love is a battlefield
Feb. 26th, 2011 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
in_the_blueSo ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alchemistseraph and I were talking about Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and I realized that Vincent is still one of my all-time favorite characters I've RPed. And that made me stop and think: if I had to rank and rate them, would I be able to do it? I hate to make some of them feel bad (all in my brain, because honestly), but if I had to do it, could I?
The answer is no, but I can isolate them in groups of five in order of favoritism, I think. But just because someone's listed first in the group doesn't mean they're my favorite-favorite! I'll give it a try. (Shit, this is much harder than I expected!)
Tier One: Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop). Sam Anders (Battlestar Galactica). Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy VII). Alex Row (Last Exile). Vicious (Cowboy Bebop). (I know, I know!)
Okay, so... Spike, because he's been like my heart and soul for a long time, because he's easy like a favorite pair of blue jeans, because I can slip into his voice effortlessly, because I actually get compared to him on a lot of personality levels, which probably ought to scare me a lot more than it does. Because I have so much backstory for him, because he's one of the best fictional characters ever. I could write essays on why he's so great, but you've probably seen them all. Checklist: Loner. Sarcastic sense of humor. Duplicitous. Great at what he does. A secret romantic. Incredibly flawed. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention doomed. Therefore, he is perfect as a character because he's so imperfect and so very human. He made me learn about IMI weapons. He made me learn about the balance of Jeet Kune Do. He made me remember what it's like to smoke all day long. He made me remember just how haunting broken hearts can be. He made me realize how people will do anything for love.
Sam because he's a character who pushes every single one of my buttons, from childhood on. I didn't realize it for a long time, but he really does. He's supposed to be this great guy, this perfect guy, the guy who everyone trusts, the guy who everyone loves, the guy who can stop the sun from sinking in the sky, and he isn't. He's broody. He's a terrorist. He's smart and he's rational and he solves a lot of problems at the expense of his basic nature, and for someone who grew up being expected to solve a lot of problems at the expense of her own basic nature, that resonates with me in ways I never expected. That aside, he's another absolutely great and deep character: so imperfect, so very human, such an unabashed romantic, so full of need, so wanting to impress, so competent, so determined. So conflicted. So jealous. So uncertain. By and large, so optimistic: someone genuinely good at heart and so, so not in control of his own life or his own destiny.
Vincent. Vincent. On a lot of levels, Vincent is like a little kid who needs babysitting so he doesn't sit in the corner and cry the whole day away. He really is that emo. He's the single most depressed character I've ever played (and that's saying something) and also one of the most childlike and wondrous. He has this ability to see things from both a jaded and brand-new perspective. He's filled with self-loathing and doesn't let it show. He's addicted to the one woman he loved and still loves above all others. He's been an experiment, literally, murdered and reanimated. He hosts an alien, a planetary elemental if you will, and doesn't know how to control it (until near the end of his canon). He's as much in the dark about what happened to him as anybody and through it all, he holds on to this stubbornly feverish love for the woman who helped do this to him. He's blind to her faults. He's loyal to his friends. He helps when he can, but isn't always so openly motivated to do so. He started out in his prototype incarnation as a paranormal investigator, and parts of that are still written all over him as clearly as if they were tattoos. He's soft and kind and impressionable, but also cool and aloof and deadly. He can turn into a cloak. He can turn into a series of devastatingly strong monsters. He doesn't remember when it happens. He has video game physics. There's so much that's wrong with this picture, and it's such a wonderful challenge to make him into a whole character.
Oh Captain, my Captain. Alex Row is, on a lot of levels, very much like Vincent. They both lost the woman they love to a tragic past and neither of them can get over her. But Alex is also supremely confident, full of command. He knows what to do; he's an unparalleled strategist; he's got a head stuffed full of brains and brilliance. He's filled with remorse over the past and at the same time determined to reshape the future. He's also filled with revenge, and that's a strong motivator. Out of all my characters, Alex is perhaps the most beautifully precise and the most beautifully thoughtful. He doesn't do things without having a plan, and his plans are almost always impeccable. And yet he's not without the ability to let loose and show the strongest of strong emotions. He's tied to the past in an irreparable way, lives there, dreams there, dwells there, moving through the present like a strong and stable and insistent ghost. He's a comma around the events of his series where he should be its heart and soul. Playing him gives me a chance to fill in all the pieces that went missing when Gonzo redirected the series away from him to the kids. At the moment he's waiting patiently, as ever, but beneath the surface a sea of emotion is roiling.
Vicious. I know, it's a surprise that he's here instead of Gren. I didn't play Vicious for long, but I gave him every bit of evil that I had. On a conscious and intentional level, Vicious doesn't believe he's evil, just right. He believes he deserves to have everything he wants, and pushes all else aside to get that. He's the type of person that needs minions and support; he needs people to control just as he needs not to be controlled by anyone else. He's part of a structured environment. He rejects that structure, but also knows how to twist and use it to his own devices. He loves being respected and demands it from others. He'll use anyone any time, even those he loves. And he is capable of love, but it has to be on his terms. I've always believed that to RP any character, just like writing any character, we have to find common ground with that character. What common ground could I possibly have with Vicious? We're not very much alike. He's methodical and plans things out, he's ruthless, demanding, and masterful with a sword. I'm pretty much none of those things but we're both Scorpios, I think? He was one of my biggest challenges to play/write, and one of the most fun.
Tier Two: Gren Eckener (Cowboy Bebop). Zevran Arainai (Dragon Age: Origins). Sirius Black (Harry Potter). Sawyer (Lost). Willy Silver (War for the Oaks).
Gren because he's kind and sweet with a big big secret and a spine of steel. Zevran because he's a ridiculously unabashed flirt who sounds like Puss in Boots from Shrek. Sirius because he's also one of the best characters ever created, and about as imperfect as they come. Sawyer because he's a charming con-man and we don't know if he's good playing bad or bad playing good, and never really get that answer. Willy because he's basically one of Peter Pan's Lost Boys who never really ever gets the chance to grow up and learn but he tries so hard.
Tier Three: Claire Stanfield (Baccano!). Alistair Theirin (Dragon Age: Origins). Reno (Final Fantasy VII). Howl Pendragon (Howl's Moving Castle). Mugen (Samurai Champloo).
Claire because he doesn't know how to shut up, because he's an acrobat, because he does it all for his own reasons. Alistair because he's sweet and bumbling and full of self-deprecation, and all the while uniquely skilled and qualified and just won't admit it. Reno because he's an asshole and knows it and doesn't care. Howl because he's like a little kid: wide-eyed and full of love for life but not above whining to get what he wants. Mugen because he's rough-and-tumble and much more complex than he seems. Have I mentioned I have a thing for characters with flaws?
Tier Four: Charlie Weasley (Harry Potter). Bill Weasley (Harry Potter). Hero Brown (Y: The Last Man). Marquis de Carabas (Neverwhere).
Charlie because he's like a giant ray of sunshine, plus he trains dragons! Bill because he's just plain cool and really does love the girl and his family. Hero because she's kick-ass but still full of self-doubt. Marquis because he's a trickster, and a good one at that.
Tier Five: Sun Kwon (Lost). Desmond (Lost). Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII). Sao Feng (Pirates of the Caribbean).
These are the characters I never really clicked with, in one way or another. They're fantastic characters, they're just not really meant for me to play or at least not to play very often. If I didn't adore them I never would have attempted them, though.
Think you know of other characters I ought to try? Bring it on. And while we're at it, who are your favorite characters to play, and why?
alchemistseraph and I were talking about Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and I realized that Vincent is still one of my all-time favorite characters I've RPed. And that made me stop and think: if I had to rank and rate them, would I be able to do it? I hate to make some of them feel bad (all in my brain, because honestly), but if I had to do it, could I?The answer is no, but I can isolate them in groups of five in order of favoritism, I think. But just because someone's listed first in the group doesn't mean they're my favorite-favorite! I'll give it a try. (Shit, this is much harder than I expected!)
Tier One: Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop). Sam Anders (Battlestar Galactica). Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy VII). Alex Row (Last Exile). Vicious (Cowboy Bebop). (I know, I know!)
Okay, so... Spike, because he's been like my heart and soul for a long time, because he's easy like a favorite pair of blue jeans, because I can slip into his voice effortlessly, because I actually get compared to him on a lot of personality levels, which probably ought to scare me a lot more than it does. Because I have so much backstory for him, because he's one of the best fictional characters ever. I could write essays on why he's so great, but you've probably seen them all. Checklist: Loner. Sarcastic sense of humor. Duplicitous. Great at what he does. A secret romantic. Incredibly flawed. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention doomed. Therefore, he is perfect as a character because he's so imperfect and so very human. He made me learn about IMI weapons. He made me learn about the balance of Jeet Kune Do. He made me remember what it's like to smoke all day long. He made me remember just how haunting broken hearts can be. He made me realize how people will do anything for love.
Sam because he's a character who pushes every single one of my buttons, from childhood on. I didn't realize it for a long time, but he really does. He's supposed to be this great guy, this perfect guy, the guy who everyone trusts, the guy who everyone loves, the guy who can stop the sun from sinking in the sky, and he isn't. He's broody. He's a terrorist. He's smart and he's rational and he solves a lot of problems at the expense of his basic nature, and for someone who grew up being expected to solve a lot of problems at the expense of her own basic nature, that resonates with me in ways I never expected. That aside, he's another absolutely great and deep character: so imperfect, so very human, such an unabashed romantic, so full of need, so wanting to impress, so competent, so determined. So conflicted. So jealous. So uncertain. By and large, so optimistic: someone genuinely good at heart and so, so not in control of his own life or his own destiny.
Vincent. Vincent. On a lot of levels, Vincent is like a little kid who needs babysitting so he doesn't sit in the corner and cry the whole day away. He really is that emo. He's the single most depressed character I've ever played (and that's saying something) and also one of the most childlike and wondrous. He has this ability to see things from both a jaded and brand-new perspective. He's filled with self-loathing and doesn't let it show. He's addicted to the one woman he loved and still loves above all others. He's been an experiment, literally, murdered and reanimated. He hosts an alien, a planetary elemental if you will, and doesn't know how to control it (until near the end of his canon). He's as much in the dark about what happened to him as anybody and through it all, he holds on to this stubbornly feverish love for the woman who helped do this to him. He's blind to her faults. He's loyal to his friends. He helps when he can, but isn't always so openly motivated to do so. He started out in his prototype incarnation as a paranormal investigator, and parts of that are still written all over him as clearly as if they were tattoos. He's soft and kind and impressionable, but also cool and aloof and deadly. He can turn into a cloak. He can turn into a series of devastatingly strong monsters. He doesn't remember when it happens. He has video game physics. There's so much that's wrong with this picture, and it's such a wonderful challenge to make him into a whole character.
Oh Captain, my Captain. Alex Row is, on a lot of levels, very much like Vincent. They both lost the woman they love to a tragic past and neither of them can get over her. But Alex is also supremely confident, full of command. He knows what to do; he's an unparalleled strategist; he's got a head stuffed full of brains and brilliance. He's filled with remorse over the past and at the same time determined to reshape the future. He's also filled with revenge, and that's a strong motivator. Out of all my characters, Alex is perhaps the most beautifully precise and the most beautifully thoughtful. He doesn't do things without having a plan, and his plans are almost always impeccable. And yet he's not without the ability to let loose and show the strongest of strong emotions. He's tied to the past in an irreparable way, lives there, dreams there, dwells there, moving through the present like a strong and stable and insistent ghost. He's a comma around the events of his series where he should be its heart and soul. Playing him gives me a chance to fill in all the pieces that went missing when Gonzo redirected the series away from him to the kids. At the moment he's waiting patiently, as ever, but beneath the surface a sea of emotion is roiling.
Vicious. I know, it's a surprise that he's here instead of Gren. I didn't play Vicious for long, but I gave him every bit of evil that I had. On a conscious and intentional level, Vicious doesn't believe he's evil, just right. He believes he deserves to have everything he wants, and pushes all else aside to get that. He's the type of person that needs minions and support; he needs people to control just as he needs not to be controlled by anyone else. He's part of a structured environment. He rejects that structure, but also knows how to twist and use it to his own devices. He loves being respected and demands it from others. He'll use anyone any time, even those he loves. And he is capable of love, but it has to be on his terms. I've always believed that to RP any character, just like writing any character, we have to find common ground with that character. What common ground could I possibly have with Vicious? We're not very much alike. He's methodical and plans things out, he's ruthless, demanding, and masterful with a sword. I'm pretty much none of those things but we're both Scorpios, I think? He was one of my biggest challenges to play/write, and one of the most fun.
Tier Two: Gren Eckener (Cowboy Bebop). Zevran Arainai (Dragon Age: Origins). Sirius Black (Harry Potter). Sawyer (Lost). Willy Silver (War for the Oaks).
Gren because he's kind and sweet with a big big secret and a spine of steel. Zevran because he's a ridiculously unabashed flirt who sounds like Puss in Boots from Shrek. Sirius because he's also one of the best characters ever created, and about as imperfect as they come. Sawyer because he's a charming con-man and we don't know if he's good playing bad or bad playing good, and never really get that answer. Willy because he's basically one of Peter Pan's Lost Boys who never really ever gets the chance to grow up and learn but he tries so hard.
Tier Three: Claire Stanfield (Baccano!). Alistair Theirin (Dragon Age: Origins). Reno (Final Fantasy VII). Howl Pendragon (Howl's Moving Castle). Mugen (Samurai Champloo).
Claire because he doesn't know how to shut up, because he's an acrobat, because he does it all for his own reasons. Alistair because he's sweet and bumbling and full of self-deprecation, and all the while uniquely skilled and qualified and just won't admit it. Reno because he's an asshole and knows it and doesn't care. Howl because he's like a little kid: wide-eyed and full of love for life but not above whining to get what he wants. Mugen because he's rough-and-tumble and much more complex than he seems. Have I mentioned I have a thing for characters with flaws?
Tier Four: Charlie Weasley (Harry Potter). Bill Weasley (Harry Potter). Hero Brown (Y: The Last Man). Marquis de Carabas (Neverwhere).
Charlie because he's like a giant ray of sunshine, plus he trains dragons! Bill because he's just plain cool and really does love the girl and his family. Hero because she's kick-ass but still full of self-doubt. Marquis because he's a trickster, and a good one at that.
Tier Five: Sun Kwon (Lost). Desmond (Lost). Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII). Sao Feng (Pirates of the Caribbean).
These are the characters I never really clicked with, in one way or another. They're fantastic characters, they're just not really meant for me to play or at least not to play very often. If I didn't adore them I never would have attempted them, though.
Think you know of other characters I ought to try? Bring it on. And while we're at it, who are your favorite characters to play, and why?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 02:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:07 am (UTC)I'm actually almost always thinking about this stuff. Now to figure out a way to make money doing that.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 02:43 am (UTC)A really interesting read and thank you so much for sharing!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 03:22 am (UTC)I want to read what everyone has to say about it. I'm even sending Laharl to make sure you get it done!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 09:59 am (UTC)This is difficult to think about. Like you say, there's not a single character I've taken on that I haven't adored. If I absolutely had to break my most prominent characters down, it'd probably be something like this:
Starbuck:
Who'd have thought? I mean, I realize she's my stereotypical type: not only does she fit the "strong, independent, and emotionally damaged" bit, but she has the four-letter name (what the hell, right?) and also fits a lot of my minor fictional kinks, too: riddled with vice, has trouble falling in love, religious themes, love triangle (although in the past that's always seemed to be something I gravitated toward without being aware of it, and my opinions on how well done that is go back and forth depending on where I am in canon). She's one of the characters I worried most about in those initial months of playing her; I wasn't sure I could pull it off. That long slump I hit shortly after starting didn't help, either, but it's amazing how at home I tend to end up feeling in her skin. She's a meaner, braver, and more tragic version of me, but with all filters off. She's a channel for that aries rising I always felt so skeptical about. I never would've expected to click so well with her.
Kate and Beth:
I'm not a criminal with a tragic past, but I always end up thinking I have more in common with Kate than I ever cop to. I feel like I get her. I am rarely uncomfortable in her skin. As for Beth, she'd probably the character I've played that I'm most like; there was a reason I went with her over others when I first contemplated a character for Milliways. These two ladies are definitely characters I feel most at home with.
Faye and Julia:
You know how much I love these ladies. The only reason they're not on a higher tier is because I sometimes find Faye's particular brand of self-absorption difficult to achieve and sometimes find Julia's brand of melancholy solitude difficult to master. Those are traits that attract me to both of them, though. Traits that made me want to play them.
Tifa:
I love Tifa. She's a refreshing change from all my other characters. Sure, she's got the tragic event in her past, she's tough and competent, she has a four-letter name. But she's an unrepentant romantic and she's openly sweeter and more optimistic than most of my other characters. Not to mention the video game physics that apply to her abilities. I still hope to eventually have a chance to write those out.
Everyone else I've played comes after. Fran first.
Other than that, of the characters I've only played for meme purposes or in other extremely casual circumstances, I'm surprised to say I've probably felt most at home with Anne Boleyn of The Tudors.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 10:09 am (UTC)For the record, I absolutely adored that thread with Anne Boleyn. It was like a little miracle, a little flower that shot up out of the middle of nowhere. Then again, I often feel that way when threading with you, so I don't even know why I'm surprised. I love all of yours. All of them. I was thinking about Beth just the other day, and how fun that was. I'm so glad you picked her.
And if you ever want to write Tifa, you just let me know. I have someone pining for the opportunity (but you knew that).
[[Sometimes I feel like: LOOK WE ARE ACTING IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE FOR FREE ON THE INTERNET! But I wouldn't trade it!]]
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Date: 2011-02-27 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-27 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 04:19 am (UTC)Also, they are the only characters I've played. I think. :P
I LOVE YOU (AND SOMBRA, BUT NOT AS MUCH AS I LOVE YOU.)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 04:55 am (UTC)I'm glad you got the Sombra! ♥
no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 05:01 am (UTC)So true. *hangs head*
I need the outlet so badly, too. Maybe soon! ♥
(Hee. It seems like this comment is awfully rhyme-y.)
eta: because how do I keep screwing up manual coding like it's my job? and, re: Sombra, Thank you again for sending it to me!!! HUGS
no subject
Date: 2011-02-28 05:04 am (UTC)(It was my pleasure.)