Roleplayer! Y U choose that image claim!?

[Zeke]

The Image Claim system here on Fans is one of the most unique things I've ever seen on a forum. We choose people and fictional characters from out in the world and cast them as the actors and actresses of our own creations. So, why did you choose to "cast" certain people in certain roles? Did you choose based on that person's actual acting ability or personality? Did you wanna typecast or play someone against type? Or did you just wanna snap up the claim before anyone else could get it? :lol

I actually bothered casting Zeke, picking through actors all over to see who was best. Zeke's kind of a ham, but he does his rare serious moments, so Nic Cage was the best fit. Zenas and Zhe'chot were unique; very little art exists of Togruta and Rattataki, so I had to go hunt for commissions or screencap things just to get a worthwhile image. The upswing was that I could get super precise with their appearances through custom art (or, in Zhe'chot's case, the character builder on SW:TOR).

On the Mutants, Unite! side, Flux got Peter Parker 'cause I wanted it first and was trying to emulate Peter as a foundation to build on and develop Flux into a more distinct character. Freight Train got Toph because I belatedly realized that Toph was as close as I could get to the personality I wanted and have it "click" with people right away...so I suppose I was type-casting there.

Anyway, there's my answer. Be as broad or as specific as you like, guys. And remember: THIS IS NOT FOR YOU TO BITCH ABOUT HOW SOMEONE ELSE HAS A CLAIM YOU WANT. Show me your mental processes!

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I can't believe you use Nic Cage, I WANTED to have him for -

;)

I picked my image claims a long, long time ago, for the most part. LD's used to be some Renaissance peasant dress looking chick with long brown hair but after I found the Razor pictures it was all over. I RPed her getting a haircut and then ended up writing 'prequels' to her appearance on the SWfans scene to tie in those lovely gauntlet blades or whatever they're called. Arm blades, :D. I don't know anything about Razor other than how she looks, so I just fell in love with her look and felt it fit the character I was writing.

Arya was always Trinity. Mark helped/pushed/prodded me into creating my second character, and I'm not sure what came first, the character idea or the image claim. There's no doubt that Trinity's ass-kicking attitude influences Arya, and the image used helps cement that in my mind while I'm writing her.

My Ciz came with their anime image claims, those have only recently been changed to 'live action' Cizerack. Cameron Diaz seems to fit Sasseeri really well, with a sort of lazy charm but also the ability to turn into a screaming harpy at any moment. At least, that's what I get from her from most of her movies. :D

[Reshmar]

10 years ago when I stumbled onto fans My first character was Chiss. He is still around but not very useful. Then I decided I wanted an alliance character. I wanted to stay away from humans and back then the choice was there but not the info. I'm a navy guy all the way. Have been since I knew what a ship was. went from dinosaurs in first grade to ships in third and never looked back. No race is as intertwined with star wars star ships as the Calamari. They save=ed the galaxy according to Mon Mothma. So in working out my alliance character back then a Mon Cal was just a no brainer. My first character was Chiss and he was dark and mysterious. very little was know back then about them. I actually have SiL to thank for the blue Jeremy Iorns pic. was all her. but it was great exactly what i wanted and how I pictured Lash.

Later characters I base who I use as the avatar on the character they play. I think of how I want my character to basically be and someone from a show or movie comes to mind. Like Admiral Holt. He is an old country boy who went in the navy and came up through the ranks with hard work. but inside he is still an old country boy. Robert Mitchum's roll in the movie Midway as Admiral Halsey. I liked him and when I think about Holt he comes to mind. General Forlon is serious and very strict. I thought of Mitch Pileggi from Stargate Atlantis. Colonel Caldwell was nothing if not strict and by the book.

I guess the one character I did not use this with was Moff Joran Greth. With him i could not make up my mind. he is a complicated and confusing character. very strict and by the book but also border line psychotic and murderous. I chose Michael O'Hare from the series babylon 5, and for some reason I just saw him as Greth. Greth is almost the retro of his Sinclair character. That may be why.

Mainly I base it on the character they play not the actors themselves.

[Droo]

My image choice for Loki and Kallum was a difficult one, and required me to have some powers of precognition in order to pick the right look, and it was really quite a pragmatic process. I was looking for a young actor who I felt confident would have a strong future career based on their performance, otherwise, if they sucked arse, then there'd, in all likelihood, be very few pictures for me to choose from for my avatars. So, when I saw Billy Elliot, and saw what Jamie Bell could do, I knew I was backing a winner there. As a result, I have a massive, and growing, catalogue of images and looks to choose from for the characters.

Jim Lewinski, on the other hand, suffered a completely different fate. I chose one image that, for me, captured exactly what I felt that hyperactive little dork was all about, and it worked, for a while. Sadly, that actor doesn't appear to have gone on to do anything since that Skins character, which has left me stumped for choices. Fortunately, Jim was inspired by the character of George Sands from Being Human, played by Russell Tovey, what with the shrieking and the fearfulness and the underlying intelligence, and thankfully, Tovey is an awesome actor with a bright future ahead of him, so I jumped ship in the knowledge that I'd have a luxury of choice with an actor who physically embodied jittery Jim.

[Ben Merasska]

So far, every character has had their own real process in what their image claim is. Rossos came by Irons while I was looking for a good face for an evil dude. Irons really influenced Rossos as a character, and things have gone from there. Ben was Alan from the moment he was conceived. I admit I was planning something of a "Wash-in-Star-Wars" sort of thing at first, but Ben's backstory started derailing that (apparently for the better) right from the start. Palara was me trying to find a non-pornographic picture of a twilek to use for an alien Imperial. It's not really influenced her as a character, insomuch as I'm still on the look out for some good pictures that I might substitute. It's part of the reason I don't really describe her much in posts as well. Serasai Onashi was meant to be a more serious sort of mercenary at first, but after a few posts, he evolved into someone who needed a much less serious face, and that's where his current one comes in from.

I usually come up with a character first, and then try to 'cast' someone who will fit them, or how I see them in my head. Only a few times has it been the other way around.

[Halajiin Rabeak]

Well, being the creator of the Nehantites, most all of their avatars have been my own drawings, seeing as nobody else was drawing them. =P But at the moment, both Hal and Tevit have avatars taken from a series of sketches that my friend Lauren Banks did of Tevit several years ago. Eventually I'll do some of my own, but both current avatars fit them pretty darn well, I thought.

As far as Dirk Neighborly goes, well, Dan McNinja is cool, crotchety and mysterious, so it was a perfect fit.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Lemme see:

Cirrsseeto Raurrssatta was originally a throwaway Ctarl-Ctarl bit character from Outlaw Star. That then morphed into a pic Christin made for him, which cemented some of the features that I wanted to express. (skin tone, facial hair, his personality, etc). Later when I used Craig Charles for him, I took a lot of that character and expressed it further along. Since I couldn't find a decent Craig Charles pic to use for a cleaned up Cirr, I decided to use the Mass Effect character editor to give it my best shot. With a lot of tweaking by Christin, that's probably the most on-the-mark rendition to date.

Sanis Prent has always been Brad Pitt. I really liked the disheveled look he had in Fight Club, and The Mexican, and those two films more or less guided me along most of my style and how I saw Sanis looking. Of course as the situation changes, that look also changes, but he'll always be Pitt.

Anbira Hicchoru was my first account way back in the day and was at first some DBZ horribleness, but that quickly flipped to Russell Crowe. From then on (With the exception of one stretch where he was older for some reason I forget) he's always been kind of a hirsute, beardy sort of guy. Took a shitload of finagling to get the look I've got currently with Gerard Butler.

Taataani Meorrrei was originally a terrible rehash of Aisha Clan-Clan from Outlaw Star, but after the account died away and was reborn, I had a damn good idea who I wanted to use for her. Polly Walker's Atia from Rome commands the exact amount of aristocratic poise and humor and vindictiveness and power and, and, and, she is fucking perfect.

Eluna Thals hasn't really had any requirements other than being a woman with brilliant red hair. I've used random image searches with her before, but the girl who played Strawberry Fields in Quantum of Solace does the job nicer than the others.

I'll probably put more up later when I can think more.

[Zereth Lancer]

I've pretty much just used whatever looked cool and was available. I've changed my character images far more often than I can remember. I really enjoy changing up some of the images to strike a new mood or theme with the character. Originally I used a lot of video game characters, than anime, and am now transitioning into using real actors/actresses (a thing I got more into while writing on other boards that required it).

Zereth Lancer: is currently Vincent Valentine, whom I fell in love with after watching Final Fantasy: Advent Children. I felt he had a lot of similar qualities to Zereth. The whole human experiment thing, dark and broody character who is tactful and sometime wise. Before Vincent I used a hodgepodge of random images pulled mostly from Video Game concept arts. Originally he he was birthed as a pale, dark man from some image that Holly found for me.

Kyle Krogen: started out as Apoc from the Matrix, but I quickly grew out of that and used Isaac from Golden Sun; a Gameboy Color game I was playing at the time. As Kyle grew older I went with older looks and used Shawn Ashmore (Iceman from X-Men Films) for a short while before Cloud Strife became available and I quickly snatched it up due to the close resemblance to Isaac.

Xel-Naga: Now this is a character who's image has evolved and changed so many times. Most of which took place before he was ever introduced on SW-Fans. Xel was my original first character concept who ultimately lost out to Kyle. Xel was originally going to use an image of a StarCraft Ghost (stealth assassin unit) and from there I started doodling and drawing him as a young teenager as a man in a trench coat and a helmet that obscured his face. When he did make it to SW-Fans I once again used random Video Game concept art of an armored man and Xel spent quite a long time without a real face. Just an armored suit. When we hit the Reset I finally gave him a face with Vin Diesel, a man I thought matched Xel's tough as shit personality and no nonsense attitude.

Alexia Sturkov: Originally Jezreal Darkshard, this character used Mia from Golden Sun to portray her soft and gentle nature. Eventually I did a color change and changed her hair from blue to red/pink to reflect her increasingly darker nature as her sith training progressed. When she died and possessed the body of Alexia Sturkov, I had the option to go with anything I wanted. Alexia was a brooding assassin type so I chose Rayne of BloodRayne because I wanted something edgy and sexy. I've flirted with some other images for Alexia but nothing I really enjoyed for long so I just recently returned back to using BloodRayne, and I'm very happy for it.

It's a similar story with all my other characters. Very few of them have their original image claims still, either because I changed them or because I lost the claim during an absence of mine.

[Captain Untouchable]

Some of my image claims are "meh, that'll do" decisions, or are picked for a gimmicky / nerd joke reason. Of those that aren't...

John Glayde took me a while to get right. He was originally Kavan Smith, who shows up in a lot of shows filmed in Vancouver, usually as the dependable but not necessarily main character. When Dorn Force started out I needed someone competant, but who wasn't a superfantastic Rebel hero, and he fit the bill. As the character developed though, I started to need someone with more bite, who could concievably be harbouring guilt about various things, but could still get on with his job. Because Kavan plays more minor roles in things like Stargate Atlantis, Eureka, and The 4400, I just couldn't imagine him being the guy I needed him to be anymore. Ben Mansfield played a similar role in Primeval to begin with, but evolved into this cool, slightly grumpy, and extremely protective character... exactly what I was looking for.

Tom Harriman was even harder. He began as a Power Ranger, because I needed someone to act a bit immature and dress as a ninja. The character grew into this science guy with a military background: he swapped to Robert Downey Jr because he managed to pull off the smart-but-childish aspects of Tony Stark. It wasn't until I moved him to LA and added in his siblings that I swapped to Michael Trucco: I wanted someone who could seem like a sensitive "nice guy", as well as a sarcastic badass.

Vansen Tyree was too obvious: I almost didn't pick Colonel Tigh. I wanted to write a grizzled old veteran, and I hit upon the idea of an eyepatch as a visual way of showing that he's given parts of himself to his career. I didn't want to seem like I was ripping off Battlestar, though. I'm glad I went with him: I was soon after treated to Seasons 4 and 5 of BSG, which showed just what Michael Hogan is capable of as an actor. I don't think I would have been able to develop Vansen the way I have if it weren't for that image claim.

Hurucan was created to be someone who is both charismatic and terrifying: someone who seems like the most elloquent and genuine man on the planet, but is sinister, manipulative, and vicious below the surface. Christopher Heyerdahl is one of my favourite villain actors: he manages to portray all those traits even when they hide him behind makeup and prosthetics. It was either him or Jeffrey Combs; I went with Chris because he had the physicality I wanted for Hurucan, and because his hairless trenchcoated look from Sanctuary made him look "old... but how old?" - sort of mysterious, which is what I wanted.

Inyos Aamoran was a type-cast image claim, like Vansen. In Supernatural, Misha Collins plays a fallen angel who has a lot of guilt about his past and seems almost haunted by it, and also has a kind of detachment from the real world: exactly what I needed Inyos to be.

Nathan Godfrey became Christopher Eccleston for the same reason that Chris became Doctor Who. He has a very distinctive face, but it's one that doesn't seem to change. Chris has seemed middle aged for as long as I've known about him as an actor. He's also appeared in stuff from various eras: always useful when you're dealing with a Wolverine style character who doesn't age.

I think those are all the main ones that have a story behind them.