... OMG KAIDAN IS IN AVATAR?! *fangirl wheeze*

>_>
<_<

*ahem*

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Ling's character is based on an alternate-universe version of my Dragon Age 2 Hawke (the player-character, for those of you unfamiliar with the game). While some of the base elements are the same (gender, parts of her physical appearance, class [rogue-type], base personality) both Ling and my AU Hawke have stopped being similar to the pc at about that point. A majority of her backstory is different — for example, she has an older sister [played by Ai Lin] — and no younger siblings, her personality is more fleshed out than just 'sarcastic/witty', and her appearance is more my headcanon rather than what you see in game.

Her appearance has another influence, which is a character named Moira (hehehe) from The Circle Trilogy by Nora Roberts, specifically in terms of her eye colour and otherwise relatively unremarkable appearance.


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Akki, which is a character from the AtLA era that I hardly ever used and therefore am remaking for Korra, takes her name from a character in The Pit Dragon Trilogy (which is really a four-part series xD;') though the similarities stop there. To be honest, I'm not sure if I have other influences for her. I wanted a less-than-average height, muscular woman with surprising strength (surprising due to her small stature), who wielded a two-handed weapon. That's pretty much it. xD

Indeed, in the episode 'The Library'! I re-watched the episode and thought his voice sounded familiar, so I checked and surprise surprise he was in Mass Effect.
He also stars in a new show called Once Upon A Time (as a side note, his awesome voice is what pushed me to use his appearance for the Clock Maker).

I have a feeling I've looked at that information before, and always forget. Maybe it's my mind's way of letting me geek out repeatedly. xDD I know he's in OUAT, I follow him on the bookface. :3 I've yet to see it though, since I don't have TV. xD

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I just thought of another inspiration for Akki, actually. I'm not sure how or what it is, exactly, but when I originally created her she had elements of Rurouni Kenshin and Protector of the Small (by Tamora Pierce) in her personality and weaponry, respectively. I've kept the theme over the years (and will continue to keep it when she's redone) but I am no longer certain what parts of those series inspired what. xDD As far as I know PotS has no weapons like her's, and Kenshin's only similarity is her humble nature.

Oh! Her fan-blades, contrary to what some might think, were not inspired by the Kyoshi warriors (though I suppose they are the same thing, for plot purposes they can't be and are not, since she has no dealings with them), but rather from some group of warriors from another Tamora Pierce series, The Lioness Quartet. I can't remember the group though.

Hmm... I'm honestly not sure what my inspiration for Ren'ai was. I wanted to make her the granddaughter of ATLA-era main character Karena, since I was positive I didn't want to play her as an old lady (she'd be around 86 now, and I just didn't want to). I suppose Karena herself was the inspiration, but I didn't want her to be exactly the same (though they both have similar elements, I don't think they're the same by any means.)

Hmm...Iluak was a request character so my inspiration for him was Ai Lin. Considering what a miserable bastard I made the man one would think that I based him on House but I've never seen the show. I always assumed that people in the medical field (aside from a certain person here on TARP who is sweet as can be) would be cantankerous and a little mean after having to care for people for a long time.

Hangetsu is spawned from my old character Suigetsu. Sui was based on a type of person rather than anyone in particular. The person who rebels against everything and everyone. I imagined if he raised a child it would be rebellious and what better way to rebel against a non-conformist than becoming a cop. I'm still working on his personality but after some thought I felt that being a cop must be lonely so I plan on making that a part of Hangetsu's character.

Tsubaki, like Hangetsu, is descended from another character of mine in spirit if not by blood. I wanted an Equalist who wouldn't be stereotypically grim and bitter. As I have been listening to a lot of jazz when I created her I made her a trumpet player so I can shoehorn in musical references.

I'm working on a antagonist character who is inspired by Marcus Licinius Crassus, Moriarty from the BBC series Sherlock, a little bit of Keyser Soze and the title character of a short-lived tv series from the 90's called Profit.

Wow, now that I have all that written out I feel spectacularly uncreative.

It seems my characters have taken a turn for the Dark Side this time around.

Mizu was based on my very first TARP character, Kai Katashi, (and shares the same surname) who I didn't like now that I look back on it. Yes, Mizu's a Waterbender, but instead of being "emo" (for lack of a better term) like Kai tended to be, he's just an angry, apathetic man who rarely thinks before speaking.

Kayako Yamazaki is actually one of the characters that I'm most proud of. I based parts of her off of another old character of mine, Akane Katsuro, but the coolest thing about her is that, before the staff made me change her first name, she was named after the villain in Takashi Miike's Audition. After I and Zombi realized that Sato's daughter has the same name, I changed it to the villain from Ju-On (or, The Grudge, as it's known in the US). She's really every aspect of my personality that society doesn't necessarily find acceptable, and I look forward to developing her character.

Belatedly realised this should be in RP Discussion. :X Whoops!

Lol, I was also going to move it. Honestly, I thought I had...I suck .

For both of my characters, I just did stereotypes and fleshed them out. Honestly, my signature is a good description of my characters which are nothing more than TV Tropes pages:

Armook - Rich, young, and idle. I added procrastination, and just a little bit of laziness in there because I imagine that the lifestyle he had would definitely make those traits pop out. I also added and exceptionally successful older brother because I thought it would be fun to play the "loser" of the family.

Bao Yu - Idealistic Revolution. That is all one needs to say. Loyal to the cause, blindly loyal; as such, she's willing to die for it. I also wanted to play a character that reflected a lot of what you see in America, people who know their ancestry and try to connect with it. Much like an Italian would say they're Italian-American or whatever hyphenated American. I thought it would be nice to play a character who wants to connect with a culture she has never properly experience, except through a grandparent. Besides that, Bao Yu shares very little with me.

Mei-zhen's, like Kami's Ling, was originally a Hawke (named Gwendolyn) I played during DA2 who was then adapted to her AU as the eldest sibling. There are a few similarities, compassion, learning from her father, an interest in healing, and a goofy sense of humor. In the end I'd say at this point Mei's a combination of that and a bit of Captain Carrot from the Discworld series, in that she's honest, seemingly simple and sees the good in everyone. Her appearance shares the bobbed haircut of the AU Gwen, but other than that it's more familial relationship to Ling and a hint of her heritage.

Akane is inspired mainly by a character from my comic, Vera, adapted to fit into the Korra universe. It would take a while to explain, but she's basically a really bitter exile from a magic religious order who turned to magic dueling in the city of her birth to avoid prison. She later fell into becoming a gangster for the biggest (at the time) crime syndicate. Vera herself is a mishmash of a lot of inspirations over the years. I'd say since they've got almost a decade's difference in age, there's quite a few distinct differences. Akane's pretty much what Vera would be if she'd never had any time with order and stayed on the streets. That makes her meaner, more bitter, and probably more drunk. I find gangster archetypes very fun to write for, though, so it's what made me want to adapt my go-to gangster gal into Korra.

I have other characters down the line but I haven't gotten around to them yet.

Here's my two cents worth.

Cent #1: Sora is, I admit it, the daughter of my very first character ever on TARP, Taed. She was not even a year old when Sozin's Comet arrived, so that makes her 71 now. As such, my inspiration had to be a bit limited. Being so old in the world of the Avatar, I concluded she must be semi-senile, with occasional moments of clarity and frequent lapses into memory. However, I have based the moments of clarity on my own very recently deceased grandmother, who passed away in the middle of April. She was not soft or piteous, but kind-hearted, and if you asked her for help she gave you good solid, helpful advice whether it was what you wanted to hear or not.

Cent #2: Tadashi is sort of a re-creation of Taed, which makes him sort of a re-creation of me. In fact I chose a name that was Eastern but was similar as possible to Taed Xoa (pronouced 'show'). I tried to overdo certain positive and negative traits I see in myself, hence his obsession with learning both passively and actively, his complete handicap in decision-making, and his being super-busy and getting in over his head. The most important character trait to me, and the most difficult, was deciding to make this iteration of the character gay (I'm bi IRL, and when I came out it was with the support of many many friends from here on TARP, so Tadashi is also an homage to all those people that I've grown close to through the site).

This is a really fun thread.

Tenshio was inspired by...I'm not sure, really. I guess I could say that he came from a character I had on here a few years ago named Ayumi, who was also the young vagrant type. That is one of my favorite tropes to play. Tenshio was also sorta influenced by Skoochy, mostly in appearance. Skoochy's got some serious style.

Katsumi...I think she just came from me looking at the Golden Fan Saloon and thinking about how sad it looked with no one posting in it. Her longing for storybook excitement comes from me. I'm reading The Hobbit right now, for the first time--late, I know--and it makes me realize how boring the real world. I've always wished that my life were more like the books I read, and so thought it would be fun to RP a character who feels the same.

Naota, my newest, is my favorite. The idea for him came from a short animation I watched yesterday about an illusionist who, in his attempts to woo a woman, has to fight off--in a manner of speaking--some gangsters. I figured that an illusionist might be too difficult to play, since I want to make sure that I know how the "magic" Naota performs is done, so I decided to make him just a street magician who does simple things like card tricks. Plus, I needed a character who was just pure fun to play, and I think Naota will be that character.

Hmmm. I've been thinking and you know, this is hard to answer.

Jin Ho is not really inspired by anyone! He's a reboot/remake of Lee, the soldier I played for AtLA times — a generally average and honest person, who was also not really inspired by anything at all. I like this kind of person. He is mostly the kind of person I wish I knew more of.

Shtiya's personality and history is based loosely on an RP character I created a long time ago and have played for years. Appearance-wise he's mostly based on this guy.

Jin's appearance is based on Haine, from the manga series DOGS: Bullets and Carnage (if the icons and avatar weren't enough). Both his history, and his personality and loosely based on myself, with tons of tweaks. There are some things that relate to me, while others are new, and added to make him fit this world.

Jin has been my character for about five years now, and he evolved from my very FIRST character, Oodama Kishi who was derived from Uchiha Sasuke. Eventually, as I improved he subtlety changed into something more, then I change the first name to Jin, and then the last name to Hoshigawa.

Which fun fact, I had no idea that Hoshi, and Gawa were both Japanese words at the time. I was sitting in my room, and just thought — yeah, that sounds Japanese — and rolled with it. It wasn't until I used some coding, and wanted to know what it all meant. (Which it has multiple meanings, if I'm correct — I could be wrong)

Eventually everything worked out, and I made Jin for the Bleach site. (Also fun fact, best Bankai ever...it was a giant Tree that drained you of your BLOOD) True story.

So, yeah, little bit of a tangent there, but that is the simplified history, and inspiration, of Jin.

all of my characters have been inspired one way or another from the books I've written where they have made appearances. For some, such as Fukui and to a lesser extent, Tenoko... the name and some of the appearance is the biggest connection. Others, such as Zhin and Himoto, fit in better with the ATLA universe, and so transitioning them over was much easier. Raeya was admittedly inspired a bit from Isabella of DragonAge fame (partially due to how and why she was created), but I had a similar piratey character in my novels as well, even down to the name.

~Tenoko~

My character was inspired by a drawing I was working on in my sketch book. I can't really control what I draw yet and as a result the people have these expressions on their faces that I never intended for. Sometimes I'm just fall in love with a weird expression I drew and start to build a backstory or a personality, explaining maybe why they have that look on their face.

Ryari is a reconstructed character from the first run of TARP that I never really got to play.

She wasn't really based on anybody or anything. I generally start with something and my imagination fleshes it out from there.