Slam Jam Compendium Comments pt 2 · 12:43am May 27th, 2015
Here's part two of my comments on the OC Slamjam contestants!
Part one is here.
Lucky Stars
She’s a teacher and she wants to make a difference to her kids. That’s so straightforward that it’s almost a non-thing; all of this detail and even a whole bunch of stuff about her family can just be boiled down to “she’s a teacher.” I suppose the family stuff could be used to create some interesting stuff in a story, which is what matters. Still, though.
Staccato Spark
I’m not sure if being all about Fanon Scratch is a plus for minus for this character—plus because it’s ballsy, or minus because it’s unoriginal and leans on being awesome via proximity to a loved character. I’m gonna go with minus because there isn’t much else to the history section. I want to resist rolling my eyes at the whole thing, because she does have traits of her own: her self-consciousness, the way Scratch is significant to her character beyond just the author’s ego, and other details.
Obvious Question
This guy’s name implies that he’s going to be a one-note joke character, but his character takes that one note and runs with it. The explanation of his name, the way he uses his talent, it all really does work, a fact that comes out in the stories he’s in, both of which are excellent.
Proper Prim
Great name, first off. She’s my favorite kind of OC, or at the very least the kind most suited to this contest—the kind who has interesting personal traits while also sticking close to her cutie mark shtick. Not much to say about her, because I all around just like her. She’s simple, a big formulaic, yet also distinctive. Just right for an OC who lives in the world of a cartoon for little kids.
Bibidi Boo
Aaaaand coming right off of that we have a real doozy of a snowflake. Not liking the vagueness of “dark magic” as her whole thing, and definitely not liking the way she’s some awesome vigilante hero out righting wrongs via completely unspecified dark and edgy methods. I do like the fact that she’s a witch named Bibidi Boo who wears a pointy black hat. If I had to give her a rating, it would be a thumbs down, but there’s room for her to be used well… even if it’ll probably be her opponents who do it better than her own author.
Merry Weather
Blatant self insert. Tragic birth defect because surely that’s all you need for an interesting character. Personality section full of non sequitur garbage. I refuse to put any further effort into explaining why she is probably one of the five worst characters on the list.
Vanilla Skies
Generic-ass weatherpony but at least she doesn’t earn a place on the list of entries that I actively hate. Next.
Azure
So here we have a pony whose character sheet includes a close relationship with one of her brothers and a specific and unique hobby of attending and participating in rodeos, which is a great start, but then the personality section completely and totally fails to flesh anything out whatsoever. I swear to Faust there are probably ten ponies whose main personality flaw is “often acts without thinking.” This character sheet gives ideas that would make a character interesting, and then glues them onto a shell of a non-character.
Fillygree
Just being a jeweler named Fillygree is a fantastic idea. Her profile is very bare-bones, but not in a way that makes her feel empty—she definitely has a personality and some motivations laid out to be used. I’m not giving scores, but I would write this one off as a “pretty good.”
Bristle
A lot of these just used “Happy, Afraid, Trouble” or “Like, Dislike, Trouble” as a guideline, but dammit, people shouldn’t actually do list form. Fortunately for this one, that section actually says quite a bit about how he feels about things and what kind of values he has. Another thing on his side is that his History leads up to a specific and meaningful set of life circumstances. Despite saying it in very few words and being quuite vague about it, this guy comes out nicely as a “deep” character.
Casey Regluator Trotterson (strong contender for worst name of the list)
Another of those “background ponies” who has a special cutie mark talent and sticks to it throughout the whole character sheet. He’s a train conductor who… conducts trains, and is really good at it, and hates not being good at it. Again, I generally like these, but often they would benefit from a few idiosyncracies. You know, make them quirky, idiosyncratic. Rainbow Dash is an egotistical pain in the ass, Rarity is a prissy pain in the ass, Pinkie is a hyperactive pain in the ass, etc.
Mint Whisp
Here we go with another maximum-strength OHSEE DOONET STAHL. Moving right along.
Liligold
Hre I just finished blowing off a special snowflake with a roll of the eyes, and the very next one is a special snowflake who I really like. She has a special snowflake profession that’s actually really interesting, and a bunch of special snowflake quirks that actually fit together nicely into a cohesive and charming picture of a shy, delicate flower (see what I did there) who loves her craft and has quite a lot going on under the surface. Very nice.
Evergreen
A full-on joke character, but one that actually works. Ignore the obvious LOLOLOL CANADIAN thing she’s got going on, and you have a park ranger with all kinds of nice little details about her job and life, who doesn’t know how to handle herself when you plonk her down in an unfamiliar environment, et cetera et cetera. I like it.
Evergreen is best OC and don't you dare deny it >:V
3101372 You love her for her name.
3101523
also for her Canada
she is my waifu who lives in Canada3101593
That's gonna be stuck in my head all night. Thanks, asshole.
I've always had Merry Weather at the bottom of my list, way past Mizuki. At least Mizuki isn't over-the-top, she's just Japanese... and a loner... and stuff. Alright, that sounds bad, but her personality is subtle. Merry Weather is like every little thing the author wants to identify with in a protagonist all at once. Back-porch anarchist and freerunner? Really?
I'm going to have to disagree with you about Lilligold. She would have been much better if she wasn't tied to some random foreign country. Not exactly someone you can whip off 5,000 words about meeting on the street. From the bio, I just felt like the author was trying to hard to be poetic and innocent.
I'd love to hear your new opinions after reading Round One. What do you think of the Round Two matchups?
3103919
I've been writing these as if I didn't know anything about their stories. The largest changes are that Straitjacket dunked himself deep into the shitter and I saw that I had judged Firefly too harshly.
Still missing some characters tho
3104091
When part 3 comes out I'll be a little over halfway done.
3101593
Since she's so obviously Canadian and a mountie, she's my fav by default.