan, I have to admit that he was just that free Jem tac boff from the facility 4028 mission. I named him to sound a bit like Omet'iklan, the dude who shot Weyoun 5 (which is a moment I will eternally cherish), said that he worshiped Odo specifically because I wanted a unique touch and I love Odo to little blobbish bits. Then I realized "hey, this guy could be pretty cool, and it'd be a challenge to write a religious guy".
Despite our religious differences, I've got to say that Omek is my favorite character. He's become this genuinely kind, nice guy who's still tough as nails, who is utterly convinced that a being who explicitly states that he doesn't want to be worshiped is god. This is really useful because I can play it for laughs, or deadly serious.
Plus, I just imagine him in that black body armor suit the Operative wears in Serenity. It's a super cool image.
With Three...she started as a berserk hybrid of a Mary Sue parody I made once and a SCP I was going to submit before I read 684 and realized that 684 had everything I had, only better. I started out writing her as mostly human, playing her psychosis for laughs in the style of Richard and Belkar Bitterleaf, but then I realized, as the stories piled up, that she wasn't acting like a human, but rather as a malfunctioning robot.
Which culminated in a discussion with takeshi6 on another site where I compared Three to the Omnidroid v.X10 from "The Incredibles", at which point I realized that there were a whole lot of implications that I could explore, which gave me one last thing to do with the character before I kill her. Which is good, because I hate to have a character go out with a whimper.
Anyway...enough about me and my characters. Has anyone else considered their concepts of their characters and how they've changed?
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and there to a general who destroys ships and crews by the dozens. Those were the glorious days...
My Ferengi used to be a pathetic little man who looted bodies for hypo sprays to sell but is now rich, has several ships, and now kills hundreds in order to get crafting materials to make a handsom profit on the exchange. After all, a rich man can afford anything, except a concience.
Phase I: Tac Captain Gary Stu and friends.
Phase II: Engineer class, 1st officer Gary Stu under Captain Mary Sue
Phase III: Science captain and friends who all learn to depend on each other and come back broken at the end of their journey. People die and the survivors learn to move on, watching the Nidokuin's refit and maiden voyage under a new captain and crew. Babies ever after bonus ending sold separately.
Eh, I was playing around with the idea of somebody creating something virtually unkillable and it going very, very wrong...then I found 684, and I was like, "I can't top this". So I had the Nemesis unit clones and nothing to do with them. They were originally more nonhumanoid and even more OP.
Then I found Perfect Princess Annie Mae-Chan (a parody I wrote when I was 12 and pulling an all-nighter because reasons) somewhere in my hard drive, fused the two, humanoidized the former, removed the more annoying and juvenile aspects of the latter, ratcheted the power level way back, and focused on writing an OP psychopath.
Thus, unit designation Three was born.
I tried to have the universe respond rationally, but I was getting bored with the character, so I've shelved her for the moment except for crackfics.
I started with her appearance, since she's my Fed toon. I'd just gotten off a DS9 binge so I made her Bajoran because Kira Nerys is made of awesome. I also like redheads, so green-eyed redhead, and then I added the scars to give her some character. Then I bulked her up to make her look like she can fight hand-to-hand with strength rather than speed and leverage.
Then I started on personality. I wanted a Galaxy-class starship captain who was roughly the diametric opposite of Picard, a soldier first, not an explorer. So I incorporated a bit of the foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, hard-fighting US Marine stereotype, a bit of Kirk's personality, a bit of Sisko's willingness to make the pragmatic decision over the strictly moral one, and a big dose of Paragade FemShep. I came up with a backstory to go with the scars (she's got a touch of PTSD from the fight she got them in) and why she acts more like a jarhead NCO than a starship captain (i.e. she used to be a jarhead NCO, in effect), and Kanril Eleya was basically finished.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
However, after suffering their own share of losses? Since 2410, they've really been watered down in that department. It's kind of like being in the military and wanting to be like your father/grandfather and you're fighting World War II. You want to recapture the glorious stories your father or grandfather told you about.
Only you find out you aren't in World War II, you're in Vietnam.
By the end of the Federation-Klingon War, my characters were burnt out on this constant war, and were by no means as enthusiastic about it as they were coming in (when I first started playing STO). I suppose in a way it is a reflection of me as a player, but really I wanted to emulate some of the characterizations in other mediums that have the main character realize that war isn't glorious, it's a horrible thing that nobody should wish for.
My Romulan hasn't really evolved so much as trying to gain his own power by manipulating and setting his friends against one another. It isn't so much a characterization evolution so much as it is an arms race, which may in itself lead to some characterization changes as he continues down that path. Honestly, Legacy of Romulus is still too new when it comes to my Romulan character that the only real fair characterization evolution would take place four years after its release.
My female human was a blonde (since Jan 2011) and of a few seasons ago is now a brunette.
She went from noble intentions to borderline corrupt, but not all the way.
Do you think that contrasts too much with how you first envisioned your character? Would you say it was more of a natural evolution, or did you have to signifigantly retcon large portions of Nbreeki to get to this point? Would you say that the growth of the character was dynamic, or did you follow a fairly traditional formula? What inspirations did you draw from for your character that made it easier to transition to his current state? If you could turn the clock backwards, do you think you would have done things differently from the start, or would you say that you're pretty satisfied? Do you think maybe you were too ambitious with your character concept and his evolution of character had to be toned down a bit to compensate? Did you see others trying to characterize the same type of concept, and decide to make alterations to make your character seem more unique? Would you consider that part of the evolution of your character, if that was the case?
I'm incredibly desperate to know the inner workings of the character of Nbreeki. I must know more behind the thought put into the character's evolution. Help me put an end to my sleepless nights pondering the mysteries of Nbreeki.
ponders on it for a moment...
- Additional details which eventually get revealed which I never considered (Such as Lieutenant Fisher being a Section 31 operative)
- They reach a plateau/stagnate and so get killed (Best examples being Commander Lambert and Marcus, but to a lesser extent, Amanda and Chanos)
Didn't think to post this last bit earlier, but after I started writing her she at some point developed this conflicted self-torturing side she rarely lets anybody see (though Gaarra's been let in), terrified of the responsibility she's acquired in a really short length of time and constantly worried about letting her crew down.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
For example: In his back story, T'Cael was raised by a retired Imperial Fleet Centurion. From her, he gets his deep distrust of non Rihannsu. He tolerates the ones who help the Rihannsu. He does not persecute non Rihannsu. But he will leave them alone and prefers not to be around them whenever this is practical. The one or two which are part of his crew are there only by necessity.
From his KDF Liaison Officer, Owurri L'leohr, T'Cael has learned not all non Rihannsu are faithless opportunists. Her abilities as a warrior impressed him from the first. The fact she downplays her stunning beauty in favor of her intelligence and common sense continues to impress him daily. Whenever he wants a non Rihannsu viewpoint on any subject, she will be the first he asks for such an opinion. Nevertheless it took her a very long time to get to here and this respect hangs by the merest of threads.
T'Cael dislikes hypocrisy. He sees Starfleet as addicted to it. Therefore, he chose to align with the KDF. Better those who are open and honest about acquiring power through force of arms than those who ensnare others with honeyed words.
T'Cael walks his own path. Always. He may very well wind up exactly where all others already are. But he arrived there through his own thoughts and observations. Not because he took someone else's word that this was where he should be.
He is a stalwart and unshakeable follower of D'Tan. For now. Reunification is not something he views as a good thing. The collapse of the Star Empire lifted the Tal Shiar's yoke from the neck of the Rihannsu. Since his foster parent was Imperial Fleet and despised the Tal Shiar and was able to articulate intelligent and sound reasons for doing so, T'Cael does as well. He views Reunification as replacing one yoke with another of a different color or design, regardless of its good intentions.
T'Cael views any and all threats to Mol'Rihan as cancers. To be removed as efficiently and ruthlessly as possible. He will act before thinking sometimes. This has led him into some situations he should not have escaped. Except for the timely interventions of the Elements upon occasion, he would be dead many times over. He looks for the wheels within the wheels but only when it is logical they should be there. Which means there is a time or two when he has been badly surprised.
But as I wrote stories in the LC's, I discovered Stunshock barely had any personality, whereas his boffs were much easier and fleshed out. So I eventually got rid of Stunshock and promoted Talaina, his andorian first officer, to Captain status, eventually rolling her as a toon as well. And amazingly, she's levelled up fairly quickly in game, and she hasn't even set foot in the delta quadrant yet. I've kept Stunshock in game as he's got some sweet one of a kind pieces, but it's all the boffs that graduated to fully realised characters.
My Romulan and Klingon haven't really advanced much from how they were originally made. A disgraced pirate captain raiding where he can, and a loyalist to the Romulan Empire, who also sees the Republic as a Romulan colony world and is willing to work with them, but opposes their lofty thinking that they speak for all Romulans.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
An interesting question however would be how our boffs have evolved and or get along with each other. My Gorn's boffs consist of two Klingons, three Gorn, one Jem'Hadar and one Breen. I could certainly see some tension going on under the circumstances.
As time passed, as the game itself evolved, and as I started to get a better impression of who Sills was, he became more of a career military man. I also aged his appearance as he gained rank, figuring it was taking years - I'll try to get a good shot of his current appearance when I can (this computer doesn't like to take good pictures), but now he approximates my actual appearance minus the glasses and about sixty or seventy pounds.
For the others, most of the actual evolution has taken place in my stories, and can be observed there.
yup They sure have
yes, a good one. Now you can go back to the General Discussion section, with your attitude... :rolleyes:
Nah i like it here its sooo niiice its like a jacuzzi once you get in nude you just dont wanna get out ......painted a mental image didnt i lololol
I have heard those jacuzzi stories, is that true that you need to watch out where you sit down?
yes if you sit next to an intake you might get your naked buttcheek stucck on it though ive heard other stories about dude sticking their wing wang in it....yes thats actually a trus stoy some moron where i live stuck his man pipe into the intake of a jacuzzi lol
thihihihihihi, you americans. you involve yourself into everything, it seems.
idk about that but when you hear a guy screaming and everyone in your apartment complex comes out to find him there with his man meat stuck in the intake what else can you do but facepalm at his stupidity lol
so many red faces and facepalsm that night if i had been thinking id have gotten a pic and posted it on the web lol