Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Rejects (but not THE Reject)

ZFRP is a huge and varied place with many interesting original characters and strange but wondrous adaptations of characters from established franchises. Seeing all these characters on parade, of course, gets the mind racing, but sometimes, the mind should just be warming the benches. Character ideas have swirled around my head wildly during my three year tenure at Zoofights, but so far only a select group of ghosts and old people have managed to make it out of the starting gate. Many characters I come up with never see the light of day, mostly because I just see a character I like but either can't think of what to do with them or decide against it in the end. Here you shall see a bit of my mad character grabbing and half-formed ideas, but I do not remember them all, nor am I willing to tip my hat about characters who might appear soon or were once rejected and now have been repurposed for future possible appearances.

2012 Rejects

Johnny Steps
From Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series

Intended to be a mix of a Capoiera fighter and a duelist who could summon Duel Monsters (but just as holograms), Johnny Steps was intended to be a 2012 character before I decided on things like Q as a returning cast member. Johnny Steps would of course never use personal pronouns, always insisting on saying Johnny Steps, and would probably talk about dancing more than Tierno does in Pokemon X/Y. Hence, the explulsion from the FUTURE! folder, where all my ideas for future ZFRP biz fester as they wait for their day to shine.

Hakuho Sho
Real life Sumo Wrestler and Yokozuna
I had a sumo phase, okay? Like... a day long one, so it wasn't so much a phase as "look at that! neat!" Still, the idea behind Hakuho would be he came to test his might against the famous Kobbers after finding the sumo circuit too weak for him. Hakuho would have been strong as a believable human could be, and might have had a sort of crisis where he realized he couldn't keep up with these crazy kobbers. He was supposed to be my "Action" character, although my personal attempts at avoiding space-marine-strong characters often leads to me gimping a character to the point of limited usefulness.

Chocodile
From American Dad/ Chocodile brand product
Mostly it was the design I fell in love with, but I was also tempted to RP as someone as laidback and chill and a crocodile in a pimp suit. Of course, he would be easy to anger, but not in the normal way. Insulting him or his fashion would be the way to get him to go crazy croc on you, giving him some combat utility but also allowing the calm, cool, and collected aspect of his character to persist during regular bar interactions.

Rock Knight and Parrot Grass
From Cobra/ Retsupurae
During their Wrongpurae of Cobra, Slowbeef and Diabetus fell in love with these two guys, and so did I. Rock Knight would have fought with the power of rock and also be a knight, no surprise there. I could never nail down a personality for him besides something too similar to Eddie, so that's one reason he never made it. Parrot Grass would have eventually been roped in by Rock Knight in some way, probably just as something he might have brought with him. Parrot Grass would be loud and constantly repeats himself but with different words. Squish Wheatley and Mojo Jojo together and give him Iago's voice and you get the idea. Just like in the game, at some point Parrot Grass would be replaced with a fake that would transform into a monster and serve as a small battle for the bargoers. Rejected because I could never nail down a personality that fit Rock Knight and Parrot Grass was just a tag along for that character.

Beetleborgs
From... Beetleborgs
The Beetleborgs were not going to be protagonists. They would attack the bar, and at some point during the fight, one would drop their suit and reveal they were actually kids. They would also have been just as intolerable as they were in the T.V. show. The Beetleborgs would have kicked off the Bill Clinton plot I had mucking around in my head, which was somewhat initiated with Sailor on Oprah but never went anywhere because it seemed intrusive. Basically, there would have been a president-ordered hit on the bar, or at least a quarantine of sorts. The Beetleborgs, trying to be heroes, would try to stop those evil Kobbers, even though we're good yadda yadda yadda you know the deal.

2013 Rejects... excluding Reject himself
The Black Baron
From Madworld
Somewhat alluded to during the BBB3, the Black Baron was one of the two people considered to host Fite Yer' Mates after JRM's inevitable death in the brawl. Dr. Satan ended up getting the position because of the potential for a plot, but the Black Baron was somewhat skipped over because of my somewhat uneasiness with accusations towards the character being racist. He was fun on a bun in Madworld, and his over the top personality would have definitely been appropriate for my arena, but I went with the safer route and took a character from a movie with rampant nudity and sophomoric humor instead. Although not likely, maybe some day Black Baron may end up hosting Fite Yer' Mates, but that would probably involve the retirement of JRM himself.

Zuizen and Keiun
From G Gundam
Originally considered as additional Orvance characters before Kalisha (who was originally going to be a generic old lady in a black robe who through weaponized diseases before I realized such attack methods would be prohibitive to tractor based battles), these two monks would be trying to spread the Shaolin temple and its ways to help it be restored. Despite being old men, their martial arts prowess would be exceptional, and they would have likely used daggers if they ever considered weapons necessary. It would have eventually come to light that they were not native to Porphyrion, but off-worlders from the G Gundam version of Earth trying to spread the Shaolin temple throughout the stars. Sai Saici might have eventually made an appearance in his Dragon Gundam, but it would have been like James Bond was to Q.

Merasmus
From Team Fortress 2
Halloween was coming soon, and I wanted a character for the holiday. I eventually settled on bringing back Phantomon, but I had two ideas for characters I was going to bring in before settling for the Digimon. Merasmus was one of them. He would have pestered the people of the Drunken Gryphon in an attempt to both revive the dying Orvance topic as well as give us a little halloween fun by having a new spell every few days during October. For example, BIG HEADS! The spells from the TF2 event would have pretty much been the ones used, as well as some of the ones that were found in the files but not actually used in game. But don't worry, there would have never been a Jarate day. He would have been mostly harmless, and gone away after Halloween in a huff if he hadn't been kicked out sooner.

Smoke
From Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue
The second considered character for Halloween would have been a villain. Smoke would have set up the Hot Drugs Stand in the ZFS and start pestering people with known past addictions or present bad habits and try to get them to relapse. People like Dirk and Jonesy would have likely been targeted do to their past with drugs, and Ignazio would have been heckled for his cigars, and maybe even everyone would get bothered about booze or the Snaptures of old. I figured such a targeted approach to a villain might be either annoying or require planning with the person who owned the character, and I had no real idea of how Smoke could end up being defeated, or if he could, because of some poignant message on how you can never really shake the urge to relapse or something dumb like that.

The Winter Warlock
From Santa Claus is Coming to Town
When I though we were gonna do a 2013 Christmas in the same vein as our 2011 Christmas, I had the Winter Warlock planned in pretty much the same vein as Merasmus. The Winter Warlock would hate the Space People and their Star Festival, and try to ruin their Christmas festivities by creating snow and freezing lakes. However, instead of harmful snow storms, he would accidentally make a winter wonderland with activities for the bargoers to participate in. However, since we didn't have a Christmas celebration, the Winter Warlock was going to be repurposed into a bit character into my version of the Christmas Carol. When Christmas came and I realized I didn't have time to finish the story, I scrapped the whole thing and so with it the Winter Warlock as well.

2014 Rejects

Characters I was considering but I am no longer.



Ivan the Space Biker
From Early Builds of Half Life
He would have been a space biker. Named Ivan.

Doggy
From Toons These Days
A disillusioned cartoon character who hates the modern day shows, Doggy would have been a confrontational character and quick to lampoon any RP character from a recent cartoon or be chummy with someone from an old one. He would have, no doubt, have something to say about them My Little Ponies. Doggy was scrapped due to perceived uselessness and his adversarial nature, which is a personality that I do not enjoy RPing much. Besides, Tallish already chews out everyone, so I didn't need a character who was the same but a black and white dog.












Bely Mishka, Yoggl, Schuss, and Schneemann
Olympic Mascots
Izzy is slated to return eventually with the Fite Olympics, and once I planned out the possible events in my head, I wanted each one to have a host. Izzy would have hosted one, but since 2014 is the winter olympics, he wanted to prove his olympics better, and he needed some help. Schneemann, a real old olympic mascot, Schuss, an unofficial one but technically the first one, Yoggl, a mascot, but only for the Youth Olympics, were all willing to help. Bely, on the other hand, is slated to be a mascot for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, so Izzy would have kidnapped him and forced him to host an event to try and get more attention for the New Better Olympics. Bely would have hosted his event with a defeated tone, asking for someone to save him but not in a desperate way. Yoggl, who wants to prove himself to be worthy of being a real olympic mascot, would be a bit overeager and have a bit of stage fright. Schuss, being unofficial in every way, would have long since gone crazy, and would pepper his lines with twitching and laughter. Nothing evil though. Schneemann would have sounded German. This idea was abandoned because it seemed like I was overcomplicating what should be a straight-forward event, and when ideas for 2014 characters came up, Izzy returning seemed less like the event I planned it to be and more like a necessity for the Olympics to actually go down.

2015 Rejects
Juan Carlos Rivera
Original Character
One of the few original characters I've come up with that I have completely rejected thus far without either keeping them in reserve or repurposing them. Juan Carlos is a Gila Monster cowboy whose morals would be loose and often contradictory to the bar's usual mentality. While most people gave the Society at least the chance to talk, the moment one walked into the bar Juan Carlos would have just shot them. He was mostly rejected because Harpy ended up naming two of her characters after the two parts of his first name, but also because it seems like our 2015 theme will be less Wild West than I thought.

Billy Bob Joe Hansen Carlsbad Elegant James William Tonner Smith Junior the Third
and Wilford Drake
Original Characters
The prospector with an overly long name and the donkey with a surprisingly sophisticated one were also scrapped due to the setting seeming less Wild West than I thought. Billy Bob would appear to be an insane and rather cliche prospector and Wilford a regular pack mule, but neither character is as they seem. Billy Bob was once a scientist who discovered a rare element after receiving a call from a digging site. Accompanied by a then humanoid and well-respected author Wilford Drake, the two were working together on writing up a paper on the discovery when the element's true nature became apparent. Billy Bob (whose name was originally just William Tonner the Third) went insane from the radiation and believed himself to be a prospector since the mining site was indeed filled with them. Wilford didn't go insane, but instead found his mind forced into one of the miner's pack mules. Still able to speak and incredibly refined, Wilford leads Billy Bob around to try and find a way to reverse the radiation's effects, but the radiation also had another side effect. Whenever Billy Bob sleeps or faints, his body shifts into an eldritch creature from the dimension the element originated from. The creautres would not be hideous masses of tentacles so much as absurd and illogical creatures. Wilford would be the voice of reason, with Billy Bob mostly shouting nonsense. The need for new creatures every time it happened + shifting setting ideas + characters who might not blend well with the bar anyway= rejected characters.

Rejected Big Bar Brawl Mystery Fiters

Although the first Mystery Fiter was always intended to be Mac Tonight, the later ones had a few rejects as well. I can't remember all of them, and again some may be used in the future, but here are two who didn't make the cut.

Poochie
From The Simpsons
I've mentioned it before, but for the BBB2, I was having second thoughts about the Monstars. They were pretty much planned from the moment it was apparent year 2 would probably be the 90s, but Chet's Space Jam reference-filled blog posts got me nervous the Monstars might make an early appearance before the Brawl. I also worried that people might not recognize the Monstars, although if you just said "the aliens from Space Jam" most people would at least imagine the right characters. Poochie was the back up plan, and similar to how Mac Tonight was useless, Poochie would have probably contributed little as well. Sadly, Poochie died on his way over to the arena from his home planet.

Mr. Clean
From the Mr. Clean line of products
Somewhat considered for future brawls, Mr. Clean seemed to have the oddity factor, but little in the way of fighting besides being buff. I considered him using cleaning products as weapons, but as I was watching Venture Bros, a character named The Cleaner appeared and did pretty much that. The Cleaner was rolled into my idea for the OSI plot, and Mr. Clean was subsequently scrapped for being too similar.

Although these two aren't the only one's to have not been scrapped, many never made it out of the "wouldn't it be cool" phase or are still up for consideration for the future. Also, the B-Rex was not the only Zoofighter considered for BBB3, but most of them were skimmed over rather quickly before settling on the T-Rex.

Now, THAT'S all the guys I can remember ever considering RPing. Like I said, some I've forgotten, some have been repurposed for the future, and some I just cant bring myself to reject. Most OCs still might make an appearance somewhere down the road, even ones I cooked up in 2011 might have a future. Whatever the future may hold though, expect to not see these guys in it.