Emily Martha Sorensen Forums

[Masterweaver]

Any characters you have found anywhere that just are worthy of mention. Try to keep it one per post, though...

Roon. The poor guy has, due to a powerful spell, been blessed with insane amounts of life force that would normally make him almost immortal. The downside is that said life force is used, subconsciously and instinctively, to balance Aether, the space between universes, and keep worlds from crashing into each other. Let's add to that all the mages in all the worlds that pull on said power to blast other mages, plus the fact some universes explode, and all the portals that are opened and shut... Yeah, he'll be lucky to hit sixty, and he's only, what, seventeen, eighteen?.

But wait, it gets better!

Though the constant shredding of his life force has caused unbelievable pain from his birth, he can, at the cost of painting his blood into runes, use the power coursing though his body for a variety of effects. So, naturally, he has knives, which he has enhanced for his own purposes. Said knives are as useful at stabbing those who annoy him as cutting himself, and nothing gets him upset any faster than portals, which mess with the flow of Aether like crazy.

And boy is the guy crazy. But what can you expect? Pain, accidentally nuking a city, becoming bipolar, having the love of your life being torn to shreds... The fact is, he could go out and blow up the earth chunk by chunk and we'd still have to feel sorry for the sop because he's led such an awful life... and it just won't end, not anytime soon. He's actually died a couple times, but he got better.

Roon was made by Roonstown. I certainly do not own him, and would run away REALLY FAST if I ever actually saw him. And anonymously send him muffins and flowers so he'd still be happy. The guy is scarily sympathetic for a ticking timebomb...

[UnicornEmily]

Eek! Sounds scary!

Let's see, a character who really sticks with me . . .

Toph, from Avatar, the Last Airbender springs to mind. I love all the main characters equally, but there's something about her that is just so unique. Sure, we've seen superpowered blind people before (Daredevil, anybody?), but Toph's fascinating in the way I just keep forgetting she's blind, as does everyone else -- until she pointedly reminds them.

Katara: "Guys! I know you wrote this! TOPH CAN'T WRITE."
Sokka: (smacks head) "I can't believe we forgot Toph can't write!"
Aang: "Let's write a letter from Katara to Toph instead!"
Sokka: "I thiiiiiiiink we're going to have a similar problem there, buddy."

Toph also bears the distinction of being the only New Main Character for the Second Season of a Cartoon to fit into the cast so perfectly that it's astounding to look back and see her not there from the beginning. (If you want to see how New Main Characters for the Second Season normally seem to work, watch Jem and the Holograms and Winx Club. They're both great series, but both of them start the second season with the jarring introduction of a new main character who seems completely plot-pointless. It's like there's no purpose to add such characters to the plot other than to make a new doll or action figure or something, it seems.)

Plus Toph went up an extra notch in my book (not that she needed it!) for her reaction to the "Ember Island Players," because it was so unexpected and yet so very in character. It cracked me up immensely.

Anyone else spring to mind for people?

[Sharm]

Luffy from One Piece cracks me up because he's just so.... Luffy. He's pretty darn stupid in a really endearing way, but he's really people smart. When he gets a completely blank look on his face, that's actually when he's at his most intelligent. He's very emotionally honest.

Magus from Chrono Trigger is really fun. He's just so arrogant that it comes out the other side and is just funny. And he flies instead of runs, how cool is that? Ren from Shaman King has a similar personality.

Marcus from Babylon 5. What can I say? He's awesome. Scruffy awesome. Staff fighter, one woman man, totally loyal and funny and . . . yeah. He's cool.

I really enjoy Diedre from Nowhere University, but that's because I know her Real Life Counterpart, and she's exactly the same. Himeno is fun too, but much more extreme than our Emily.

I'd better stop now, I could go on forever. ^_^

[UnicornEmily]

Ooooh, Marcus. How could I have forgotten about Marcus? Gorgeous, smart, charming, loyal, funny, awesome Marcus. He's one of the reasons season three of Babylon 5 is my favorite. (The other reason is the "War Without End" two-parter. LOVE IT!)

You know, I know this is an obscure series, and I know I'm probably the only person here who knows it, but Dewey from Nurse Angel Ririka. Just because he's Dewey. He's cute, of course (imagine, a long, white-haired bishounen being cute), but it's really his voice that makes me love the character. There's something about it that's just bursting with personality.

Oh! Chloe from Noir is just like that, too! She looks funky and cool, but it's the voice that really shocked me into loving her character. She looks like a tough chick, but her voice is . . . innocent. Childish. High and sweet and not at all what you'd expect from a narrow-eyed, knife-wielding, sociopathic assassin. I know someone who freaked a few people out by declaring that Chloe was his ideal girl.

[Vick330]

Zuko from Avatar the last air bender. He spent most of the show trying to figure out where he fitted in the world, and finaly made a hard but honorable choice.
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~ Beauty In Diversity ~ Wisdom In Tolerance ~

[Masterweaver]

CURSE my lack of anime! I'm forced to watch cheap youtube knockoffs!

Speaking of which...

For every character, there are a number of interpretations for any character. Some are pure, taken entirely from context. Some are a little different. Some are downright bizarre. And every once in a while, you get a version so completely out there that they are completely different characters.

[UnicornEmily]

How . . . strange. I can see why that would make a memorable character. Crazy, and yet interesting.

I agree with you about Zuko, Vick330. The only reason I didn't mention him is that he's accrued so many fans for being so interesting, it didn't seem as necessary as Toph-mentioning.

This might sound silly, but I totally loved Larsa in Final Fantasy XII. I thoroughly enjoyed the game -- well, other than the last few hunts, which were too hard for me, sniff -- but Larsa is what totally made it for me. He's the sort of character I love -- sweet, earnestly trying to do the right thing, physically attractive without character designers trying to go overboard to make that the main focus of them, and with an AWESOME voice. I LOVE his accent. I've heard his Japanese voice, and it's great, but I actually like the English one just a smidge better, because it's just got this unique quality that fits his character perfectly.

My other favorite Final Fantasy character is Rikku, from FFX and X-2. She's bouncy and enthusiastic and just plain fun. Also, even though I hate her outfit in X-2 (if they had to make it blatant fanservice, they could at least have not made it ugly!), I loooooove her X-2 hairstyle. It's beads and braids and sprays of hair everywhere, and it just looks like her perfectly!

[Masterweaver]

I would like to take moment to raise a flag to one of the most tragic victims of plot based games. Shinitama, we barely knew thee...

Shinitama was a Simulated Life Doll in Bungie's anime-influenced futuristic first person martial arts shooter Oni. As her name implies, she was an artificial being, designed to resemble a pink-haired ten-year-old girl. however, as the world-building terminals will gladly inform you, she was programmed using the main character's mind waves as a basis. This, of course, made her able to psychicly monitor her "sister" and even "talk" to her (don't question the logic).

Things get really bad when the villain realizes that an SLD is being used to monitor his opponent, and he successfully manages to kidnap the poor girl. Oh, then he takes her to this electric generator, straps her in, and begins to comment on how she happens to have an amazingly realistic reaction to pain. Of course, then he leaves Shinitama alone in a foreign complex, and she's too shocked to move... sorry, bad taste on my part.

Of course, the main character comes to rescue her "little sister," but Shinitama has already resigned herself to her fate. Nevertheless, she tries to give the main character one last gift... the gift of information, on a conspiracy that has been hinted t all this time. But then the main character's former boss, having decided that his agent is now a rogue (or rouge, never can get two straight), remotely activates a bomb in the SLD's body, and ticking down the time to her own demise, she watches as her sister reluctantly retreats...

But hey, what's this? She appears at a distance in a later level-- Oh no wait, that's just a dream, where she serves as a reminder of the innocence that the main character has lost, or a guide from the group that betrayed her, or the grim reaper, or whatever you think she serves as, and she has an echoing voice, and a very creepy laugh, laugh.... Good thing it was only a dream.

But then, it's revealed that, no wait, she didn't really die. When the main character goes up against her former boss, he whips out a defense system he designed specifically for this, with the one being that monitored her progress all throughout as the CPU-- a skeletal Shinitama, chained to a computer core. Who begs you to kill her, and says she's sorry, all while directing a ridiculously extensive and powerful armory at her sister. She does manage to wrench herself free, and shamble ominously toward the man who put her in the core... who then pulls out a gun and shoots her.

Of course, that being the penultimate level, and Bungie being bought out soon thereafter, the story doesn't ever touch on Shinitama again. But the fact is, the fandom simply found her so appealing, that they simply aren't willing to accept she's really dead. A speculated sequel even has, as a core suggestion, the new player character essentially being Shinitama rebuilt in a teenage body.... I think, I'm not too clear on the details.

And that is Shinitama, tragic side character in an obscure game who has suffered far more then her share. May we all remember her, and never look on pink-haired girls the same way again.

[UnicornEmily]

Aww, poor girl.

You seem to really like these angsty/bitter stories, Masterweaver. At least, that seems to be a recurring theme. Is it just stories like that that tend to contain characters you really remember?

If you want an obscure movie reference, Doctor Smith in the Lost in Space movie is an AWESOME villain. I'm not fond of the original TV series, and I'll be first to admit that the plot of the 90s movie verged on cheesy, but I really enjoyed all the characters in the movie, Doctor Smith more than anybody. Fascinating, competent, coolly sardonic villain. So much fun to watch him and Major West snark at each other.

Another movie example, more recently: Wilbur Robinson in Meet the Robinsons. Actually, I love all the characters in Meet the Robinsons, including the ones that are mind-bogglingly crazy. I love that bizarre family!

[Narf the Mouse]

Tasslehoff Burfoot

"Oops."
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...So then I thought to myself 'Sure, why not stuff a whole chocolate bar in your mouth?' So I did. And I didn't choke. But everybody looked at me funny.

Maybe if I actually cared about that I woulda had more friends in school. Got-ta be me...

[Masterweaver]

Actually, I think I like dramatic characters. Roon's the only angsty one, Shinitama's more depressed. And as for Raye, well:

[Narf the Mouse]

There's a dragon in a Dragonlance collection book I read who ended up following the Neutral god of the setting.

Interesting enough that I often wonder what happened to her.
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...So then I thought to myself 'Sure, why not stuff a whole chocolate bar in your mouth?' So I did. And I didn't choke. But everybody looked at me funny.

Maybe if I actually cared about that I woulda had more friends in school. Got-ta be me...

[UnicornEmily]

My husband once roleplayed a teeny little halfling sorceress who happened to be a pyromaniac. Any time anyone was looking for a solution to any problem, she would shyly, eagerly say, "We could light it on fire!"

(This would include people. For instance, "So-and-so is depressed" would immediately turn out the suggestion, "We could light him on fire!")

Her name was Ardence Ashgiggle, and she had an imaginary friend named Mr. Sunshine. Until it turned out Mr. Sunshine was a very real fire elemental . . .

Ardence was one straaaaaaaaaange girl.

[Sharm]

And very difficult to RP with. She wasn't exactly a team player either.

I enjoy Aku from Samurai Jack. He really is quite evil, but he does it in a very funny way without taking anything away from his ability to intimidate. Typical example of the way he acts: Evil minion fails and comes back to Aku seeking mercy.

Aku: Hmmmmmmmmmm. No. (smashes minion)

It's an interesting show in general. Very artsy.

[Narf the Mouse]

Aku enjoys being an 'Evil, shape-shifting sorcerer'. Including the 'Evil dialog'.
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...So then I thought to myself 'Sure, why not stuff a whole chocolate bar in your mouth?' So I did. And I didn't choke. But everybody looked at me funny.

Maybe if I actually cared about that I woulda had more friends in school. Got-ta be me...

[Masterweaver]

So here I am, wandering through the Seventh Sanctum, looking at all the old contest winners, when I come across this.

Woooooooooooow. And she doesn't even have a story. Well, she has a summary, but not a story.

[UnicornEmily]

That's so cool! Talk about your typical magical girl! I'd probably enjoy watching said series, if it existed, even if it were terribly cheesy.