What makes a poor OC? Post your thoughts here!

Started by Renatan, 2014 Apr 27, 22:45:47

previous topic - next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Go Down

Dream Bolt

Quote from: ManeFlame on 2014 Apr 28, 23:23:45
Honestly, as far as mane 6 relatives, I can forgive it when it's Applejack. Seriously, her family is freaking enormous, she's probably got kin dotting the maps out there.

Applejack: Always related.


So true. :]

I think it's a bad OC when it's too obviously trying to be noticed. Flashiness, overpoweredness (that's a new word I just made. Put it in the dictionary.), canon-relations, non-canon things like antlers or dragon wings, and tragic backstories all just seem to say, "LOOK AT ME!!!"

I do excuse somewhat tragic backstories for characters when they are based on the creator's real life, but still, this is Equestria. Things do tend to be nicer there, so keep it mild. After all, many of us like MLP because it's a beacon of cute happiness in a world of dark angst. 0:)

Night Pony

Quote from: MrEmu on 2014 Apr 28, 18:42:59
The reason a lot of ponies don't like Alicorn OC's is not because they're 'OP' or 'Mary Sues', it's usually because all those alicorn OC's are making Alicorns look like a common day thing, Lauren Faust Didn't want Cadace to be an Alicorn because she said it'd make them look too common.


Well Lauren doesn't have anything to do with the show for 2 seasons now. What she intended or wanted is irrelevant now.

I want to thank all of the artist that have drawn my OCs.
Night Shine and Moon Violet

MrEmu

Quote from: Night Pony on 2014 Apr 29, 01:15:02
Quote from: MrEmu on 2014 Apr 28, 18:42:59
The reason a lot of ponies don't like Alicorn OC's is not because they're 'OP' or 'Mary Sues', it's usually because all those alicorn OC's are making Alicorns look like a common day thing, Lauren Faust Didn't want Cadace to be an Alicorn because she said it'd make them look too common.


Well Lauren doesn't have anything to do with the show for 2 seasons now. What she intended or wanted is irrelevant now.
she still created the world, and as far as we've seen there have been no changes, adding to it? yes, but no changes.

Night Pony

She may have but anything that isn't in the show can be changed , no matter what she wanted or intended. That includes more alicorns.

I want to thank all of the artist that have drawn my OCs.
Night Shine and Moon Violet

MrEmu

Quote from: Night Pony on 2014 Apr 29, 01:40:35
She may have but anything that isn't in the show can be changed , no matter what she wanted or intended. That includes more alicorns.
There has been no proof of more alicorns so I'm going to assume they're still going by Lauren's ideas, unless they changed it and told nopony.




A thing I reeaalllyyy dislike is people that make their OC's have rainbow in their mane, it just seems to lack imagination, like they just stole it from Rainbow Dash!

Also when they give their OC's a cutiemark when the race doesn't have them, Griffons, Donkeys, Dragons, Even horses(we saw the ones from saddle Arabia in the episode with parasprites I beleave) don't have cutiemarks!
I think Zebra's can have them, because Zekora has something similar...

Night Pony

So you're saying that we knew in advance that Twilight had a brother who was going to marry an alicorn princess and it wasn't just leaked?  And Lauren had intended it? o.O

I want to thank all of the artist that have drawn my OCs.
Night Shine and Moon Violet

MrEmu

Quote from: Night Pony on 2014 Apr 29, 02:03:24
So you're saying that we knew in advance that Twilight had a brother who was going to marry an alicorn princess and it wasn't just leaked?  And Lauren had intended it? o.O
She's only 1 more Alicorn, and Hasbro actually made a book series of an epic adventure of how she became an Alicorn.
Saying that there's 1 more Alicorn doesn't prove that they're a common race, and we're staying a bit off topic here so I'll stop here...

Chishio Kunrin

Quote from: Yellowpikmin476 on 2014 Apr 28, 20:40:15
Yeah, and with Rainstorm, for the most part I purposely used ideas and traits that I'd never seen in another OC. And I think that's the secret. Do something you've never seen before! Everybody's seen alicorns, and weird, stripey, fanged, insane OCs, and people keep making them. If there were only a few such characters, then it would be okay. And in my eyes, that's why a character like Rainstorm is good. I've never seen another pony OC similar to him.

Like my deaf earth pony OC?
She's a cutie. :3 I made her because I randomly felt like coming up with a deaf pony and decided I wanted an OC who works with glass.

"(Ticktock, time is running out) What are you doing now?
I don't know where you are, don't even know your name.
They think I'm crazy, my heartbeat goes up..."

Night Pony

Quote from: MrEmu on 2014 Apr 29, 02:37:59
Quote from: Night Pony on 2014 Apr 29, 02:03:24
So you're saying that we knew in advance that Twilight had a brother who was going to marry an alicorn princess and it wasn't just leaked?  And Lauren had intended it? o.O
She's only 1 more Alicorn, and Hasbro actually made a book series of an epic adventure of how she became an Alicorn.
Saying that there's 1 more Alicorn doesn't prove that they're a common race, and we're staying a bit off topic here so I'll stop here...


It does prove that Hasbro can change whatever they want and if they want to make an entire country with only alicorns, they can and will do so.

I want to thank all of the artist that have drawn my OCs.
Night Shine and Moon Violet

Mizuki

As much as I rag on really cruddy, unoriginal OC designs, I still think all OC's are perfectly valid.
They can be horribly unoriginal, entirely self-indulgent and total self-insert wish-fulfillment fantasies, but at the very least you're still doing something creative. So long as people are having fun with it, I honestly don't mind :] (Mary-sue's and all!)

Why when I was a youngin', I used to draw romantic pictures of myself and my favorite anime character as a couple :3
....granted, I wasn't even that young...I....I was still doing that stuff at like...age 17...
But I'm 25 now, so...so it was totally a long time ago!! YEAH!!

Also Batman is a total gary-stu, but nobody cares 'cause it's perfectly normal for men to have fantasies about being ultra-cool, dark & broody billionaire playboys :U


Not to be confused with Zukiuke

S_Realm

Quote from: Mizuki on 2014 Apr 29, 07:48:51
As much as I rag on really cruddy, unoriginal OC designs, I still think all OC's are perfectly valid.
They can be horribly unoriginal, entirely self-indulgent and total self-insert wish-fulfillment fantasies, but at the very least you're still doing something creative. So long as people are having fun with it, I honestly don't mind :] (Mary-sue's and all!)

Why when I was a youngin', I used to draw romantic pictures of myself and my favorite anime character as a couple :3
....granted, I wasn't even that young...I....I was still doing that stuff at like...age 17...
But I'm 25 now, so...so it was totally a long time ago!! YEAH!!

Also Batman is a total gary-stu, but nobody cares 'cause it's perfectly normal for men to have fantasies about being ultra-cool, dark & broody billionaire playboys :U
Yes, OC's minimum amout of creativeness. YESH it makes sencts!

Wait what? Battumannu?!?!??!? O:

ManeFlame

Quote from: Mizuki on 2014 Apr 29, 07:48:51
As much as I rag on really cruddy, unoriginal OC designs, I still think all OC's are perfectly valid.
They can be horribly unoriginal, entirely self-indulgent and total self-insert wish-fulfillment fantasies, but at the very least you're still doing something creative. So long as people are having fun with it, I honestly don't mind :] (Mary-sue's and all!)

Why when I was a youngin', I used to draw romantic pictures of myself and my favorite anime character as a couple :3
....granted, I wasn't even that young...I....I was still doing that stuff at like...age 17...
But I'm 25 now, so...so it was totally a long time ago!! YEAH!!

Also Batman is a total gary-stu, but nobody cares 'cause it's perfectly normal for men to have fantasies about being ultra-cool, dark & broody billionaire playboys :U


Both of DC's biggest heroes are super Mary-Sues. >_> That's why I tend to not like their stories.

You totally dated Tuxedo Mask, didn't you? It's ok. We won't tell.

Honestly, going back on subject, I can't really complain about OCs with names that seem "obvious." I mean, Rainbow Dash is fast and has a rainbow mane and tail. Pinkie Pie is pink and bakes pies or uses them as gags. Fluttershy is a fluttery natured, shy girl. Filthy Rich is... filthy rich, and on and on.Honestly, there's probably more "unoriginal names" in the show than in the fandom. Not that I don't enjoy either.  lol

Ramisha

I don't know, I know a bad oc when I see it. Sometimes the ocs aren't bad but I jsut hate them for some reason. Wait I'll find you something.
Spoiler: show





sorry if I offend anyone, I jsut don't like those ponies.

Night Pony

Quote from: Ramisha on 2014 Apr 29, 14:29:43
I don't know, I know a bad oc when I see it. Sometimes the ocs aren't bad but I jsut hate them for some reason. Wait I'll find you something.
Spoiler: show





sorry if I offend anyone, I jsut don't like those ponies.



I like these ponies.

I want to thank all of the artist that have drawn my OCs.
Night Shine and Moon Violet

Brick Stonewood

I would like to go on record saying that I believe all OC's are bad.

In terms of appearance, you can have a cool idea, but only if nobody else has done it. Heterochromia is a really cool trait the first time you see it, and then you realize how overdone it is. Any one trait is probably either overused already or trying too hard to make the character a unique snowflake. Or surprisingly often, both.

In terms of backstory, the only acceptable route is to create a character that is basically inconsequential to the universe. They can't interact with canon characters in any meaningful way, and they can't be anyone we should have already heard of.

So by that logic, an example of a good OC would be a donkey named Horatio who lives in Manehattan and lost mobility in his front left leg in an accident while he was working at a ball bearings factory. And in just about any other universe, that kind of character would be perfectly acceptable, but because we're all fans of a happy horse world where anything more than slightly depressing is out-of-place, that's not a particularly good OC either. To make him fit with the universe, we would have to give Horatio back the mobility in his leg. If we do that, he loses the one unique character trait we've given him, and he's just a donkey. Probably a sad donkey because he works in a ball bearings factory. (He could have collected on disability and used the extra time to learn how to sing, but the accident never happened because it's too dark, so he can't sing very well, and he still has to work.)

So, without giving him any supernatural abilities that a donkey wouldn't have, giving him any significance to anything that appears in canon, adding anything too dark or depressing to appear in the show, or making a really boring character, how would we get Horatio to the point where we can call him a "good OC?" Personally, I'd say the only thing to do would be to scrap his entire backstory and make him a brave and daring sea captain with many tales of his heroic exploits aboard his faithful ship, the H.M.S. Ballbearingsfactory. There's just no easy way to make a character without some kind of spectacular role seem interesting.

Now, of course, if we were going to use Horatio for a roleplay of some kind, we could start with an ostensibly bland backstory and add development as the story progressed, but in doing so, we're not creating a good OC so much as working with a banal one until it becomes one. Horatio can't be created as a good character all at once, because character development isn't something you can fit into a personality description. It has to happen within a universe, and it has to involve dynamics between multiple characters, or between a character and their environment. You can write good characters by yourself, of course, but you can't write good characters in a vacuum just by slapping together a few concepts that you might like, because that's not how it works in real life. People are shaped by their surroundings, and characters need to be the same way.

If you take any character from any piece of fiction out of that framework and try to envision them just by themselves, without the rest of the story, they're going to appear to be "too ______," for this reason. Pinkie Pie, by herself, is too manic and hyperactive. Romeo is too naive to exist. Francis Begbie is too homicidal to go through life without being put in jail forever. Atticus Finch is too perfect. Tyler Durden has so many things wrong with him, I don't even. The reason those are good characters has very little to do with the initial concepts that make them up, and at some point, just after those concepts were created, there was no more to them than any OC you might have come up with, and they were, therefore, bad characters. The only way to make a good character is to make a character and then put them somewhere. The best way to make a good character is to make two.

GoldenTerrabyte

Quote from: Chishio Kunrin on 2014 Apr 29, 06:58:48
Quote from: Yellowpikmin476 on 2014 Apr 28, 20:40:15
Yeah, and with Rainstorm, for the most part I purposely used ideas and traits that I'd never seen in another OC. And I think that's the secret. Do something you've never seen before! Everybody's seen alicorns, and weird, stripey, fanged, insane OCs, and people keep making them. If there were only a few such characters, then it would be okay. And in my eyes, that's why a character like Rainstorm is good. I've never seen another pony OC similar to him.

Like my deaf earth pony OC?
She's a cutie. :3 I made her because I randomly felt like coming up with a deaf pony and decided I wanted an OC who works with glass.
Exactly. Never seen a pony OC that was deaf, or one who works with glass, and this is both. See, this is exactly what I'm talking about, ideas that you use because nobody else has, that's what makes it interesting.
I'm back

ManeFlame

Quote from: Brick Stonewood on 2014 Apr 29, 17:21:18
[...]Wall O Text![...]

Well technically, two ponies have been in wheelchairs, with one having muscular dystrophy. At least, I believe that's what the Make A Wish OC had in Trade Ya. So it could actually be possible to have, in the confines of the show's rating, a character disabled from an accident.
Heck, half of Leap of Faith was. lol

Brick Stonewood

Oh, you know what? That might be completely valid, actually. I keep forgetting I stopped watching after the third season. Well, anyway, the main point I'm trying to get across is just that characters aren't capable of being any good when you're looking at a page describing the character rather than using them in a story or roleplay or something.

S_Realm

Quote from: Ramisha on 2014 Apr 29, 14:29:43
I don't know, I know a bad oc when I see it. Sometimes the ocs aren't bad but I jsut hate them for some reason. Wait I'll find you something.
Spoiler: show





sorry if I offend anyone, I jsut don't like those ponies.
Ooooh sooo prettty. Uh, I can see why some people would'nt like these (not quite in line with what you'd see in canon to say the least.) but majoorrrr points for creativity. Mmmmmmm spread the ingenuity everywhere! :D

Prince-Puri

My only real pet-peeve against OCs is if they have powers on top of powers. Just give them one or two and be done with it and try not to make said powers too extraordinary unless there's a good reason for it (there's a reason for cutie marks!).

I have an OC known as Imagine Star-
Spoiler: show


(Her design is not finished entirely. I have to change her cutie mark to a star with a streak behind it)

In RP, she's a blind pegasus pony who manages a bar known as Starry Night in Manehatten. She's not clumsy, but she definitely doesn't know where to go the moment she steps out of her bar. Her special talent is the ability to be a guiding light (all that happens is that she glows like some nightlight and uses this light to help others understand the issues in a situation *she's an appeaser, not a fighter*). This talent helps her diffuse tension in her bar. Other than that, she hates going outside and is a little behind on the times.

As my Pony Persona, she's my figure head who explains why I hate/love something or somewhere.

Does it sound too Mary-Suish?

Go Up