Ramblings on OC's..ish

[AdlM]

First off, I know there are litmus tests for them, but I see most of them a little on the elitist side..

Having said that, what general criteria are OC's judged by, for you regulars?

Second, self insertion, since I didn't find any topics on it.

I only skimmed..

What's the general opinion on it, as far as pure SI (read: little to no so-called "self editing") and semi SI (there's a fine line between SI and an OC that is a partial clone of yourself, but I'm too lazy to investigate it..)?

Edit:

This post has been nagging me ever since I posted it, and it seems to be born from an idea I've been rolling around for several months.

I realize that most, if not all OC's are based on their creator in one way or another, be it desired attributes or actual ones.

The idea in question is something along the lines of an OC that is based on myself (in mannerisms, actions, and a little amplifying of some less dominant personality traits only) showing up in the Teen Titans universe and nearly ripping the team apart, so to speak.

What say you guys on this?

Edited August 21, 2008 by AdlM

[TheDeceiverGod]

Honestly?

I'm not much of a fan, but mostly because to me, Teen Titans is a fairly closed universe, there aren't many legitimate ins for original characters, even well developed ones. Any OC to be put into that sort of situation would either come out of the blue or require some manner of long expansive set up that would detract from the cannon characters. Which as a better member than I once said, are the whole reason we read the fan fiction to begin with.

As for the self insertion part. I would generally say that if Character-X behaves 90% of the time how you would, he's you, even if he doesn't share various other traits with you, and, again my personal opinion, the main reason I don't like Self Insertion character is because they tend to have little to know purpose to their actions. People who write character as themselves, in my opinion, tend not to know why their character would do something, and thus they generally leave out the motivation or repercussions of the action, which tends to make for a poor story.

While OCs who share traits with their makers are more or less inevitable, it's probably damn near impossible to get a character who is both believable and so unlike you that they don't share even a passing similarity. For me, what really drives characters home, is their motivation, their past. Even if the story doesn't touch on it, when the author knows a character's past, you tend to just be able to sort of feel it in the way they write, the words they choose. Verses the author who just makes their character do this or that for the sake of the plot, or worse for the sake of them being 'in character' these sorts of things just tend to be a little too flavorless for my tastes.

Still your plot could be an interesting one, just would have to remember to make sure it's more about the Cannon Characters, than the original.

[Guest jj19]

I feel that OCs belong more in Settings that Fandoms.

Sticking a new character in tight crew is easy to mess up, but when do an all OC cast you make it harder for them all to be SIs (unless you have multiple personalities...).

So keep OCs out of the canon crew and their way, unless you are trying to make some side character who does not steal the show (So for teen titans, I would say a new villain (still be careful though) or some minor character who appears in once scene.

[Kurahieiritr]

I'm not very versed in Teen Titans. However, if you do an Original Character to make trouble, I would think you automatically are dealing in a villain of some sort since your plot involves starting problems among the cannons. Villains can pretend to be good, yet their motives come through in how you write their actions out while you develop their bad side through their pretended good actions.

Make those good actions reveal the layers by having the evil laugh under the breath or the vicious smile they try to hide show up. if you are inserting an O.C. into a closed universe: They can be the good Samaritan that hands over a meatloaf sandwich to a cannon as example in the closed universe insert. Start them off by having the cannon feel sorry for them and trying to help them is another decent insert. The second type is the perfect setting to get an O.C. that intends to cause trouble into a closed universe, and sets up defense mechanisms to be triggered at a later date.