30 replies to this topic

[Dan-imeJ86]

Good morning, zam.

Some of you might have noticed that in my posts I often express annoyance towards stupidity, zam. But sometimes I can be pretty dumb myself, zam.

For example, this question I'm asking, zam. What's the point of fan characters? zam?

I feel like I'm missing something, zam. Even though I created fan characters myself, zam. Back when I was a younger zam. To this day I still don't know why, zam.
I've still got two characters I class as fan characters at the moment, zam. But I only use them as my art gallery mascots, zam. They don't have any storyline or past connected to them, like other FCs would have, zam. I also did deliberately make them have a strong resemblance to Sonic and Tails, zam.

I guess it is a good way to feel closer to the characters, zam. But I feel like some people may take it too seriously, zam. Like if an FC has been created to have a love interest with *insert name here* only to have a new official character be a love interest for *insert same name here* resulting in rage from the FCs creator, zam.

I'll admit that it does annoy me sometimes, when a fan character gets more attention than the official ones, zam. But I have seen some really cool ones, so I can understand why, zam.
Plus I suppose recolours are only created becouse the person lacks the artistic confidence to draw an original FC, zam.

Are there any other opinions on why we do this? zam?
Did I make a mistake creating this topic? zam?
Is saying "zam" at the end of every sentence funny or annoying? zam?

I guess I'll have to wait and see....zam.

[MarcelloF]

I see no problem with it. I made mine for sprite comics years ago and because everyone else had one. Now I just use it as an avatar or when I feel like making sprites. It can be a fun past time.

And "zam" is annoying.

Edited by MarcelloF, 31 August 2011 - 01:29 PM.

[midori]

If it's a good, original original character, I don't see why it should be bashed. But I never saw a good fan character.
'Zam' is annoying. If you have to end every sentence with the same word, use 'desu' instead. X3
It's also quite annoying desu. But I like it better than 'zam' desu. Desu. Desu. Desu. Desu.

Edited by midori, 31 August 2011 - 02:00 PM.

[VEDJ-F]

This is Zam. Why are you asking all your questions to an alien dog?




Fancharacters are often used as a way for a fan to try and insert themselves into the action if they want to satisfy their ego of being able to talk to and have relations with (...) the canon characters. I personally see that as limiting to the kind of character analysis you can do, but oh well.

[tsz11]

I create Fan Characters based off my friends and Family.

The 2 main ones I use are based off Me and My Best Friend. And They look similar to Tails with one tail and more yellow fur (me) and Sonic with messier and sharper spikes, And Blue and Purple fur/quills.(him).

[Diogenes]

People want to flex their creative muscles, but don't have the confidence or the ability to make something entirely new. There's a lot to gain from making fan characters; you've got an established world to build your stories off of, saving you the effort of worldbuilding, you've got a well-defined style to imitate (and Sonic in particular is very imitable), and you've got the instant popularity boost of associating your work with something people already like. It also lets people feel like they're a part of the series.

[Ice King]

I feel the need to mention that not all fan characters have to be of the blatant self-insert variety. For example, someone could write a fairly original-flavor Sonic fanfic and make up some colorfully-characterized Eggman robots for the heroes to fight (I'd suggest pirate Badniks, but Sonic Team already did that). Or create new human characters to expand on the plot a bit and give friendly advice (I'd suggest an absentminded old professor, but it seems the official games beat us to that too).In such cases, the fan character would be neither a recolor nor a self-insert, but merely a minor creative liberty to give the story something extra.

With that said, yes- I simply roll my eyes at fan-characters of the recolored self-insert variety, and I've no desire to read some wish-fulfillment fic about the next rainbow-winged porcupine being Sonic's new best friend. I'm not a fan of these original characters, I'm a fan of the series itself, and I really only enjoy fanwork if it's centered around canon characters (and is reasonably well-written of course).

So, my opinion is that fan characters are fine in a supplementary role to a story, but typically feel awkward and forced if given a starring role. Generally, Ithink they work better when they aren't animal characters too- Just because of how such characters usually use a preexisting character as a base, as well as their tendency to be played up as more prominent in the overall narrative.

EDIT: I suppose since everyone else is listing theirs, I'll list mine. Yes, I shamefully have partaken of the practice of fancharacter creation.

While Dr. Mechano is a principle character in my original stories now, he started as a Sonic fan-character- Specifically as a bitter B-grade supervillain who envied Dr. Eggman's status as the planet's most wanted, and tried repeatedly (in vain) to one-up him and get noticed as the greatest villain of all time. He was never a starring character, but frequently appeared as a comic relief antagonist in my stories starring Eggman. As I moved away from fanfiction and into making my own works, I took to liking the ineffectual sympathetic villain and retooled him a bit for original, non-Sonic stories.

I haven't actually made any Sonic-styled animal characters though. As cliched as they often are (There may be exceptions, but I'm going on the general rule here), I really don't want to either.

Edited by Dr. Mechano, 31 August 2011 - 05:28 PM.

[Crow the BOOLET]

The point of having fan characters is mostly to have them interact with the other characters within the series the fan loves the most.

I did had a couple of fan characters once but I retooled them into something else. If it weren't for Sonic however I wouldn't even have them so I'm quite thankful for that. I just hope I can actually do something with them in the future.

This is Zam. Why are you asking all your questions to an alien dog?

I believe he's parodying a character from Disgaea 2.

[Octarine]

So, my opinion is that fan characters are fine in a supplementary role to a story, but typically feel awkward and forced if given a starring role. Generally, Ithink they work better when they aren't animal characters too- Just because of how such characters usually use a preexisting character as a base, as well as their tendency to be played up as more prominent in the overall narrative.

This is basically my entire stance on the issue. There's really no reason why original characters shouldn't be used in fanfiction to fill out a story, especially when you're dealing with a franchise like this one where background details are so limited. When they're brought to the forefront, though, or when they're given ridiculous powers or a ridiculous backstory, my patience for them wears very thin indeed. It's the same deal in every fandom, really; the only difference with Sonic is the overabundance of embarrassing recolours, and those are easy enough to avoid.

I've never really had any fan characters, but it's been ages since I've written any kind of fanfiction and I've never been much into reading Sonic fanfic anyway. If I did, they'd probably all be a bunch of losers who exist just to prove that not every animal character needs to be a superhero. Honestly, we could probably use a few canon characters like that.

And that's definitely not how you do a stupid verbal tic, de ojaru.

[Vertekins]

My point of making my fan character was to serve two purposes; 1. A means of practicing Pixel Art posing and textures and 2. To invest some creativity and imagination in designing a physical manifestation of a Sonic game zone. My only fan character, Verte Sinople, served both of these purposes. I designed her to further my PA'ing ability as a means of practicing textures and Sonic anthro style and I revolved her design around Quartz Quadrant Past from Sonic CD as an exercise of creativity;



Compare to Quartz Quadrant Past;



I honestly think that many partake in the business of fan character creation as a means of being a 'part' of the Sonic franchise even though their creations aren't official. And/Or because they have serious wish fulfillment fantasies going by how so many Suethors love shoving their shitty creations into the affairs of official characters. That so pretentious though.

[King Sombrero]

Fan characters are just people expressing creativity on a character that they designed themselves with the personality of someone that means something to them. Nothing wrong with them at all.


Basic RECOLORS on the other hand, are the annoying unimaginative ones that need to burn. Basically they're just the same character they're based off of with a different color (I.E a red Sonic) with a very generic backstory or name. Here's an example of a plain recolor:

Name: Cinos the hedgehog
Race: hedgehog
Physical appearance: Just like Sonic except he's Orange
Backstory: came from the future to prevent the apocalypse.

BORING. It's also a divine mandate that all recolors can go Super/Hyper without the chaos emeralds. The biggest annoyance is that some of the recolor artists just love to shove them in your face with their badly written fanfict that star them as the main character, and how they think they are extremely creative and deserve to have them copyrighted. Chris Chan's Sonichu and that obnoxious Chase the Hedgehog guy are the first two people to come to mind.

Edited by Gartocer, 31 August 2011 - 05:08 PM.

[Nepenthe]

My first fan character was a natural product of e-mail wars I had with my best friend around nine years ago. It became logical to have avatars or characters of some sort participating in the fray, so that's what we eventually did. Then that evolved into a universe and our characters grew with it, other characters were made and joined, and eventually our cast spread to other roleplaying universes, a few of which with no real connection to Sonic, while the original universe is still continuing strong today, (and one I should really start documenting).

I don't really use them for fiction material, though; they're made and fashioned as roleplaying fodder and little else. They do primarily interact with two main Sonic characters in the aforementioned universe, but I don't necessarily consider that any sort of unbreakable rule so long as it's done well. Nine years into it, I would like to think me and my friend know what in the hell we're doing with the mix.

Edited by Nepenthe, 31 August 2011 - 05:19 PM.

[HUNTER297]

Fan characters are just people expressing creativity on a character that they designed themselves with the personality of someone that means something to them. Nothing wrong with them at all.


Basic RECOLORS on the other hand, are the annoying unimaginative ones that need to burn. Basically they're just the same character they're based off of with a different color (I.E a red Sonic) with a very generic backstory or name. Here's an example of a plain recolor:

Name: Cinos the hedgehog
Race: hedgehog
Physical appearance: Just like Sonic except he's Orange
Backstory: came from the future to prevent the apocalypse.

BORING. It's also a divine mandate that all recolors can go Super/Hyper without the chaos emeralds. The biggest annoyance is that some of the recolor artists just love to shove them in your face with their badly written fanfict that star them as the main character, and how they think they are extremely creative and deserve to have them copyrighted. Chris Chan's Sonichu and that obnoxious Chase the Hedgehog guy are the first two people to come to mind.

No the best is one created in Super Sectet EGGMANs underwater Volcano base IN SPACE!!! That can turn into Super Hyper, Thesoarus... Oh heck lets just call him...(you know Sonic shorts)

But yeah recolors are boring. Majority of them have overpowered powers and no weakneses. In series every char. Has his/her strong point but has weakness.
Examples:

-Sonic is quick but he is very vurnelable if he cant use his speed in some closed enviroment.

-Silver is very powerfull but he need concentration to use his powers.

While recolors are just "HE CAN DO ANYTHING".

About other FC I like creative ones. I cant really say anything more.

[Legendary Emerald]

People want to flex their creative muscles, but don't have the confidence or the ability to make something entirely new. There's a lot to gain from making fan characters; you've got an established world to build your stories off of, saving you the effort of worldbuilding, you've got a well-defined style to imitate (and Sonic in particular is very imitable), and you've got the instant popularity boost of associating your work with something people already like. It also lets people feel like they're a part of the series.

This pretty much perfectly sums it up. Creating fancharacters and writing fanfiction is a stepping stone to higher levels of creativity and writing. Everyone gets their start somewhere. I come from a fanfiction writing backround myself, actually. I've left it behind at this point, as most people should once they reach a certain age, but I don't look back at my fanfiction days with scorn or shame. It made me the writer I am today.

Edit: So, other people are posting their fancharacters? Thing is, though I created quite a few, barely any made it into anything I actually wrote. I always started with the drawing first, and tried to base their personality and such off of that.

*deleted*

You can probably tell almost everything about this character just from this crappy drawing. Dark past? Check. Sword wielder? Check. At least I took away his ability to shoot lightening by the time I was eleven, and he was actually more shy and socially awkward than any sort of badass. Hell, both stories I tried to write about him ended with his royally fucking up and nearly killing himself. Overpowered, he was not. Though still not too interesting.

*deleted*

Bolt's brother who never turned up in anything I actually wrote. Yes, his name is Emerald. This is the character my username is based off of. He went from a green and orange Shadow recover with pants, to a psychotic roboticized half-hedgehog, half-squirrel who didn't know he'd been turned into a robot. Despite myself, I still like that concept, but like everything, its probably been done before.

Other fancharacters of mine with hardly any backstory or characterization:
http://fc06.devianta...daryEmerald.jpg
http://fc09.devianta...daryEmerald.jpg
http://fc02.devianta...daryEmerald.jpg

Edited by Legendary Emerald, 06 August 2012 - 03:07 AM.

[tsz11]

Most of My fan characters were made before I was a fan of Sonic (Except they were humans). The reason I made them was because I dream of becoming a Famous Cartoonist (And I'm quite to young to be one now). So I made these characters as a Head start. When I got into Sonic, I just transfered these characters into Mobians. A Hedgehog with the power of Plasma, A Fox with Electrical powers, An Echidna with Lava Powers, A Tenrec with the power to control Darkness, A Hedgehog with the power of Light, A Mink with gravity powers, A Lion who can control sound, And a Cat with Solar/Star powers.

[Gatestormer]

I made mine (<- see left) when I was 13 (darker times)....I'm not really sure why I made Envy....I just did, I wanted a character of my own I guess. I used him in roleplaying a lot with old friends on DeviantART and drew him all the time, put him in pairings etc you know, the usual. He has/had a necklace around his neck with a gem that absorbed his negative emotions, when it's capacity was full he'd become taken over by all his repressed negative emotions (<- again see left), I guess that was his 'super form'. Take Sonic, give him massive ears, quills down to his ankles, make him taller, turn him red and give him a bunch of clothes and bam. I soon realised he wasn't exactly on top of the creativity scale by the time I was 15 but by then I was so bored of fan characters that I just enjoyed delving into the official Sonic characters way more.

My avatar must be.....4 years old? Something like that, Envy is now more or less just an online alias, it's a name rather than a character. I've kept the name because it's what I've always been known as online and the avatar I've kept on DA and here just because......I can't be assed to get something new, it works fine and people recognise. I'm not proud of the character anymore and haven't been for years, I never draw him anymore but I just don't have the interest or need to make a new fancharacter, I'd rather indulge my artistic Sonic fandom with the main characters and indulge my creativity with my own creations.

[Black Mamba]

bleh i dont understand the point of fanfic FCs fandicks, fandildos etc.




If you're going to be a writer, write your own material, dammit.




except for my fanfic, which is the greatest thing ever

sonic was running running for his life from the swatbots. suddnely robotnick came out in the hugest cyborg mecha ever like seruoisly bigger than anyrhing you have ever seen. they ran towards eather other and then robotnik was defeated. but then out of the darkness came a tumbling of fear and darkness, a huge mechabeast came out of the darknness. the radio cackered, "this is tails, you must fight the cyborhs" so sonic spindarshed the wall and blew it up. " "HE IS GOING TO KILL US SAID THE ROBT"
"I WILL SHOOT HIM" said the cyborg, and fired the rocket missile. but sonic was quick and he spindasresh the wall it and collapsed the ceilog. then the canon was about to charge up and fire at the earth. sonic raced towards it but then he was trapped by a wall. then shadow appeared and just looked at sonic and said, " you will not suceed, the infection is growining" "No its not true said sonic". then even more borots burst through the wall at that very moment. "NO I MUST KILL THE CYBORGS" Shouted sonic.
"No sonic,







you are the cyborgs"
And then Sonic was a robot.


to be continuted

http://forums.sega.com/showthread.php?361313-sonic-the-final-destiny-of-EVIL

[Legendary Emerald]

bleh i dont understand the point of fanfic FCs fandicks, fandildos etc.

Then you didn't read anything anyone in this topic said. Stop being ignorant.

[Black Mamba]

Then you didn't read anything anyone in this topic said. Stop being ignorant.

why would i read other people's posts



pssh that's so mainstream

[The Cheese]

In most cases it's for the sake of creating an alter-ego that others in the community can associate with, which when you think about it kinda ties into the popular internet culture of people remaining anonymous but making themselves best known under an alias - ultimately acting as an avatar that represents them on the creator's behalf. They're also a representation of an individual's affection towards the franchise in question (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all), and a testemant to the adaptability of Sonic stylings, tropes and aesthetics, at least as far as characters are concerned. Some might even say it's something of a rite of passage for the truly dedicated fans of a franchise and/or its community, and a means of fitting in with other fans that choose to do the same. Nothing wrong with that - virtually all fandoms of equally considerable size do it to some degree.

Only issue is that not everybody can do it particularly well, not always because of a complete lack of creativity (though I'd be lying if I said we didn't get a reputation for hedgehog clones for a reason) - many of these people are in fact fairly talented writers and character designers, but lack the artistic talent to draw it exactly how they see it in their mind, or vice versa. A lot of people really need to see that put into perspective to understand it, because a disturbing amount of people don't seem to realize that fans don't make recolours because they want to - they just lack the resources to make the character complete. This is a really common and serious problem in places like literature and roleplaying communities, and once you get reference art that consists largely of recolouring... well let's just say that it's a vicious fucking cycle that takes a lot of effort to break. All that said, you shouldn't always judge a book from its cover, because there is in fact a lot of recolour-esque characters that actually have very charming thought and characterization put into them, just as much as there are well drawn ones that are... well, plain shit when you look deeper into it.

One thing I just can't stand about fancharacters, though, is the way some people insist on never developing them outside the boundaries of the Sonic franchise into something that could really be considered a universe in of itself, effectively wasting talent and effort on something that only really exists to stroke their own ego. Now don't get me wrong here, if your character only exists as an avatar then that's not necessarily a bad thing because it need be nothing more than that. But there are people who make any combination of massive, involved backstories, detailed characterization, fancy looking character art, sometimes even a fucking theme song, as if they think have something to gain from it. But they never will - if not because the entire thing is tailoured to the creator's tastes alone, then because their insistence on sticking to the Sonic license, despite demonstrating clearly the ability to go above and beyond that, means they will never be able to personally benefit from it. These are people that could literally make a living as novel writers, professional artists or heaven forbid, actual game designers in their own right. But chose not to. In my eyes these people are no better than the recolours that many people, themselves included, so lament.

My advice to people who put that much effort into a fanchar? You shouldn't be satisfied with leeching off another franchise's popularity that blatantly. There's nothing wrong with being a spiritual Sonic story rather than in practice, because unless you miraculously get a job designing the next Sonic game (chances of that happening = ROFL), your character will only ever be Sonic in spirit alone. Keep some Sonic influences and inspirations if you feel like, but for fuck's sake don't limit yourselves to them - make your own damn universe and expand on that instead. As someone who chose to do so himself, I can say with great confidence that it is infinitely more satisfying and rewarding, with the added bonus that it may even come into a form someday that I can actually profit from. You won't regret doing the same. Or in other words, DO IT, FAGGOT.