Today's will likely be the longest because unlike the others, this was heavily premeditated. I began writing names of the Rejects on a sticky note as I remembered them over the past few days to make sure I missed as few as possible as I did what is hopefully the last reject roundup for a long long time! Some of these are barely character ideas, others had full plots, but just like most of my rejects, they are usually from something. This will also include characters I have mentioned in chatzy as rejected but presented again! But most were never disclosed.
And away we go!
From: Rescuers Down Under
A character idea from 2012, McLeach was meant to make that long blog series I did about the Rescuers more relevant than just introducing Evinrude to the mix. McLeach would appear in the bar ready to poach the bar's biggest threats, usually aiming for any beast-like ones. The Widow Maker plot would have been a gas for him. However, eventually we would find out he was trying to earn favor with the Kobbers to get them to go on a grand hunt. Feeding the Kobbers misinformation on a "terrifying beast that needs to be stopped," McLeach would take the Kobbers on an unwinnable battle to kill an invicible beast. However, it would turn out that the beast was just trying to protect its babies or something and McLeach would be the villain and we had to stop him while trying not to die while being assailed by the real threat. Scrapped because google would have made the plot predictable as can be.
From: Popeye
Ven recently brought up Popeye as a Secret Fiter idea, but the sailorman had already been considered for a role as the Mystery Fiter instead! Capable of some mean sockdolagers and holding a can of spinach, he could have added something to the Brawl no doubt, but not enough. Mystery Fiters need to be recognizable, but sometimes a big name and decent strength can't help you carry that title.
From: Spongebob Squarepants
At one point the idea of themes was being bandied about on the old forum and a Rapture-like setting was brought up and at least said to be a "neat idea". Underwater world? Underwater character. And who better than... a tree. Scuba Tree would have likely evolved into more than just the image, bordering on OC if he had ever been fleshed out, but you can't flesh out bark and the Rapture idea hardly ever moved beyond an idea.
From: Rango
Another theme idea tossed out was a Wild West setting, maybe even tossed out by me, I don't recall. However, one character who instantly came to mind for such a place was this old mouse right here: Spoons! A charming character in Rango, I don't know how effective he would be, but he would have probably at least got a size upgrade to be as tall as most characters. RPing tiny is fun and all, but I felt this guy could have done more at eye level than toe level. Never moved any further than Scuba Tree got though.
From: Jackie Chan Adventures
Somehow reentering my life through some means, the character of Tohru dug up fond memories and almost immediately set about a kneejerk GOTTA RP HIM attitude. Put in the future folder, his big bulk made him great at combat and his personality in the show was at least complex enough to be explored in depth. Then I made a different muscly bruiser with a complex personality and I didn't want to toot the same horn twice. Bye Tohru, Everett beat you to the punch.
From: Powerpuff Girls
Part of that weird new artstyle Powerpuff Girls special, Fibonacci stood out for his interesting style and concept... and having Ringo Starr's voice. Fibonacci was math obsessed, and I thought of many interesting ways such a thing could be integrated into combat, particularly with the tractor. One idea was rolling the tractor 5 times and averaging it out for the real roll, sacrificing any chance at a 21 for winning ties by getting a 6.5 instead of a 6. Although this tractor gimmick was also considered for musical characters (rhythm being the excuse), if I am going to do some math character now they will likely be OC rather than a minor Powerpuff Girls character.
From: Assassination Classroom
A highly charismatic character with power? Sign me up! From an anime being currently dubbed and the only one I'm really following, Korosensei blew up the moon. Most of it at least. This would NOT be carried into RP, but another part of him could have been. See, Korosensei in Assassination Classroom plans to blow up the Earth, but only after teaching some kids in a classroom. In RP, he would have done the same, except observing the exceptional Kobbers as some sort of litmus test for if the Earth deserved to live. He would appear, literally tell everyone he planned to blow up Earth by the end of the year, and then help the Kobbers in anyway he could. Problem is: He is almost invincible. Weak to only very specific things, and being that invincible, so fast he can't really be caught, and many other factors meant he'd either have to be talking only or taken down a peg. His plot could have been resolved by either successfully killing him or convincing him Earth is worth protecting. However, I hate RPing super strong heroes and Korosensei would have likely been much stronger than Jaxx, so........
Jelly Jiggler
From: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
Saberwulf once said that Jumpropeman the character's voice would likely sound like Jelly Jiggler, and I can't say I'm surprised, although JRM's voice is probably not as deep. His attitude is right in line though. Jelly Jiggler is also insane and crazy just like the show he is from and very much a fun character prospect to use. Besides his Fist of the Wobble-Wobble, Wiggin is a powerful power that basically takes what the Looneys did up to 11. However, some people seem very averse to intense goofiness, and coupled with other factors the Jelly was not allowed to wobble into RP.
From: Fallout 3
I am a sucker for Radio Shows. And Fallout 3's radio show about these two characters often broke up the tedious replays of music, albeit good music. HOWEVER, these two endeared themselves quickly to me, especially when I met Dashwood himself! The Kobbers could have had their adventures with these two chronicled in "edited retellings" of their events on the radio. Dashwood would stick to guns and Argyle's amazing Kung Fu would be on point, but my misgivings about a Ghoul character (mostly because their faces might disgust most people) and my honesty with myself forced me to abandon it. Plus, I can't just let my current interest dictate my RP or I'll end up with failures like Haddock again.
From: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
A character from a real actual radio show, Johnny Dollar is a man with an "action-packed expense account" from a radio show my dad and I listened to together a bunch. His schtick is you would hear about what he had to purchase as he unraveled mysteries as an insurance investigator. I would have loved to slip him in somewhere, but insurance investigating is not too interesting on its own and annoying meta if applied to our setting, so he remained a half-baked idea before I admitted that an Inch High Private Eye would be my only detective character.
Tired yet? Sorry... but there's more!
From:An amazing song and Fallout 3 kind of
A possible Fite Club opponent for Ven from Fallout 3, unfortunately, the more I listened closely to the song, especially the second part that doesn't play in Fallout 3, the more the innuendos became impossible to ignore. He wasn't a crazy butcher, he just sleeps around and has the necessary old-style censorship lines so they can say its about a crazy murderer. I'd rather not make ANY character in RP associated with possible sexual assault, even mister Fite Club cameo here. However, I would have likely drawn my own picture for him, because Pete should not be an attractive Shaggy Rogers lookalike. He should look crazy!
From: Spirited Away
Look at all this anime today! Anyway, I love the idea of characters with multiple arms, as shown with Ixael. However, the thing with multiple limbs in fiction is they tend to just lump together. Swing with one arm, swing with all. Kamaji is a good example of putting all his arms to use like a real person could if they were born with such things. Someone at Everett's circus had multiple limbs because I was still bouncing around the idea of using a multi-armed character, but even with Reject it was hard to make it appear properly uncoordinated at all time. Working with all these arms could be interesting, but I don't think I'd do it justice.
From: Pokemon X and Y
Pokemon X and Y came out and sucked me into that void of Pokemon I enter whenever a new generation arrives. However, much like Dashwood, I knew I couldn't let my current interests dictate things too strongly, so Shauna ended up on a backburner that burnt her up before she could become more than an idea. One issue was whether or not I would give her Pokemon she had in the game, Pokemon appropriate for her, or just Pokemon I liked. She would have done what Viola did battlewise anyway and the idea was made before anyone had an actual trainer character in RP use their Pokemon in such a way, but Goops did the idea well and I feel no need to try and ape it. At least with Shauna :V She's super cute but also not in my future any longer.
From: Final Combat
A character from that Chinese TF2 Ripoff and the only one with a half decent lore behind him, the Firebat is actually sort of mentioned in RP! Everett mentioned a clown who is good with fire, and here he is! Considered to appear in RP and be using fire as his weapon, he would have been a clown of few words but many flames. However, a jester of few words named Jokerton was successfully picked up from Looney Land, and Firebat became redundant. Thus, Firebat was never developed into a full OC. RIP Firebat, at least you had a cool trailer.
From: AN OC!?!?!
That's right! For sticking around you get to see an OC whose name I forgot! Also, you get to hear about my scrapped 2015 plot, at least portions of it because some ideas moved around. This guy here would have accompanied Hector and Vector and been their muscle, but he would speak in a cryptogram language of my own invention from back in high school. Hector and Vector didn't actually make him, instead finding him in a crater and taking him in. We wouldn't be able to understand what he is saying, so when a group of aliens come looking to get rid of him, we fight the aliens naturally. However, we turn them back and then more robots like this one show up! It would turn out he was a scout for a race of robotic aliens who want to do something cataclysmic to Earth. Never moved further because new ideas supplanted it! I think he had some walkabout name like Ryan, but not Ryan.
From: Kill la Kill
More abandoned plots? Don't mind if I do! Kill la Kill entered my life at a strange time, a.k.a. BBB4. I watched subbed Kill la Kill in between writing the Brawl to wind down and relax... with a show about over the top violence! Fukuroda here stood out for having crazy boxing gloves, and I considered making him part of the still unresolved Fumes/Midori situation. How? Well, portions of that are still going to be used, but Fukuroda will not, partly because I think Del hates Kill la Kill or something? Anyway, he's not that interesting, but he would have come to the bar and kickstarted the Fumes/Midori plot with some reveal, but Fumes was pushed back and Fukuroda pushed out.
Almost done! 4 more to go!
From: Nightvale Podcast
Hiram McDaniels is just your everyday mayoral candidate who happens to have 5 heads and also is a dragon. Hiram was considered as part of the 2014 cast before Deckplot was born, mostly as a means to make Mayor Wenceslas important in a way (which later was achieved by hanging him :D) Hiram would have been a mayoral candidate for the town and basically that would inform his character similar to how being a star informed Jaws. It wouldn't be a plot, just a character trait. Also, he would act like a dragon in battle but never in conversation, and some people might mistake him for just a regular guy a la Nightvale. Scrapped to make room for 2014 plot and because my interest in Nightvale waned.
From: Golden Axe
Mentioned once in chatzy, I once really wanted to RP a centaur, an itch scratched never but erased from existence because Mynmikda filled our "GOTTA HAVE A CENTAUR" quota. Being part horse is interesting in combat, and having one of those earcleaner things used in American Gladiator made Dora the number 1 candidate for a non-OC centaur. I never did flesh out it because brainpower went towards making the Deck interesting instead, so I left Porphyrion without any hoofprints left behind save those from an Invisible Pink Unicorn.
From: New Super Mario Bros Wii
The yellow one is Clive, the blue one is Owen. Randomly named by me as my brother and I played through New Super Mario Bros Wii, I wanted to pass these names on to the world, and I decided RP was the best venue for some reason. These two toads would have been disgruntled about their representation in the NSMB series, not even getting namechecked, and would be a bit mischievous and sometimes bitter. Mostly, they would be happy screaming toads! As fun as a Toad could be to RP, they have very few combat options save power-ups which could carry them, but I mean, I'm Jumpropeman. I have to RP Toadsworth if I RP a Toad! :V
From: OC!?!?!
Sorry for using your image Boogie, you are great and awesome, but you know you look like the stereotypical nerd and play it up in your videos too. I didn't imagine September exactly as Boogie, but he was a hero-turn-villain type character like McLeach or original Phantomon or Andromalus or... I use this concept a lot ok? Anyway, Eternal September would have been incredibly meta. I told Cornwind about the idea once and Cornwind suggested the name based on the concept of a site getting newbie traffic in September from people who don't read the rules. ES here would have been that kind of guy as a character, with an introductory post saying "Eternal September joined the forum". He would never break the fourth wall per se, but his powers would. He would basically be a bad RPer given too much power, walking around with an alien girlfriend and using strange powers given to him to be unbearable. He would fight like a child, almost getting hit but saying "Nuh uh, you didn't hit me!" And it would be true! He could basically create deluded self-insert fanfiction into a reality, and fighting him and winning would be impossible! How would the Kobbers have finally defeated him when they got tired of his entitled shit? Criticism. Legitimate undeniable criticism would have been his undoing. Unable to handle it, he would try to get rid of everyone in a fit of rage, only for his powers to misread the wish and porting him to a void. Not ever done because being meta can be grating, annoying, boring, stupid, obtrusive, and all around bad when done WELL, so Eternal September was too big a risk and more of a "chatzy joke" kind of character anyway. Instead of this guy appearing in 2012, we got a spaceship sharing his name in 2013.
Well, that is all you are getting for now! Sorry it is long, but I had to wash my hands of these characters and finally stop the constant "OH I FORGOT THAT GUY!"s that have been going through my head.
Ciao!
Don't apologize, friend. Nobody's being forced to read people's cutting room floor ruminations, and as I've mentioned before I love cutting room/behind-the-scenes stuff. It's not a bother, honestly. And I can say with confidence that Chao loves this type of stuff too, so you've got at least two folks interested every time!
ReplyDelete"One issue was whether or not I would give her Pokemon she had in the game, Pokemon appropriate for her, or just Pokemon I liked."
I solved this problem by giving Viola all three! Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist in particular fulfills all three criteria at once, which is part of why it's her signature/lead Pokemon.
We've definitely joked a couple times in Chatzy about meta-villains like Eternal September. I agree that going for it "for real" would likely be a minefield. Good call. For similar reasons, discarding Korosensei was a good idea (I like his insane character design, though).
Lastly, if I had to pick one character from this list as "the most JRM-like", it would be Scuba Tree. Only you, JRM, only you.