Subject: Re: Hm...
Author:
Posted on: 2013-01-08 01:09:00 UTC
And I have spent much of this conversation editing it. The content relevant to his cutie mark (or lack thereof) now makes up half of the personality portion of the profile.
Dang. That sample... I really liked the whiplash between super-serious-dark world, and the PPC.
Is that an original world?
Thanks, but no, it's the Tekkaman Blade universe, specifically taking place during the Black September of Prague event that serves as a significant part of the backstory of several major characters, including the main villain, of Tekkaman Blade II. This is approximately six years after the first series, and four before the second.
I really liked the sample, what with describing the 'verse's story like that, and getting that tone down.
You deserve permission.
*pours out a cage of conga rats in the thread*
That was a very impressive sample, Duo! I don't know the canon, so I'll have to give you the "unless-someone-who-knows-it-contradicts-this" clause. But just reading it at a surface level, your syntax is good, your hold on the English language is very good - your style flows well. The only thing that threw me off was the present tense - it was a little distracting form the narrative, at times. But otherwise, it was quite good. I like your agents as well - it'll be interesting to see Johnny, who reacts strangely to alien-ish life forms, deal with not only the PPC, but an Equestrian partner (I assume they're going to be partners?).
Anyway, in case this is too ambiguous thus far, permission granted!
The RP I made Burning Heart for uses it, so I'm kind of used to writing in it.
It wasn't wrong, necessarily - just threw me off a bit.
But I like your agents and your Permission piece. Good luck, Duo!
How long since 2011 are we talking here?
(FYI, not a permission giver. Just asking because it's better to have full detail coverage, especially for permission.)
September 25th, 2011, I made my first post on the board.
Okay.
And, now that I think on it, it's 2013 now, huh?
Wow, I am so stuck in last year. Damn 2012 doomsday conspiracy theorists...
I don't know much about the continuum, so I can't really help there. Your agents seem good, though I'm kinda confused by Burning Heart. The fact that, as an adult, he's a blank flank seems weird - most adults do have them. You'd think that, by the time he leaves home, he'd have found something he's good at and realized it. Plus, the whole cutie mark thing is a big part of Equestrian society - an adult without one, even a young one, would be seen of as weird, and he'd likely have some self-confidence issues about it.
Something like that should be a focus of the profile, not stuck in at the end.
But you're right, that is fairly important. Definitely not a tagalong kind of thing - but it looks alright now, Duo. :D
I would think the most important thing would be condensing his entire personality and history into a few sentences, not devoting most of it to one aspect.
Well, yes, the entire thing shouldn't be all about his blank flank, but that's not what I was saying. Right now, his cutie mark or lack thereof is the last sentence of the profile, and that's all it is. Something like a cutie mark is an important part of a FiM character's identity, and while a standard one like Kindheart's (the heart-and-cross) is normal for her profession and doesn't need explanation, a blank flank IS weird by the standards of this world. So it would make his character weird in ways that need to be examined more. His flank shouldn't take up the whole thing, but it should take up more than one sentence at the very end.
A lot of agents could possiblt have self-confidence issues when first recruited. If I might point out, one of the DoI agents did feel the need to prove Atlantis' existence by flooding HQ, which could be a sign that he has some small insecurity yet undisclosed. Plus, it could add to the humor.
And just because blank flank adults are rare doesn't mean that there's no room for it to happen canonically, so he's really only slightly stretching the extent of a canonical device, right?
Having rushed bits of character descriptions myself once, I can safely chalk it up to "it sounded cool, I want to see how I can spin this" as the most plausible answer.
So long as he slows down and spells out his intentions for the missing cutie mark detail, I think he might have a good character in the works.
Well, I actually created the character for an RP a while back, with the idea of making a shonen hero-style pony OOCly influenced by things like Zettai Hero Project and History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, in other words having him start out as a blank slate in terms of skills and abilities. To go along with that thematically, I also made him a blank flank. I did have a character arc planned out for him involving getting his cutie mark, but I'm not sure how much of it I'll use in the PPC.
Hey, some of my better character spawned as one-time-intended things that eventually became full-on character studies all their own.
But, there is one inevitable question:
If, say, he looks this stuff up online, how does he type with his hooves? XD
Very, very carefully. Alternately, very large keys.
Or perhaps he head-bashes the keyboard until he eventually writes out his search correctly?
That seems pretty time consuming.
Not if you're Strong Bad.
Which he's not.
So moot point.