Do you ever have moments when writing a character that make you want to stand up and cheer?
This has happened to me a lot recently, namely with Fauna. It’s gotten to the point where Dawn and I dubbed it ‘the winter of badass moments’. Despite hurdles in December 2008 and January 2009, it’s as if all the changing and growing she’s done has started to become an entity in itself. Like one of Fauna’s floppy, ridiculous hats- you can’t ignore it. It won’t go away. Even Jordyn Dimbleby and Callum Knight are forced to admit, “what is this?! She’s doing things now?”
I can’t help but be proud that one of my brain children is growing up *wipes away tear*. So I ask all of you: have you had characters that have changed in drastic ways, positive or negative, since you began playing?
It’s almost like I can’t predict what she will do next. In the beginning of AO, it was fairly easy. Fauna was a shy, timid student who had extreme difficulty standing up for herself. Ollie and other friends had to constantly come to her rescue. She was seen as somewhat immature, unsophisticated, and weird but nice. She didn’t know how to handle conflicts between others at all, which characters picked up on, mistaking her for a younger student or commenting on how ‘fragile’ she looked.
There were elements, even then, that showed she was ready for a change. She started the art club, which started to give her more confidence. She stood by Ollie during her transformation. And she attempted to stand up to Vienna, which ended in disaster because she didn’t quite have the dueling skills to make an impact. But she tried, oh did she try.
If not for some major events in the game, I’m not sure where she’d be at now. Ollie’s expulsion caused her to join SAWS, which was a much more public and active way of supporting someone than the quieter, personal support she showed earlier. Finding Akiva after her kidnapping caused her to become close to Akiva, and also caused Raynor to help her with defense. Witnessing the werewolf attack on Greyfriar caused her to question her goals for a while and then cemented her involvement in SAWS. She’s surrounded by adults in her life who support her, care about her, and encourage her to be a stronger person (the list includes her own family, Greyfriar, Akiva, Tamis, Tulo, Covadonga). These are some pretty powerful allies, and I think one of the major reasons she’s been able to change so much is because she has these people to look up to.
So basically, there are moments in threads that have demonstrated these changes. The first that comes to mind is the Mixer thread, where later in it she tells two people from the Ministry to stop making insulting comments. She sticks around and handles it in a fairly mature way without resorting to insults herself (though she does flounce away at the end, haha). The other thread that comes to mind is the one where Callum puts up posters all over the school making fun of Sasha, and she tries to stop him. When she levitates him in the air and then drops him on his arse, she didn’t just do it for herself, but for the people he was bullying.
She also seems more willing to fight with friends and to show angry or negative emotions instead of always running away or shutting down. She got into an argument with Sasha back in November, and fought with Addie in the Great Hall in January when pressed to confront her.
Despite all the ways she has grown, there are still some roadblocks:
One of her biggest difficulties is letting go. She’s hard on herself when friendships fail and finds it nearly impossible to just ‘move on’. Most of the time she just wants to stop feeling bad or guilty, she wants people to not be mad at her, and she wants everything to be peachy without really understanding what she needs to do to get there or where she’s at fault, or when she should let go. This has been really interesting when looking at how her friendship with Waker disintegrated when she started dating Devlin, how she and Sasha keep butting heads, and why she had no clue how to handle the personal drama at the mixer between herself, Sophie, Chance, and Devlin. I think she still has a really long way to go to understand personal relationships.
One of the main things that is difficult for me to write, personally, is where she’s at now in her relationship with Devlin. Alisha and I have talked about this some, and decided that he is only a ‘good’ person when she is around. We realized that if they ever ended up together for the long-term, one of them would have to change so much that it wouldn’t be realistic (for example, Devlin would have to completely give up his criminal activities, or Fauna would have to be an enabler). I think eventually she will want something that is more balanced. Right now, however, she is hanging onto this picture she has of him in her head, of someone who is a nice person but who gets into trouble because of his friends or because of outside influences. I expect that will slowly start to change as she’s at Hogwarts and he is at home, and she finds out more information. What’ll happen later, well, I’ll leave that as a surprise!
I hope describing my thought process about her doesn’t sound incredibly arrogant of me. Though the AO community is very small, we don’t write in a vacuum, and I’m not just writing for myself, but collaboratively, with an idea that people read and care about my characters like I care about theirs. There are other characters people write that I root for, love, love to hate, and get attached to. In our little corner of the online world they matter, and I would like to think that we all impact each other.
How have your characters surprised you and grown over the course of the game? What kinds of obstacles do they still need to overcome or face?
Oooh. An unanswered post. How sad.
I love how Fauna is becoming so noticeably strong. Power to the females.
Out of all my charries, Beatrix, Trent, and Razzy are the only ones I noticed a change in. All for the best, of course… Sort of. There isn’t really a polite way to describe Trent anymore, haha.
This all could just be because I’m maturing as a person myself… But still…
For Beatrix, I’ve been playing her oddly quieter, more judgmental, and much less childish than before. Of course, Beatrix will always have that girlish, young trait to her. But she’s definitely growing more into a pureblooded woman. While she still has her insane quirks, she’s been rather quiet in my personal opinion. She still speaks her mind, but she knows when she shouldn’t be bursting out at people. I believe this all began happening after her small depression, where her whole world basically fell underneath her.
Beatrix basically started showing her true colors, I guess. Where she’s a maneater, getting boys wrapped around her little finger. And where she’s willing to backstab even her best of friends just to make herself feel better. Yet she still keeps that bubbly sweet persona.
Of course, she’s simply becoming a woman. But it somewhat seems out of my control. Like I said, Beatrix and I are the same age… Perhaps it’s just my growing that’s affecting her also.
Razzy’s changes are more intentional. In the end, the boy is going to have Anti-Social Disorder, which explains his lack of a conscience and emotions. Yet, the way I play Razzy is that he isn’t completely taken over by the disorder. It doesn’t define him. He still has that shred of personality.
My Hufflepuff doesn’t have friends, but has a large handful of people whom he uses and abuses. Yet, the more he grows, the more accepting and easy to bend he becomes. He’s finally calling someone his “friend”, finally admitting he wishes he had a better, more loving family, and finally connecting with certain family members. He’s becoming less violent, less hateful, and a better person.
Not to mention, I’m forcing him to care about Erin Harper. Which is definitely setting his life in a different pace. I still plan on him being a criminal… But a happy criminal, I guess.
And, lastly, Trent. The main difference in Trent is that he’s being more aware of himself and his surroundings. He’s understanding that he’ll never be happy. He’s more accepting now, much more proud of who he is, much more cautious with his tongue. Trent is no longer as overbearingly creepy towards girls, but he still has that edge about him.
Basically, Trent realized that life isn’t all about finding a nice girl and fornication. He’s settled his sights on Mystique, yet hates himself too much to do anything about it. Trent’s a lot more soft because of Mysti, enough so that he’s actually acknowledging certain people and not being an overall asshat.
Trent will always be my little obdurate jerk. But he finally has meaning now. His life is much more organized and he’s ready to graduate from Hogwarts. He’s becoming an adult, I guess. But that creepiness of his will never go away.
That’s about it for me. All my other charries are still the same. I think the only change that will occur, besides those three, is Aggie will start noticing boys and learning how to use them for her own, personal benefit. She’ll probably also get a soft spot at some point, but it’ll have to be beaten into her with kindness or something of the sort.
-Annie.
I liked reading through how your characters have changed
. Thanks for sharing!