Chrono Trigger Original Characters : Your Thoughts

[Sajainta]

A writing exorcise is what you do when you want to expel the bad writer out of a person. A most prudent and worthwhile activity!

Also called a (good) editor.

[Syna]

I completely agree regarding formatting -- I've seen places where fanfiction in non-indented post form has worked successfully, in a flash-fiction sort of way, mostly on livejournal communities; but ff.net is just exceptionally bad, and it doesn't help that there is a general reviewwhoring system there (I liek your fanfic plz review mine). That said, I've read some really beautiful work at ff.net, and a few of the longer stories I watched throughout the years actually developed quite a following from the time I discovered them to their end. So good work does find its audience there, I think. For that reason, if I were to write fanfic, I would likely give it a chance, if only to reach a bigger audience -- but really, they DO suck.

I guess the challenge with creating any kind of original character in a fandom setting is to make it relevant to the reader's experience of the original work. The reader wants to hear about the original world and characters. That's why they're reading. It's an inherently different premise from a reader's approach to an original story, where they come to the work more openly, have fewer assumptions about what they want to take away. But if an original character does fill that need for the fanfic reader to experience more of the world they're interested in learning more about, it can certainly work very well. The most successful original characters I know of have been foils for other characters or been vehicles for exploration of parts of the story that weren't told, not so much distinct individuals in their own right, at least at first. The individuality came later.

[Lennis]

Here's a suggestion for solving said problems of FF.net:

- Write the story/chapter/whatever first (not in the website, but in a Word document.
- Save the document as a PDF file.
- Upload your PDF to a free file-sharing site (plenty out there).
- Link your story to FF.net
- Enjoy!

Alternatively, can't we post a link to the Compendium and have FF.net readers download the PDF file from here?  If that's not a good idea, what file-sharing site would you recommend?

[GenesisOne]

Actually, that's not a bad idea, Lennis.

It would simply be a matter of having the link to your story (and not the story/chapter/whatever) posted on FF.net and having the readers follow that link to the Compendium.

In doing so, perhaps they would get a kick out of my "TRW:Chrono Trigger" series I've long since neglected. *sniff, sniff*

[Lennis]

Actually, that's not a bad idea, Lennis.

It would simply be a matter of having the link to your story (and not the story/chapter/whatever) posted on FF.net and having the readers follow that link to the Compendium.

In doing so, perhaps they would get a kick out of my "TRW:Chrono Trigger" series I've long since neglected. *sniff, sniff*

Yeah, I've missed the excellent dialogue from that project.  I know that creativity isn't always switched on and off like a light, but I'd like to see that reality spoof continued.

[GenesisOne]

Yeah, I've missed the excellent dialogue from that project.  I know that creativity isn't always switched on and off like a light, but I'd like to see that reality spoof continued.

Your wish has just been granted. Check it out in the Fan Fiction section sometime.

That is, if Chrono Helix isn't too busy attracting readers away from the series.

[ZeaLitY]

I'd say is a self-insert of ZeaLity.

Only towards the very end of development. He was totally planned and written by the Peach Mountain Shoguns as an original character. But at the end, the idea of King Zeal having finally gained lucidity and preparing to take over the Dream Devourer and use it for good...that was such an exciting idea, and so I had to come up with some good personal arguments for King Zeal to use.

Considering the C&D, maybe you could say now that King Zeal is a self-insert of the entire Chrono fandom. We're always waiting and hoping for that next Kingdom of Zeal, and trying to build it, though it's imperfect and gets swatted down.

As for the thread, hm; I usually treat original characters and settings as a function of how closely related they are to the original. I guess for me, the media's basis and the familiarity of the subject matter only stretches so far before you're better off doing original fiction. As long as you can find that balance, you can have great original characters in the framework of the actual series.

But this is why I can't for the life of me imagine doing a new Chrono game in the existing framework. That's up to Masato Kato. Crimson Echoes felt like taking all the low-hanging fruit and obvious routes, and just going for it and doing them all. When I try to imagine new scenarios and characters for a new Chrono game, I usually reach the point of thinking, "this would all be better off as its own property and universe."

[Lady Marle]

You know what I found though very true. King Zeal, though an original character, slid into the series seamlessly. I mean he didn't even seem OC, just another element not addressed in Chrono Trigger but foreseeable. So props to the team of creators who made him all he is.
 

[tushantin]

Well I'd say this is exactly why King Zeal is considered to be iconic; i.e., what "Crimson Echoes is all about". Seriously, how many times have you rooted for a villain in a story? XD The character is downright inspiring and innovative.

Speaking of which, we seriously need a "Crimson Echoes Quotes" page for favourite CE quotes.

[Sajainta]

Seriously, how many times have you rooted for a villain in a story?

About 90% of the time I root for the villains.  I've been doing that since I was a kid.  I was so mad that the witch in Sleeping Beauty didn't eat the prince and Aurora when she turned into a dragon, and I saw that movie for the first time when I was about five.  "Good is dumb."  XP

[Lady Marle]

Villains are just fun. You love to hate them, you love to understand them, you love to love 'em XD

[ZeaLitY]

Haha, I guess I root for villains a lot, too. Not all the time, because a lot villains are genuinely evil, but...

Seems to be the case all too often in fiction that villains are the clever dreamers who really, really want to achieve something with gusto and determination. And heroes are just reactionaries who wander across the stage and defeat them to maintain the status quo. Throw in a determined villain who wants to achieve a beautiful aim but is willing to cut ethical corners, and you've got something compelling!

  HAHA AT LAST WE HAVE NU SMILIES 

[Acacia Sgt]

Seems to be the case all too often in fiction that villains are the clever dreamers who really, really want to achieve something with gusto and determination. And heroes are just reactionaries who wander across the stage and defeat them to maintain the status quo. Throw in a determined villain who wants to achieve a beautiful aim but is willing to cut ethical corners, and you've got something compelling!

Oh yes. I've come to support villains of that kind as well. Sometimes make we wish there would've been some other way to solve things (and in one case, it did  ), but oh well...

[tushantin]

Okay change of plans. *goes with Saj, rewrites his novels*

Dude, ZeaLity, once I get my Act 1 (demo) done with Fleabane, it'd be awesome if you could help out with Cedric Guardia's development in Act 2 and 3! It's basically a continuity of CE with an original story, so yeah.

Hah, I dig ze Nu smileys! 


I guess, all we need is now "Two camels in a Tiny Car".

[Sajainta]

I've often found that villains, on the whole, seem to be a lot more intelligent than their protagonist counterparts.  I don't know how many of you have read the Shakespeare play Othello (which is my all-time favourite play of his).  The antagonist, Iago, is my favourite Shakespearean character by far.  He is conniving, manipulative, and an absolute bastard who will use any and every underhanded means to achieve his goals.  I think he is in the most compelling, complex character in any Shakespeare play I've read (I've heard Hamlet is incredibly complex and intriguing as well, but unfortunately I have yet to read Hamlet).  I find Iago fascinating, and I admire his drive and his ability to bend the rules of ethics to get what he wants.

As far as the vast majority of protagonists in novels / movies / games, a lot of them irritate me.  Many of them aren't as intelligent as the villain, and a lot of them view the world as purely black and white.  There is either good or evil.  Nothing else.  Either you are with them, or you are "the other".  There are no shades of grey.  The motivations of the villain--no matter what they may be--are always branded as evil.

Not to mention that most happy endings are completely schmaltzy and gag-worthy.  

But reality is so much more complex than that, and so many authors, film writers, playwrights, etc. cast that aside in order to create what they think is a compelling story of the classic "Good vs. Evil" tale.

I've decided that there is an alternate reality where Aslan's "deeper magic" or whatthefuckever doesn't work and the White Witch rules Narnia forever, and rids it of its stupid Biblical allegories.  Ugh.  I cannot STAND those books.  Racist, sexist drivel full of plot-holes that forces Jesus down your throat every other goddamn page.

/rant

I know a novel or a film is good if it can truly convince me that I should root for the protagonists.  I'm more liable to want the antagonists to triumph, so if I read a novel that makes me genuinely want the good guys to win, then I know it's a great book.