Board Thread:Fanon Discussion/@comment-4598697-20141120230042/@comment-26897541-20151017184932

Ah yes. OC cliches, the bane of every EAH OC creator/owner's existance. :D I'm pretty sure I'm guilty of some, but I'd like to think I'm not super bad about it? I try my very best to make characters original and different and well-rounded and stand out from the crowd, especially if they're from popular stories.

Ok, so I noticed that up above, there was mention that sons of princess/female characters are Rebels, and daughters of prince/male characters are Royals. I'll admit that I have done this with Arion, son of the Little Mermaid and a hard-core Rebel. But he's not a Rebel just because he doesn't want to follow a girl's destiny; were he to have a Happily Ever After, he'd be a vastly different character and most likely a hard-core Royal. Except he's not that character, because his destiny is, basically, to die. Just like no one in their right mind would want to be part of The Juniper Tree, no one wants the destiny of the Little Mermaid. I based Arion's character around his Destiny, not around the fact that he's male, which is something that people should do more of, at least among children of popular tales.

Wow that got deep and philosophical. ^^; I have half a mind to delete all that and start again, but I won't. The point is that people should create characters that are based around their destiny, not around their gender. (Unless their gender has a big part in their destiny, in which case that's fine.) Speaking of gender and gender-role personalities, I have noticed that girly-girl princesses are put down a lot and "strong" girls need to be physically strong or tom-boys. I agree with those who have said that there is no right or wrong way to be a girl, and any girl can be strong. Most of my girl characters are either pretty girly or straddling the line between girly and tom-boy, and I'd consider none of them to be either "weak" or "strong" in any traditional sense. They're just girls, with strengths and flaws like anyone else.

I also don't like the stereotype cliches that girls with meaner dispositions are automatically the villains, something that I'm trying to work out of my characters. (That is a trope that I'll admit to being subject to.) Karina and Tempis can be total witches, but they have insecurities and doubts like everyone else, and can be good friends to those on their good sides. Rose is a very nice girl, but she's blunt and rather oblivious to social norms; that can be off-putting to other fairyteens. Karina and Tempis would normally be seen as villains, while Rose is considered a hero; I'm trying to make it so that that isn't the case anymore, at least with them.

I also REALLY don't like that everyone and their mother is supposed to hate Duchess Swan. It seems that every OC that I come across hates her, with or without provocation. Now, the characters that have good reason to hate her (such as being bullied by her or something), I can understand why they dislike her as much as they do. But the people who hate her just because she's "mean" or "on the opposing side" without any concrete reason (or worse, when they've NEVER talked to her AT ALL) really tick me off. Yes, her personality is grating at best, and some of the schemes she's tried to pull are very mean, I personally don't hate her, and none save 1 of my characters do either. Arion is the only one who really doesn't like Duchess, and it's not so much that he hates her, just her tactics. Arion would actually be the one person who would understand her best, since neither of them are particularly into making friends and, more importantly, neither of them have a happy ending. He doesn't blame her for trying to give herself a better life than being stuck as a swan for life, he just doesn't approve of her way of going about that. As a matter of fact, after Way Too Wonderland Arion, as a way to engage more in social interaction, actually tries to befriend Duchess (as well as Myrtil and Tempis). Whether that works out or not is up for debate. At any rate, all the Duchess hate is a pretty big cliche for me.

As for other cliches.... I guess I'm not a fan of the "everyone is a white heterosexual, especially blondes!" cliche, half of which is perpetrated by Mattel itself (the hetero part). I tried to make my characters a wide spectrum of colors and sexualities, even including romantic sexualities (panromantic, demiromantic, biromantic, etc.). I also tried not to buy into known cliches for each sexuality, e.g. gays are effeminate, bi's "get around" a lot, etc. Karina's bi but plays herself off as ace/aro, Arion's only true effeminate quality is his high voice, Regi's an adventurer, Anteros is a straight gay (a trope in and of itself, but one that I haven't seen much of), and Tina's neither a girly girl nor a butch lesbian. I think what I did was make it so that their sexuality is not a truly defining part of their personality, but just one part in a complicated whole. I will admit that I played into the "all straights are evil" cliche with Myrtil and Tempis, but I'm trying to work on that and make it so that they aren't as unlikeable. I averted that with Rose, which kind of helps. (Andre's pan so he doesn't count as straight.) As for skin colors, I tried to match ethnic backgrounds to some of my latter characters, but not making them ethnic stereotypes. Rose and Andre are both from France, but Rose is dark-haired and tan-skinned while Andre is an unabashed red-head. Tina and Regi are Italian, but Tina's a blue-eyed blonde while Regi is tan with light brown hair and brown eyes. Venetia and Karina, I'll admit, play into their ethnic stereotypes, but if I were to create other characters from their ethnic backgrounds you can bet that I'll give them different coloring than you'd expect. Pixie is my most subverted-trope character; her story hails from England, her last name is French, and her coloring is very indicative of her being black.

Let's see, any other cliche's I'd like to address? I don't think so, at least as they pertain to my characters. Of course Disney-style cliches are always a no, and I have noticed all the Big Bad Wolf OC's. I think that's it though.