Subject: Analysis/theory coming up!
Author:
Posted on: 2015-04-30 17:02:00 UTC

Creating a good agent can be hard, especially if it will be your first. There are examples all over the place of authors using one character or agent as a basis to create a new character from. Jay and Acacia are, of course, the best example to use of this - they were the first, and thus every agent after is going to have some aspects of them present, even if it's not readily apparent.

So why the sudden trend?

I think the answer is because making an agent from a canon never used before is even more difficult. There won't be an example to draw from, because the agent itself will act as the basis for others. In addition, how well the agent is written will influence whether or not people want to base something new off of the concept later. If it does well, you'll start seeing them all over as new authors are inspired. If it flops, people will try to forget that agent was a thing. I believe there are a few main criteria that a new concept must meet in order to be successful:
1. It must be explained well enough that someone who has never seen the source canon material will be able to understand what it is, what it does, and what may influence it.
2. It must be within the realm of possibility within the standards of the PPC. This can be quite broad, but an agent with too many weird things going on probably won't be received very well.
3. The agent must follow the rules established by their source canon; after all, they've spent their whole life within that canon. Why would they suddenly change their natures and way of life just because they fell through a plothole?

I actually have some examples of the process. When Iximaz was thinking of bringing in what eventually became Zeb, we were discussing what a Pokèmon agent might have to deal with. Some of the questions asked were things like "what species would be best?" or "how would typing affect personality or fears?" and "how would a Pokèmon react to being told to attack a human?". After all, Pokèmon live in a world of relative peace. In the games, you don't see many direct examples of a human being seriously hurt or killed by one, and it would likely have an adverse psychological effect on the creature. In terms of typing, something that is weak to, say, Psychic might distrust the Flowers due to their telepathic speak, or something like a Charizard would have a crippling fear of water due to the flame on their tail being tied to life force. In my opinion, she did an absolutely phenomenal job of introducing a Pokèmon agent and fulfilling these criteria, and the recent influx of 'mon agents can attest to that.

My theory is that these trends happen as a direct result of the difficulty required to make a new agent from an unused canon. Once the barrier is broken and an example is made, agents will pop up all over the place. All it takes is a good start to gain inspiration from.

Reply Return to messages