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Post by Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy on Sept 19, 2012 2:43:32 GMT -5
Lemur’s Guide to Subverting Clichés and the Otherwise Overdone.
I decided to make this thread to show the various things I see too much of, a sort of guide to what exactly is overused and clichéd. Not saying I’m going to rip out your still-beating heart for doing this (KALI MA, KALI MA SHAKTI DE). But nevertheless, you should look at this more as a ‘do not do this’ than a how-to guide.
Or alternatively you can look at this as a how-to guide on fixing your app.
Dead Master Syndrome.
Apparently being a Jedi Master is the most dangerous job in the galaxy, because they seem to die in every other app. Bonus points if the Master is a parental figure. Double bonus points if the master is a female Twi'lek. Why it is that you people have a fetish for killing off Twi'leks I don't understand. But in fact, I'll discuss that later.
Ways to subvert it? Let’s be realistic, nine times out of ten you can be just as effective in the emotional impact on the character without using the clichéd death of a mentor. The best way I’ve seen was where a character’s Jedi Master ditched the Order for a girl. They can leave the Order, they can suffer a serious mental break, they can even fall to the dark side. These are all better options than simply killing them.
But I want a Siff Lard to kill Padawan Snuffy's master, because it's dramatic!
Too bad. We don't allow Sith in the bio to begin with for site canon reasons, and beyond that, did you not read what I just wrote? Let me phrase it this way...
This is good drama: youtu.be/qIp_8RNNX4k
This is your Padawan's master getting killed by a Sith Lord because drama: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7xixjH0QUM
Any questions?
Ways to own the cliché? Death by old age, illness, or accident. These are things I rarely to never see.
I Did Nazi That Coming
Everything is just peachy, perfectly peaceful and happy, and then it turns out your character's mentor, guardian, or master is secretly Adolf Hitler. Or not quite Hitler, maybe just Himmler or Goebbels. Regardless, it is stunningly revealed that they are in fact one of the bad guys, which shatters your character's tenuous grip on right and wrong and triggers a big and overly dramatic existential crisis.
But there must be some way to create doubt and disillusionment, isn't there?
Yes, there is.
Ways to subvert it? Very simple. Your Jedi Master who tells you no relationships? She has a relationship with a guy. Your crotchety dad who hates gay people? Secretly gay. These are minor things that can create disillusionment and severely underrated. Don't underestimate the powers of ordinary things like this.
Ways to own it? You can own it in one way. Say your character's mentor turns out to be working for the Sith. Instead of having them be Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin's secret Star Wars love child, instead have them be, for example, a well-intentioned person who believes they are doing good, or someone who is in far over their head with no choice. Don't just have them be bad for no reason, particularly not if they've never been exemplified as being bad.
My Parents Are Deaaaaaad!
Let's get real here for a second. Nothing sells quite like dead parents. Just one leads to all this annoying single-parent upbringing, or stepparents. And no one likes writing a whole extra relationship.
It's an enticing one to use. It really is. You've got media appeal for orphans, from Batman to Harry Potter. It also lets you introduce a mentor figure, which there's a very good chance you plan on killing just so you can get two cliches in a row on this list.
There are, contrary to your belief, ways to subvert this.
Ways to subvert it? You can get the same result by having your character abandoned as a child, put up for adoption, or simply having the parents get lost somehow and never come home. You can also try the challenge of writing a single parent, which I can personally attest yields a special kind of bond.
Ways to own it? Avoid murder or death in childbirth and introduce something a little more real, like drunk drivers or space ebola. OK, not space ebola. But disease maybe? Or just go for broke and have a maglev train derailment caused by the Incredible Hulk fighting Superman.
You again.
This is the delightful little habit people are into of introducing some minor villain at an early date in the bio, usually a Dark Jedi who fights the protagonist and escapes, and then introducing them again later in the bio. Bonus points if the returned Dark Jedi kills a mentor or friend. Add still more points if you repeat this pattern.
Ways to Subvert the Cliché: Don’t use the same villain twice, keep the story fresh.
Ways to Own the cliché. Make the bad guy a really interesting and compelling character, one the reader finds intriguing.
Sith Cliches.
People like Sith. Why exactly is a little vague. Apparently evil is cool. This might explain why in some circles people still like to dress up as nazis and march around.
For the non-goose-stepping segment of the population, this appeal is (hopefully) limited to fiction. However, we also see some huge Sith cliches and Mary Sue tidbits (which will be discussed shortly).
Now I am the Master
The big Sith cliche is killing your good master and becoming evil. Rawr, fear my evil powers. It seemed like every other time I glanced at a Sith bio this would happen.
Ways to subvert it? Fight the master, get owned. Run away like a little girl. Even Mannequin Skywanker got creamed by his master. Or simply have your character sneak away and go about their business.
Ways to own it? Find some dishonest way, like sabotage or poisoning rather than some cartoony violence designed to make your character seem awesome.
Rawr. Evil.
This is another one you see in Sith. It can be summed up here: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KickTheDog
It can be broadened to include any totally pointless evil. Oh my character is so evil he stabs some random person. My character murdered a guy because he was there. You have to illustrate a reason of some kind, otherwise I just dismiss it as 'rawr, I'm evil.'
Ways to Subvert? Simple: Don't be evil for absolutely no reason.
Ways to own it? Justify it. Maybe the voices in his head told him to beat up that dog.
Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal
This is where your character, or any character really, picks some opportune time to betray some figure in the bio. It comes as no surprise because your portrayal of the character has always been "He was always evil" or something similar. This one usually applies to the Sith character, who sadly lacks any real descent from light to dark, as they were static and always bad.
In the end, the betrayal makes the reader feel like "OK, finally got that over with" rather than any real emotional reaction.
Ways to subvert it? Demonstrate a real change in the character so that their betrayal doesn't come as no surprise.
Ways to own it? There really isn't a way to own it. You just have to be a fantastic writer to pull it off. Very few of us are.
I Believe they Call it Patricide/Matricide
Here's one for many evil characters. They kill their parents, or one of their parents. As if it's not enough to demonstrate that they're evil, they have to get shown as super evil! And what better way to do that than by murdering their parents?
This is almost a subdivision of rawr evil or kicking the dog. It doesn't even accomplish anything substantial. Need the parents out of the picture? You can do that many ways without murder.
Ways to subvert it? Don't kill them maybe? Use something besides homicide?
Ways to own it? Accidental homicide, or serious regrets. Odds are if you're trying to make some super evil baddie who doesn't afraid of anything and doesn't feel regret, you're not a capable enough writer for that challenge.
Always the Same Victims
This one isn't even funny. It's more like, every time I turn around I see this happening.
Invariably when someone introduces an NPC to kill off, either by the hands of their evil character or as some bit of collateral damage, it's disproportionately a female Twi'lek.
You guys just seem to hate female Twi'leks, or else it's a case of the old writing cliche of 'he who kills the pretty girl is most evil.' Point is, it's overused. If you really need to kill anyone, it makes the most statistical sense to kill a human, as they are the most numerous.
Mary Sue
If you’ve been RPing for long you’ve probably heard the term before. Mary Sue. What exactly does that mean? It has a wide breadth of meaning, but it pertains specifically to characters. I’ll cover some of the ways this is often seen, little attributes that are Mary-Sueish in nature.
Excessive Goodness
The character that is just too good. His or her most distinguishing trait is being nicer or otherwise more ‘good’ than his or her peers. I admit I was guilty of this with my first characters. Bonus points: Have a tragic background that doesn’t affect the way they are played.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Justify the niceness, offset it with deeper character traits. And above all, let there be a few scars from that tragic backstory.
Better than Everyone and Younger than Everyone
This is when your character outshines every other person of their age, and often elders. We’re talking masters Shii Cho at 16, or defeats the Battlemaster in a spar, performs better than their own master, and the like. Also applies to making Master or Knight too young. Bonus points if someone is holding the character back, triple points if it’s the High Council (for Jedi, or Inner Sanctum for Sith).
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Be reasonable. That’s really the only guide here. Don’t try to take Anakin Skywalker or The Force Unleashed as examples of what to do, because they’re exactly what you should avoid doing.
You Look Good, Too Good.
Now here’s an interesting one. Appearances. Believe it or not, appearances can have some Mary Sue connections. Things like non-standard color schemes, say a human with green hair and violet eyes, or a blue Togruta.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Justify it. Genetic mutation, pigment deficiency, freak spray paint accident.
Let's Not Always See the Same Hands
I've got some sad news for you kids, there's more to be cliched than just what takes place in your bio, there's also where that matters.
You see, certain planets are vastly overrepresented in people's bios, and in their threads. I'll run through the list here.
Tatooine, Naboo, Coruscant, Corellia, Felucia, Dantooine, Korriban, Nar Shaddaa
I see these planets pop up in apps possibly more than all other planets combined, which is a bit of a problem, as only Coruscant and Corellia (maybe Nar Shaddaa) are truly notable for your bios. Even I am guilty of this one.
Ways to subvert: Use a different planet. Molovar is basically the same as Tatooine, Shili and Ithor are similar to Felucia, Agamar and Toprawa are similar to Dantooine. Korriban rarely pops up as a non-Sith bio location, which leads me to...
Ways to own the cliche: Use the planets in unexpected ways. The perfect idea here is having a Jedi who doesn't get trained in the Temple, or a civilian who grew up in Dreshdae on Korriban. Additionally, make sure the planet fits for your character's faction or profession. It doesn't make much sense for most people to go to Felucia, but a Jedi might find the powerful Force presence to merit study.
Mary Sue Sith
So, a sad percentage of Sith characters wind up as total Mary Sues. Sith and Jedi are easily the worst offenders, but the Sith have a still-more rigid set of Sue factors.
Let's make an example. Snuffy the Sith, an ex-Jedi. Let's say he was always bad, and the Jedi never noticed it. Now let's say he has special dark side powers. Let's say the Jedi never noticed those either.
The problems are already apparent. In the first place, he's never shown any growth since he was always bad. That makes him static. More importantly, he evades detection by the Jedi. This implies he's somehow better than everyone else to hide that, a previous Sue factor. He had special dark side powers? He hides those too? That's a double whammy on the Sue factor.
How do you deal with these cliches? You have to write well for starters. Very well. Mary Sue Sith generally show no change or poor change, when a Sith needs good and dramatic change. If you need help, ask one of our experienced members. Cain is our excellent Sith mod, and if you ask him what he'd like to see, I'm sure he can tell you everything you need to do to make an excellent Sith.
Helpful Links
Here's a few tests you can use to evaluate your character:
www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm
www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html
www.onlyfiction.net/ms-test.html
Moving on from Mary Sue, we find a few more things.
Aren’t You a Little Short for a Stormtrooper?
This one can apply to every kind of character. It’s not so much the physical difference that everyone notices, it’s the other differences. More like “Aren’t you a little odd for a stormtrooper, and isn’t this a signed photo of Aayla Secura?”
The number one appearance of this is culture for aliens. You have characters who grow up on their worlds or surrounded by their people, and yet act exactly like humans. Or alternatively, they grow up surrounded by humans and still act alien.
Science has dealt largely with the nature vs nurture dilemma, so we shouldn’t be struggling with that. Let your character be appropriate for their race and background.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Justify your stuff first off. Twi’lek Jedi who dresses like a tramp and eats a diet of Rylothean fungi? Spent a year on Ryloth learning her culture. Togruta who wears shoes and eats bantha burgers at the mall? Adopted by middle class humans who wanted an alien daughter.
Stormtrooper with a signed photo of Aayla Secura? Rock on bro.
Have I Seen You Before?
Now here’s one that’s especially nuanced and hard to walk the line on. Resemblance to other characters, usually canon. There’s been so darn much Star Wars canon written that it’s a little hard not to get a little similar, particularly within some constrained settings. Basically what’s good to ask here is that you avoid naming your Mandalorian Leroy Fett and giving him a jetback and two blaster pistols, or that you don’t name your blue Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Fortuna.
It’s perfectly okay to have a totally awesome Mandalorian bounty hunter, or a lovely Twi’lek Jedi Knight, but try not to make carbon copies of canon characters.
Bonus points: Race matching the faction of a famous canon character. Like Zabrak Sith who eerily resemble Darth Maul or that other guy from the cartoon.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Make the character your own. You liked Oola from Return of the Jedi? Make a Twi’lek dancer like her, but create your own back story and name, and your own personality.
Here's one very special 'do.'
They Say I've Got Issues
Flaws. And not "I'm so good-looking it's a curse" or "I'm so smart that everyone hates me." We're talking explosive violent temper, or anxiety attacks, or depression, or even something as simple as an unusual hobby (carving wee anatomically correct figures out of potatoes comes to mind).
The trick is to find these little quirks and use them. They help make your character believable, and brings them to life. So please, do this!
To conclude, here’s a few special rules lmr recommends.
1. If you saw it in Force Unleashed or the Clone Wars cartoon, don’t do it.
2. Anakin Skywalker is not a good character to base your creations off of.
3. Remember that much of Star Wars canon is silly, and you don’t have to be silly too.
4. Originality is valuable, but so is fun.
5. Don’t be intimidated by creating a character, your ideas are still yours.
6. Always strives to improve. Every app can do better.
7. Own or avoid your cliches; don't be complacent.
8. Don't be a Mary-Sue.
I decided to make this thread to show the various things I see too much of, a sort of guide to what exactly is overused and clichéd. Not saying I’m going to rip out your still-beating heart for doing this (KALI MA, KALI MA SHAKTI DE). But nevertheless, you should look at this more as a ‘do not do this’ than a how-to guide.
Or alternatively you can look at this as a how-to guide on fixing your app.
Dead Master Syndrome.
Apparently being a Jedi Master is the most dangerous job in the galaxy, because they seem to die in every other app. Bonus points if the Master is a parental figure. Double bonus points if the master is a female Twi'lek. Why it is that you people have a fetish for killing off Twi'leks I don't understand. But in fact, I'll discuss that later.
Ways to subvert it? Let’s be realistic, nine times out of ten you can be just as effective in the emotional impact on the character without using the clichéd death of a mentor. The best way I’ve seen was where a character’s Jedi Master ditched the Order for a girl. They can leave the Order, they can suffer a serious mental break, they can even fall to the dark side. These are all better options than simply killing them.
But I want a Siff Lard to kill Padawan Snuffy's master, because it's dramatic!
Too bad. We don't allow Sith in the bio to begin with for site canon reasons, and beyond that, did you not read what I just wrote? Let me phrase it this way...
This is good drama: youtu.be/qIp_8RNNX4k
This is your Padawan's master getting killed by a Sith Lord because drama: www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7xixjH0QUM
Any questions?
Ways to own the cliché? Death by old age, illness, or accident. These are things I rarely to never see.
I Did Nazi That Coming
Everything is just peachy, perfectly peaceful and happy, and then it turns out your character's mentor, guardian, or master is secretly Adolf Hitler. Or not quite Hitler, maybe just Himmler or Goebbels. Regardless, it is stunningly revealed that they are in fact one of the bad guys, which shatters your character's tenuous grip on right and wrong and triggers a big and overly dramatic existential crisis.
But there must be some way to create doubt and disillusionment, isn't there?
Yes, there is.
Ways to subvert it? Very simple. Your Jedi Master who tells you no relationships? She has a relationship with a guy. Your crotchety dad who hates gay people? Secretly gay. These are minor things that can create disillusionment and severely underrated. Don't underestimate the powers of ordinary things like this.
Ways to own it? You can own it in one way. Say your character's mentor turns out to be working for the Sith. Instead of having them be Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin's secret Star Wars love child, instead have them be, for example, a well-intentioned person who believes they are doing good, or someone who is in far over their head with no choice. Don't just have them be bad for no reason, particularly not if they've never been exemplified as being bad.
My Parents Are Deaaaaaad!
Let's get real here for a second. Nothing sells quite like dead parents. Just one leads to all this annoying single-parent upbringing, or stepparents. And no one likes writing a whole extra relationship.
It's an enticing one to use. It really is. You've got media appeal for orphans, from Batman to Harry Potter. It also lets you introduce a mentor figure, which there's a very good chance you plan on killing just so you can get two cliches in a row on this list.
There are, contrary to your belief, ways to subvert this.
Ways to subvert it? You can get the same result by having your character abandoned as a child, put up for adoption, or simply having the parents get lost somehow and never come home. You can also try the challenge of writing a single parent, which I can personally attest yields a special kind of bond.
Ways to own it? Avoid murder or death in childbirth and introduce something a little more real, like drunk drivers or space ebola. OK, not space ebola. But disease maybe? Or just go for broke and have a maglev train derailment caused by the Incredible Hulk fighting Superman.
You again.
This is the delightful little habit people are into of introducing some minor villain at an early date in the bio, usually a Dark Jedi who fights the protagonist and escapes, and then introducing them again later in the bio. Bonus points if the returned Dark Jedi kills a mentor or friend. Add still more points if you repeat this pattern.
Ways to Subvert the Cliché: Don’t use the same villain twice, keep the story fresh.
Ways to Own the cliché. Make the bad guy a really interesting and compelling character, one the reader finds intriguing.
Sith Cliches.
People like Sith. Why exactly is a little vague. Apparently evil is cool. This might explain why in some circles people still like to dress up as nazis and march around.
For the non-goose-stepping segment of the population, this appeal is (hopefully) limited to fiction. However, we also see some huge Sith cliches and Mary Sue tidbits (which will be discussed shortly).
Now I am the Master
The big Sith cliche is killing your good master and becoming evil. Rawr, fear my evil powers. It seemed like every other time I glanced at a Sith bio this would happen.
Ways to subvert it? Fight the master, get owned. Run away like a little girl. Even Mannequin Skywanker got creamed by his master. Or simply have your character sneak away and go about their business.
Ways to own it? Find some dishonest way, like sabotage or poisoning rather than some cartoony violence designed to make your character seem awesome.
Rawr. Evil.
This is another one you see in Sith. It can be summed up here: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/KickTheDog
It can be broadened to include any totally pointless evil. Oh my character is so evil he stabs some random person. My character murdered a guy because he was there. You have to illustrate a reason of some kind, otherwise I just dismiss it as 'rawr, I'm evil.'
Ways to Subvert? Simple: Don't be evil for absolutely no reason.
Ways to own it? Justify it. Maybe the voices in his head told him to beat up that dog.
Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal
This is where your character, or any character really, picks some opportune time to betray some figure in the bio. It comes as no surprise because your portrayal of the character has always been "He was always evil" or something similar. This one usually applies to the Sith character, who sadly lacks any real descent from light to dark, as they were static and always bad.
In the end, the betrayal makes the reader feel like "OK, finally got that over with" rather than any real emotional reaction.
Ways to subvert it? Demonstrate a real change in the character so that their betrayal doesn't come as no surprise.
Ways to own it? There really isn't a way to own it. You just have to be a fantastic writer to pull it off. Very few of us are.
I Believe they Call it Patricide/Matricide
Here's one for many evil characters. They kill their parents, or one of their parents. As if it's not enough to demonstrate that they're evil, they have to get shown as super evil! And what better way to do that than by murdering their parents?
This is almost a subdivision of rawr evil or kicking the dog. It doesn't even accomplish anything substantial. Need the parents out of the picture? You can do that many ways without murder.
Ways to subvert it? Don't kill them maybe? Use something besides homicide?
Ways to own it? Accidental homicide, or serious regrets. Odds are if you're trying to make some super evil baddie who doesn't afraid of anything and doesn't feel regret, you're not a capable enough writer for that challenge.
Always the Same Victims
This one isn't even funny. It's more like, every time I turn around I see this happening.
Invariably when someone introduces an NPC to kill off, either by the hands of their evil character or as some bit of collateral damage, it's disproportionately a female Twi'lek.
You guys just seem to hate female Twi'leks, or else it's a case of the old writing cliche of 'he who kills the pretty girl is most evil.' Point is, it's overused. If you really need to kill anyone, it makes the most statistical sense to kill a human, as they are the most numerous.
Mary Sue
If you’ve been RPing for long you’ve probably heard the term before. Mary Sue. What exactly does that mean? It has a wide breadth of meaning, but it pertains specifically to characters. I’ll cover some of the ways this is often seen, little attributes that are Mary-Sueish in nature.
Excessive Goodness
The character that is just too good. His or her most distinguishing trait is being nicer or otherwise more ‘good’ than his or her peers. I admit I was guilty of this with my first characters. Bonus points: Have a tragic background that doesn’t affect the way they are played.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Justify the niceness, offset it with deeper character traits. And above all, let there be a few scars from that tragic backstory.
Better than Everyone and Younger than Everyone
This is when your character outshines every other person of their age, and often elders. We’re talking masters Shii Cho at 16, or defeats the Battlemaster in a spar, performs better than their own master, and the like. Also applies to making Master or Knight too young. Bonus points if someone is holding the character back, triple points if it’s the High Council (for Jedi, or Inner Sanctum for Sith).
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Be reasonable. That’s really the only guide here. Don’t try to take Anakin Skywalker or The Force Unleashed as examples of what to do, because they’re exactly what you should avoid doing.
You Look Good, Too Good.
Now here’s an interesting one. Appearances. Believe it or not, appearances can have some Mary Sue connections. Things like non-standard color schemes, say a human with green hair and violet eyes, or a blue Togruta.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Justify it. Genetic mutation, pigment deficiency, freak spray paint accident.
Let's Not Always See the Same Hands
I've got some sad news for you kids, there's more to be cliched than just what takes place in your bio, there's also where that matters.
You see, certain planets are vastly overrepresented in people's bios, and in their threads. I'll run through the list here.
Tatooine, Naboo, Coruscant, Corellia, Felucia, Dantooine, Korriban, Nar Shaddaa
I see these planets pop up in apps possibly more than all other planets combined, which is a bit of a problem, as only Coruscant and Corellia (maybe Nar Shaddaa) are truly notable for your bios. Even I am guilty of this one.
Ways to subvert: Use a different planet. Molovar is basically the same as Tatooine, Shili and Ithor are similar to Felucia, Agamar and Toprawa are similar to Dantooine. Korriban rarely pops up as a non-Sith bio location, which leads me to...
Ways to own the cliche: Use the planets in unexpected ways. The perfect idea here is having a Jedi who doesn't get trained in the Temple, or a civilian who grew up in Dreshdae on Korriban. Additionally, make sure the planet fits for your character's faction or profession. It doesn't make much sense for most people to go to Felucia, but a Jedi might find the powerful Force presence to merit study.
Mary Sue Sith
So, a sad percentage of Sith characters wind up as total Mary Sues. Sith and Jedi are easily the worst offenders, but the Sith have a still-more rigid set of Sue factors.
Let's make an example. Snuffy the Sith, an ex-Jedi. Let's say he was always bad, and the Jedi never noticed it. Now let's say he has special dark side powers. Let's say the Jedi never noticed those either.
The problems are already apparent. In the first place, he's never shown any growth since he was always bad. That makes him static. More importantly, he evades detection by the Jedi. This implies he's somehow better than everyone else to hide that, a previous Sue factor. He had special dark side powers? He hides those too? That's a double whammy on the Sue factor.
How do you deal with these cliches? You have to write well for starters. Very well. Mary Sue Sith generally show no change or poor change, when a Sith needs good and dramatic change. If you need help, ask one of our experienced members. Cain is our excellent Sith mod, and if you ask him what he'd like to see, I'm sure he can tell you everything you need to do to make an excellent Sith.
Helpful Links
Here's a few tests you can use to evaluate your character:
www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm
www.katfeete.net/writing/marysue.html
www.onlyfiction.net/ms-test.html
Moving on from Mary Sue, we find a few more things.
Aren’t You a Little Short for a Stormtrooper?
This one can apply to every kind of character. It’s not so much the physical difference that everyone notices, it’s the other differences. More like “Aren’t you a little odd for a stormtrooper, and isn’t this a signed photo of Aayla Secura?”
The number one appearance of this is culture for aliens. You have characters who grow up on their worlds or surrounded by their people, and yet act exactly like humans. Or alternatively, they grow up surrounded by humans and still act alien.
Science has dealt largely with the nature vs nurture dilemma, so we shouldn’t be struggling with that. Let your character be appropriate for their race and background.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Justify your stuff first off. Twi’lek Jedi who dresses like a tramp and eats a diet of Rylothean fungi? Spent a year on Ryloth learning her culture. Togruta who wears shoes and eats bantha burgers at the mall? Adopted by middle class humans who wanted an alien daughter.
Stormtrooper with a signed photo of Aayla Secura? Rock on bro.
Have I Seen You Before?
Now here’s one that’s especially nuanced and hard to walk the line on. Resemblance to other characters, usually canon. There’s been so darn much Star Wars canon written that it’s a little hard not to get a little similar, particularly within some constrained settings. Basically what’s good to ask here is that you avoid naming your Mandalorian Leroy Fett and giving him a jetback and two blaster pistols, or that you don’t name your blue Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Fortuna.
It’s perfectly okay to have a totally awesome Mandalorian bounty hunter, or a lovely Twi’lek Jedi Knight, but try not to make carbon copies of canon characters.
Bonus points: Race matching the faction of a famous canon character. Like Zabrak Sith who eerily resemble Darth Maul or that other guy from the cartoon.
Ways to Subvert/Own the Cliché: Make the character your own. You liked Oola from Return of the Jedi? Make a Twi’lek dancer like her, but create your own back story and name, and your own personality.
Here's one very special 'do.'
They Say I've Got Issues
Flaws. And not "I'm so good-looking it's a curse" or "I'm so smart that everyone hates me." We're talking explosive violent temper, or anxiety attacks, or depression, or even something as simple as an unusual hobby (carving wee anatomically correct figures out of potatoes comes to mind).
The trick is to find these little quirks and use them. They help make your character believable, and brings them to life. So please, do this!
To conclude, here’s a few special rules lmr recommends.
1. If you saw it in Force Unleashed or the Clone Wars cartoon, don’t do it.
2. Anakin Skywalker is not a good character to base your creations off of.
3. Remember that much of Star Wars canon is silly, and you don’t have to be silly too.
4. Originality is valuable, but so is fun.
5. Don’t be intimidated by creating a character, your ideas are still yours.
6. Always strives to improve. Every app can do better.
7. Own or avoid your cliches; don't be complacent.
8. Don't be a Mary-Sue.
