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OddPenguin β Nuzlocke Comics Guide: Characterization part 1
Published: 2013-03-03 01:08:46 +0000 UTC; Views: 5496; Favourites: 82; Downloads: 45
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Folder with all the other tip and trick guides:volbeatfiro.deviantart.com/galβ¦
there, got the major 2 out of the way, the start and characterization, so I'll take a bit of break from these after this. Just felt I needed to get this out of the way, as people are going to need to know how to characterize to start off.
this is just how I do it along with my personal recommendations. hope it helps, or if not, just use it to develop your own approach to fleshing out a character
the 2nd part of characterization will be for in game characters, character you didn't make and need to take some basis from
for the cube, a thesarus is your best friend. keep them distinct, and remember not to rush building up these different qualities in your character, you don't want a rushed house, remember the 3 little pigs.
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Comments: 43
Hmm, bios are a no no.Β
I was actually going to use them during the planning for the script in order to keep cosistency in each character. Also, I was planning to flesh out other trainers and thier Pokemon as well as the legendaries.
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Again a really helpful tips I don't completely understand how to balance that character depth thingamajigger ,but i figure its one of those things you keep in mind as you work.
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glad you think so, and yeah, not a necessity but good to keep in mind no character should be purely good or purely evil, everyone has strengths and weaknesses
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- Bios are a No-no, Check
- Dark, Light and Medium, Check, there's no such thing as a truly bad or good character (Is it wrong my Protagonist has mostly Dark qualities and he's not even evil?)
- Won't start with character, you have to build it up, Check
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check check
not a requirement and not all characters need such thorough characterization, plus sometimes the characters change over time based on how you write them in the plot.Β
nope, not wrong at all, kind of sounds like an anti hero of sorts, that works out.
yeah, every character will likely start out feeling one dimensional, but they'll develop over time.
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I think My 3 dimensions would be:
Light: Nice, Happy go lucky, Helpful.
Medium: Refusing.
Dark: Jerkish, Threatening, Disastrous, Sadistic.
That's what I assume, but for one, I know the dark dimension is completely true...
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you never know for sure about yourself due to the logic of self diagnosing and believing what you think is true, but based on the parameters you brought up that sounds like a believable characterization cube
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No PokΓ©mon or people were skinned alive in order to wrap them around the characterization cubes, I swear. ouo
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dear goodness, that is a disturbing mental image, didn't even consider that, this is a metaphorical cube. but good that none of them were skinned alive
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Don't worry, that says more about me than about the cube, probably.
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NICE 
hummm thinking about Peanut's 3 dimentions....
LIGHT - Friendly, kindness
MIDDLE - Naive and a little dumb
DARK - Depressive
im guessing?
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funnily enough, I was originally going to ask you if it was cool to put Peanut into this as a 2nd example, and your guessing is pretty darn close to what I had in mind for peanut
light-Energetic
middle-naive
dark-depressive
but yeah, she's got that depth. another point I should have recommended up their is to start off with a persona of themselves, once you flesh yourself out into a character with depth, then you can branch off into different kinds of characters easier
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awww of course! if you ever wanna add my quotes or examples from my nuzlocke i dont mind 
an yes that sounds good too
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heh, wasn't sure about on this one since I didn't ask, but mk, good to know XD
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Oh hey, this was really interesting to read! I actualy found your "cube" metaphor to be very appropriate! It's not somethig I've ever thought of myself, but reading it has made me feel the need to make a Cross cube xDDDD So, thanks for that!
I also couldn't agree more with your thoughts on Bios! I'm glad to say that I didn't write any for Out.Law, nor even much of a "history"- I write down main events, but try to keep a lot of things flexible >W>
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oh ho, that seems to have come across well, it sounded weird in my head so I wasn't sure the cube thing would make sense. and oh ho, CROSS CUBE!!!! no problem.
oh thanks, I was going out on a limb on that point, didn't want to get a hoard of people saying NOO U STOOPID BIOS GOOD U JUST LAZY!!! flexibility I feel is better, allows you to characterize your guy better. we're not filing up police reports, we're making characters come to life
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I like the cube metaphor. I'll use that in the future when I'm making characters.
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oh sweet, glad that point seems to be coming across XD
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heh, I just finished a marathon of Yu-Gi-Oh episodes and I read all this in Seto Kaiba's English voice. (I hope you watched so I don't make a fool out of myself for a millionth time. XS) And, man, I gotta tell you. That sounded too epic.
This thing with the cube is brilliant! Wonderful way to "show" people what you meant! And I totally agree with you in everything. (Take this with a grain of salt since it's 4 a.m. here and my brain is half asleep and therefore in no state to analyze every word. But, hopefully, you get what I meant. 
Overall, in a very simple way you told people basics. I bet you destroyed some dreams.
I'm eager to see more of these things! There's nothing like a bunch of tips with Firo's charisma as a part of them.
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oh goodness, NOW THAT'S PERFECT! seto kaiba would be my favorite narrator for this XD
oh ho, thanks, a lot of it I keep in my head so glad I was able to convey this well. glad you agree on points too, and pshaw, I'll take the whole salt bag there since it's a nice compliment XD.
heh, can't do things like this without killing some things they had in mind for their characters.
more will come, just not for a bit, these were the two that needed to start is off, others will come in time. but oh HO, delighted to hear you think they have the me charisma :3
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Wouldn't he!?!?
I all succumbed under the authority of that voice. XD Almost felt like he's yelling at us not to do those stupidities (and we all know how Kaiba treats stupidities).
Firo's charisma to all!! 
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yes indeed, kaiba's voice would be best, and YAY!!
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Preach it brother. I admit i need to work on this myself. I would say a good tip is to well HAVE BIO'S just don't let us see them. Have written down who this character is. Not there backstory but there traits. This allows you to compare to with other characters. So you won't have a team filled with Brave characters who fight till the last man yadda yadda.
This actually really helped me think about how to add 3 dimensions to my characters!
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ALLELUYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! oh yeah, I need to work on this more too, I can get lazy with this at times. yeah, I got ya, bios do help, it's just doing them alone isn't how you characterize. they help you compare things, it's just not how you flesh out your character. and oh gosh, yes
oh ho, glad it helps ;3
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A nuzlocke can however quickly rack up a lot of characters so its sometimes necessary to have two dimensional and even one dimensional characters. Just as long as there not main characters.
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oh yes, when you've got a lot of things to build up, the process is slow or some buildings just don't get as much development, it's all about how much time you plan on using a character
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Course you could build up a house and then have it fall apart when the character dies much to soon.
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but you feel more attached to a house that dies off after you put so much work into it too
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True. Still sucks but true.
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o3o no split personalities? do bi-polar people, people with multiple personality disorder, or people with other mental problems count in that matter?
PARAGRAPH IS DAH BEST CHARACTER EVURRRRRRR
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ohhhhhhhhhhh, disorders are a WHOLE different matter I did not have room to address. personally I feel disorders and mental problems end up used more as a gimmick than for a legitimate good reason so I stray from them, BUT they can be done well.
for split personalities, you can do them, but treat them as 2 separate character with their own character cube, they don't work as different sides to the same cube.
OH MAYYYYYYYYYYY GERSH I LUV PARAGRAPH !!! LETS GIVE THIS GUY A CARROT!! HE LIKES CARROTS!!! I read it in his BIO !!
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o3o eh, makes sense. especially if something has 2 heads
YEAHHHH, CARROTS FOR TEH AWSHUM PARAGRAPH!!!!!
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After a while, when I am writing a character/plot notes he/she talks to me and other characters inside my head. Is this strange... am I just crazy...
I get most of the story for my comics this way...
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nope, that's the approach of developing characters by simulating a conversation with them, goes along the lines of developing a character through action, just their vocal action. just a style of coming up with character traits, nothing odd there
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Um...I know this is for people, but...
The split personality would work well for Pokemon like Doduo, Zweilous, or any more than one headed Pokemon, would it?
*wiggles*
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yes, split personality works well for those kinds of things, they'd just need their own separate personality cube, they don't count as part of the same personality. pokemon with separate heads that have different personalities usually go by different names. just treat it as characterizing 2 separate entities, then you can glue em together into 1 pokemon
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So basically 2 Pokemon in 1.
And this tutorial is really helpful :3
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pretty much, and I'm glad it is, this one is more bias based than the last one, but it kind of needed to be for characterizing, it's just one of those subjects people aren't going to all agree on in the end
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Ah I see. I just have seen so many Mary Sues. And you get that feeling that you'll never make one, but then you get scared that you will. This tutorial will help me, a lot.
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it's just that people don't want to give their characters flaws, which gives birth to mary sues and such, little angels that are perfect in everyway, it's 1 dimension, not 3, you need 3 for depth. but everybody's flawed, so what I recommend you do is make a flaw for your character, that's the first step in getting as far away as you can from mary sues. glad this will help
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