Good Fan Characters - they might exist

[samuraicrack]

Have you ever actually seen a fan character/OC/whatever that's actually not that bad?

 

[Ido]

lol no

 

[Golly]

I thought I read some fanfiction with a couple decent OCs, but I was 13 at the time, and therefore had absolutely no taste.

 

[samuraicrack]

I mean in the context of having good art to back it up, at least.

 

[someweebname]

I've yet to see a fan character that wasn't someone inserting themselves in an ego wish fulfillment way. take popular character change color pallet and make him/her the love affection of one of the canon characters.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I knew an artist who was big in the Digimon fandom years ago and had drawn pictures of her Digimon OC, and while the art was good, looking back on it, the character was really not that great. She and another person had other fan characters they would swap back-and-forth for fan fiction and fan-art, but the stories are long gone.

Now there is a Wreck-It Ralph fic that's actually pretty well-written involving a slow-burn romance between Ralph and an OC who was a fleshed-out character in her own right. There's a couple pieces of fan-art out there, but the writer is also an artist and has drawn pictures of her.

 

[samuraicrack]

There are a few good ones out there hidden beneath the piles of self-insert trash.

I think this one is pretty cute.

 

[Audit_The_Autist]

There's a fan artist for the video game League of Legends, Rinidinger, who runs a tumblr rp page about her self insert character. Oddly enough, she's not too terrible of an artist and she does a pretty good job of keeping her fiction from entering serious Mary Sue territory. Ultimately I don't know if I'd call her OC "good", but it is by no means venturing anywhere close to My Immortal or Sonichu territory.

Spoiler: Examples of her work

Spoiler: OC

Her RP

Today was unlike any other day for Rin… One that would teach her a lesson past anything her mentor could ever give her. The curious yordle she is would indeed cause her trouble, yet she always found a way to escape. Eventually, she developed to be careless and cocky. The protection Piltover offered dulled her senses of what yordles should be concerned with most.

A predator.

A normal start of the afternoon, Rin took her break and floated above the skies of her city, hextech glider glistening in the sun, allowing her to easily wander the skies. One place she could hide past curious human eyes, despite it’s open venue, was the large crag that split the two cities. It showed the decline of the older, lower layers of Piltover, eventually morphing to the deep heart of Zaun that clung to the cliff sides. Every once in a while, the winds would churn, allowing a gust of fresh air down into the pits, clearing a little of the noxious gas covering the bottoms, showing the decaying guts of a city that once was.

Rin eyes would meander any time this would happen, as she was always, always curious of these parts. Yet, she knew danger lurked within there, as even some of Zaun’s hardest dare not venture alone for too long.

‘I could always hide and escape them, though…’ The yordle thought as another gust of Janna’s blessing washed through the depths. Rin dipped down into the crag a little as the air cleared to get a closer look at the trinkets and buildings and odd contraptions of below. She had done this several times before, even coming to know some of the city streets in the immediate area.

But as we said, today was unlike any day.

The yordle knew well that turbulence in this area was common. She could usually out maneuver it easily, but it still whipped her around quite well. The cross winds and mixture of temperatures constantly caused unstable pockets within these parts, which is why most dirigibles or even birds dared not enter any of this space. Her glider produced thrust for her, so she had no worries of losing much altitude; just of being pushed around, which was easy for one such of her size.

A wave of heat from the many machines rose under her, which caused her to drop in the thinner air. ‘Okay, all right, no worries, just glide it out…’ She follows the moving currents to steady herself, usually which would swoop back up into the skies. Instead, however, the upper gusts blew in once more, quickly pushing her deeper. Rin now tried to fight the waves, exerting her glider to thrust her forward and up. However, the deed was already done; She had caught herself in the current and was being under towed.

“FINE! Whatever! I’ll still just follow this next current up and o–”

Inhale.

Her lungs filled with more of the gas than she was ever use to. She had never gone this deep into Zaun before. Sputtering for air, Rin made a dash landing to control her body from its spasm of coughs. Her eyes watered and her body became frantic for oxygen. She looked for anywhere to sit, staggering this way and that til she finally came to an exposed, rusted pipe she could sit on. She pulled her bandanna over her mouth and nose to help filter the thick, poisonous atmosphere, while also trying to breath into her palms, as if that would help.

It took a long while before she finally gained control of herself, though she felt dizzy and weak. Rin instinctively looked upwards to figure out where she had gone and coordinate herself once more, preparing to take flight and get out of this wretched area. However…. everything was dark, Pipes swung this way and that overhead: Wires, cores, rusted metals, oozing liquids. Rin’s heart fluttered as she couldn’t figure out where the topside was. ‘I came from.. this way, right? Maybe I just walked a bit too far looking to sit…’

Rin was usually decent at navigating, but that was from the sky. Being under ground, her senses were all turned around now. There was no sun for east and west, no guiding stars, nothing. Just endless metal and decay. She started in a walk, but quickly burst into a run as she frantically looked for anything to give her bearings as to where she was. However, she couldn’t even glide upwards. Nothing seemed to give enough space to do so. Pathways that would go up would suddenly spiral back down further. Everything down here was disarray and chaos.

The yordle quickly admitted defeat, trying her best to stay calm. Her ears were twisting every which way, listening to every faint sound. She was incredibly alert right now, using every ounce of strength she had right now to keep her senses straight.

“I… okay, I’m lost… guess… I’ll search for ways up.. I can follow the crag walls.. yeah that’s smart… head in a direction… and just… keep walking….”

 

[patchwork]

There are a few good ones out there hidden beneath the piles of self-insert trash.

I think this one is pretty cute.

I had no idea this was a Hero Academia FC, considering the sheer amount of porn of her. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, just... I thought she was just for porn, lol.

 

[SP 199]

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

Good writers never write fan fiction so I don't see how there can be any good fan characters.

 

[tangerine juice]

splatoon fan characters can be cute, since its giving life to some of the blank slate inklings, but when someone makes their inklings adults it just doesnt feel or look right. the vid squids on tumblr are a cute example

 

[DarkRainbowFiend]

Good writers never write fan fiction so I don't see how there can be any good fan characters.

generalizing a bit there. A did find an interesting article somewhere (can't exactly remember the link is) about how legitimate writers started off writing fanfition before evolving to more legitimate writers. Ink Rose is an example i believe. Though they might be rare who knows.

 

[MW 002]

Sometimes I find fan characters that have the potential to be interesting characters, but only if they were separated from the fan fiction and were revamped to be in an original story of sorts. But those kinds of characters are rare, the majority of OCs are just self inserts.

Fan fiction in general isn't exactly the kind of place to be looking for exciting adventure though.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Been conflicted as to whether-or-not to bring this author up, but every time I go back to read these stories thinking they're not as good as I remember, I can't help falling in love with them. So I guess I can go ahead and say that the TMNT writer Mikell has made some OCs in numerous fics I can see as being actual characters from the series, though I'll just be talking about these five stories in general. Oh yeah, they're romance stories, but I did check and there's at least one instance of Leonardo having a romantic relationship with a human in one of the comics (and the Turtles developed crushes on April before, anyway), so it's not as weird as it sounds. And with there being a believable balance between action and family life scenes, and character progression between the OCs and the Turtles (and even Splinter--his story arc comes off as more subdued, though, but it's still wonderful), I would highly recommend these for any TMNT fan. If I have to say what my favorite thing to come from these stories is, while I like all of the scenes of the Turtles with their girlfriends-later-wives, the one that's most poignant to me is the bond Donatello develops with an orphan boy in the last story (well, honestly, I loved everything about Donnie in these stories, but I loved that in particular).

A couple of those stories has covers that give you an idea of what the women look like, but I otherwise haven't been able to find actual fan-art of them, so part of the reason I hesitated bringing this up was the lack of those examples. I've been trying my hand out on correcting that, though.

 

[LucasSomething]

Good Ace Attorney OC

Spoiler

Entrant's Name: Space Coyote - First Place and Croik's Choice!
Character's Name: Ceaser Villan

Age: 34

Occupation: Police Dog Trainer

Brief Physical Description: A 6'0" thin, pale European man with blonde hair, blue eyes and sturdy bone structure in the face. He wears a heavy-duty padded vest over his uniform. A giant padded canvas-fabric sleeve covers his left arm to protect against dog bites. His police cap has gold laurels embroidered on the sides.

Brief Personality Description: Prideful, calm and confident in his job. Quite condescending, often talking down to people like dogs that need taming. When cornered, instead of escalating an argument by talking back, he prefers to diffuse the situation by shushing them with a quick "tss!" then trying to reason with them in a soothing rational manner. He even does this to the Judge. It's very irritating.

Connection to canon characters: Works for the police department; trained Missile. Called to the stand by Winston Payne to give testimony on how he saw the accused, Maggey Byrde, committing the crime.

Brief Background: Ceaser was a seasoned police dog trainer whose methods had lately come into fire. His greatest critic was Sgt. Shepherd, who died after a police dog bit him in the neck. Ceaser witnessed a new dog trainer, Maggey Byrde, give the order to attack (Maggey was in danger of losing her job due to her incompetence). A surveillance camera photo of the attack in question is presented -- it shows Ceaser was off to the side eating a whistle dog (hot dog with bacon and cheese) while Maggey was right by the startled Sgt. Shepherd.

By the end of the trial, it is revealed Ceaser hid a dog whistle inside the whistle dog and used its silent call to command the dog to attack. (Judge: "A dog whistle inside a whistle dog whistled the dog... I'm afraid you've lost me.") As it turns out, he simply wanted to scare Shepherd, not kill him, then tried to push the blame onto Maggey after realizing what he had done. He's sadly sent to jail, tail between his legs.

-Looks original and great without trying too hard or being out of place
-Simple but funny personality (condenscending, treats people like dogs) that would fit perfect in AA
-He a just a one case villain but his motives are clear, senseful and relatable
-Could probably trick a non AA fan into believing that this is a real character

 

[Doc Cassidy]

I don't want to link it here but I have a comic series on my DeviantArt about a character I made called Darth Deathlord who's a really good character.

His basic backstory is that Darth Vader didn't actually die and Luke found him barely alive. He tries to use the force to save him but he accidentally caused them to fuse together into one person sort of like the earrings from DBZ. So he's both Darth Vader AND Luke Skywalker at the same time; but also both of them! Because of his split personality he become both the new emporer and the leader of the Rebellion at the same time but no one realizes it and neither does he. He also becomes a famous poet, kind of like the Edgar Allen Poe of the Star Wars universe.

He's a really dark character because of his Vader half but there's a lot of good in him because of Luke so he's a very complex character. The inspiration for his poetry comes from the darkness that's within Vader and well as Luke's pain at having never known his father, even though he doesn't realize that him and his father are now the same person.

I send every page to George Lucas but he's busy so he hasn't seen them yet. Once he does he'll probably make a movie about him.

 

[Angriest Bird]

There's an artist called love-ribbon on dA who loves making self-insert OCs. I am always pretty amazed at her ability to mimic the official styles of whatever she's into at that particular moment. She had a lot more but seems to have purged most of her account.

Spoiler: wordgirl

Spoiler: off

Spoiler: Fairly Odd Parents

Spoiler: Steven Universe

 

[NARPASSWORD]

Spoiler: The one and only

 

[Bob Page]

In my SC2 campaign, I've written this Character:

Spoiler: Richard Morrison

Born on the outer rim planet of Elysium, Richard was the only son to Marliene, a mathematics teacher and Friedrich, an architect. For most of his childhood, Richard lived a relatively typical life while living among the grassy suburban Elysian areas. However, an event would soon scar him in the long term. He and his parents were on vacation in New Gettysburg, Tarsonis for his birthday. Unfortunately, It was also the day the Zerg invaded the planet in a flood of claws and malice. When the confederate evac transports left, the Sons of Korhal arrived to evac any survivors to get them out of the combat zone. Richard and his father were able to make it... but his mother didn't and the last thing he saw of his mother was her being shredded up by the zerg. This would be the subject of the majority of his nightmares for years to come.

After being under United Earth Directorate tyranny during the Brood War and turning 17 four years later, he made the personal decision of joining the Dominion Marine Corps out of patriotism and a desire of never wanting to see a repeat of Tarsonis. After basic, he obtained the rank of Staff Sergeant, being 2nd in command of Korhal Defense Squad Echo in Augustgrad. When Kerrigan invaded Korhal the 2nd time, his squad leader was killed in action, resulting in him being given the rank of Captain in place of his dead CO. At first being fearful of getting those under his command killed, Richard led his squad throughout the course of the conflict and they all lived to see the zerg retreat from the planet... and their emperor dead.

Years later, Richard, now a Major, and KDS Echo were eventually reformed into Wolf Squad, a special operations group that carries out high risk missions and the occasional pirate-busting ops. He runs a tight ship with his squad and expects them to perform admirably and, in his own words, "be as unpredictable as if y'all were a pack of raving maniacs".