How do you play your characters: Part 2
Jun. 14th, 2006 12:12 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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hh_mirrorA while ago Stephen Maturin-mun wrote up a wonderful post wondering how close characters in Hogwarts_Hocus stick to canon, and how much fanon or personal interpretation bleeds into characterization. Many long essays were written by all.
Time passed, and now we have a lovely collection of new characters, plus older characters that have changed over the months. The question remains: how do YOU play your characters? How much do you take from canon?
Time passed, and now we have a lovely collection of new characters, plus older characters that have changed over the months. The question remains: how do YOU play your characters? How much do you take from canon?
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Date: 2006-06-14 08:19 am (UTC)While searching for pictures of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, I came across this (http://6omdagen.dk/newpic/film/) bizarre commercial, which invovles salad and what appear to be a lawnmower (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/Catremistrae/lawnmowerpastamachine1.jpg) pastamaker (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v239/Catremistrae/lawnmowerpastamachine2.jpg). I haven't worked it into Dieter's backstory yet, but it's just too strange to pass up.
Oliver and Lucas
Date: 2006-06-14 09:06 am (UTC)In h_h this translates into extreme enthusiasm for everything he does. When Oliver came to Hogwarts all of the Quidditch teams were full, so he started an intramural league. Sadly, due to a lack of time and coordination on my part, this never got off the ground. Oliver still recruits for a team that will probably never shape up. He would join the Gryffindor team, but would probably be bitter over the fact that he wasn't Captain or Keeper.
Oliver's enthusiasm has also been used for comedic effect. After eating a tainted chocolate (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/478379.html?thread=23260331#t23260331) Oliver became Potions obsessed, and eventually battled Professor Maturin in Snape's (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/482316.html) honor (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/484097.html). Oliver is friends with Harry, Ginny, and Nemo, who he treats like a little brother and took for a flying lesson (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/397461.html?thread=19096725#t19096725).
Lucas Wolenczak is a bit of a mystery to me. In canon he's a bona fide Marty Stu. He's a sixteen-year-old computer wiz on the most advanced submarine ever built. Lucas' intelligence often saves the day in the first season of SeaQuest. He has very little interaction with people in his own age group, though, so I portray him as being shy toward other teenagers, especially pretty girls. He eventually warms up a bit after getting to know someone. When he's in his element he tends to have more of a sarcastic bent. In one episode of SeaQuest, Seth Green makes a guest appearance as a close friend of Lucas. After talking to Oz during his application, Lucas thinks that Hogwarts is some kind of alternate dimension.
Roxy and Damien
Date: 2006-06-14 09:16 am (UTC)Grant (warning, tl;dr)
Date: 2006-06-14 11:42 am (UTC)The first problem with characterization is choosing a source. The book and the movie version of Grant are very different from each other. The book Grant is a kid-liking, easy-going guy who just wants to study dinosaurs. He’s the standard good guy, and doesn’t change over the course of the book. The movie version starts off snarky and mean. He threatens a kid with a dinosaur claw, and overall is pretty pessimistic. By the end of the movie he’s opened up a bit, and has realized that kids aren’t the hellspawn that he’s made them out to be, at least compared to hungry dinosaurs. I chose to base my characterization off of movie Grant, since he’s slightly less two-dimensional than the book version. I’m using the book as extra source material.
In the movie, Grant goes from a cynical kid-hater to a protective father-figure in about a day and a half. While this is mostly likely due to the patented Steven Spielberg character reform program, I think that Grant didn’t really undergo a complete change of personality as much as he started to show a different side of himself. My impression of Grant from the movie is that he prefers to keep his thoughts and emotions to himself, and only shares them with a few people. He also has a strong sense of responsibility for keeping other people safe. He may not like kids, but he’s sure as hell not going to let anything happen to them. At one point he gets defensive when Ian Malcolm asks about Ellie’s availability. I see him as very protective of things that he cares about, and pretty guarded in general.
So, on to h_h. I intentionally don’t mention much about Grant’s thoughts or feelings. It’s part of how I keep him closed-off . He has had limited interactions with a lot of characters, but never really formed any friendships. He comes off as rather bland.
When I joined the game, I knew right from the start that I wanted Grant to teach Care of Magical Creatures. I see him as someone who enjoys having a position of authority, and teaching about animals fits for both the character and my own educational background. The post was taken when I joined, so I applied for Professor of Arithmancy instead, and switched when the position opened up. In my mind, Grant was always meant to be a professor. He loves teaching COMC, and is very happy to have a lot of new animals to study.
Re: Grant (warning, tl;dr)
Date: 2006-06-14 11:43 am (UTC)Grant’s reaction to that has really been almost no reaction at all, at least in public. He has referred to the werewolves of Hogwarts without mentioning that he is one, and generally will only admit to it if asked point-blank. Dissociation seems to be the name of the game. Part of that was because I felt a bit odd having a non-canon werewolf, and I didn’t feel like having to explain the h_h backstory every time it came up.
The obligatory child role that was created by Tim and Lex has been filled by Nemo. Grant likes Nemo, and doesn’t feel put-off by his age because he’s a fish. He watches out for the little guy, and likes his youthful enthusiasm, even if he’d never admit to it.
A recent development has been his interactions with Laura Palmer. I didn’t think that Grant would ever get into a relationship in h_h, mostly because he never opened up to other characters. Laura seemed to be the exception right from the beginning. He was curious about death, and Laura was the first person to actually be dead while being Sorted. After her Sorting, Laura had been filled in about werewolves and the virtues of ping-pong. She talked to Grant at his office hours, and asked him about werewolves. He gave her a straight answer to try and prevent any misunderstanding, but brushed her off when she asked what he had wanted to know at her Sorting. When she commented that he had also been speaking to Death, he told her that he was asking because he had been thinking about his wife, who had passed away a long time ago.
After Laura kissed him, he decided not to break off contact with her because he was in sore need of someone to talk to. While Laura has romantic feelings for him, he is determined to keep his actions strictly platonic. Part of his reluctance to show any kind of feelings towards her is because she is physically young, even though he knows that’s because she died, and that she’s mentally much older. The other part is that he just naturally moves at the pace of a glacier. He puts a lot of care in choosing who to share his thoughts with.
So, in a nutshell: I try to keep him reserved and sarcastic, but when he’s around people he can trust, like Nemo or Laura, he’ll let his guard down.
Re: Grant (warning, tl;dr)
Date: 2006-06-14 12:22 pm (UTC)Re: Grant (warning, tl;dr)
Date: 2006-06-14 12:26 pm (UTC)