a popular addendum back in the old thread was “finished characters only” so I guess that can be a thing here toorank the characters you've written for SOTF/Mini in whatever way you deem fit, and if you're feeling up for it maybe even talk about why you ranked certain characters where you did (like what you liked/disliked about them when writing, or if you liked them at the time but don't anymore, or whatever).
Rank (Your Own) Characters
Rank (Your Own) Characters
from the swamps of Tapatalk:
Bad:
10-Riley Parker: Fragmented concept and similarly incoherent execution. Admittedly tainted by IRL issues I was having at the time but very much my worst work.
9-Nina Clarke: Decent start and good end but absolutely nothing of substance in between. Also suffered from way too many unnecessary threads.
8-Theo Fletcher: Sorry Paige but Theo was a disjointed wreck of every trope to avoid with a player in your first version.
So-so:
7-Henry Spencer: Good concept and had some decent stuff but I liked his pregame better and he lost out on a lot of his potential.
6-Lucy Williams: Should not have killed before Riley in hindsight. Had much more interesting stuff going on and I honestly enjoyed what I did with her more than Riley.
5-Gwen O'Connor: Generally solid execution and had really good people to work off (Group Naptime). Wish she'd gotten to live longer to do more with her story.
4-Clio Gabriella: Kind of got one note for a bit but it was a really fun note to play and also had a great death. I wish I hadn't tried to be cheeky with formatting though.
Good:
3-Alice Baker: Concept was admittedly pretty tepid but I liked writing her. I would have liked to keep going with her but Things Happened though I'm happy with what happened to her after that.
2-Nate Chauncey: Also kind of one note like Clio but also a fun note. I really loved getting into Nate's head and her voice was just very enjoyable. I dunno if her island story is at all worth story but her actual writing I think was very solid and she was just a blast to play.
1-Blair Moore: Not just because she lived the longest but because she made the best of that time. In my opinion Blair had the best and most cohesive arc over her lifetime of all my kids. Plus she was just generally fun to write and I got to work with lots of good people in good scenes. Plus I think I did what was an inherently risky concept very well.
10-Riley Parker: Fragmented concept and similarly incoherent execution. Admittedly tainted by IRL issues I was having at the time but very much my worst work.
9-Nina Clarke: Decent start and good end but absolutely nothing of substance in between. Also suffered from way too many unnecessary threads.
8-Theo Fletcher: Sorry Paige but Theo was a disjointed wreck of every trope to avoid with a player in your first version.
So-so:
7-Henry Spencer: Good concept and had some decent stuff but I liked his pregame better and he lost out on a lot of his potential.
6-Lucy Williams: Should not have killed before Riley in hindsight. Had much more interesting stuff going on and I honestly enjoyed what I did with her more than Riley.
5-Gwen O'Connor: Generally solid execution and had really good people to work off (Group Naptime). Wish she'd gotten to live longer to do more with her story.
4-Clio Gabriella: Kind of got one note for a bit but it was a really fun note to play and also had a great death. I wish I hadn't tried to be cheeky with formatting though.
Good:
3-Alice Baker: Concept was admittedly pretty tepid but I liked writing her. I would have liked to keep going with her but Things Happened though I'm happy with what happened to her after that.
2-Nate Chauncey: Also kind of one note like Clio but also a fun note. I really loved getting into Nate's head and her voice was just very enjoyable. I dunno if her island story is at all worth story but her actual writing I think was very solid and she was just a blast to play.
1-Blair Moore: Not just because she lived the longest but because she made the best of that time. In my opinion Blair had the best and most cohesive arc over her lifetime of all my kids. Plus she was just generally fun to write and I got to work with lots of good people in good scenes. Plus I think I did what was an inherently risky concept very well.
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MethodicalSlacker
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you dont own me >:)Brackie wrote:a popular addendum back in the old thread was “finished characters only” so I guess that can be a thing here too
Current characters are in italics because their placement is subject to change. I'm counting Cybil as a finished character because his After stuff isn't very integral to his arena story and arc currently and it probably might like wrap up some loose ends but he can be perfectly enjoyed with just his Arena material. Also, I'm not counting meanwhile characters right now. Just imagine Marie Bernstein in the direct center of both of these rankings if you really want to, because she's really the only POV character I've done in Meanwhile so far. I'm ranking these characters in two ways; how much I enjoyed/currently enjoy writing them and how good they actually are in my eyes. Personal enjoyment is just how much I enjoy constructing the prose of these characters, nothow much I've enjoyed threading with other people with these characters because that'd be stupid and frankly mean to rank. It means more to me personally how much I enjoy a character than how good I objectively think they are.
Personal Enjoyment:
1. Lili Williams/Violet Schmidt/Max Rudolph [Tie] — Lili was a blast to write the prose of because I loved sneaking in all sorts of references to the music she listened to. The scatterbrain decline in mental state thing that goes on with her was terrible but it was also really fun to construct over a long period of time. Violet and Max's styles of prose have pretty specific rules to them, and playing by those rules is a fun way to write a character and helps each one sound very unique to read. Max has the most stringent set of rules, which is why he's at the back of this tie. Sometimes those rules are hard to break in a fun way. Violet's rules are simpler, and maybe even just the opposite of Max, though the two are somewhat closely linked I guess. It's more fun to break Violet's rule. Can you guess what it is?
4. Cybil Price — One of the favorite sequences I've ever written, ever, is in this character's story. Specifically, the thread Feel The Earth Move. The blood pool part came out almost automatically. I wrote like a man possessed and when it came out I was surprised that such language had come from my own fingertips. The reason he's lower than the other three is because he's really REALLY dry, and keeping that up over a long time was hard.
5. Lucas Diaz — Lucas is pretty fun. He doesn't have a rule to his prose other than "what I would think/do if I was stupider and also more dumb" but that itself is pretty great. I love torturing this character with his own social inadequacy. He doesn't have any scenes that I'm particularly "proud" of yet, as a character, except for maybe Dogwander and the U.S.S. Dekcuc for entirely different reasons, but I think that'll change as time goes on and I'll write more enjoyable scenes with him.
6. Liberty "Bert" Wren — I haven't really figured out what I want to do with Liberty Wren yet. I originally intended for her to be a nice person, but I feel like that's been lost in translation somewhere so I'm probably going to play her as stressed out and a little mean. Her gravitation towards groups seems to me like it calls for her conflict to be that she keeps being separated from the groups she wants to be a part of but I don't know how well that works as a story in this kind of collaborative fiction writing medium.
7. Arthur Bernstein — I shouldn't have swapped him for Lili, in hindsight, but actually writing Arthur was strange to me because looking back on it I never really defined who he was in his own narrative. I fleshed him out posthumously in Colorless but that doesn't count to me. He latched on really hard to Colleen because he saw her in a similar light as he saw his sister. He's overprotective, sure. But there's nothing about the style of prose and the way he's written that way that really jumps out to me as special.
[Power Gap]
8. Kitty Gittschall SC2 — I hated writing this character. I needed to write this character. I was constantly afraid of not writing this character correctly, too overly cautious to do anything special with her that wasn't gimmicky and kind of stupid, and every time I had to post I dreaded it because it felt like everyone around me had a much, much better idea of what they were doing. It felt like I was stepping on everyone else's toes with two left feet every time I sat down to write this character. I know I'm being unfair because I bet other people enjoyed my take on her, but I didn't. I enjoyed writing with all of the people I wrote with during this period, but I hated myself for dragging their characters down by association. I will probably never adopt a character/write a character that isn't my own for Second Chances again.
Writing Quality:
1. Max Rudolph — Absolutely some of the best ideas I've ever had.
2. Violet Schmidt — Writing a character that I enjoy reading is really, really satisfying.
3. Lucas Diaz — Some top notch one liners.
4. Cybil Price — I read Feel The Earth Move the other day and almost threw up. Nice! That's what I was going for with that scene.
5. Liberty "Bert" Wren — Competently written, if directionless. Full of potential though. Excited to see what I can come up with.
6. Arthur Bernstein — He's a little detached, but I think it works for what he is, which was a last minute character concept thrown together so that I'd, yes, have a character to swap for Lili. He turned into something greater than the sum of his parts. If you want this guy for the hypothetical SC3, please let me know.
7. Kitty Gittschall SC2 — It's not all bad. The fight scene with Tina is good for a first real fight scene. Has a character arc. It's not very good and hinges on a gimmick but it's there.
8. Lili Williams — First kid. 'Nuff said. Good ideas, sloppy execution. I'm running her in SC3 if there is one.
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Man why was I trying to rank my Meanwhile characters the last time around lol how pretentious can I get? I won't be listing all my characters here, just characters who had significant personal impact on me, regardless of how long they lasted in my care or otherwise.
By Personal Enjoyment -
1. Irene Djezari (V6) - There is just something about her. I believe I tend to become more cynical and fall into more of a rut the more I'm exposed to something- I thrive on novelty a lot as an individual. So my first character ultimately was my best time- regardless of quality, Irene stands as an example of my purest prosaic tendencies, I love her quirks and how I chose to express them, much as the concept behind them was bland. She is near and dear to my heart and I was having a blast before I ultimately came to view SOTF through a different, more cynical lens wherein I enjoy reading other's stuff way more than writing and feeling inadequate perpetually.
2. Paris Ardennes (SC2) - I love him because it felt like the most technical display as I writer I've ever pulled off- I adopted a writing style not my own and still made it my own. He had an interesting character and it was fun to modulate him as I did while staying true to his core.
3. Bridie Mossberg (Program 3 Prologue) - Bridie to me, is like, a kind of refinement of Irene wherein she's fundamentally innocent due to mentality but very much capable of fucking things up (as she did). I think I was and still am concerned with how I portrayed intellectual disability, but she also has a strong personal cache with me, something about the simplicity and repetitiveness of her thought process really allowed me to play around with how I controlled the flow of information to the reader.
4. Ben Fields (V6) - His island time was eh. Overwraught, overwritten. His prologue threads fucking breathed. It all felt so natural, even as I continued to overwrite my ass off, and Ben just felt so alive as a character to me. Where The White Boys Dance, as problematic as it is, may be the single most enjoyable thread I have ever written- Rorick and I had awesome chemistry, everything just clicked in post after post and I felt the action as it happened.
5. Clay Bronsen (Program 3 Prologue) - A bit bland, but I think I naturally got into his character voice. It was an easy write, and felt impactful.
6. Lena Bianchi (Program 3) - Classic Cicada bullshit. I didn't use any parts of her character well, her narrative felt clunky to write through.
7. Tina Luz (V6) - The OG Cicada bullshit. I think I put in way too much effort into her gimmick and did not personally enjoy a moment of it- too much energy demanded for a final output that wasn't even any good.
8. Rachael Langdon (SC2) - A mess from beginning to end. I have no idea what headspace I was in with her, it all felt so out of control from an OOC perspective and I could never reign in my turning to the classic Cicada tier 'just be weird and pray it works' content to mask a fundamental lack of feeling her island direction.
By Quality As I Perceive it -
1. Paris Ardennes (SC2) - Again, probably the sole technical brilliance I have ever actually pulled off. Maybe his death is a bit overwrought, but most of his posts seemed effortless and shined for a character voice that was light but captivating.
2. Clay Bronsen (Program 3 Prologue) - Reads easy, isn't too Cicada-tier pretentious, usually had a decent sense of pacing. Credit goes to CBP here- I ended up writing Clay more on behalf of other characters than on his own merit, so I think that helped reign in my natural bad habits as a writer.
3. Bridie Mossberg (Program 3 Prologue) - Some flawed delivery but I think I managed her character-biased narrative well without falling into the Cicada-tier 'this is too much'- it was well delivered, easy to read and get my point. I just take off points here because of my uncertainty- she was a hard concept due to her intellectual disability, and at times I probably flubbed it.
Suck. Irene Djezari (V6), Ben Fields (V6), Tina Luz (V6) - I can stand by each of these characters but they have major flaws. Irene never got an island direction. Both Irene and Ben were scene hogs for no reason- too much writing for too little return in plot relevance. Tina was an experiment, but literally just that.
Suck More. Lena Bianchi (Program 3), Rachael Langdon (SC2) - Lena does not read well in hindsight- I leaned too hard on amateur and cliche characterization and diction. Rachael's a fucking mess, end of story.
By Personal Enjoyment -
1. Irene Djezari (V6) - There is just something about her. I believe I tend to become more cynical and fall into more of a rut the more I'm exposed to something- I thrive on novelty a lot as an individual. So my first character ultimately was my best time- regardless of quality, Irene stands as an example of my purest prosaic tendencies, I love her quirks and how I chose to express them, much as the concept behind them was bland. She is near and dear to my heart and I was having a blast before I ultimately came to view SOTF through a different, more cynical lens wherein I enjoy reading other's stuff way more than writing and feeling inadequate perpetually.
2. Paris Ardennes (SC2) - I love him because it felt like the most technical display as I writer I've ever pulled off- I adopted a writing style not my own and still made it my own. He had an interesting character and it was fun to modulate him as I did while staying true to his core.
3. Bridie Mossberg (Program 3 Prologue) - Bridie to me, is like, a kind of refinement of Irene wherein she's fundamentally innocent due to mentality but very much capable of fucking things up (as she did). I think I was and still am concerned with how I portrayed intellectual disability, but she also has a strong personal cache with me, something about the simplicity and repetitiveness of her thought process really allowed me to play around with how I controlled the flow of information to the reader.
4. Ben Fields (V6) - His island time was eh. Overwraught, overwritten. His prologue threads fucking breathed. It all felt so natural, even as I continued to overwrite my ass off, and Ben just felt so alive as a character to me. Where The White Boys Dance, as problematic as it is, may be the single most enjoyable thread I have ever written- Rorick and I had awesome chemistry, everything just clicked in post after post and I felt the action as it happened.
5. Clay Bronsen (Program 3 Prologue) - A bit bland, but I think I naturally got into his character voice. It was an easy write, and felt impactful.
6. Lena Bianchi (Program 3) - Classic Cicada bullshit. I didn't use any parts of her character well, her narrative felt clunky to write through.
7. Tina Luz (V6) - The OG Cicada bullshit. I think I put in way too much effort into her gimmick and did not personally enjoy a moment of it- too much energy demanded for a final output that wasn't even any good.
8. Rachael Langdon (SC2) - A mess from beginning to end. I have no idea what headspace I was in with her, it all felt so out of control from an OOC perspective and I could never reign in my turning to the classic Cicada tier 'just be weird and pray it works' content to mask a fundamental lack of feeling her island direction.
By Quality As I Perceive it -
1. Paris Ardennes (SC2) - Again, probably the sole technical brilliance I have ever actually pulled off. Maybe his death is a bit overwrought, but most of his posts seemed effortless and shined for a character voice that was light but captivating.
2. Clay Bronsen (Program 3 Prologue) - Reads easy, isn't too Cicada-tier pretentious, usually had a decent sense of pacing. Credit goes to CBP here- I ended up writing Clay more on behalf of other characters than on his own merit, so I think that helped reign in my natural bad habits as a writer.
3. Bridie Mossberg (Program 3 Prologue) - Some flawed delivery but I think I managed her character-biased narrative well without falling into the Cicada-tier 'this is too much'- it was well delivered, easy to read and get my point. I just take off points here because of my uncertainty- she was a hard concept due to her intellectual disability, and at times I probably flubbed it.
Suck. Irene Djezari (V6), Ben Fields (V6), Tina Luz (V6) - I can stand by each of these characters but they have major flaws. Irene never got an island direction. Both Irene and Ben were scene hogs for no reason- too much writing for too little return in plot relevance. Tina was an experiment, but literally just that.
Suck More. Lena Bianchi (Program 3), Rachael Langdon (SC2) - Lena does not read well in hindsight- I leaned too hard on amateur and cliche characterization and diction. Rachael's a fucking mess, end of story.
I did this a year ago, and I guess I've read around a bit more - V7 has started, I've come up with EVEN MORE CHARACTERS
How I've done it this time around: I tried to sort my characters in to one of five tiers - "Excellent", "Good", "Okay", "Meh", and "Bad". From there, I sorted them on how I liked them based upon the tier that they landed in. That gave me the master ranking, which I pretty much agree with. I have thirty-eight characters across Main and Mini. My goodness.
So with that being said, let's get started.
Very little, if anything has changed about the bottom tiers, and I've made the executive decision to slot my existing kids in as well. I'm spoilering them because I haven't updated the blurbs at all but if you'd like to look at what I thought last year about my shite characters, feel free. I've italicized characters who are alive and bolded those who are new or who have changed places in the rankings.
Bad Tier:
"Meh" Tier:
Okay Tier:
19. Ross Miller (V7)
Here we are; the first newcomer to the list. Ross is admittedly a self-insert and admittedly his pregame was designed for him not to do a whole lot. Since Ross is the only character on this list who I've written specifically as a pregame only kid, it was really hard to want to drop any little pieces to pick up later that would need to be resolved on the island. As such, he's not overly dynamic and sort of just floats through pregame. I suspect once the Meanwhile section opens up for v7 and I have a chance to really get in to his story -- and there is a story for him, believe me, he'll jump a bit in the rankings. I did really enjoy the oneshots that I wrote detailing his and Ariana's relationship, though I do understand the pitfalls behind writing a same-handler relationship. So Ross starts low, but it's almost by design. He's also probably the most realistic, unabashed self-insert I've ever written, which also doesn't help him be overly dynamic, since I was a bit of a wallflower in high school.
18. Kate Sanderson (PV3 Prologue)
Kate was a really tough character for me to write, and in a lot of ways ended up being unfulfilled promise for me. I wanted to try and write a character who was quiet, who didn't have a lot to say, and who needed to rely upon someone else to survive. In doing that, I also wanted to try and test out a lot of different things - playing with doing multiple-character threads but writing each character as a distinct entity. I am fairly happy with how Kate's story went, except for the fact that I just frankly ran out of time for it. I had to end her story off differently than I had planned, and because she spent a large degree of time unconscious, I felt it made more sense to flip her and William Apgar's fates around when push came to shove and it was time to make a choice. Kate's notable for me because I really fucked around with formatting in a few of her posts, which is a bit off the beaten path for me. She's in the 'okay' tier because of the unfulfilled promise, and I do think she's worth a read.
At this point I wholly recommend and still enjoy all of these characters for one reason or another.
Good Tier:
17. Jamie Li (V4)
I've gone back and read Jamie a few times and I'm constantly stuck shaking my head and going 'dude you were in v4?' What's more, she has five threads and a pregame. I've read Jamie back a few times and while she's not overly remarkable, she fits in fairly well with the more serious direction the site was going in at the time, and had I not inactived out, I probably would have done some neat stuff with her. Jamie's notable too because she threads with the character that was handled by RL Riz in his SOTF sojourn. Ohm has SC rights for Jamie and I'm really intrigued to see her again.
16. Ryan Atwell (V3)
I've come around a lot more on Ryan than I had a year ago. While still a bit of a relic of the times in that he sort of just appeared in the second half of the game (thanks to ever-constant character registrations), I actually think he's not bad. He gets stuck in this gigantic Dodd oneshot which is a bit cumbersome to read (ffs, old me) but his stuff with Steve is really nice and I like how everything ended. I was enjoying writing someone who was more of a deep thinker and felt themselves more at one with nature. I know that he's the outlier in the V3 f10, but I liked what I did with him, and I'm reminded of the guy I based him on when I read him, so I see that as a success.
15. Cole Hudson (V1)
My first SOTF death was Cole. I'll let my earlier ranking speak for itself: "I liked Cole. He had an admittedly weird profile story that... maybe I thought was a good idea at the time? But I think with some revamping I could totally make him work in a current-era style version. He's a relic of the v1 era, but I have a soft spot for him. Were other people to rank my kids, he probably wouldn't finish as high, but... I dunno. I liked what I got out of him." Literally no change in my thought process when it comes to Cole. He was fun, and shows I was making HHH references before it was cool.
14. Andrew Ponikarovsky (V2)
Once more, with feeling: "Wasted potential - again. I remember going back and reading the end of his story when I returned after I left the site the first time, and I was SO disappointed. I was really enjoying where he was going, and the thing with him and Carmen had some potential to be fun. As a fun side-note, this is the SOTF character that has caused me the most grief, as the RL friend that the character used to be named after ended up finding it and was REALLY unimpressed with me. Hence why he's named after a 2000s-era Toronto Maple Leafs winger."
The addendum to Pants is that he's actually been really well-received, even though he was abortive and died in an inactive-cleanse. As far as my own characters that had short stays (which were numerous) he's probably the best of the bunch, because he had his own clever way about him, he read uniquely, and his interactions with Carmen were cool. I'll never bring him back since, like, read the above, but he was fun.
13. Eddie Serjeantson (V1)
I love the sarge. Unashamedly, I love everything about this character. EVEN THE DAMNED MURDERBUSH DEATH. Eddie once again actually manages to fall in the rankings based upon the strength of the characters around him. The original list, he was number 3. Originally when I was writing this out for the second time, he was number 4. At this point in time, he's tumbled again, down to 13. That isn't an indictment of the Sarge on his own, but if I'm looking at it with a clear eye, he's fondly remembered but isn't spectacular. I do have to account for Eddie's memory being a major factor in one of my all-time favourite pieces of my own SOTF writing; "The Essay". Barring a minor catastrophe, I will 100% be playing him again in SC3 - this has not changed, he's my one locked-in SC3 kid.
12. William Apgar (PV3 Prologue)
A lot of the same pitfalls for Kate below apply to Willy, but there was something about him that really appealed to me. Maybe it was because of the fact that he had to drive a lot of the action, or maybe it was because he seemed to keep an effortless optimism about himself, but I really do like how Willy's story ended up going. Originally, he was going to die after participating in a fairly decent battle, and Kate would have to put him down for his own comfort's sake. Of course, then I ran out of time, and Willy ended up being the more established kid with a bit more story that I could explore in the After. I have yet to do it, but it's comin'. Not bad for a kid who was originally an NPC and got promoted fairly last-minute.
11. Fisher Darden (PV3)
Originally an adapted profile that I submitted for v5 -- yes, v5 -- I wasn't originally sure what I was going to do with Fisher. He was a pretty obvious SI of myself at the time, and so different enough from the person I am today in my 30s that I felt okay giving it a go (seriously, how many fucking SIs am I going to write at this point). What's been fun with him so far is that he's had a rough ride and has been completely spinning his wheels. I've been throwing him through the gamut into all kinds of shitty situations and while he's still kicking at this point in time, I have an aim for him for the rest of his game that I think is going to be a lot of fun.
10. Sidney Crosby (V1)
Imagine for a second that instead of being named 'Sidney Crosby', he was 'Sidney Craven" or "Sid Carswell" or something like that. Instead of being a famed hockey phenom from Canada, maybe he's a highly-touted draft pick of a professional hockey team. Imagine those two things are different. Barring the questionable V1-era kidnapping, I think he's a tremendously good character whose defining characteristic is his cowardice. Sid is a coward from front to pretty much his end, and he manages to stumble and bumble his way into the final 4, where he comes face to face with an old nemesis, who eventually defeats him, though it leads to his undoing. His final act, and perhaps his only act of bravery gets him killed, but defeats his greatest enemy. Sid Carswell might die, but he has a massive impact upon the final act of v1.
Of course, his name is Sidney Crosby, and in the years that have passed since 2005, he's turned in to one of the greatest hockey players of our generation, winning three Stanley Cups and becoming a world renowned athlete. So naturally, people are going to say "man, what the fuck was he thinking?" Originally at number three on my list, I've gone back and read him a few times over the last year, and unfortunately some of his story just doesn't quite hold up to snuff. I think some of it has to do with the characters around him being fairly wacky and all over the map and it's tough to ground him. Sid still pops into my top 10 because I like the direction I went with him, but he tumbles, and he tumbles hard as my new kids have arrived.
9. Morgan Dragosavich (V7)
If I'm being honest with myself, Morgan was fairly unremarkable for a lot of pregame. Sure, he had his moments - and there were a few small little moments that I read back on and went 'hey, good on you man, that was neat', but he didn't really come alive for me as someone with a juicy potential storyline until really late into pregame. Many thanks to Slam and Kermit for helping me write something that finally nailed the humour that I'd been going for with Morgan, a couple of threads with which he really came alive for me. At this point in V7 he's just been pounded into a pulp by the Carters, but don't worry, he'll get up.
8. Amanda Jones (V1)
Before, I had her at the top of the "good" tier, but squeezed her up a notch at the last minute. This time, the inverse is true. The hard part about writing two characters in the same group, or "handlercesting" as we've taken to calling it, is that both of your characters have to be distinct and different from one another while still maintaining the integrity of the scene. While Amanda has some weak points at times - she tends to fall by the wayside when Adam monologues, and her death is literally me protesting a surprise death of another character, I originally had planned to have her survive Dodd and outlast everyone else in the group. As such, while Dodd was often at the forefront, I tried very hard to make sure that Amanda had her own distinct personality and some of her own baggage that I could come up with when I was writing her once Dodd died. Of course, then I threw a temper tantrum and shot her face off. Stupid me. She has her strong moments; I'm especially proud of when Dodd shoots Marcus, and she disagrees so vehemently she leaves the area. Amanda's SC3 rights are currently held by Bowser (provided he's still here), and though a character named Amanda appeared in an SC2 announcement with Dodd as fluff, I think we're saying it's a different Amanda.
It's V7, so it's only natural that my excellent tier starts... at 7!
Excellent Tier:
7. Ariana Moretti (V7)
A rare adventure for me into trying to write a female character as well as someone with a temper, and so far, I've been incredibly happy with how it's all shaken out. Of all my characters, I think Ariana's pregame has been the most action-filled, she yells at people in no fewer than three different scenes, slaps someone and yet has a few quieter scenes that I think really make her work as a character. She's still in her v7 infancy, but I'm really excited to see what her story ends up being in the long run, because I think there are a few different directions that I can head. Naturally, her story is tied with Ross' and so undoubtedly the things she does will have an impact upon him, which is an interesting way to go over your own stuff and elicit a different view to it. She's been fun to write for almost every single post I get to do.
6. Adam Dodd (V3)
V3 Dodd jumps a tier. Okay, yeah. I know the popular opinion - even my own - is that I shouldn't have brought him back. Yet in reading him back for REASONS, I'm actually okay with large parts of him, and I think some of the issue with his prose is more on me as a writer rather than he as a character. Naft famously said that he was a bit of a misfire for V3, and I don't disagree, but there's actually some really nice stuff in there - his dynamic with Bill; the warehouse when people actually call him on his shit is great from a reader's POV, and I almost wish I'd leaned into it a bit more instead of being totally blind to it. His ending, too. I'm really proud of that, still. So fuck it - up a tier he goes but he isn't cracking my top 5 and I feel okay about that. Also, man it was really hard not to italicize him to troll everyone.
Top Five (The 'S' tier for you video game nerds)
5. Keith Jackson (V3)
Keith loses the top spot because as I've written more of him - and as I've reread his game, I've kind of come to the conclusion that he's almost better at the start and at the end than he is in the middle. I'm still endlessly excited for the off-island story that I've been writing with him in it, but as far as his SOTF journey goes, he's... decent. I think him being at the top of my rankings before was more me being excited than thinking rationally. So he's in the top 5 but I think this feels like a better spot for him.
4. Victoria Amaro (PV3)
Originally a V7 concept of mine that was 'Victor', I swapped the gender and adapted it for Program, and boy, am I happy that I did. Victoria is one of the most difficult characters that I've ever had to write as the concept goes against most of the hallmarks of what someone would consider a 'Dodd' or 'Cactus' (however you know me) character to be, but she's easily one of the most rewarding. Her journey at this point has been deeply fulfilling and as she's now basically at the point where she's finally decided to pull the trigger of her own volition, I think things are going to get even more volatile from here on out. I just hope that i can continue to be as happy with her as the story continues as I have been getting her to this point.
3. Connor Lorenzen (V7)
I am having way too much fun with Connor, and I think it shows. I'm leaving this pretty intentionally vague, but man am I excited for where he's headed.
2. Adam Dodd (V1)
I stand behind every word of V1 Adam Dodd outside of half of one scene. Barring that, he's SOTF's first winner and I'll always be proud of what I accomplished with him. Adam at the beginning is a stark reminder of the person that I was at 19, and it's neat to see how things have changed in the 14 years since. I think I'm at the point where barring something insane happening with any of my top 5 who are still kicking, he'll remain #2 almost always. Not bad for the OG #1.
1. Claudeson Bademosi (V7)
Claudeson is the most ambitious, challenging character concept that I have ever attempted in any writing medium and if I can pull it off, I'll never lack faith in my writing abilities ever again. So far, everything has gone according to plan and I have not been more excited about a character since V1 Dodd was making his run towards the end.
So that's it! In classic Dodd fashion, that was a million fucking words about my kids. Hope you enjoyed.
How I've done it this time around: I tried to sort my characters in to one of five tiers - "Excellent", "Good", "Okay", "Meh", and "Bad". From there, I sorted them on how I liked them based upon the tier that they landed in. That gave me the master ranking, which I pretty much agree with. I have thirty-eight characters across Main and Mini. My goodness.
So with that being said, let's get started.
Very little, if anything has changed about the bottom tiers, and I've made the executive decision to slot my existing kids in as well. I'm spoilering them because I haven't updated the blurbs at all but if you'd like to look at what I thought last year about my shite characters, feel free. I've italicized characters who are alive and bolded those who are new or who have changed places in the rankings.
Bad Tier:
"Meh" Tier:
Okay Tier:
19. Ross Miller (V7)
Here we are; the first newcomer to the list. Ross is admittedly a self-insert and admittedly his pregame was designed for him not to do a whole lot. Since Ross is the only character on this list who I've written specifically as a pregame only kid, it was really hard to want to drop any little pieces to pick up later that would need to be resolved on the island. As such, he's not overly dynamic and sort of just floats through pregame. I suspect once the Meanwhile section opens up for v7 and I have a chance to really get in to his story -- and there is a story for him, believe me, he'll jump a bit in the rankings. I did really enjoy the oneshots that I wrote detailing his and Ariana's relationship, though I do understand the pitfalls behind writing a same-handler relationship. So Ross starts low, but it's almost by design. He's also probably the most realistic, unabashed self-insert I've ever written, which also doesn't help him be overly dynamic, since I was a bit of a wallflower in high school.
18. Kate Sanderson (PV3 Prologue)
Kate was a really tough character for me to write, and in a lot of ways ended up being unfulfilled promise for me. I wanted to try and write a character who was quiet, who didn't have a lot to say, and who needed to rely upon someone else to survive. In doing that, I also wanted to try and test out a lot of different things - playing with doing multiple-character threads but writing each character as a distinct entity. I am fairly happy with how Kate's story went, except for the fact that I just frankly ran out of time for it. I had to end her story off differently than I had planned, and because she spent a large degree of time unconscious, I felt it made more sense to flip her and William Apgar's fates around when push came to shove and it was time to make a choice. Kate's notable for me because I really fucked around with formatting in a few of her posts, which is a bit off the beaten path for me. She's in the 'okay' tier because of the unfulfilled promise, and I do think she's worth a read.
At this point I wholly recommend and still enjoy all of these characters for one reason or another.
Good Tier:
17. Jamie Li (V4)
I've gone back and read Jamie a few times and I'm constantly stuck shaking my head and going 'dude you were in v4?' What's more, she has five threads and a pregame. I've read Jamie back a few times and while she's not overly remarkable, she fits in fairly well with the more serious direction the site was going in at the time, and had I not inactived out, I probably would have done some neat stuff with her. Jamie's notable too because she threads with the character that was handled by RL Riz in his SOTF sojourn. Ohm has SC rights for Jamie and I'm really intrigued to see her again.
16. Ryan Atwell (V3)
I've come around a lot more on Ryan than I had a year ago. While still a bit of a relic of the times in that he sort of just appeared in the second half of the game (thanks to ever-constant character registrations), I actually think he's not bad. He gets stuck in this gigantic Dodd oneshot which is a bit cumbersome to read (ffs, old me) but his stuff with Steve is really nice and I like how everything ended. I was enjoying writing someone who was more of a deep thinker and felt themselves more at one with nature. I know that he's the outlier in the V3 f10, but I liked what I did with him, and I'm reminded of the guy I based him on when I read him, so I see that as a success.
15. Cole Hudson (V1)
My first SOTF death was Cole. I'll let my earlier ranking speak for itself: "I liked Cole. He had an admittedly weird profile story that... maybe I thought was a good idea at the time? But I think with some revamping I could totally make him work in a current-era style version. He's a relic of the v1 era, but I have a soft spot for him. Were other people to rank my kids, he probably wouldn't finish as high, but... I dunno. I liked what I got out of him." Literally no change in my thought process when it comes to Cole. He was fun, and shows I was making HHH references before it was cool.
14. Andrew Ponikarovsky (V2)
Once more, with feeling: "Wasted potential - again. I remember going back and reading the end of his story when I returned after I left the site the first time, and I was SO disappointed. I was really enjoying where he was going, and the thing with him and Carmen had some potential to be fun. As a fun side-note, this is the SOTF character that has caused me the most grief, as the RL friend that the character used to be named after ended up finding it and was REALLY unimpressed with me. Hence why he's named after a 2000s-era Toronto Maple Leafs winger."
The addendum to Pants is that he's actually been really well-received, even though he was abortive and died in an inactive-cleanse. As far as my own characters that had short stays (which were numerous) he's probably the best of the bunch, because he had his own clever way about him, he read uniquely, and his interactions with Carmen were cool. I'll never bring him back since, like, read the above, but he was fun.
13. Eddie Serjeantson (V1)
I love the sarge. Unashamedly, I love everything about this character. EVEN THE DAMNED MURDERBUSH DEATH. Eddie once again actually manages to fall in the rankings based upon the strength of the characters around him. The original list, he was number 3. Originally when I was writing this out for the second time, he was number 4. At this point in time, he's tumbled again, down to 13. That isn't an indictment of the Sarge on his own, but if I'm looking at it with a clear eye, he's fondly remembered but isn't spectacular. I do have to account for Eddie's memory being a major factor in one of my all-time favourite pieces of my own SOTF writing; "The Essay". Barring a minor catastrophe, I will 100% be playing him again in SC3 - this has not changed, he's my one locked-in SC3 kid.
12. William Apgar (PV3 Prologue)
A lot of the same pitfalls for Kate below apply to Willy, but there was something about him that really appealed to me. Maybe it was because of the fact that he had to drive a lot of the action, or maybe it was because he seemed to keep an effortless optimism about himself, but I really do like how Willy's story ended up going. Originally, he was going to die after participating in a fairly decent battle, and Kate would have to put him down for his own comfort's sake. Of course, then I ran out of time, and Willy ended up being the more established kid with a bit more story that I could explore in the After. I have yet to do it, but it's comin'. Not bad for a kid who was originally an NPC and got promoted fairly last-minute.
11. Fisher Darden (PV3)
Originally an adapted profile that I submitted for v5 -- yes, v5 -- I wasn't originally sure what I was going to do with Fisher. He was a pretty obvious SI of myself at the time, and so different enough from the person I am today in my 30s that I felt okay giving it a go (seriously, how many fucking SIs am I going to write at this point). What's been fun with him so far is that he's had a rough ride and has been completely spinning his wheels. I've been throwing him through the gamut into all kinds of shitty situations and while he's still kicking at this point in time, I have an aim for him for the rest of his game that I think is going to be a lot of fun.
10. Sidney Crosby (V1)
Imagine for a second that instead of being named 'Sidney Crosby', he was 'Sidney Craven" or "Sid Carswell" or something like that. Instead of being a famed hockey phenom from Canada, maybe he's a highly-touted draft pick of a professional hockey team. Imagine those two things are different. Barring the questionable V1-era kidnapping, I think he's a tremendously good character whose defining characteristic is his cowardice. Sid is a coward from front to pretty much his end, and he manages to stumble and bumble his way into the final 4, where he comes face to face with an old nemesis, who eventually defeats him, though it leads to his undoing. His final act, and perhaps his only act of bravery gets him killed, but defeats his greatest enemy. Sid Carswell might die, but he has a massive impact upon the final act of v1.
Of course, his name is Sidney Crosby, and in the years that have passed since 2005, he's turned in to one of the greatest hockey players of our generation, winning three Stanley Cups and becoming a world renowned athlete. So naturally, people are going to say "man, what the fuck was he thinking?" Originally at number three on my list, I've gone back and read him a few times over the last year, and unfortunately some of his story just doesn't quite hold up to snuff. I think some of it has to do with the characters around him being fairly wacky and all over the map and it's tough to ground him. Sid still pops into my top 10 because I like the direction I went with him, but he tumbles, and he tumbles hard as my new kids have arrived.
9. Morgan Dragosavich (V7)
If I'm being honest with myself, Morgan was fairly unremarkable for a lot of pregame. Sure, he had his moments - and there were a few small little moments that I read back on and went 'hey, good on you man, that was neat', but he didn't really come alive for me as someone with a juicy potential storyline until really late into pregame. Many thanks to Slam and Kermit for helping me write something that finally nailed the humour that I'd been going for with Morgan, a couple of threads with which he really came alive for me. At this point in V7 he's just been pounded into a pulp by the Carters, but don't worry, he'll get up.
8. Amanda Jones (V1)
Before, I had her at the top of the "good" tier, but squeezed her up a notch at the last minute. This time, the inverse is true. The hard part about writing two characters in the same group, or "handlercesting" as we've taken to calling it, is that both of your characters have to be distinct and different from one another while still maintaining the integrity of the scene. While Amanda has some weak points at times - she tends to fall by the wayside when Adam monologues, and her death is literally me protesting a surprise death of another character, I originally had planned to have her survive Dodd and outlast everyone else in the group. As such, while Dodd was often at the forefront, I tried very hard to make sure that Amanda had her own distinct personality and some of her own baggage that I could come up with when I was writing her once Dodd died. Of course, then I threw a temper tantrum and shot her face off. Stupid me. She has her strong moments; I'm especially proud of when Dodd shoots Marcus, and she disagrees so vehemently she leaves the area. Amanda's SC3 rights are currently held by Bowser (provided he's still here), and though a character named Amanda appeared in an SC2 announcement with Dodd as fluff, I think we're saying it's a different Amanda.
It's V7, so it's only natural that my excellent tier starts... at 7!
Excellent Tier:
7. Ariana Moretti (V7)
A rare adventure for me into trying to write a female character as well as someone with a temper, and so far, I've been incredibly happy with how it's all shaken out. Of all my characters, I think Ariana's pregame has been the most action-filled, she yells at people in no fewer than three different scenes, slaps someone and yet has a few quieter scenes that I think really make her work as a character. She's still in her v7 infancy, but I'm really excited to see what her story ends up being in the long run, because I think there are a few different directions that I can head. Naturally, her story is tied with Ross' and so undoubtedly the things she does will have an impact upon him, which is an interesting way to go over your own stuff and elicit a different view to it. She's been fun to write for almost every single post I get to do.
6. Adam Dodd (V3)
V3 Dodd jumps a tier. Okay, yeah. I know the popular opinion - even my own - is that I shouldn't have brought him back. Yet in reading him back for REASONS, I'm actually okay with large parts of him, and I think some of the issue with his prose is more on me as a writer rather than he as a character. Naft famously said that he was a bit of a misfire for V3, and I don't disagree, but there's actually some really nice stuff in there - his dynamic with Bill; the warehouse when people actually call him on his shit is great from a reader's POV, and I almost wish I'd leaned into it a bit more instead of being totally blind to it. His ending, too. I'm really proud of that, still. So fuck it - up a tier he goes but he isn't cracking my top 5 and I feel okay about that. Also, man it was really hard not to italicize him to troll everyone.
Top Five (The 'S' tier for you video game nerds)
5. Keith Jackson (V3)
Keith loses the top spot because as I've written more of him - and as I've reread his game, I've kind of come to the conclusion that he's almost better at the start and at the end than he is in the middle. I'm still endlessly excited for the off-island story that I've been writing with him in it, but as far as his SOTF journey goes, he's... decent. I think him being at the top of my rankings before was more me being excited than thinking rationally. So he's in the top 5 but I think this feels like a better spot for him.
4. Victoria Amaro (PV3)
Originally a V7 concept of mine that was 'Victor', I swapped the gender and adapted it for Program, and boy, am I happy that I did. Victoria is one of the most difficult characters that I've ever had to write as the concept goes against most of the hallmarks of what someone would consider a 'Dodd' or 'Cactus' (however you know me) character to be, but she's easily one of the most rewarding. Her journey at this point has been deeply fulfilling and as she's now basically at the point where she's finally decided to pull the trigger of her own volition, I think things are going to get even more volatile from here on out. I just hope that i can continue to be as happy with her as the story continues as I have been getting her to this point.
3. Connor Lorenzen (V7)
I am having way too much fun with Connor, and I think it shows. I'm leaving this pretty intentionally vague, but man am I excited for where he's headed.
2. Adam Dodd (V1)
I stand behind every word of V1 Adam Dodd outside of half of one scene. Barring that, he's SOTF's first winner and I'll always be proud of what I accomplished with him. Adam at the beginning is a stark reminder of the person that I was at 19, and it's neat to see how things have changed in the 14 years since. I think I'm at the point where barring something insane happening with any of my top 5 who are still kicking, he'll remain #2 almost always. Not bad for the OG #1.
1. Claudeson Bademosi (V7)
Claudeson is the most ambitious, challenging character concept that I have ever attempted in any writing medium and if I can pull it off, I'll never lack faith in my writing abilities ever again. So far, everything has gone according to plan and I have not been more excited about a character since V1 Dodd was making his run towards the end.
So that's it! In classic Dodd fashion, that was a million fucking words about my kids. Hope you enjoyed.
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Latin For Dragula
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Oh word we're doing it again let's hit it. I'm not gonna rank any pre-game only kids/npcs and I'm not gonna rank my V7 kids yet because lbr only Nona has enough content to even begin to measure against the shortest of these kids and none of them are complete yet anyway.
11. Abby Floyd(V6). I super wasn't in a position to write a character like Abby when I went after her. I think it was NAFT who challenged me to write an uncomplicated happy kid or some shit and man was he on the money for calling me out. I'd like to give her another shot someday but I wasn't doing great with her voice and the the universe conspired to get me off of her; some of my kids have little secret triggers in mind and one i'd put down for Abby was that if Cristo died right in front of her on Day One she was probably gonna kill herself. Then that happened in her first thread and it was unrolled death time. Maybe I'll bring her back for a fuller arc in SC if I'm in a healthier place some round.
10. Irene Djezari(V6, adopted from Cicada). Yowie wowie my work with Irene blew, I couldn't keep up with Cicada's style at all and i didn't have anything interesting to add with my own spin I guess. Irene's my Cujo, I don't remember writing this child and I owe cae-dot like 12 apologies for her.
9. Vahka Basayev(TV2). I like Vahka a lot and he was a blast to write, but things got kinda messy. A lot of plans were made and then dropped due to scheduling difficulties and I didn't adapt great to it. I committed to a motif in his death post that I hadn't adequately set up yet, which is a big no-no. He's another one I'd really like to revisit in SC, I think I could do a lot better now than I did then.
8. Garrett Wilde(V5). Garrett's early game is rooooouuuuuuuuuuuugh. He talks way too fucking much and there was miscommunication between me and some threadmates that made him a mind reader at times. It's bad. I'd like to burn it all down. That being said I'm really, really proud of where his story went from about Internecine on and some of the ground work for getting there had to be laid in his worse work so I guess I can't set it all on fire. I'd kinda like to give Garrett another run sometime too.
7. Theodore Fletcher(SCDos). I had much more elaborate plans for Theo but then Depression Hole. He ended up fine though. I don't regret anything I wrote with him, just that I couldn't go bigger with it, and I would have liked his island story to have been more connected with others. I didn't have the spoons to get him off the ground though, oh well.
6. Joachim Lovelace(V5, Adopted From Riki). I don't think my Joachim was anywhere near as good as Riki's, but I was flattered to get to finish him off. His death thread was an absolute blast to write and he got to drop my favorite bomb of any of my characters in V5 when he blew up everyone's attempts to keep Michael from snapping.
5. Caedyn Miller(V6). Caedyn being all the way down at number 5 is an indication of how good I think the characters above her are because I fucking love Caedyn. Easily the most fun I've had writing any character in my time on the site. I think her story stumbles a few times, but for the most part she's a ball of hate and spite and lust lashing out at anything she can get her talons into, and that's exactly what she should be. Her death post is wonky but fuck it I'm still here for it.
4. Alda Abbate(V5, adopted from CaseyNuge). Alda was my first adoption and she remains my best. I think she's also probably my shortest character and may have been my very first death? I'm too lazy to look it up. I loved everything about her from start to finish though. There's room for improvement on a technical level but her arc was everything I could have hoped. Easily the strongest member of my V5 cast in my opinion, and one of the strongest characters I've written overall.
3. Ty Yazzie(V6). Profile aside Ty is another very tight story with some of the best emotional work I've ever done despite being almost completely unplanned. I almost didn't even bring Ty to the island because I wasn't sure what to do with him. I'm glad I let others talk me out of that decision, his story was draining to write and there's things I wish I'd conveyed more consistently like his family ties but gods do I love him. I think he's probably the character I adapted best to things falling apart; as much as I would have loved to write more Ty and Bee I don't think anything we could have done would have had the same narrative impact as when he breaks down talking to Coleen about her.
2. Katarina Konipaski(SCDos). C O N T R O V E R S Y or not I dunno what people think of my take on KK I just know the general site moods towards formatting and meta bullshit. That being said KK is everything I ended up wanting her to be, a build up on her Terminator-esque presence in V5 that took advantage of the dimensional weirdness of the Second Chances universe. A lot of people went this route in SCDos and I was here for all of it. KK's last couple of fight scenes are way over the top hyper unrealism and I don't have a single fuck to spare about it, it was fun and I had a great time writing them with boogie and toxie.
1. Gabriel Munez(TV2). I'm just gonna quote my post-game comments on his wiki page:
11. Abby Floyd(V6). I super wasn't in a position to write a character like Abby when I went after her. I think it was NAFT who challenged me to write an uncomplicated happy kid or some shit and man was he on the money for calling me out. I'd like to give her another shot someday but I wasn't doing great with her voice and the the universe conspired to get me off of her; some of my kids have little secret triggers in mind and one i'd put down for Abby was that if Cristo died right in front of her on Day One she was probably gonna kill herself. Then that happened in her first thread and it was unrolled death time. Maybe I'll bring her back for a fuller arc in SC if I'm in a healthier place some round.
10. Irene Djezari(V6, adopted from Cicada). Yowie wowie my work with Irene blew, I couldn't keep up with Cicada's style at all and i didn't have anything interesting to add with my own spin I guess. Irene's my Cujo, I don't remember writing this child and I owe cae-dot like 12 apologies for her.
9. Vahka Basayev(TV2). I like Vahka a lot and he was a blast to write, but things got kinda messy. A lot of plans were made and then dropped due to scheduling difficulties and I didn't adapt great to it. I committed to a motif in his death post that I hadn't adequately set up yet, which is a big no-no. He's another one I'd really like to revisit in SC, I think I could do a lot better now than I did then.
8. Garrett Wilde(V5). Garrett's early game is rooooouuuuuuuuuuuugh. He talks way too fucking much and there was miscommunication between me and some threadmates that made him a mind reader at times. It's bad. I'd like to burn it all down. That being said I'm really, really proud of where his story went from about Internecine on and some of the ground work for getting there had to be laid in his worse work so I guess I can't set it all on fire. I'd kinda like to give Garrett another run sometime too.
7. Theodore Fletcher(SCDos). I had much more elaborate plans for Theo but then Depression Hole. He ended up fine though. I don't regret anything I wrote with him, just that I couldn't go bigger with it, and I would have liked his island story to have been more connected with others. I didn't have the spoons to get him off the ground though, oh well.
6. Joachim Lovelace(V5, Adopted From Riki). I don't think my Joachim was anywhere near as good as Riki's, but I was flattered to get to finish him off. His death thread was an absolute blast to write and he got to drop my favorite bomb of any of my characters in V5 when he blew up everyone's attempts to keep Michael from snapping.
5. Caedyn Miller(V6). Caedyn being all the way down at number 5 is an indication of how good I think the characters above her are because I fucking love Caedyn. Easily the most fun I've had writing any character in my time on the site. I think her story stumbles a few times, but for the most part she's a ball of hate and spite and lust lashing out at anything she can get her talons into, and that's exactly what she should be. Her death post is wonky but fuck it I'm still here for it.
4. Alda Abbate(V5, adopted from CaseyNuge). Alda was my first adoption and she remains my best. I think she's also probably my shortest character and may have been my very first death? I'm too lazy to look it up. I loved everything about her from start to finish though. There's room for improvement on a technical level but her arc was everything I could have hoped. Easily the strongest member of my V5 cast in my opinion, and one of the strongest characters I've written overall.
3. Ty Yazzie(V6). Profile aside Ty is another very tight story with some of the best emotional work I've ever done despite being almost completely unplanned. I almost didn't even bring Ty to the island because I wasn't sure what to do with him. I'm glad I let others talk me out of that decision, his story was draining to write and there's things I wish I'd conveyed more consistently like his family ties but gods do I love him. I think he's probably the character I adapted best to things falling apart; as much as I would have loved to write more Ty and Bee I don't think anything we could have done would have had the same narrative impact as when he breaks down talking to Coleen about her.
2. Katarina Konipaski(SCDos). C O N T R O V E R S Y or not I dunno what people think of my take on KK I just know the general site moods towards formatting and meta bullshit. That being said KK is everything I ended up wanting her to be, a build up on her Terminator-esque presence in V5 that took advantage of the dimensional weirdness of the Second Chances universe. A lot of people went this route in SCDos and I was here for all of it. KK's last couple of fight scenes are way over the top hyper unrealism and I don't have a single fuck to spare about it, it was fun and I had a great time writing them with boogie and toxie.
1. Gabriel Munez(TV2). I'm just gonna quote my post-game comments on his wiki page:
Gabriel is my favorite character that I've written. I think it could very easily be argued that he's the best character I've written. He's certainly the one I've gotten the most negative feedback about carding off. I'm told often that people wanted to see more of Gabe, that he had potential and depth beyond Vahka, that his story needed to continue.
That's exactly why he needed to die.
There is a poem by Taylor Mali entitled Entire Act of Of Sorrow, on the subject of his first wife's suicide. He remarks on the hopelessness and feelings of guilt of watching a loved one trapped in depression and despair, and feeling with undeniable certainty that they will die tragically one way or another yet denying this horrible, malicious truth within your own mind because it is not a reality that you can accept or dwell in, nor is it one you can change. I listen to that poem often, and think about it even more frequently. It's something of a muse in Gabriel's creation. It can apply to his relationship with his mother quite readily, but it also applies to my relationship with him. I always knew that Gabriel was going to die, and die quickly, explosively, because of his own actions. The challenge was to make someone compelling and perhaps even endearing despite his clear self-destructive tendencies, to implant a few glimmers of hope and escape in a narrative of inexorable failure.
I always knew that Gabriel was going to die, and deep down I think everyone who reads his pre-game can see it too, even if the moments of charity and comedy make it so, so tempting to desire his survival, to see him live and continue to straighten his life out and rise above his circumstances. The fact that so many people tell me I made a mistake in killing him confirms to me that it was anything but. I wanted Gabriel to go further, in my heart. But that wasn't his story, and his story, no matter how bleak and disappointing, deserves to be told exactly as he wanted it. It's the most I could do for him, as an author to her creation.
aw shit, here we go again, finished kids only
12. Leon Valera (PV3). Who? Yeah sorry I forgot to do this version. I think I got him striked from existence so hopefully I can use him elsewhere, I liked the vibes he had lmao
11. Ashley Sydor (PV2). Not my first kid, but my first on-island kid; so there's a lotta roughness there but also nostalgia? There wasn't really much depth to her - she was just a nice girl who had a bad time on the island, but stayed friendly and decent the whole time. She lived a long time but spent most of it just meandering from thread to thread. I still conceptually like a couple of her scenes; like how friendly she was with the highest bodycount player in the version but I'm not even gonna look at my old prose, lmao.
10. Daniel Whitten (V5). My ACTUAL first kid. My boy. My child. My first death. The poor boy had two threads and he lasted two posts into the second one, lmao; and was honestly more notable in death than in life. He has probably my most extensive pregame of any kid but none of it really amounted to much? Would've been nice to have kept him around for a bit longer; but a sudden, anticlimactic death suited him, and it was a lotta fun prewriting with NAFT to make Daniel just like, instantly drop dead. Tying him so strongly to another one of my characters was kinda a misstep, but it worked out in the end.
9. Alice Gilman (V5). Sorry Alice, you were just kind of a mess. There's individual bits and scenes with her I really like; but I had no idea where I was going with her so she was kinda just all over the place. I remember really wanting her to have like, a gradual slide from being cold and rational to just freaking the fuck out constantly, but didn't really pull it off. Anyways, her group with Casey and Carlos (Tagabasa and Ciel) was completely out of the blue but is still one of my favorite Island Crews I've been a part of, which leaves me with a lot of lingering fondness for her regardless. She gets ranked higher than the other two just based off of the strength of her good bits but she was definitely my kid with the most dire need for a second chance.
8. Erik Lowell (TV2). Another nice guy who died early. He had a really strong intro thread fulla intrigue and suspense (eyes emoji at Jewel) and a rad death thread, but his two scenes in the middle were complete nothings which kinda tanks him in the rankings for me. Kinda regret heroing him for someone who wound up going inactive anyways; but I'm not sure how much life he'd have in him. Maybe I could've come up with something, who knows? I'm ultimately fine with where he ended up, though.
7. Anzu Sakamoto (TV2). My child. My sweet child. You were so, so angry all the time lmao. Anzu's voice was a lot of fun, as was her grouping with the band, but she was also kind of a mess. I'm less harsh on it than I used to be, but I still don't like how I handled her mental break after Caroline died; it completely tanked her momentum for like two threads. Speaking of Caroline - Anzu's unrequited love for her was such a huge part of her inner monologue, but Caroline died early, and Anzu never talks about it to anyone; so it never gets any sorta resolution which makes for a lotta lost potential, imo. The original version of her death also got me a strongly-worded PM from mini help, but I don't hold that against her, lmao. I realize I've spent most of this ranking complaining, but she was really fun to write, man. If SC3 ever happens, she's a lock.
6. Michael Mitchellson (V5). THE MAN WITH THE MOTHERFUCKING AUTOMATIC SHOTGUN. I love this fucking posturing nerd so much. He still has his issues - the "he's deaf, so no one told him his best friend Daniel is dead" plotline drags on for waaaaay longer than it was originally intended to, there were activity issues all around, his lategame is a lot of aimless meandering, his death was confusingly written and is honestly my only death I wish I could completely rework... whatever. That's all noise. Because this man. This motherfucking stylish wimp. He's got a hat. Fuck yeah. His cameo in SC2 was the most fun I'd had writing a post in a while, lmao.
5. Harold Porter (V6). My last "nice guy who died early"... for now. Unlike my others in this archtype, Harold made the most of his short time on the island; none of his interactions with other students feel wasted. He could've easily gone a lot farther, but there's no way I was sacrificing either of my other kids for him. In the end, he was active, solidly characterized, and had a lot of impact on other people's stories. Not bad for a kid whose entire original concept was just "Buff Harry Potter." Maybe I'd bring him back for a SC3, but I'm honestly content with where he ended up.
4. Daniel Whitten (SC2). I was like "hell, the kid deserves another chance," so another chance he got. It was nice to give my first boy some actual time in the spotlight - time to be completely useless and basically a joke character. In a fun way, though. He had some midgame inactivity issues, and I completely wasted the chance to make his pregame matter this time; but all in all he was fun and good.
3. Alice Gilman (SC2). Poor Alice. Stronger, more consistent characterization. One of my favorite one-shots ever. What did it get you? Dead even earlier than you were last time. She was my attempt to actually write a player for once, but the cards didn't work out, lmao. I don't really regret swapping her for Daniel, since that boy turned out fine, but there was a lotta story still left in her. Oh well. Going full pretentious alternate universe Umineko mindfuck for her death was a blast, and getting that opportunity was honestly worth everything.
2. Asha Sur (V6). Asha. Ashaaaaaaa. Your voice was sublime, your island philosophy was unique, your death was uniquely torturous and mean of me, and also kinda pretentious? I loved it though. I loved her. What is there to say, she owns completely and I coulda written her forever. Unfortunately for her, there was one (1) kid I valued more.
1. Cass Prince (V6). Cass. Precious precious Cass. My child. My beautiful child. You were so, so, sad, but you tried to make meaning out of life anyway. Dying by claiming immortality. You deserved to live forever. There's a couple quibbles - the stinger at the end of their death was confusingly handled, even if I still stand behind the intent. Also, it was probably a misstep to have them be closeted, since that resulted in basically everyone misgendering them for the entire game, which sucks? And I didn't really feel like it was my place to try and do some sorta on-island coming out? Still. They are my favorite, above all else I have written. Good night, sweet Prince.
12. Leon Valera (PV3). Who? Yeah sorry I forgot to do this version. I think I got him striked from existence so hopefully I can use him elsewhere, I liked the vibes he had lmao
11. Ashley Sydor (PV2). Not my first kid, but my first on-island kid; so there's a lotta roughness there but also nostalgia? There wasn't really much depth to her - she was just a nice girl who had a bad time on the island, but stayed friendly and decent the whole time. She lived a long time but spent most of it just meandering from thread to thread. I still conceptually like a couple of her scenes; like how friendly she was with the highest bodycount player in the version but I'm not even gonna look at my old prose, lmao.
10. Daniel Whitten (V5). My ACTUAL first kid. My boy. My child. My first death. The poor boy had two threads and he lasted two posts into the second one, lmao; and was honestly more notable in death than in life. He has probably my most extensive pregame of any kid but none of it really amounted to much? Would've been nice to have kept him around for a bit longer; but a sudden, anticlimactic death suited him, and it was a lotta fun prewriting with NAFT to make Daniel just like, instantly drop dead. Tying him so strongly to another one of my characters was kinda a misstep, but it worked out in the end.
9. Alice Gilman (V5). Sorry Alice, you were just kind of a mess. There's individual bits and scenes with her I really like; but I had no idea where I was going with her so she was kinda just all over the place. I remember really wanting her to have like, a gradual slide from being cold and rational to just freaking the fuck out constantly, but didn't really pull it off. Anyways, her group with Casey and Carlos (Tagabasa and Ciel) was completely out of the blue but is still one of my favorite Island Crews I've been a part of, which leaves me with a lot of lingering fondness for her regardless. She gets ranked higher than the other two just based off of the strength of her good bits but she was definitely my kid with the most dire need for a second chance.
8. Erik Lowell (TV2). Another nice guy who died early. He had a really strong intro thread fulla intrigue and suspense (eyes emoji at Jewel) and a rad death thread, but his two scenes in the middle were complete nothings which kinda tanks him in the rankings for me. Kinda regret heroing him for someone who wound up going inactive anyways; but I'm not sure how much life he'd have in him. Maybe I could've come up with something, who knows? I'm ultimately fine with where he ended up, though.
7. Anzu Sakamoto (TV2). My child. My sweet child. You were so, so angry all the time lmao. Anzu's voice was a lot of fun, as was her grouping with the band, but she was also kind of a mess. I'm less harsh on it than I used to be, but I still don't like how I handled her mental break after Caroline died; it completely tanked her momentum for like two threads. Speaking of Caroline - Anzu's unrequited love for her was such a huge part of her inner monologue, but Caroline died early, and Anzu never talks about it to anyone; so it never gets any sorta resolution which makes for a lotta lost potential, imo. The original version of her death also got me a strongly-worded PM from mini help, but I don't hold that against her, lmao. I realize I've spent most of this ranking complaining, but she was really fun to write, man. If SC3 ever happens, she's a lock.
6. Michael Mitchellson (V5). THE MAN WITH THE MOTHERFUCKING AUTOMATIC SHOTGUN. I love this fucking posturing nerd so much. He still has his issues - the "he's deaf, so no one told him his best friend Daniel is dead" plotline drags on for waaaaay longer than it was originally intended to, there were activity issues all around, his lategame is a lot of aimless meandering, his death was confusingly written and is honestly my only death I wish I could completely rework... whatever. That's all noise. Because this man. This motherfucking stylish wimp. He's got a hat. Fuck yeah. His cameo in SC2 was the most fun I'd had writing a post in a while, lmao.
5. Harold Porter (V6). My last "nice guy who died early"... for now. Unlike my others in this archtype, Harold made the most of his short time on the island; none of his interactions with other students feel wasted. He could've easily gone a lot farther, but there's no way I was sacrificing either of my other kids for him. In the end, he was active, solidly characterized, and had a lot of impact on other people's stories. Not bad for a kid whose entire original concept was just "Buff Harry Potter." Maybe I'd bring him back for a SC3, but I'm honestly content with where he ended up.
4. Daniel Whitten (SC2). I was like "hell, the kid deserves another chance," so another chance he got. It was nice to give my first boy some actual time in the spotlight - time to be completely useless and basically a joke character. In a fun way, though. He had some midgame inactivity issues, and I completely wasted the chance to make his pregame matter this time; but all in all he was fun and good.
3. Alice Gilman (SC2). Poor Alice. Stronger, more consistent characterization. One of my favorite one-shots ever. What did it get you? Dead even earlier than you were last time. She was my attempt to actually write a player for once, but the cards didn't work out, lmao. I don't really regret swapping her for Daniel, since that boy turned out fine, but there was a lotta story still left in her. Oh well. Going full pretentious alternate universe Umineko mindfuck for her death was a blast, and getting that opportunity was honestly worth everything.
2. Asha Sur (V6). Asha. Ashaaaaaaa. Your voice was sublime, your island philosophy was unique, your death was uniquely torturous and mean of me, and also kinda pretentious? I loved it though. I loved her. What is there to say, she owns completely and I coulda written her forever. Unfortunately for her, there was one (1) kid I valued more.
1. Cass Prince (V6). Cass. Precious precious Cass. My child. My beautiful child. You were so, so, sad, but you tried to make meaning out of life anyway. Dying by claiming immortality. You deserved to live forever. There's a couple quibbles - the stinger at the end of their death was confusingly handled, even if I still stand behind the intent. Also, it was probably a misstep to have them be closeted, since that resulted in basically everyone misgendering them for the entire game, which sucks? And I didn't really feel like it was my place to try and do some sorta on-island coming out? Still. They are my favorite, above all else I have written. Good night, sweet Prince.
I’ve had a lot of characters and haven’t reflected too much in terms of the actual rereadings of them, still for the purpose of community and because who can resist a bit of self aggrandizing? I figured we’d go with a top 5? I think that should serve my purposes.
Not including Ace because he ain’t done and I’m pretty sure it’s obvious I rep him 11 threads deep more than any of these jamokes.
No v2 characters because what? I was in v2? (I can do this joke too)
5.Peri Barclay (adopted; v1)
As an adoption, I’m pretty sure Peri is a testament towards what not to do. I hadn’t read all of his work with Mismatched_Eyes and largely actually disliked his style at the time. I wrote Peri differently but he explored themes that I always found interesting in characters like that (see: players) which is a certain level of compassion paired with the cruelty. I was very young when I wrote Peri, 14-15, and I would end up writing a lot of shitty stuff on SOTF, but Peri’s sensitivity and his romantic arc with Dorian are somethings I remain pretty proud of. When I came back Vicky described him as the “Secret good Chad character!” and I take that compliment as what it is.
I’m also pretty glad that my sole gay character was not written camp or stereotypically even exiting middle school and having the rest of my misogynistic and ignorant views documented for all time. I’m pretty proud of young Chad for that.
4. Evelyn Richinson (v3)
I really like my female football captain even though she has fucked up hair. Ace ended up inheriting a lot of Evelyn’s dedication and good nature but I liked that Evelyn was the Captain. She was ambitious and dedicated but also she was supposed to be confident and skilled. A 5’2” girl who played football and ran like an Olympic track athlete--I did her dirty. Her athleticism would have to be dialed down in a potential SC3 run but I have a soft spot for the Captain. Like I said, I’ve given a lot of her spirit and energy to Ace and so I consider him sort of her torch bearer. I regret that I killed her on a whim, there was good stuff here and I should’ve explored it more in v3 considering my overall legacy in that version.
3. Blood Boy (v3)
People are always surprised to a certain extent when I say that I don’t regret Blood Boy and have a largely good memory in writing him. He’s the edgelord’s edgelord, disfiguremet, orphan, fucked up sex shit in the bio and hyper violence paired with a comic book type bend for realism and nicknames. This is the Chad special extra onion. I have regret for how much his pre-game arc was tied to chat culture and the penchant for hyperviolence can be attributed to that and my own transgressive teenage writing. Nate was unique and divisive then, a polarizing and controversial character even during his pre-game and I figured he became the poster child for early version craziness for quite a long time? He certainly has it all--song posts, rapey undertones, torture and gimmicks. He couldn’t function in current era SOTF and he barely functioned in his version.
And yet?
I had a lot of fun with Nate.
He was a unique character who missed his mark and I was a young writer who didn’t know what his mark was and had a lot of OOC baggage to work through as well. If attacking his character in a SC3 I would want to focus on Nate’s isolation and the general themes of disassociation. There are glimmers there that maybe only I can see but he’s still my little magician boy. He won my only BKA--a testament to the era that birthed him and an illustration of why that era had to change. He’s absolute garbage--but I am trash and live amongst the trash.
The smiley face remains the sigil of house Chadsworth.
2. Paul Smith (v3)
Another gratuitous member of the gratuitous gang Paul has a lot of Chaddisms in him from the anime like design to the older age to the exaggerated sexual history and fighting prowess garnered from Pre-Game. He has some disgusting pre-game one-shots that I am not too proud of that were really there just for me to write juvenile sex stories...but I guess since I was seventeen that makes a bit of sense? There’s a lot wrong with Paul and yet there’s a lot of good with him as well.
He took up a lot of early residence in my mind in v3 and I entered that version with my goal being to win with Paul--probably explains a pretty God-Mody scene early on with him stealing a gun from Melina. But screw you Tony, ten years later I can say, Paul deserved that more than Melina. He was over the top and suffered from my own immaturity but I liked Paul’s approach to the game and I liked how he felt attached to his friends and dreams of the future. He struggled with both his outward and self image and he remained pretty fun to write and quip with. I got to write with Adam Dodd (albeit v3 version) and make out with another Mitsuko2 character and wrote some good scenes with Theseus and Megami. I went inactive and he was unceremoniously killed...which is probably what I deserved but I still feel he deserved more. On me for going inactive though! I still had fun and have good memories with Paul Smith and please say the full thing!
My crazy rocker has been given to Rugga for SC3 and I’m pretty honored! He and his zippos remain in my heart.
1. Guy Rapide (v3)
Prior to Ace, I would say I felt most comfortable showing people Guy in terms of my SOTF writing and sometimes I think that’s pretty stupid of me. Guy is pretty quippy and focused a lot on Kallie Majors’ ass because I was contractually obligated to either kill or be horny every 100 words back then. He was, I think, the first kid with parkour as a listed interest and I understand that became a big deal in v4 (shout out the internet) and he had a pretty interesting character arc.
Prior to the island he had left France due to being involved in a crime and also had knocked up and walked out on Mary McKay. Guy being the parkour guy was about him always looking for escape and to avoid responsibility. It was a metaphor and I was super duper clever. He finds himself on the island where he meets Alice Jones and assumes responsibility for her. There’s a little cute fluffy romance there but it was Guy finding something worth working towards that I liked. He attached himself to Alice because being responsible for her made him feel less obligated to be responsible for his own care. He misconstrues that as affection and both he and Alice are ill equipped to deal with that. I would've loved to explore it more--Guy was a little shit for sure but he had a certain likability. Unfortunately I went inactive and he died shortly afterwards.
His demise, I have mixed feelings on, I love the flashback scene Dodd wrote and I actually love that he rejected Mary again...it’s just obvious that it was gratuitous and too soon, even at the time. Mary’s own death and Doddpool Dodding it up kinda did an injustice to Guy...but I had done the bigger one by going inactive. He remains my first and only scrolly quote! Prior to it being a BDA and back when it was just staff nepotism.
I was offered to be in the v3 escape plot and Guy would’ve been my escapee, one of my big SOTF regrets is that I didn’t have him escape but then I guess I would’ve had to RP with Dodd in Meanwhile and Dodd and Guy obviously don’t mix (just messing Dodd, you know I love you). In a SC3 run I would just try and focus more on the themes I established with Guy and refine him a bit more as benefits a decade in between writing. I liked the kid, I did him wrong, he remained my favorite until v7.
Enjoy the number one slot why you got it little buddy.
Not including Ace because he ain’t done and I’m pretty sure it’s obvious I rep him 11 threads deep more than any of these jamokes.
No v2 characters because what? I was in v2? (I can do this joke too)
5.Peri Barclay (adopted; v1)
As an adoption, I’m pretty sure Peri is a testament towards what not to do. I hadn’t read all of his work with Mismatched_Eyes and largely actually disliked his style at the time. I wrote Peri differently but he explored themes that I always found interesting in characters like that (see: players) which is a certain level of compassion paired with the cruelty. I was very young when I wrote Peri, 14-15, and I would end up writing a lot of shitty stuff on SOTF, but Peri’s sensitivity and his romantic arc with Dorian are somethings I remain pretty proud of. When I came back Vicky described him as the “Secret good Chad character!” and I take that compliment as what it is.
I’m also pretty glad that my sole gay character was not written camp or stereotypically even exiting middle school and having the rest of my misogynistic and ignorant views documented for all time. I’m pretty proud of young Chad for that.
4. Evelyn Richinson (v3)
I really like my female football captain even though she has fucked up hair. Ace ended up inheriting a lot of Evelyn’s dedication and good nature but I liked that Evelyn was the Captain. She was ambitious and dedicated but also she was supposed to be confident and skilled. A 5’2” girl who played football and ran like an Olympic track athlete--I did her dirty. Her athleticism would have to be dialed down in a potential SC3 run but I have a soft spot for the Captain. Like I said, I’ve given a lot of her spirit and energy to Ace and so I consider him sort of her torch bearer. I regret that I killed her on a whim, there was good stuff here and I should’ve explored it more in v3 considering my overall legacy in that version.
3. Blood Boy (v3)
People are always surprised to a certain extent when I say that I don’t regret Blood Boy and have a largely good memory in writing him. He’s the edgelord’s edgelord, disfiguremet, orphan, fucked up sex shit in the bio and hyper violence paired with a comic book type bend for realism and nicknames. This is the Chad special extra onion. I have regret for how much his pre-game arc was tied to chat culture and the penchant for hyperviolence can be attributed to that and my own transgressive teenage writing. Nate was unique and divisive then, a polarizing and controversial character even during his pre-game and I figured he became the poster child for early version craziness for quite a long time? He certainly has it all--song posts, rapey undertones, torture and gimmicks. He couldn’t function in current era SOTF and he barely functioned in his version.
And yet?
I had a lot of fun with Nate.
He was a unique character who missed his mark and I was a young writer who didn’t know what his mark was and had a lot of OOC baggage to work through as well. If attacking his character in a SC3 I would want to focus on Nate’s isolation and the general themes of disassociation. There are glimmers there that maybe only I can see but he’s still my little magician boy. He won my only BKA--a testament to the era that birthed him and an illustration of why that era had to change. He’s absolute garbage--but I am trash and live amongst the trash.
The smiley face remains the sigil of house Chadsworth.
2. Paul Smith (v3)
Another gratuitous member of the gratuitous gang Paul has a lot of Chaddisms in him from the anime like design to the older age to the exaggerated sexual history and fighting prowess garnered from Pre-Game. He has some disgusting pre-game one-shots that I am not too proud of that were really there just for me to write juvenile sex stories...but I guess since I was seventeen that makes a bit of sense? There’s a lot wrong with Paul and yet there’s a lot of good with him as well.
He took up a lot of early residence in my mind in v3 and I entered that version with my goal being to win with Paul--probably explains a pretty God-Mody scene early on with him stealing a gun from Melina. But screw you Tony, ten years later I can say, Paul deserved that more than Melina
. He was over the top and suffered from my own immaturity but I liked Paul’s approach to the game and I liked how he felt attached to his friends and dreams of the future. He struggled with both his outward and self image and he remained pretty fun to write and quip with. I got to write with Adam Dodd (albeit v3 version) and make out with another Mitsuko2 character and wrote some good scenes with Theseus and Megami. I went inactive and he was unceremoniously killed...which is probably what I deserved but I still feel he deserved more. On me for going inactive though! I still had fun and have good memories with Paul Smith and please say the full thing!My crazy rocker has been given to Rugga for SC3 and I’m pretty honored! He and his zippos remain in my heart.
1. Guy Rapide (v3)
Prior to Ace, I would say I felt most comfortable showing people Guy in terms of my SOTF writing and sometimes I think that’s pretty stupid of me. Guy is pretty quippy and focused a lot on Kallie Majors’ ass because I was contractually obligated to either kill or be horny every 100 words back then. He was, I think, the first kid with parkour as a listed interest and I understand that became a big deal in v4 (shout out the internet) and he had a pretty interesting character arc.
Prior to the island he had left France due to being involved in a crime and also had knocked up and walked out on Mary McKay. Guy being the parkour guy was about him always looking for escape and to avoid responsibility. It was a metaphor and I was super duper clever. He finds himself on the island where he meets Alice Jones and assumes responsibility for her. There’s a little cute fluffy romance there but it was Guy finding something worth working towards that I liked. He attached himself to Alice because being responsible for her made him feel less obligated to be responsible for his own care. He misconstrues that as affection and both he and Alice are ill equipped to deal with that. I would've loved to explore it more--Guy was a little shit for sure but he had a certain likability. Unfortunately I went inactive and he died shortly afterwards.
His demise, I have mixed feelings on, I love the flashback scene Dodd wrote and I actually love that he rejected Mary again...it’s just obvious that it was gratuitous and too soon, even at the time. Mary’s own death and Doddpool Dodding it up kinda did an injustice to Guy...but I had done the bigger one by going inactive. He remains my first and only scrolly quote! Prior to it being a BDA and back when it was just staff nepotism.
I was offered to be in the v3 escape plot and Guy would’ve been my escapee, one of my big SOTF regrets is that I didn’t have him escape but then I guess I would’ve had to RP with Dodd in Meanwhile and Dodd and Guy obviously don’t mix (just messing Dodd, you know I love you). In a SC3 run I would just try and focus more on the themes I established with Guy and refine him a bit more as benefits a decade in between writing. I liked the kid, I did him wrong, he remained my favorite until v7.
Enjoy the number one slot why you got it little buddy.
Okay, I’m gonna be ranking from worst to best. Here goes. I’m also not including any of the kids I adopted. The only ones on this list will be kids whose profiles I wrote myself.
#19 - Velvet Retsiloh
Ahh Velvet… She was a decent concept that I never did anything with because I went inactive right after I got her approved. I didn’t have a single post with this character, but luckily someone adopted her and did her some sort of justice. As I never used her she ends up last on my list.
#18 - Jamie Dibenidetti
Jamie was basically a non-character. She was basically just a means to showcase Mariavel as a villain and to give Anna a reason to keep going forward. She’d be last if not for the fact that I never used Velvet in game. Fodder kids are not good, ya’ll.
#17 - Rebecca Bradbury
Another fodder kid. She wasn’t originally planned as such, but I made a deal with Chad in order for him to save one of my other kids that I’d let him kill one with Blood Boy, so Rebecca got the axe. She was a decent concept, too. Shame she only really got a few posts before her untimely demise. Maybe I’ll bring her back for Second Chances and do her Justice.
#16 - Melanie DeSilva
Good concept, bad delivery. I wasn’t cut out to have a cunning character like she was supposed to be in V2. She ended up being a blubbering mess I was happy to kill off once rolled. My lack of skill killed the character. If anyone wants the rights to her for a Second Chances run I’m more than willing to give them. She deserved better. That seems to be a theme with my early kids.
#15 - Preston Grey
Oof. I did this kid dirtier than any other. I liked Preston, and I wish I’d had the opportunity to give him better characterization than I did. He barely existed at all, TBH, but what he did was decent enough. Enough to keep him higher on the list than some of the others at least. V2 was not my best work.
#14 - Lucy O’Donnell
Lucy was barely a real character. She was an NPC solely created for the escape plot line between me and Megami. I only got to post with her once, because I went inactive, but I was happy to see better writers take her over and give her a respectable narrative before killing her off as she was always meant to be.
#13 - Lavender Heart
Oh boy. She was always better in theory. Originally Kaishi was playing her, but when we moved boards and Kaishi was no longer around, I still needed her for Mariavel’s arc so I rewrote her and took her over. I didn’t really understand her, and she suffered for it. She never really had an arc of her own, and I regret that.
#12 - Penelope Withers
Another case of decent concept, bad delivery. Her backstory is a bit out there, but I was proud of what she was intended to be. Instead she ended up seeming very bi-polar in attitude, and is honestly pretty unreadable when I look back. It’s unfortunate, because I remember really enjoying her as a character when I was originally writing her.
#11 - Olivia Swan
I really liked Olivia, and I’m sad I killed her off as soon as I did. She had a lot of potential, but I basically killed her for the meme Mimi and I came up with on a whim. I feel like she could have done something interesting had I kept her around longer (and had I not gone inactive halfway through V3). She’s another kid I’m desperate to give another shot at in Second Chances.
#10 - Kyrie Joseph
Kyrie was a good concept, and was actually the kid I originally had planned on letting survive the Escape plan. I’m happy that she ended up affecting the few kids she did interact with in V3 and adding to their stories. I wish I’d been able to do more with her as a writer, but even with how little there is I’m still rather proud of what I wrote.
#9 - Serenity Halos
Oh Serenity. Sweet baby child. Dragged around the island for days like a sack of potatoes. The arc I originally had planned for her was much different than what she became, but all in all I still really like Serenity and am happy with how her arc resolved itself. I know she’s not very popular with others, but I always have a soft spot in my heart for this girl.
#8 - Anna Dibenidetti
Possibly my best written kid in V2. Sad as that is. She started out rough, and I really didn’t like her much until I coupled her with Cyco’s Huy. After that she kind of took on a mind of her own and wrote herself. She may be my most tragic character, and I appreciate that her story affected people. She ended up being someone I cared a lot about in V2, and I was very sad when time came to kill her off. There’s an AU somewhere with her and Huy living happily ever after.
#7 - Regina Petrov
I’m enjoying Regina, but I have a lot of trouble getting into her headspace sometimes. I definitely see her as an evolved and better written version of some of my early version ‘nice girl’ characters like Kyrie and Serenity. I’m really excited to see where her story goes, but just from writing quality alone she’s above a good portion of my kids.
#6 - Matthew Wittany
Matt, as much crap as he got at the time and after, is still one of my favorite kids I wrote in the early versions. He was really a representation of how I felt about myself in those days, and I still feel a deep connection to him and everything he went through on the island. I’m glad i had him survive, and get somewhat of a happy-ish ending. His time with SADD and his friendship with Niel and Domenica was some of my favorite stuff I wrote in V3 and I still sometimes go back and reread him. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be getting a glimpse of him again in the future.
#5 - Jackson Sullivan
Jackson is probably closest to how my real personality works, so I really enjoy writing with him. He has a boatload of underlying issues to address, but at his core he’s a good person, and I admire and appreciate that. Should he last, I have a lot of plans in my head for what his experience on the island will be, so I hope you all look forward to it as much as I do. Also, his #Swiftball roof escapades were some of the most fun writing I did during pregame.
#4 - Melina Frost
VASE RAPE. Well, at least that seems to be what she’s known for. She was somewhat of an evolved Mariavel concept, in that I did a lot more introspection with her. Unfortunately I still wasn’t quite up to snuff as a writer, so it didn’t always land the way I wanted, but I’m still extraordinarily proud of what I did with this character, and even though I went inactive i was happy to see her get the kind of death she deserved. The Poison Angels (or is it Angles? J/K) were not the best villain group by far, but I enjoyed their escapades. Plus, two-facing her was some of my better writing I think, and her flashback still upsets me to this day. The red-headed bitch was cool, and I stan her.
#3 - Amelia Fischer
She’s so fucking precious and i love her. She was built within an hour on the profile writing discord, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with a concept. She’s very outside anything I’ve ever done on this RP and I really love digging into her strange little mind and pulling out her ridiculous energy. I do not look forward to the day she gets rolled and I have to kill her off. I will be very upset and will cry like a baby. Even so, I’m happy with who she molded into being and really can’t wait for the game to take its toll and change her for the worse. I’m a bad father to my children.
#2 - Mariavel Varella
Well, if you didn’t expect this then you’re ridiculous. Mari wasn’t always the best written or conceived. And sure, sometimes she was wildly insufferable and contrived. But I gotta admit that I absolutely love this character and what i was able to do with her. I was not a good writer back in V2, that much is clear, but Mariavel was still somehow a kid that resonated with me as their writer and I wish I had been able to do her the justice of finishing her story myself. I will 100% be submitting her in the next Second Chances, and I’m very excited to be able to write her with the skills I’ve gained over the years. Look out ya’ll, the bitch will be back soon.
#1 - Lorenzo Tavares
And finally, I have to give the number 1 spot to my boy here. I’ve written more with this character than all my past kids besides maybe Mariavel, and because of that I have a deep connection with him and how he thinks and acts. He may very well be the best written kid I’ve ever done, and it makes me so happy that other people seem to be reacting well to what I've been doing with him. I plan to make his journey even better as it continues, and I hope that when his arc inevitably ends, that people will remember him fondly and enjoy what that arc produces.
#19 - Velvet Retsiloh
Ahh Velvet… She was a decent concept that I never did anything with because I went inactive right after I got her approved. I didn’t have a single post with this character, but luckily someone adopted her and did her some sort of justice. As I never used her she ends up last on my list.
#18 - Jamie Dibenidetti
Jamie was basically a non-character. She was basically just a means to showcase Mariavel as a villain and to give Anna a reason to keep going forward. She’d be last if not for the fact that I never used Velvet in game. Fodder kids are not good, ya’ll.
#17 - Rebecca Bradbury
Another fodder kid. She wasn’t originally planned as such, but I made a deal with Chad in order for him to save one of my other kids that I’d let him kill one with Blood Boy, so Rebecca got the axe. She was a decent concept, too. Shame she only really got a few posts before her untimely demise. Maybe I’ll bring her back for Second Chances and do her Justice.
#16 - Melanie DeSilva
Good concept, bad delivery. I wasn’t cut out to have a cunning character like she was supposed to be in V2. She ended up being a blubbering mess I was happy to kill off once rolled. My lack of skill killed the character. If anyone wants the rights to her for a Second Chances run I’m more than willing to give them. She deserved better. That seems to be a theme with my early kids.
#15 - Preston Grey
Oof. I did this kid dirtier than any other. I liked Preston, and I wish I’d had the opportunity to give him better characterization than I did. He barely existed at all, TBH, but what he did was decent enough. Enough to keep him higher on the list than some of the others at least. V2 was not my best work.
#14 - Lucy O’Donnell
Lucy was barely a real character. She was an NPC solely created for the escape plot line between me and Megami. I only got to post with her once, because I went inactive, but I was happy to see better writers take her over and give her a respectable narrative before killing her off as she was always meant to be.
#13 - Lavender Heart
Oh boy. She was always better in theory. Originally Kaishi was playing her, but when we moved boards and Kaishi was no longer around, I still needed her for Mariavel’s arc so I rewrote her and took her over. I didn’t really understand her, and she suffered for it. She never really had an arc of her own, and I regret that.
#12 - Penelope Withers
Another case of decent concept, bad delivery. Her backstory is a bit out there, but I was proud of what she was intended to be. Instead she ended up seeming very bi-polar in attitude, and is honestly pretty unreadable when I look back. It’s unfortunate, because I remember really enjoying her as a character when I was originally writing her.
#11 - Olivia Swan
I really liked Olivia, and I’m sad I killed her off as soon as I did. She had a lot of potential, but I basically killed her for the meme Mimi and I came up with on a whim. I feel like she could have done something interesting had I kept her around longer (and had I not gone inactive halfway through V3). She’s another kid I’m desperate to give another shot at in Second Chances.
#10 - Kyrie Joseph
Kyrie was a good concept, and was actually the kid I originally had planned on letting survive the Escape plan. I’m happy that she ended up affecting the few kids she did interact with in V3 and adding to their stories. I wish I’d been able to do more with her as a writer, but even with how little there is I’m still rather proud of what I wrote.
#9 - Serenity Halos
Oh Serenity. Sweet baby child. Dragged around the island for days like a sack of potatoes. The arc I originally had planned for her was much different than what she became, but all in all I still really like Serenity and am happy with how her arc resolved itself. I know she’s not very popular with others, but I always have a soft spot in my heart for this girl.
#8 - Anna Dibenidetti
Possibly my best written kid in V2. Sad as that is. She started out rough, and I really didn’t like her much until I coupled her with Cyco’s Huy. After that she kind of took on a mind of her own and wrote herself. She may be my most tragic character, and I appreciate that her story affected people. She ended up being someone I cared a lot about in V2, and I was very sad when time came to kill her off. There’s an AU somewhere with her and Huy living happily ever after.
#7 - Regina Petrov
I’m enjoying Regina, but I have a lot of trouble getting into her headspace sometimes. I definitely see her as an evolved and better written version of some of my early version ‘nice girl’ characters like Kyrie and Serenity. I’m really excited to see where her story goes, but just from writing quality alone she’s above a good portion of my kids.
#6 - Matthew Wittany
Matt, as much crap as he got at the time and after, is still one of my favorite kids I wrote in the early versions. He was really a representation of how I felt about myself in those days, and I still feel a deep connection to him and everything he went through on the island. I’m glad i had him survive, and get somewhat of a happy-ish ending. His time with SADD and his friendship with Niel and Domenica was some of my favorite stuff I wrote in V3 and I still sometimes go back and reread him. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be getting a glimpse of him again in the future.
#5 - Jackson Sullivan
Jackson is probably closest to how my real personality works, so I really enjoy writing with him. He has a boatload of underlying issues to address, but at his core he’s a good person, and I admire and appreciate that. Should he last, I have a lot of plans in my head for what his experience on the island will be, so I hope you all look forward to it as much as I do. Also, his #Swiftball roof escapades were some of the most fun writing I did during pregame.
#4 - Melina Frost
VASE RAPE. Well, at least that seems to be what she’s known for. She was somewhat of an evolved Mariavel concept, in that I did a lot more introspection with her. Unfortunately I still wasn’t quite up to snuff as a writer, so it didn’t always land the way I wanted, but I’m still extraordinarily proud of what I did with this character, and even though I went inactive i was happy to see her get the kind of death she deserved. The Poison Angels (or is it Angles? J/K) were not the best villain group by far, but I enjoyed their escapades. Plus, two-facing her was some of my better writing I think, and her flashback still upsets me to this day. The red-headed bitch was cool, and I stan her.
#3 - Amelia Fischer
She’s so fucking precious and i love her. She was built within an hour on the profile writing discord, and I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with a concept. She’s very outside anything I’ve ever done on this RP and I really love digging into her strange little mind and pulling out her ridiculous energy. I do not look forward to the day she gets rolled and I have to kill her off. I will be very upset and will cry like a baby. Even so, I’m happy with who she molded into being and really can’t wait for the game to take its toll and change her for the worse. I’m a bad father to my children.
#2 - Mariavel Varella
Well, if you didn’t expect this then you’re ridiculous. Mari wasn’t always the best written or conceived. And sure, sometimes she was wildly insufferable and contrived. But I gotta admit that I absolutely love this character and what i was able to do with her. I was not a good writer back in V2, that much is clear, but Mariavel was still somehow a kid that resonated with me as their writer and I wish I had been able to do her the justice of finishing her story myself. I will 100% be submitting her in the next Second Chances, and I’m very excited to be able to write her with the skills I’ve gained over the years. Look out ya’ll, the bitch will be back soon.
#1 - Lorenzo Tavares
And finally, I have to give the number 1 spot to my boy here. I’ve written more with this character than all my past kids besides maybe Mariavel, and because of that I have a deep connection with him and how he thinks and acts. He may very well be the best written kid I’ve ever done, and it makes me so happy that other people seem to be reacting well to what I've been doing with him. I plan to make his journey even better as it continues, and I hope that when his arc inevitably ends, that people will remember him fondly and enjoy what that arc produces.
"version almost over" bump
1) Abel Zelenovic - Just gonna come out and say it, I really don't think I'm gonna be able to surpass Abel again with the amount of work and effort it took in pregame for his gambit to pay off.
2) Desiree Beck - I really did have a lot of fun with Desiree and experimenting with different conceptual things like the ouija thread or the detention thread or at the mall with her mom, and really wish I got to do more with her on island. But I think letting rolls take her away so early on was a good call, and I really am proud of her tragically short time with the OG Clout Gang.
3) Teresa Rojas - Probably my (adopted) kid fueled mostly by my own self-indulgence and doing things just because. Teresa's probably been my favorite kid to write and I'm really glad Yugikun gave me the opportunity after he left from V7. I'm not sure how well she actually would hold up mechanically partially because of how reader-unfriendly and incoherent her posts probably can be to anyone other than myself, but I really had a blast and there's very little I would change that I had control over after the fact.
4) Ramsey Cortez - I had a lot of fun with Ramsey, too, and he probably has the death sequence I'm most proud of. His position here is because I think I just did an okay job after Cicada handed him to me extremely late in pregame. He's just Vibing, but like in an acceptable way.
5) Kayla Harris - I liked writing her in pregame as a force of nature/physical manifestation of an internet troll, but I'm still kind of glad about handing her off since I really didn't see myself holding onto her for Meanwhile and, idunno, I just didn't think I could keep up her gimmick come island when it's a whole different ballgame. I'd file her under Acceptable while under my tenure as well.
6) Johnny Silva-Ruiz - Conversely, while I also had fun with Johnny, I feel like I didn't really do a good job with him. I don't think I ever got a good consistent hold on his voice especially carrying over from how he was under Espi, and I feel like he just meanders a lot under my tenure. A lot of the reasons why I ended up unroll killing him in the boathouse with Nia was because of what I felt like were my own personal failures with him, and at that point I thought it would be better to let him go then instead of meandering around between threads even more just waiting to get rolled.
7) Alexander de Gaulle - Same reasons for being here as Johnny. I really did him dirty letting him go inactive as a consequence of my own frustrations over V5.
8) Megan Emerson - Yeah yeah yeah matrix fairies the fanfic the multishots yeah. I'm still really proud of 95% of her island time up until splitting off after Francis's death, but after the fact there's a lot I really wish I didn't get wrapped into and listened to my own voice and others' about bailing from plans, but it's what it is.
Remind me to update with Katelynne once she's done.
2) Desiree Beck - I really did have a lot of fun with Desiree and experimenting with different conceptual things like the ouija thread or the detention thread or at the mall with her mom, and really wish I got to do more with her on island. But I think letting rolls take her away so early on was a good call, and I really am proud of her tragically short time with the OG Clout Gang.
3) Teresa Rojas - Probably my (adopted) kid fueled mostly by my own self-indulgence and doing things just because. Teresa's probably been my favorite kid to write and I'm really glad Yugikun gave me the opportunity after he left from V7. I'm not sure how well she actually would hold up mechanically partially because of how reader-unfriendly and incoherent her posts probably can be to anyone other than myself, but I really had a blast and there's very little I would change that I had control over after the fact.
4) Ramsey Cortez - I had a lot of fun with Ramsey, too, and he probably has the death sequence I'm most proud of. His position here is because I think I just did an okay job after Cicada handed him to me extremely late in pregame. He's just Vibing, but like in an acceptable way.
5) Kayla Harris - I liked writing her in pregame as a force of nature/physical manifestation of an internet troll, but I'm still kind of glad about handing her off since I really didn't see myself holding onto her for Meanwhile and, idunno, I just didn't think I could keep up her gimmick come island when it's a whole different ballgame. I'd file her under Acceptable while under my tenure as well.
6) Johnny Silva-Ruiz - Conversely, while I also had fun with Johnny, I feel like I didn't really do a good job with him. I don't think I ever got a good consistent hold on his voice especially carrying over from how he was under Espi, and I feel like he just meanders a lot under my tenure. A lot of the reasons why I ended up unroll killing him in the boathouse with Nia was because of what I felt like were my own personal failures with him, and at that point I thought it would be better to let him go then instead of meandering around between threads even more just waiting to get rolled.
7) Alexander de Gaulle - Same reasons for being here as Johnny. I really did him dirty letting him go inactive as a consequence of my own frustrations over V5.
8) Megan Emerson - Yeah yeah yeah matrix fairies the fanfic the multishots yeah. I'm still really proud of 95% of her island time up until splitting off after Francis's death, but after the fact there's a lot I really wish I didn't get wrapped into and listened to my own voice and others' about bailing from plans, but it's what it is.
Remind me to update with Katelynne once she's done.
It's time for the once-yearly 'whatchu think about your kids' list.
How I've done it this time around: I tried to sort my characters in to one of five tiers - "Excellent", "Good", "Okay", "Meh", and "Bad". From there, I sorted them on how I liked them based upon the tier that they landed in. That gave me the master ranking, which I pretty much agree with. I have thirty-eight characters across Main and Mini. My goodness.
So with that being said, let's get started.
I was going to exclude the bottom three tiers, but Sven Vee happened and he made Wade rise. That's literally the only change. I won't include Kurt Thorne (TV3) because I haven't rped him yet; I don't even know what he's gonna be like.
Bad Tier:
"Meh" Tier:
Okay Tier:
21. Wade Wilson (V3/V7)
So if you want to look at the old blurb for Wade, nothing has really changed. What moved him into the 'okay' tier is that I got a really interesting proposal from a certain handler on the site and while I've tried fairly hard to distance myself from a lot of what I did in V3, this was a strange little pocket that I enjoyed revisiting if nothing else for the weirdness factor. It didn't mean much in the long run and I know that some people absolutely hated it, but it sort of helped me reconcile why I wrote him originally and he worked far better as a dying hallucination than he ever did as an actual character.
20. Adam Amato (V2)
Another character based off of a RL university friend, Adam didn't do a whole lot in-game aside from be aggressive and threaten people in church not to swear in church, but he was the first example of a character that I wrote that had a temper, and I felt that until I went inactive, he was actually going pretty well. Don't go inactive, folks. It's bad for your characters' health.
19. Kate Sanderson (PV3 Prologue)
Kate was a really tough character for me to write, and in a lot of ways ended up being unfulfilled promise for me. I wanted to try and write a character who was quiet, who didn't have a lot to say, and who needed to rely upon someone else to survive. In doing that, I also wanted to try and test out a lot of different things - playing with doing multiple-character threads but writing each character as a distinct entity. I am fairly happy with how Kate's story went, except for the fact that I just frankly ran out of time for it. I had to end her story off differently than I had planned, and because she spent a large degree of time unconscious, I felt it made more sense to flip her and William Apgar's fates around when push came to shove and it was time to make a choice. Kate's notable for me because I really fucked around with formatting in a few of her posts, which is a bit off the beaten path for me. She's in the 'okay' tier because of the unfulfilled promise, and I do think she's worth a read.
At this point I wholly recommend and still enjoy all of these characters for one reason or another.
Good Tier:
18. Jamie Li (V4)
I've gone back and read Jamie a few times and I'm constantly stuck shaking my head and going 'dude you were in v4?' What's more, she has five threads and a pregame. I've read Jamie back a few times and while she's not overly remarkable, she fits in fairly well with the more serious direction the site was going in at the time, and had I not inactived out, I probably would have done some neat stuff with her. Jamie's notable too because she threads with the character that was handled by RL Riz in his SOTF sojourn. Ohm has SC rights for Jamie and I'm really intrigued to see her again.
17. Ryan Atwell (V3)
I've come around a lot more on Ryan than I had a year ago. While still a bit of a relic of the times in that he sort of just appeared in the second half of the game (thanks to ever-constant character registrations), I actually think he's not bad. He gets stuck in this gigantic Dodd oneshot which is a bit cumbersome to read (ffs, old me) but his stuff with Steve is really nice and I like how everything ended. I was enjoying writing someone who was more of a deep thinker and felt themselves more at one with nature. I know that he's the outlier in the V3 f10, but I liked what I did with him, and I'm reminded of the guy I based him on when I read him, so I see that as a success.
16. Cole Hudson (V1)
My first SOTF death was Cole. I'll let my earlier ranking speak for itself: "I liked Cole. He had an admittedly weird profile story that... maybe I thought was a good idea at the time? But I think with some revamping I could totally make him work in a current-era style version. He's a relic of the v1 era, but I have a soft spot for him. Were other people to rank my kids, he probably wouldn't finish as high, but... I dunno. I liked what I got out of him." Literally no change in my thought process when it comes to Cole. He was fun, and shows I was making HHH references before it was cool.
15. Ross Miller (V7)
So Meanwhiles have opened up and while circumstances have not allowed me to dive TOO far into Ross' story thus far, I have been really happy with what I've been able to write of him thus far. Watching the game take place from afar and reacting as he has, there are a few posts I've been really thrilled to take from conception to reality. I hope that his story, once finished, will end up impactful and an enjoyable read — if not necessarily for anyone else, but for me. I suspect that once I get down to 1 or 0 characters, Ross' story will really start to flow (currently at 3 including PV3). He'll likely end up in the single digits, as most of my v7 kids will.
14. Andrew Ponikarovsky (V2)
Once more, with feeling: "Wasted potential - again. I remember going back and reading the end of his story when I returned after I left the site the first time, and I was SO disappointed. I was really enjoying where he was going, and the thing with him and Carmen had some potential to be fun. As a fun side-note, this is the SOTF character that has caused me the most grief, as the RL friend that the character used to be named after ended up finding it and was REALLY unimpressed with me. Hence why he's named after a 2000s-era Toronto Maple Leafs winger."
The addendum to Pants is that he's actually been really well-received, even though he was abortive and died in an inactive-cleanse. As far as my own characters that had short stays (which were numerous) he's probably the best of the bunch, because he had his own clever way about him, he read uniquely, and his interactions with Carmen were cool. I'll never bring him back since, like, read the above, but he was fun.
13. Eddie Serjeantson (V1)
I love the sarge. Unashamedly, I love everything about this character. EVEN THE DAMNED MURDERBUSH DEATH. Eddie once again actually manages to fall in the rankings based upon the strength of the characters around him. The original list, he was number 3. Originally when I was writing this out for the second time, he was number 4. At this point in time, he's tumbled again, down to 13. That isn't an indictment of the Sarge on his own, but if I'm looking at it with a clear eye, he's fondly remembered but isn't spectacular. I do have to account for Eddie's memory being a major factor in one of my all-time favourite pieces of my own SOTF writing; "The Essay". Barring a minor catastrophe, I will 100% be playing him again in SC3 - this has not changed, he's a locked-in SC3 kid.
12. Sidney Crosby (V1)
Imagine for a second that instead of being named 'Sidney Crosby', he was 'Sidney Craven" or "Sid Carswell" or something like that. Instead of being a famed hockey phenom from Canada, maybe he's a highly-touted draft pick of a professional hockey team. Imagine those two things are different. Barring the questionable V1-era kidnapping, I think he's a tremendously good character whose defining characteristic is his cowardice. Sid is a coward from front to pretty much his end, and he manages to stumble and bumble his way into the final 4, where he comes face to face with an old nemesis, who eventually defeats him, though it leads to his undoing. His final act, and perhaps his only act of bravery gets him killed, but defeats his greatest enemy. Sid Carswell might die, but he has a massive impact upon the final act of v1.
Of course, his name is Sidney Crosby, and in the years that have passed since 2005, he's turned in to one of the greatest hockey players of our generation, winning three Stanley Cups and becoming a world renowned athlete. So naturally, people are going to say "man, what the fuck was he thinking?" Originally at number three on my list, I've gone back and read him a few times over the last year, and unfortunately some of his story just doesn't quite hold up to snuff. I think some of it has to do with the characters around him being fairly wacky and all over the map and it's tough to ground him. Sid tumbles hard as my new kids have arrived.
11. William Apgar (PV3 Prologue)
A lot of the same pitfalls for Kate below apply to Willy, but there was something about him that really appealed to me. Maybe it was because of the fact that he had to drive a lot of the action, or maybe it was because he seemed to keep an effortless optimism about himself, but I really do like how Willy's story ended up going. Originally, he was going to die after participating in a fairly decent battle, and Kate would have to put him down for his own comfort's sake. Of course, then I ran out of time, and Willy ended up being the more established kid with a bit more story that I could explore in the After. I have yet to do it, but it's comin'. Not bad for a kid who was originally an NPC and got promoted fairly last-minute. Willy jumps a spot because I read Sidney this year and liked him less than I did before.
10. Amanda Jones (V1)
Before, I had her at the top of the "good" tier, but squeezed her up a notch at the last minute. This time, the inverse is true. The hard part about writing two characters in the same group, or "handlercesting" as we've taken to calling it, is that both of your characters have to be distinct and different from one another while still maintaining the integrity of the scene. While Amanda has some weak points at times - she tends to fall by the wayside when Adam monologues, and her death is literally me protesting a surprise death of another character, I originally had planned to have her survive Dodd and outlast everyone else in the group. As such, while Dodd was often at the forefront, I tried very hard to make sure that Amanda had her own distinct personality and some of her own baggage that I could come up with when I was writing her once Dodd died. Of course, then I threw a temper tantrum and shot her face off. Stupid me. She has her strong moments; I'm especially proud of when Dodd shoots Marcus, and she disagrees so vehemently she leaves the area. Amanda's SC3 rights are currently held by Bowser (provided he's still here), and though a character named Amanda appeared in an SC2 announcement with Dodd as fluff, I think we're saying it's a different Amanda.
A couple of kids have moved up, so the excellent tier now starts at 9.
Excellent Tier:
9. Adam Dodd (V3)
V3 Dodd jumps a tier. Okay, yeah. I know the popular opinion - even my own - is that I shouldn't have brought him back. Yet in reading him back for REASONS, I'm actually okay with large parts of him, and I think some of the issue with his prose is more on me as a writer rather than he as a character. Naft famously said that he was a bit of a misfire for V3, and I don't disagree, but there's actually some really nice stuff in there - his dynamic with Bill; the warehouse when people actually call him on his shit is great from a reader's POV, and I almost wish I'd leaned into it a bit more instead of being totally blind to it. His ending, too. I'm really proud of that, still. So fuck it - up a tier he goes but he isn't cracking my top 5 and I feel okay about that. Also, man it was really hard not to italicize him to troll everyone.
8. Ariana Moretti (V7)
So Ariana was a bit of a ride for me. Originally coming about because I couldn't find anyone to play Ross' girlfriend, she became a really enjoyable character to write in her own right. Obviously her t-shirt and her apparel becomes in hindsight problematic because of the climate of 2020, but she was written more as someone whose want to stick to authority clashed with her temper and her tendency to go off on a hair-trigger temper. Indeed, I got to write a few of these moments and they were great! Her death worked out really well I thought, and I'm glad it lands as well as it does with me when I read it back. Obviously, had my couple not been played by the same handler it probably reads better, but I'm still very happy with how she turned out. Pleasantly surprised and I wouldn't be surprised to see her improve with the benefit of more hindsight.
7. Victoria Amaro (PV3)
So in the vein of Claudeson, who came in at number 6, Victoria was a tough concept for me. Making someone who is always going to find their way into playing is something that I've never really written effectively before, and she actually ran into the exact same roadblock that I found with Claude, who I'll discuss after — once she killed, it sort of seemed like I ran out of real estate. I think she was good for what she was, but I wrote her into a bit of a corner and so when she was rolled, it was a good thing. Originally when I started the game she was to be my flagship, but I think if Fisher had been rolled at the time I likely would have swapped him out for Victoria anyways. I like what I was able to accomplish with her, but when writing villains in the future I'll have to be careful not to finish my story before it ends, if you catch my drift.
6. Claudeson Bademosi (V7)
Conversely to Ariana, Claudeson was a really ambitious character that I knew would either be really hit or miss just because of where my comfort zone is when writing. I think it's pretty well known that I'm more the kind of person to write hero-adjacent or 'decent everyman' types with a nice helping of sports. That's my wheelhouse. Mentally ill religious kid isn't really where my comfort zone went. The bits of his story that I think worked the best were the ones with Ty — writing with a quality character that my brother happened to be behind definitely didn't hurt either. I didn't get to the lofty heights that I originally wanted to with Claude, he sort of stalled out after his murders of Bryan and Bret, but I tried my best with him. I think I'm very pleased with his last two threads.
After thinking about it a LOT, I would wager that we will see Claudeson again in a SC game on Mini.
Top Five (The 'S' tier for you video game nerds)
5. Keith Jackson (V3)
Keith once had the top spot, but ended up down at five because as I've written more of him - and as I've reread his game, I've kind of come to the conclusion that he's almost better at the start and at the end than he is in the middle. I'm still endlessly excited for the off-island story that I've been writing with him in it, but as far as his SOTF journey goes, he's... decent. I think him being at the top of my rankings before was more me being excited than thinking rationally. So he's in the top 5 but I think this feels like a better spot for him. I am still very excited for his off-island journey that I'm still writing.
4. Morgan Dragosavich (V7)
Wow, so Morgan really jumped up a ton and a lot of that is because as I mentioned to someone the other day, he's had a very traditional SOTF story. Going into the game, he was the kid where I either figured he'd die first or last, because he was the one kid that I decided to just write and let the chips fall where they would. Having Slam and Kermit inject Lizzie and Michael into Morgan's story has made for a lot of places for Morgan to go, and there's a possibility - while maybe slim - that he surpasses Connor at this point. Depends how the order goes for the two of them. He's been a blast to write, top to bottom and I'm incredibly proud of his story.
3. Adam Dodd (V1)
I stand behind every word of V1 Adam Dodd outside of half of one scene. Barring that, he's SOTF's first winner and I'll always be proud of what I accomplished with him. Adam at the beginning is a stark reminder of the person that I was at 19, and it's neat to see how things have changed in the 14 years since. I think I'm at the point where barring something insane happening with any of my top 5 who are still kicking, he'll remain #2 almost always. AT LEAST UNTIL HE GOT KNOCKED OUT BY CONNOR AND FISHER. Whoops.
2. Connor Lorenzen (V7)
So at first glance, Connor's really inside of my wheelhouse. Sports guy, rich kid, doesn't want much. Yet somehow, he's managed to be like, one of the most unique characters I've ever written. He's probably the one character I've done that doesn't share a whole lot of characteristics with me, and thus he lands so damn high and takes over #2 spot because while he's not done yet, I'm really enjoying the journey he's started on. It's coming to an end, of course, but I hope the end is worth the time Absoit took to get there.
1. Fisher Darden (PV3)
They say that brevity is the soul of wit. Brevity has never been a thing associated with me. Like everyone else in this tier but Dodd, Fisher's not done yet — PV3 endgame is ongoing and he's still kicking, but I read him back a few times since the last go-round and I was actually shocked with how much I managed to pack in to his six or seven threads. PV3 isn't a long game, there were 33 people in it. Yet because the level of writing was so high, I somehow managed to keep him at the absolute apex of his game the whole way through. The reason he's at #1 is because there's not a single character on this list that I can read back and be completely, 100% happy with each letter and word of prose. Connor's had bumps, Dodd had that half-thread that I'd love to zap from existence, Keith's here mainly on the strength of his start and his end, and Morgan's had a few slow goes. Fisher has a solid start that remains solid all the way to endgame, and he's not done yet. While we're still working on it, I know that the ending will match the quality of the rest of his story and for that reason, he's my favourite kid I've ever written.
And that's all she wrote. Another million words, because #words.
How I've done it this time around: I tried to sort my characters in to one of five tiers - "Excellent", "Good", "Okay", "Meh", and "Bad". From there, I sorted them on how I liked them based upon the tier that they landed in. That gave me the master ranking, which I pretty much agree with. I have thirty-eight characters across Main and Mini. My goodness.
So with that being said, let's get started.
I was going to exclude the bottom three tiers, but Sven Vee happened and he made Wade rise. That's literally the only change. I won't include Kurt Thorne (TV3) because I haven't rped him yet; I don't even know what he's gonna be like.
Bad Tier:
"Meh" Tier:
Okay Tier:
21. Wade Wilson (V3/V7)
So if you want to look at the old blurb for Wade, nothing has really changed. What moved him into the 'okay' tier is that I got a really interesting proposal from a certain handler on the site and while I've tried fairly hard to distance myself from a lot of what I did in V3, this was a strange little pocket that I enjoyed revisiting if nothing else for the weirdness factor. It didn't mean much in the long run and I know that some people absolutely hated it, but it sort of helped me reconcile why I wrote him originally and he worked far better as a dying hallucination than he ever did as an actual character.
20. Adam Amato (V2)
Another character based off of a RL university friend, Adam didn't do a whole lot in-game aside from be aggressive and threaten people in church not to swear in church, but he was the first example of a character that I wrote that had a temper, and I felt that until I went inactive, he was actually going pretty well. Don't go inactive, folks. It's bad for your characters' health.
19. Kate Sanderson (PV3 Prologue)
Kate was a really tough character for me to write, and in a lot of ways ended up being unfulfilled promise for me. I wanted to try and write a character who was quiet, who didn't have a lot to say, and who needed to rely upon someone else to survive. In doing that, I also wanted to try and test out a lot of different things - playing with doing multiple-character threads but writing each character as a distinct entity. I am fairly happy with how Kate's story went, except for the fact that I just frankly ran out of time for it. I had to end her story off differently than I had planned, and because she spent a large degree of time unconscious, I felt it made more sense to flip her and William Apgar's fates around when push came to shove and it was time to make a choice. Kate's notable for me because I really fucked around with formatting in a few of her posts, which is a bit off the beaten path for me. She's in the 'okay' tier because of the unfulfilled promise, and I do think she's worth a read.
At this point I wholly recommend and still enjoy all of these characters for one reason or another.
Good Tier:
18. Jamie Li (V4)
I've gone back and read Jamie a few times and I'm constantly stuck shaking my head and going 'dude you were in v4?' What's more, she has five threads and a pregame. I've read Jamie back a few times and while she's not overly remarkable, she fits in fairly well with the more serious direction the site was going in at the time, and had I not inactived out, I probably would have done some neat stuff with her. Jamie's notable too because she threads with the character that was handled by RL Riz in his SOTF sojourn. Ohm has SC rights for Jamie and I'm really intrigued to see her again.
17. Ryan Atwell (V3)
I've come around a lot more on Ryan than I had a year ago. While still a bit of a relic of the times in that he sort of just appeared in the second half of the game (thanks to ever-constant character registrations), I actually think he's not bad. He gets stuck in this gigantic Dodd oneshot which is a bit cumbersome to read (ffs, old me) but his stuff with Steve is really nice and I like how everything ended. I was enjoying writing someone who was more of a deep thinker and felt themselves more at one with nature. I know that he's the outlier in the V3 f10, but I liked what I did with him, and I'm reminded of the guy I based him on when I read him, so I see that as a success.
16. Cole Hudson (V1)
My first SOTF death was Cole. I'll let my earlier ranking speak for itself: "I liked Cole. He had an admittedly weird profile story that... maybe I thought was a good idea at the time? But I think with some revamping I could totally make him work in a current-era style version. He's a relic of the v1 era, but I have a soft spot for him. Were other people to rank my kids, he probably wouldn't finish as high, but... I dunno. I liked what I got out of him." Literally no change in my thought process when it comes to Cole. He was fun, and shows I was making HHH references before it was cool.
15. Ross Miller (V7)
So Meanwhiles have opened up and while circumstances have not allowed me to dive TOO far into Ross' story thus far, I have been really happy with what I've been able to write of him thus far. Watching the game take place from afar and reacting as he has, there are a few posts I've been really thrilled to take from conception to reality. I hope that his story, once finished, will end up impactful and an enjoyable read — if not necessarily for anyone else, but for me. I suspect that once I get down to 1 or 0 characters, Ross' story will really start to flow (currently at 3 including PV3). He'll likely end up in the single digits, as most of my v7 kids will.
14. Andrew Ponikarovsky (V2)
Once more, with feeling: "Wasted potential - again. I remember going back and reading the end of his story when I returned after I left the site the first time, and I was SO disappointed. I was really enjoying where he was going, and the thing with him and Carmen had some potential to be fun. As a fun side-note, this is the SOTF character that has caused me the most grief, as the RL friend that the character used to be named after ended up finding it and was REALLY unimpressed with me. Hence why he's named after a 2000s-era Toronto Maple Leafs winger."
The addendum to Pants is that he's actually been really well-received, even though he was abortive and died in an inactive-cleanse. As far as my own characters that had short stays (which were numerous) he's probably the best of the bunch, because he had his own clever way about him, he read uniquely, and his interactions with Carmen were cool. I'll never bring him back since, like, read the above, but he was fun.
13. Eddie Serjeantson (V1)
I love the sarge. Unashamedly, I love everything about this character. EVEN THE DAMNED MURDERBUSH DEATH. Eddie once again actually manages to fall in the rankings based upon the strength of the characters around him. The original list, he was number 3. Originally when I was writing this out for the second time, he was number 4. At this point in time, he's tumbled again, down to 13. That isn't an indictment of the Sarge on his own, but if I'm looking at it with a clear eye, he's fondly remembered but isn't spectacular. I do have to account for Eddie's memory being a major factor in one of my all-time favourite pieces of my own SOTF writing; "The Essay". Barring a minor catastrophe, I will 100% be playing him again in SC3 - this has not changed, he's a locked-in SC3 kid.
12. Sidney Crosby (V1)
Imagine for a second that instead of being named 'Sidney Crosby', he was 'Sidney Craven" or "Sid Carswell" or something like that. Instead of being a famed hockey phenom from Canada, maybe he's a highly-touted draft pick of a professional hockey team. Imagine those two things are different. Barring the questionable V1-era kidnapping, I think he's a tremendously good character whose defining characteristic is his cowardice. Sid is a coward from front to pretty much his end, and he manages to stumble and bumble his way into the final 4, where he comes face to face with an old nemesis, who eventually defeats him, though it leads to his undoing. His final act, and perhaps his only act of bravery gets him killed, but defeats his greatest enemy. Sid Carswell might die, but he has a massive impact upon the final act of v1.
Of course, his name is Sidney Crosby, and in the years that have passed since 2005, he's turned in to one of the greatest hockey players of our generation, winning three Stanley Cups and becoming a world renowned athlete. So naturally, people are going to say "man, what the fuck was he thinking?" Originally at number three on my list, I've gone back and read him a few times over the last year, and unfortunately some of his story just doesn't quite hold up to snuff. I think some of it has to do with the characters around him being fairly wacky and all over the map and it's tough to ground him. Sid tumbles hard as my new kids have arrived.
11. William Apgar (PV3 Prologue)
A lot of the same pitfalls for Kate below apply to Willy, but there was something about him that really appealed to me. Maybe it was because of the fact that he had to drive a lot of the action, or maybe it was because he seemed to keep an effortless optimism about himself, but I really do like how Willy's story ended up going. Originally, he was going to die after participating in a fairly decent battle, and Kate would have to put him down for his own comfort's sake. Of course, then I ran out of time, and Willy ended up being the more established kid with a bit more story that I could explore in the After. I have yet to do it, but it's comin'. Not bad for a kid who was originally an NPC and got promoted fairly last-minute. Willy jumps a spot because I read Sidney this year and liked him less than I did before.
10. Amanda Jones (V1)
Before, I had her at the top of the "good" tier, but squeezed her up a notch at the last minute. This time, the inverse is true. The hard part about writing two characters in the same group, or "handlercesting" as we've taken to calling it, is that both of your characters have to be distinct and different from one another while still maintaining the integrity of the scene. While Amanda has some weak points at times - she tends to fall by the wayside when Adam monologues, and her death is literally me protesting a surprise death of another character, I originally had planned to have her survive Dodd and outlast everyone else in the group. As such, while Dodd was often at the forefront, I tried very hard to make sure that Amanda had her own distinct personality and some of her own baggage that I could come up with when I was writing her once Dodd died. Of course, then I threw a temper tantrum and shot her face off. Stupid me. She has her strong moments; I'm especially proud of when Dodd shoots Marcus, and she disagrees so vehemently she leaves the area. Amanda's SC3 rights are currently held by Bowser (provided he's still here), and though a character named Amanda appeared in an SC2 announcement with Dodd as fluff, I think we're saying it's a different Amanda.
A couple of kids have moved up, so the excellent tier now starts at 9.
Excellent Tier:
9. Adam Dodd (V3)
V3 Dodd jumps a tier. Okay, yeah. I know the popular opinion - even my own - is that I shouldn't have brought him back. Yet in reading him back for REASONS, I'm actually okay with large parts of him, and I think some of the issue with his prose is more on me as a writer rather than he as a character. Naft famously said that he was a bit of a misfire for V3, and I don't disagree, but there's actually some really nice stuff in there - his dynamic with Bill; the warehouse when people actually call him on his shit is great from a reader's POV, and I almost wish I'd leaned into it a bit more instead of being totally blind to it. His ending, too. I'm really proud of that, still. So fuck it - up a tier he goes but he isn't cracking my top 5 and I feel okay about that. Also, man it was really hard not to italicize him to troll everyone.
8. Ariana Moretti (V7)
So Ariana was a bit of a ride for me. Originally coming about because I couldn't find anyone to play Ross' girlfriend, she became a really enjoyable character to write in her own right. Obviously her t-shirt and her apparel becomes in hindsight problematic because of the climate of 2020, but she was written more as someone whose want to stick to authority clashed with her temper and her tendency to go off on a hair-trigger temper. Indeed, I got to write a few of these moments and they were great! Her death worked out really well I thought, and I'm glad it lands as well as it does with me when I read it back. Obviously, had my couple not been played by the same handler it probably reads better, but I'm still very happy with how she turned out. Pleasantly surprised and I wouldn't be surprised to see her improve with the benefit of more hindsight.
7. Victoria Amaro (PV3)
So in the vein of Claudeson, who came in at number 6, Victoria was a tough concept for me. Making someone who is always going to find their way into playing is something that I've never really written effectively before, and she actually ran into the exact same roadblock that I found with Claude, who I'll discuss after — once she killed, it sort of seemed like I ran out of real estate. I think she was good for what she was, but I wrote her into a bit of a corner and so when she was rolled, it was a good thing. Originally when I started the game she was to be my flagship, but I think if Fisher had been rolled at the time I likely would have swapped him out for Victoria anyways. I like what I was able to accomplish with her, but when writing villains in the future I'll have to be careful not to finish my story before it ends, if you catch my drift.
6. Claudeson Bademosi (V7)
Conversely to Ariana, Claudeson was a really ambitious character that I knew would either be really hit or miss just because of where my comfort zone is when writing. I think it's pretty well known that I'm more the kind of person to write hero-adjacent or 'decent everyman' types with a nice helping of sports. That's my wheelhouse. Mentally ill religious kid isn't really where my comfort zone went. The bits of his story that I think worked the best were the ones with Ty — writing with a quality character that my brother happened to be behind definitely didn't hurt either. I didn't get to the lofty heights that I originally wanted to with Claude, he sort of stalled out after his murders of Bryan and Bret, but I tried my best with him. I think I'm very pleased with his last two threads.
After thinking about it a LOT, I would wager that we will see Claudeson again in a SC game on Mini.
Top Five (The 'S' tier for you video game nerds)
5. Keith Jackson (V3)
Keith once had the top spot, but ended up down at five because as I've written more of him - and as I've reread his game, I've kind of come to the conclusion that he's almost better at the start and at the end than he is in the middle. I'm still endlessly excited for the off-island story that I've been writing with him in it, but as far as his SOTF journey goes, he's... decent. I think him being at the top of my rankings before was more me being excited than thinking rationally. So he's in the top 5 but I think this feels like a better spot for him. I am still very excited for his off-island journey that I'm still writing.
4. Morgan Dragosavich (V7)
Wow, so Morgan really jumped up a ton and a lot of that is because as I mentioned to someone the other day, he's had a very traditional SOTF story. Going into the game, he was the kid where I either figured he'd die first or last, because he was the one kid that I decided to just write and let the chips fall where they would. Having Slam and Kermit inject Lizzie and Michael into Morgan's story has made for a lot of places for Morgan to go, and there's a possibility - while maybe slim - that he surpasses Connor at this point. Depends how the order goes for the two of them. He's been a blast to write, top to bottom and I'm incredibly proud of his story.
3. Adam Dodd (V1)
I stand behind every word of V1 Adam Dodd outside of half of one scene. Barring that, he's SOTF's first winner and I'll always be proud of what I accomplished with him. Adam at the beginning is a stark reminder of the person that I was at 19, and it's neat to see how things have changed in the 14 years since. I think I'm at the point where barring something insane happening with any of my top 5 who are still kicking, he'll remain #2 almost always. AT LEAST UNTIL HE GOT KNOCKED OUT BY CONNOR AND FISHER. Whoops.
2. Connor Lorenzen (V7)
So at first glance, Connor's really inside of my wheelhouse. Sports guy, rich kid, doesn't want much. Yet somehow, he's managed to be like, one of the most unique characters I've ever written. He's probably the one character I've done that doesn't share a whole lot of characteristics with me, and thus he lands so damn high and takes over #2 spot because while he's not done yet, I'm really enjoying the journey he's started on. It's coming to an end, of course, but I hope the end is worth the time Absoit took to get there.
1. Fisher Darden (PV3)
They say that brevity is the soul of wit. Brevity has never been a thing associated with me. Like everyone else in this tier but Dodd, Fisher's not done yet — PV3 endgame is ongoing and he's still kicking, but I read him back a few times since the last go-round and I was actually shocked with how much I managed to pack in to his six or seven threads. PV3 isn't a long game, there were 33 people in it. Yet because the level of writing was so high, I somehow managed to keep him at the absolute apex of his game the whole way through. The reason he's at #1 is because there's not a single character on this list that I can read back and be completely, 100% happy with each letter and word of prose. Connor's had bumps, Dodd had that half-thread that I'd love to zap from existence, Keith's here mainly on the strength of his start and his end, and Morgan's had a few slow goes. Fisher has a solid start that remains solid all the way to endgame, and he's not done yet. While we're still working on it, I know that the ending will match the quality of the rest of his story and for that reason, he's my favourite kid I've ever written.
And that's all she wrote. Another million words, because #words.
-
Frozen Smoke
- Posts: 514
- Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2018 3:50 pm
Sure! I am for once not actually behind on any of my characters, so let's do this. In reverse order, because that's easiest, and funniest.
7 - Eoin Harper (Virtua) - What makes Eoin my worst character ever? Is it the painfully bland prose? The lack of any proactivity in the character because his personality was so white bread milquetoast I couldn't figure a way to give him any real motivation? Perhaps the fact that I had him be into Ice Hockey, a sport I knew literally nothing about at the time? The only thing really worthwhile here is as a contrast to some of my later writing, and some of his thread partners who're able to carry the scene entirely on their back.
6 - Luca Thomas (V7) - This is perhaps a harsh rating, as Luca has some threads that I think contain some of my better writing, with Sweat More being something I'm very proud of in terms of combining action and character work - Although I do have to credit for Deamon for a lot of the ground work there. The problem with her is simply that I haven't written much of her story, with her currently being on Day 1 of the island timeline, meaning there's not even a partial arc to read - Just an immediate reaction. If I come back and do more work on her, she'll likely shoot up the rankings, but this is an "as current" rankings - So she belongs here.
5 - Daniel Newhouse (PV3)- This is the point at which I start to be mostly satisfied with my own writing. Daniel had a short time on the island before I heroed him off, but he had a fairly strong and consistent characterisation, and played well in the few threads he had. However, his death feels a little forced when I read it back, and I feel like I could have done some more to build up this kind of overconfidence as a flaw before the scene played out.
4 - Zachariah Johnston (TV1) - Ok, so I will be the first to admit that Zach has some problems as a character. To start with, the earliest threads, and especially the early kills of the character are absolutely horrifically painful to re-read now. But as it gets to the later threads, maybe it's nostalgia, but it feels like things get a little more self-aware - and whilst there are still choices that I'd maybe redo (e.g. I think the Sean scene would be much more interesting if it was accidental and Zach tried to do something, as it would have played better into the final stage of his arc. ) I think he was a solid contribution to the version. I don't think I could in good faith recommend him as a read, but given that I wrote him at such a young age, seeing the culmination of a whole version's practice in his death thread really makes me proud - So, hey, he gets a reasonable ranking.
3 - Parker Green (V7) - I'll admit it, I found writing an SI of me at 17 really fun, in a guilty pleasure sort of way. But, god, I wrote a LOT of words and didn't say a huge amount with a great many of them. As fun as the focus on realism and accounting for all of the time on the island was, I feel I didn't say a huge amount with a lot of those break-away scenes that adds to the audience's understanding of the character until Number by Number and that's probably 10k+ words in. Like a lot of my characters, he does improve with time, as I get a better handle on what direction I want to take the story - And once I found the niche of "Villain who doesn't play", things get a lot better. At least the technical aspects of my writing are a lot better, and none of my prose is explicitly bad, but he suffers from some of the same structural problems as Zach having compared the two of them in a day of back-to-back reading, which is something I shall have to address in the future.
2 - Yian Griffiths (PV3) - Yian is another short characters, as the dice did not favour me in PV3, but he made much better use of the time he did have. Dealing with accidentally being the first killer of the version thanks to RC sacrificing Cedric unrolled into him immediately gave him direction, and he was pretty quickly faced with consequences for it, being captured and bullied, and ending up losing all of his supplies for it. This lead to him wanting both safety, and water, which then directly led to an incredibly grim death scene, where he died slowly in the arms of someone he didn't really know. The fact that I was able to, with no planning, get a concise arc like that across is something that goes against a lot of the criticism I have for myself in terms of writing - which is the fact that I don't feel like I get much impact per word/sentence when compared to the more intricate writers on the board. Challenging myself to go more in that direction, and not doing too badly at it is something I'm quite proud of, and I hope to try it again in V8/TV3.
1 - Faith Marshal-Mackenzie (V7) - Maybe it's cheating to put my only alive character who I'm up to date with at number 1, but it's an accurate reflection of my feelings on where she slots in when compared to my writing history. Faith is the first character where I've really had the breakthrough of not just being willing to put my character at a disadvantage, but actively seeking it out, and using that to set off the rest of her story. Without that initial disadvantage of being robbed, finding her friends might have been more important to her than just finding anyone who could help, and this lead to her ending up with a bunch of different dysfunctional groups that challenged her personality rather than complimented it. Obviously she's still at the mercy of the dice gods, but if I can find a solid ending to her arc that feels satisfying and comes from a place that feels natural for her, I suspect she'll sit here for a decent amount of time.
7 - Eoin Harper (Virtua) - What makes Eoin my worst character ever? Is it the painfully bland prose? The lack of any proactivity in the character because his personality was so white bread milquetoast I couldn't figure a way to give him any real motivation? Perhaps the fact that I had him be into Ice Hockey, a sport I knew literally nothing about at the time? The only thing really worthwhile here is as a contrast to some of my later writing, and some of his thread partners who're able to carry the scene entirely on their back.
6 - Luca Thomas (V7) - This is perhaps a harsh rating, as Luca has some threads that I think contain some of my better writing, with Sweat More being something I'm very proud of in terms of combining action and character work - Although I do have to credit for Deamon for a lot of the ground work there. The problem with her is simply that I haven't written much of her story, with her currently being on Day 1 of the island timeline, meaning there's not even a partial arc to read - Just an immediate reaction. If I come back and do more work on her, she'll likely shoot up the rankings, but this is an "as current" rankings - So she belongs here.
5 - Daniel Newhouse (PV3)- This is the point at which I start to be mostly satisfied with my own writing. Daniel had a short time on the island before I heroed him off, but he had a fairly strong and consistent characterisation, and played well in the few threads he had. However, his death feels a little forced when I read it back, and I feel like I could have done some more to build up this kind of overconfidence as a flaw before the scene played out.
4 - Zachariah Johnston (TV1) - Ok, so I will be the first to admit that Zach has some problems as a character. To start with, the earliest threads, and especially the early kills of the character are absolutely horrifically painful to re-read now. But as it gets to the later threads, maybe it's nostalgia, but it feels like things get a little more self-aware - and whilst there are still choices that I'd maybe redo (e.g. I think the Sean scene would be much more interesting if it was accidental and Zach tried to do something, as it would have played better into the final stage of his arc. ) I think he was a solid contribution to the version. I don't think I could in good faith recommend him as a read, but given that I wrote him at such a young age, seeing the culmination of a whole version's practice in his death thread really makes me proud - So, hey, he gets a reasonable ranking.
3 - Parker Green (V7) - I'll admit it, I found writing an SI of me at 17 really fun, in a guilty pleasure sort of way. But, god, I wrote a LOT of words and didn't say a huge amount with a great many of them. As fun as the focus on realism and accounting for all of the time on the island was, I feel I didn't say a huge amount with a lot of those break-away scenes that adds to the audience's understanding of the character until Number by Number and that's probably 10k+ words in. Like a lot of my characters, he does improve with time, as I get a better handle on what direction I want to take the story - And once I found the niche of "Villain who doesn't play", things get a lot better. At least the technical aspects of my writing are a lot better, and none of my prose is explicitly bad, but he suffers from some of the same structural problems as Zach having compared the two of them in a day of back-to-back reading, which is something I shall have to address in the future.
2 - Yian Griffiths (PV3) - Yian is another short characters, as the dice did not favour me in PV3, but he made much better use of the time he did have. Dealing with accidentally being the first killer of the version thanks to RC sacrificing Cedric unrolled into him immediately gave him direction, and he was pretty quickly faced with consequences for it, being captured and bullied, and ending up losing all of his supplies for it. This lead to him wanting both safety, and water, which then directly led to an incredibly grim death scene, where he died slowly in the arms of someone he didn't really know. The fact that I was able to, with no planning, get a concise arc like that across is something that goes against a lot of the criticism I have for myself in terms of writing - which is the fact that I don't feel like I get much impact per word/sentence when compared to the more intricate writers on the board. Challenging myself to go more in that direction, and not doing too badly at it is something I'm quite proud of, and I hope to try it again in V8/TV3.
1 - Faith Marshal-Mackenzie (V7) - Maybe it's cheating to put my only alive character who I'm up to date with at number 1, but it's an accurate reflection of my feelings on where she slots in when compared to my writing history. Faith is the first character where I've really had the breakthrough of not just being willing to put my character at a disadvantage, but actively seeking it out, and using that to set off the rest of her story. Without that initial disadvantage of being robbed, finding her friends might have been more important to her than just finding anyone who could help, and this lead to her ending up with a bunch of different dysfunctional groups that challenged her personality rather than complimented it. Obviously she's still at the mercy of the dice gods, but if I can find a solid ending to her arc that feels satisfying and comes from a place that feels natural for her, I suspect she'll sit here for a decent amount of time.
Criticism or thoughts on my writing are welcome and appreciated - always looking to improve! Feel free to poke me on Discord or via PM.
