Character Inspiration?

Now, I think most of us will agree our charecter concepts and personalities, looks don't just pop out of a magic well of creativity in our head. Each of our charecters; atleast mine have been inspired from books, movies, cartoons, charecters, music and even just IRL scenarios. So what about yours? Why does your charecter act like that? Why did that happen to them?


Vectoria: I wanted a bitchy charecter. I'm still fidgeting with her personality but the main inspiration for her is the idea of this typical crazy bitch villian, gobby, powerful and generally a pain in the ass of the hero/heroine. Kill Bill Vo. 1 and 2 were very helpful in crafting Vectoria, Elle the eyepatch woman who plays the nemesis of The bride holds certain traits of Vectoria, the bitchyness, vanity, and general tantrums. 

Vectoria's classy side is very typical disney, villainess. She can flutter her eyelashes, pout her lips and twist the opinion or next move of her foe or even allies with this creepy charm. I fealt the warlock class would be perfect for her mostly due to the fact every villian has a  jibbering minion they beat on, thankfully I got summon imp quite quickly :>.

Looks wise, I didn't want her to be exceptionally beautiful. Or enchanting, not anything like that. I wanted her to be " Hot " but in a zombie way, creepy and very disgusting but un-deniably attractive with her curves. I came across this image whilst writeing her flagRSP.

Actually, my idea on Jakins came right out of my head.

It's called 'imagination'. Truly an awesome device.

And your picture doesn't work because you stolez it!

Good artists loan, the best artists steal. Or so I've heard...

My concept for Thenkar has evolved from when I rolled him, but basically I try to play him as a manipulative (aspiring for magnificent) bastard.
I've always preferred brain over brawn, but I've read so many books with and without chessmasters that it would be impossible to tell where Thenk got his inspiration. Probably a mix or a general template that just took the mind of its own.
Also, not being that religious myself, I wanted him to be a religious nut. n.n

The relevant tropes are:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ManipulativeBastard
I found tropes only after making Thenk, but they're the general archetype he tries/wants to be.

Also hmm, for my 2nd most RPed character Kinahmi... I just wanted to RP a peon, it's so fun to click them!

(I watched Gogol go A few good men today...it was priceless)

I still go by what I said.

I've had zero inspirations for any of my characters. None of them. Not sure why you'd want to copy other characters so intensely.

JP wasn't based on any other character but I guess the cliché, shy, easily frightened librarian type doesn't require more inspiration

Inspiration = / stealing or copying.

As for Koz, I loosely inspired him on Titus Pullo from the Rome series. I loved that character!

Bennedict I dunno...

Guess inspired by all the lighties that I rp'ed with at the beginning as a death knight.

Probably loosely inspired by Karthan Rand's behavior.

But mostly, just on being your average friendly pallywand

Nassulra was the first character i created for WoW. And i basicly started out just wanting an undead shadowpriest with no idea of what personality he was supposed to have.. He basicly took control and fleshed himself out over the years i've been playing him.

There was no actual role model for Mandui. I created her to be the typical Draenei, wise, stoic and kind, in every single aspect of her personality. I suppose she does have many traits from my own personality, since that's rather inevitable after RPing a character for this long.

After 4 years of RP, Mandui has grown to be a lot more different than I initially perceived her to be, not because of me deciding to suddenly change her out of nowhere, but rather because of the RP itself and the consequences it has brought on her character development. The people around her, the situations she's been through and the knowledge acquired through them, have changed her greatly; perhaps to a point that most people are unaware of. Despite the numerous alts I have created thoughout the years, she remains my "main" and she always has priority in everything I do.

Mandui wrote:
After 4 years of RP, Mandui has grown to be a lot more different than I initially perceived her to be, not because of me deciding to suddenly change her out of nowhere, but rather because of the RP itself and the consequences it has brought on her character development. The people around her, the situations she's been through and the knowledge acquired through them, have changed her greatly. Perhaps to a point where most people are unaware of.

This is exactly what makes a great character! When it's taken a life of it's own and the characters actions are not based on your ooc goals but rather the character itself and experience he/she has.. And now i'm just repeating Mandui.. Because it's true! This is what truely in my eyes makes a great character!

Clay Farglade was based on nothing, a character I made, gave a huge background to go by. (I tend to make a background and go with that.)
He was made to help Imanuel with the Chapter since he asked me to do it and I in the end thought - heck, why not! He fleshed out himself and is now Trave Blackdawn.. wutwut, nothing I planned, but that's what had to be done. Fleshing himself out.

Vargosh, I admitt was loosely inspired from Divided Soul, the machinima. But him too have/was fleshed out from events and the background given him.

Yeah... Pretty much. xD

What started as a somewhat generic insane dwarf has by now developed in to something quite different.

Later though when I for some reason read Salvatore books (forgotten realms) I noticed how much Athrogate reminded me of Dharum, yet I had never seen/read about the character before, but it made we want a demonic boar mount *nod*

Inspired by Warhammer.

A childhood of disney, fairytale books and popculture.

(Goggy) - Exilius wrote:A childhood of disney, fairytale books and popculture.

And your characters are still quiet interesting. Amazing.

Disney was interesting back before Disney Channel came around.

Disney Channel ruined Disney.

Jayse, well all I knew was I wanted to RP something to do with SI:7. I gave him some traits, jumped in and just see what happened. After all this time he's evolved greatly from the person anyone that knew him all that time ago.

To say inspiration, i'd say there's a little bit 'action hero' in there. More leaning towords a little Martin Riggs/John McLaine but not just a simple flatboard character so I added alot of depth over his development and experiences with a little of myself in there too I guess. Sort of well instead of creating a character I thought would be interesting to play I thought about if I was in that setting, what would I want to be. If that makes sense. He has his flaws and his strongpoints and is the only character I RP. He's been on a long strange journey and it's continuing each progressing week. But as a few have stated before, he started a lump clay and it's been the ongoing RP that's moulded him into what he is today.

Right. I could post this long discussion on how "imagination" usually takes inspiration from things already created as well, but bah.

As for Morgeth, I think I took inspiration from some of the RP characters I've seen over the years that I've been active in that whole "scene". A friend of mine (Shabs/Cybele/Mivah) has a knack of creating interesting characters, and I took inspiration from what she has shown to be capable of producing in the past. Morg started out way different than she is to this day, and I fuel her with some of my own personality traits that get exaggerated, because it's fun to me.

Gnash I created as a clean slate. I had just one thing in mind -- Gnash would be the anti-hero, since I enjoy role-playing such a character from previous attempts. I started role-playing with him and it came all naturally, really. In retrospect I've taken a lot of inspiration from spaghetti westerns, Dirty Harry, and the whole bum culture that Tom Waits is often associated with. So yeah -- this guy is pretty much a loud mouth run-down maverick who drinks and swears a lot and uses a lot of weird expressions as "this stinks like a pig's ass in the summer time" and whatever I can think of.

Morgeth wrote:Right. I could post this long discussion on how "imagination" usually takes inspiration from things already created as well, but bah.

As for Morgeth, I think I took inspiration from some of the RP characters I've seen over the years that I've been active in that whole "scene". A friend of mine (Shabs/Cybele/Mivah) has a knack of creating interesting characters, and I took inspiration from what she has shown to be capable of producing in the past. Morg started out way different than she is to this day, and I fuel her with some of my own personality traits that get exaggerated, because it's fun to me.

This of course.

I was inspired to make Jomir by the DRS members with the mountaineer gear. I thought it looked great and I didnt RP till I had it. For the personality I just read up all the Dwarf lore I could find and then observed the DRS for a bit. They have the element of silliness which I tried to combine with how Dwarves would act from lore.

All I started with was the understanding that I was from another planet. Like that helpful intro had told me. I've since Halya with my own anxiety, blown out of proportion, and... Well, I couldn't possibly imagine where any other potential inspiration for her has come from.