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We mined Tantz's Saturday newspost for our discussion topic: Strong characters and how to write GOOD ones!
What is a strong character? Well it has nothing to do with physical ability, power, command, or anything so obvious and trite. Strong characters are well rounded and well realised, they're often active and opposed to reactive, they make things happen, the story hinges on them.
Failed attempts at “strong” characters or obvious and often result in Mary Sues, whether male or female. People hand them traits that they THINK will make the character strong: make them a general, make them a great fighter, make them royalty etc. The problem comes when none of that is ever logically backed up in the story. You can't just title a character something or have other characters talk about how great they are without having them demonstrate a reason for it, or else all you have is a pathetic paper tiger and a really shizzy failed part of your story.
Nothing worse than a character that can't live up to the hype! Anime does that a lot: you might have a huge muscular monster of a character that never properly uses that strength, so they always seem just a little disappointing, or a general, master ruler, expert strategist that never does anything of the sort.
I must apologise for my scatter-headed form, I was very tired at this stage! Tantz and Banes carried the Quackcast with grace, élan and great ability! They are strong characters who more than live up to their hype.
This week Gunwallace has given us the theme to Akacya the Bounty Hunter - A blast of flame into the orange polluted skies over a desolate future world with no hope. This track conjures an ash grey plain on a distant world as it carves an intricate, multilayered soundscape… a hulking black city of glimmering glass and soaring steel towers rises over the horizon, glittering windows reflecting the rays of an ancient sun.
Topics and shownotes
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Featured comic:
Through The Window - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/dec/04/featured-comic-through-the-window/
Links:
From Tantz's newspost here - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/news/2018/dec/07/strong-women-strong-men/
Special thanks to:
Gunwallace - http://www.virtuallycomics.com
Tantz Aerine - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/Tantz_Aerine/
kawaiidaigakusei - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/kawaiidaigakusei/
Banes - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/banes
Pitface - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/PIT_FACE/
Ozoneocean - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/ozoneocean
Featured music:
Akacya the Bounty Hunter - https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Akacya_The_Bounty_Hunter/, by Shinka, rated M.
QUACKCAST 404 - Strong characters
Ozoneocean at 12:00AM, Dec. 11, 2018
Akacya the Bounty Hunter,
Banes,
featured comic,
featured theme,
Gunwallace,
kawaiidaigakusei,
Ozoneocean,
Pitface,
podcast,
QUACKCAST 404,
Strong characters,
Tantz Aerine,
Through The Window,
Webcomics community
4 likes!
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EssayBee at 6:36AM, Dec. 14, 2018
Now I have an image of the cast of Pinky lounging around in the green room of ozone's brain, whiskey in one hand, cigarette in the other, and cursing every time they have to get up because he's working on a scene that they'll be in.
Ozoneocean at 7:06PM, Dec. 13, 2018
Lucky! My characters are all lazy shits.
JustNoPoint at 6:51PM, Dec. 12, 2018
That's pretty much what I have to rely on for a lot of issues that I just give a list of necessary things to accomplish. My chars are much better writers than I am!
Ozoneocean at 5:09PM, Dec. 12, 2018
That's a good point! When the character is strong enough to drive the story then you're probably onto a good thing.
EssayBee at 6:57AM, Dec. 12, 2018
I'd say one of the signs of good strong characters (and one that is usually invisible to readers) is when the characters hijack your plans and take the comic on an unplanned tangent. Or, in good cases, when you only have a vague idea for scene, and the characters end up writing the scene themselves just by being themselves.