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Character Creation Help

Welcome to the Character Creation center. Here you can find tips and advice for creating well though out, interesting characters for just about any story, not limited to Zelda fancharacters.

One thing about a lot of Zelda OCs that come into the club is that other than living in Hyrule, you would never guess they were Zelda OCs. They're very realistic even in a fantasy setting and follow the laws and rules of the world they live in.

Sadly, there are still many who create characters that make no sense, get on everyone's nerves, and want to be the center of attention and the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Such characters are known as "Mary Sues". The variation of Gary Stu is used in the case of male OCs, but I believe Mary Sue suits all characters that fall into this category.

Wikipedia has a very accurate definition of a Mary Sue here: [link]

"A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers. Perhaps the single underlying feature of all characters described as "Mary Sues" is that they are too ostentatious for the audience's taste, or that the author seems to favor the character too highly. The author may seem to push how exceptional and wonderful the "Mary Sue" character is on his or her audience, sometimes leading the audience to dislike or even resent the character fairly quickly; such a character could be described as an "author's pet". ~ Wikipedia

Mary sues are typically recognized as characters:

-who are created to be the ideal character, often a self-inset, of a fandom to fulfill the creator's ultimate fantasies.

-Who has typical personality traits and quirks such as
--Females:
---Very cute and happy, with a short temper and shy nature
---Perfect, flawless, most beautiful among above all other female characters
---Very young, usually short, but look older or more "mature" than they really are
---Have no bad habits, no scars, no physical flaws or handicaps
---Lead cannon characters either fall in love with her or want to be her best friend

--Males:
---Mysterious and distant but are really soft-hearted
---More handsome, romantic, and powerful than just about any other male character
---IF they are scarred, all scars as covered and secret, to cover their supposed "flaws"
---The only habits they'd have is either drinking or smoking, and not in excess
---Lead cannon females fall in love with him and lead males either want to be his friend or are insanely jealous

--Both:
---Have powers that are physically impossible for their race or ethnicity (like a human being superman when they're not from Krypton)
---Are the most popular, highly favored, with major attention to everything the particular character does, usually played out in excruciating detail.
---WAY more often than not are way out of place in their setting (in this case, Zelda universe). It often equates to having a super dragon angel woman with the power to destroy the entire planet in one blow. Basically god-mod even in their own story.

These kind of character types are usually looked down upon. They're based on over-used cliche's and child-like fantasies. There is a lot more to this list on both sides, but it's all more of a common sense thing.

Now, that being said, having a few sue traits doesn't automatically mean it's a bad character. You can have a very sue character and yet balance it out when they are played in roleplay. It's a very rare case, and most people who try fail miserably, but it's not impossible. Even an irredeemable sue can play off well in roleplay if you do it right.

Creating a Believable Character

When creating a character, there are many things to keep in mind.

First of all, even in fantasy settings, look at REAL life and REAL people to create your characters. Elements like magic and sworldplay come secondary when it comes to the character themselves. They have to be like real people, in that no human is perfect, no human can do everything, no human gets along with everyone else, etc. Keep it in mind that unless it's a creature or villain (and sometimes even WITH villains) that you want your fellow creators/roleplayers and readers to connect with your character in one way or another, not find them utterly annoying to even read about. Even villains have to be likable to a certain extent for people to connect with the story, in the sense of "For someone so evil, he does it so WELL!" Think of how you feel about characters like Ganondorf. I think he's an awesome villain, because of how he comes off. He's still human, even if he is the King of Evil and can decimate half a country with the power he has.

Secondly, AVOID cliche's. Now, not everything is bad, seeing as there's no way to make two characters in the UNIVERSE that aren't at least so alike that they could almost be twins. Lots of characters look, act, sound, dress, and live like other characters. The point is that you want you character to be unique to you.

Lots of characters have dark secret pasts, it's a fact. But that's alright, because there are real people who have horrible pasts. BUT, that being said, not EVERYONE was raped as a little girl/boy. Not EVERYONE had both their parents killed by so-and-so, not EVERYONE had to make a life or death decision and lost their best friend in the process.

Think about the character, how they are in their present time. What in their past could have made them this way? If they're cheerful and happy without a second thought, chances are they had a very fun and cheerful childhood. Most likely had a loving family (let's throw a puppy in for good measure)

If they are dark and brooding, then they have good reason for it. Most likely something tragic happened in their past that made them this way. They wouldn't warm up to people quickly, in fact, they'd be rather distant and rude, and a select few who understand why they are how they are would get along, but most others would be put off by that sort of behavior (and their puppy was killed as a child).

Keep in mind what kind of character they are and build their background to fit who they are today.

Third, for fan characters, keep to the proper setting. No samurai in ancient Rome, jetpacks in ancient Japan, transformers  in medieval times, etc. Here in the Zeldaverse, that means keep to the Zelda setting. The dress code is typical fantasy.

The majority of Hyrule, a medieval to Victorian based fantasy style is use. Gerudo are based on what we know as the Middle East, Sheikah are based on a sort of fantasy style ninja, etc. etc. Keep in mind what you do NOT find in Zelda, such as modern-day clothing or Japanese Kimonos.

Also, do not cross over other fandoms into Zelda. Slight resemblances and references are okay, but throwing things like Dragon Ball Z, InuYasha, or Final Fantasy into Zelda just should not be done.

Keep in Mind

*submitted by *rueyeet*
1. No one will ever love your OC as much as you do, no matter how cool you think that OC is.

2. Conversely, everyone else probably loves their OCs as much as you do yours. When RP'ing, all characters should get their own chance to shine. Never let your OC hijack the story.

3. The response of other players to your OC is directly related to how you present your character during RP. If people aren't responding to your character the way you expected, examine how you are playing the character before getting accusatory towards others.

4. Even with the best of intentions and descriptive skills, sometimes your OC won't come across the way you intended. This is a natural result of people having different perspectives, and should never be taken personally.


And, as a personal peeve:

"Annoying, but in a cute way!" is NOT a valid personality for an OC. If your character is annoying, expect the other characters to be annoyed, not charmed; and to respond to your OC accordingly.

To sum up: No matter how impressive, how fabulous, how interesting, or how anything else your OC is, you can't expect anyone else to see them that way unless YOU do an adequate job of getting that across during RP.

All these things are just basic guidelines and suggestions and do not mean that you HAVE to use any of this at all.

On "Negative Attention"
*Submitted by ~foxlee*

The core of a Mary Sue is about getting attention. It doesn't matter what makes her special - unusual appearance, mixed parentage, social caste, prodigious abilities, horrible backstory angst, whatever - the point is that she is special, and the author demands that everybody acknowledge this.

What novice authors often miss (especially with the current popularity of "dark"/"emo" themes) is that this includes negative attention, too. Most people can identify clearly when a character is too powerful or too perfect, but that's just one way of grabbing the spotlight. Just as often, Mary Sues commandeer the plot in the opposite way. Maybe they're constantly being kidnapped and needing rescue. Maybe they get terribly injured in every fight, requiring careful nursing back to health. Maybe they have crippling self-esteem issues or phobias, and others are constantly having to convince them to carry on. Whatever the reason, a Sue who grabs the spotlight through poorly-handled flaws is as bad as one who does it through power.

Of course, there's a fine balance here. If a plot is stagnating, it's important that somebody gives it a shove to get it moving again. If nobody else is providing motivation, that's a great time to use your character to move things forward - just make sure you don't so it too much, or to the exclusion of others. And if the story is moving along nicely, don't get in the way by focusing on a big character issue that's likely to kill the plot's momentum.

Basically, everybody's character has their own issues, goals, problems, fears, and so forth. In an ordinary story, it's okay for everything to revolve around one character - but this isn't an ordinary story. You need to share the spotlight with everybody else, and - more importantly - if you want them to care when your character is the subject, be sure to give their characters the same attention in return.

And finally" "I'm just playing the character" is NEVER an excuse. You are working with others to build a story. If you have made a character who disrupts this story by naturem it's your reposnibility to see that she doesn't become a problem - not the other way about.