Droo
Jul 10th, 2010, 09:57:55 AM
It has recently been brought to my attention, and I must emphasise in an absolutely amicable and constructive way, that for at least one member of the community there is some issue with my Jedi character, Abarai Loki (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/member.php?u=4438).
Now I normally try to avoid making a character evaluation post unless I feel I need to and today I feel it's needed. When I created this character I had doubts concerning what other roleplayers might make of him and how they would feel about having their characters interacting with a fourteen year old Jedi Knight. First, a quick summary:
Abarai Loki has spent his entire life in seclusion with his grandfather and a couple of other padawans, training in militant fashion - strictly regimented and with no down time. Simply put, he's a boy without a childhood, or a family for that matter. His greatest strength is that he is highly intelligent. He has an innate craving for knowledge and learns things quickly, all much like his pre-reset incarnation. He is well-disciplined and has great resolve. And being of noble stock he has developed something of an arrogant, self-important side to his personality, and has absolutely no sense of humour or time for nonsense.
This is all covered better, and in more detail, here (http://www.sw-fans.net/wiki/index.php?title=Abarai_Loki).
Now, first of all, I can completely understand how this must be a difficult character to wrestle with as a fellow roleplayer. Adult characters humouring such a condescending little kid. It has never ever been my intention to make others feel like they are either selling their own characters short or allowing their characters to be patronised or their integrity undermined by putting up with this character just to keep me, the roleplayer, happy. And quite frankly, I've never asked anyone to do anything of the sort, we are all at liberty to have our characters behave and react to others exactly as we wish.
My impression of Loki is that he's a supreme brat who needs to be cut down a peg because everyone around him has let him get away with the act for too long.
This is an excerpt from an honest and polite critique I recieved today and my first response to this would be "If that is how your character feels about Loki then by all means portray those feelings. That makes for interesting character interaction." Also, to an extent, I feel I'm doing my job writing him because from an external perspective I imagine he would be an almost intolerable person, and one I would personally choose to avoid. Which brings me back to my original doubts. How can I expect fellow roleplayers to have their characters associate with him if it goes against their character's nature?
One of the focal points of the constructive criticism I recieved was that Loki seemed to possess an abundance of wisdom which, for a child, is just not at all believeable. I'm not really sure about this point and it concerns me, which is why I'm bringing it out into the open here for discussion.
To me, Loki is intelligent but his knowledge is very limited. He is very much a Jedi soldier, all he knows are matters of combat, combat tactics, and field medicine. He has very few life experiences, a flaw which he has been slowly building on since joining the Wheel and his social skills are weak. And while his reasoning skills and sense of logic are sound, he doesn't necessarily possess any real wisdom - just because he is confident and believes he's always right doesn't make that the case at all. He is far from flawless and I think I've given myself plenty to build upon and improve with him over time.
When I made this character my intention was to take the concept of the old Loki and turn it on its head: instead of having a fully-realised young boy growing into a Jedi Knight, I started with a Jedi Knight who would grow into a fully-realised man, complete with a sense of humour and all. Instead of learning Jedi skills on the Wheel, he'd be developing people skills and it was a concept I thought would make for interesting roleplaying with other characters and thus far, for me at least, it has.
If however others are unhappy with him and uncomfortable roleplaying with him then I'd really like to know. I could always just grant him an extra twenty or thirty years but I fear that would destroy the essence of what makes him original and fun to play. I welcome all constructive criticism here and would really appreciate the help.
And one more thing: sorry for making a novella out of this.
Now I normally try to avoid making a character evaluation post unless I feel I need to and today I feel it's needed. When I created this character I had doubts concerning what other roleplayers might make of him and how they would feel about having their characters interacting with a fourteen year old Jedi Knight. First, a quick summary:
Abarai Loki has spent his entire life in seclusion with his grandfather and a couple of other padawans, training in militant fashion - strictly regimented and with no down time. Simply put, he's a boy without a childhood, or a family for that matter. His greatest strength is that he is highly intelligent. He has an innate craving for knowledge and learns things quickly, all much like his pre-reset incarnation. He is well-disciplined and has great resolve. And being of noble stock he has developed something of an arrogant, self-important side to his personality, and has absolutely no sense of humour or time for nonsense.
This is all covered better, and in more detail, here (http://www.sw-fans.net/wiki/index.php?title=Abarai_Loki).
Now, first of all, I can completely understand how this must be a difficult character to wrestle with as a fellow roleplayer. Adult characters humouring such a condescending little kid. It has never ever been my intention to make others feel like they are either selling their own characters short or allowing their characters to be patronised or their integrity undermined by putting up with this character just to keep me, the roleplayer, happy. And quite frankly, I've never asked anyone to do anything of the sort, we are all at liberty to have our characters behave and react to others exactly as we wish.
My impression of Loki is that he's a supreme brat who needs to be cut down a peg because everyone around him has let him get away with the act for too long.
This is an excerpt from an honest and polite critique I recieved today and my first response to this would be "If that is how your character feels about Loki then by all means portray those feelings. That makes for interesting character interaction." Also, to an extent, I feel I'm doing my job writing him because from an external perspective I imagine he would be an almost intolerable person, and one I would personally choose to avoid. Which brings me back to my original doubts. How can I expect fellow roleplayers to have their characters associate with him if it goes against their character's nature?
One of the focal points of the constructive criticism I recieved was that Loki seemed to possess an abundance of wisdom which, for a child, is just not at all believeable. I'm not really sure about this point and it concerns me, which is why I'm bringing it out into the open here for discussion.
To me, Loki is intelligent but his knowledge is very limited. He is very much a Jedi soldier, all he knows are matters of combat, combat tactics, and field medicine. He has very few life experiences, a flaw which he has been slowly building on since joining the Wheel and his social skills are weak. And while his reasoning skills and sense of logic are sound, he doesn't necessarily possess any real wisdom - just because he is confident and believes he's always right doesn't make that the case at all. He is far from flawless and I think I've given myself plenty to build upon and improve with him over time.
When I made this character my intention was to take the concept of the old Loki and turn it on its head: instead of having a fully-realised young boy growing into a Jedi Knight, I started with a Jedi Knight who would grow into a fully-realised man, complete with a sense of humour and all. Instead of learning Jedi skills on the Wheel, he'd be developing people skills and it was a concept I thought would make for interesting roleplaying with other characters and thus far, for me at least, it has.
If however others are unhappy with him and uncomfortable roleplaying with him then I'd really like to know. I could always just grant him an extra twenty or thirty years but I fear that would destroy the essence of what makes him original and fun to play. I welcome all constructive criticism here and would really appreciate the help.
And one more thing: sorry for making a novella out of this.