Here we are, like in olden days, with another round-up of rejected characters. Or at least, a round-up of reject characters I can remember, considering I was storing pictures of them in my computer's recycle bin before they got erased by a Windows Update.
Either way, the usual disclaimer still applies. These are characters I've scrapped for the foreseeable future, ideas I couldn't flesh out or I was unhappy with, or characters that didn't gel with ZFRP after close consideration. I may still someday rescue these characters in some aspect, or completely retool them, but its likely these characters shall remain prisoners of this blog.
Origin: Original, image from Citizens of Earth
Citizens of Earth is a fun RPG that does a really cool idea with its job classes. The game is set in modern times and rather than having the cliche Rogue, Warrior, Mage kind of set up, each party member comes with a different real world job. There are some expected ones like Police Officer and Firewoman, but then you have things like Weather Lady, Yoga Instructor, Cat Lady, and the girl you see hopping right here, the Barista. Despite the varied classes I did get kind of stuck into using the same few throughout the game, but it was clear you could go for a varied or committed approach and either could work if you do it the right way.
The Barista herself, however, appealed to me for being just so cute, peppy, and chipper. I seem to like that in a lot of characters if Shimmer and Cirno are any clue. The name didn't have much to it. I just thought Mimi fit the girl. As for what she could do in RP, I considered her doing what should come naturally to her: running a coffeehouse! Or working there, rather. Thing is, I know next to nothing about coffee, and Harpy has had a few characters cycling through the barista position so far. There wasn't really anything for her to do that was new, save maybe attacking with the coffee like she does in game, but even there my knowledge is lacking and I probably wouldn't be as creative as I wish I could be. I'm not happy to scrap her, but she's a character concept I just don't think I could pull off as well as I'd like.
Elliott the Deadly Duplicator
Origin: Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
Sort of born from the same Harvey Birdman kick that inspired me to RP Inch High Private Eye, Elliott here wasn't as lucky as the tiny detective when it came to making it in RP. Elliott is voiced by Lewis Black in the show, so automatically he's an angry character and was sort of intended to fill a role similar to Jasper, chiming in with a rough attitude. If anything, its my decision to RP Jasper as a multi-year characters just like Shimmer that put the nail in the coffin for Elliott, as I didn't need two quite similar grumps running around.
Elliott's thing is that he likes to make doubles of things, whether they be people, items, or even the letters in his name. The combat applications were interesting in that he could make a copy of a Kobber to help or even a copy of the enemy... which would probably still be evil and just make things harder. The "make things two" shtick has enough mileage for a one-year sort-of joke character, but nothing ever came together to make me want to put him in RP. Of all the characters here I think Elliott, surprisingly, has the most chance of still entering RP, provided that there is a Fite Club battle and I can't think of a better opponent at the time.
Maggie
Origin: Original
The picture isn't a perfect representation of what I wanted Maggie to look like, but it has the uniform and hair right, so enjoy the stock photo! Her appearance as I imagined it was actually based on an exterminator who came to our house once, but I couldn't exactly call her up and ask to take a picture of her for RP reference now could I?
Maggie was the character closest to joining ZFRP, even getting a quote teaser saying something like "I'm just doing my job!" during the 2015 pre-season before she got scrapped for one reason or another, most likely a different character idea cropping up or possibly my realization of the character load. She was going to be an exterminator working at the Den of Lions, doing the expected task and potentially rubbing characters like Widow Maker the wrong way as she would be pretty big on disliking pests. Not mean about it, just sort of "this is my job, so I'm wired this way". Her name, Maggie, is actually short for Margarita, and the name is based on a girl I worked with at JCPenney whose name was Maggie, short for Margarita. We would have likely seen Maggie's home life quite a bit, a large Hispanic family where she had kids and a husband and really was meant to be an injection of a REALLY regular person. She was, however, not useless in battle as she'd have chemical mixes and poisons she'd spray the enemy with, although she'd have zero defense. The funny thing is, Cornwind kept doing plots where she would have been perfect, mainly the Cockroach one and then later having Medusa use rats. It's probably good for his plots I didn't introduce Maggie, but I imagine he'd find some workaround for her presence.
I wouldn't be surprised if I one day do use a character with chemical warfare as their attack method, but Maggie is likely gone for good.
Johnny Tsunami
Origin: Johnny Tsunami
Jaws had the misfortune of being slated for 2017 but moved back to 2018 due to an arrival of ideas I felt had to be done sooner rather than later. However, to try and ensure Jaws would return in 2018, I tried to give him a character arc/plot thing to hook him in and give me something to do with the shark actor. Johnny Tsunami ended up crossing my mind for some unexplained reason one night at work, and soon I was off to the races with ideas of how I could use him in RP, tying him to Jaws as I cooked up a way to integrate him.
The kid you see here would actually be older than he was in the Disney Channel Original Movie, and his career would have taken a downturn due to him being a guy who was in a Disney Channel Original Movie. Probably around 18-22 at the time he'd appear in RP, he'd try to appeal to Jaws to try and help him save his failed career, and Jaws would be resistant at first but give in and try to train the guy to become a proper actor. Johnny, however, was not destined to be reformed. He'd start committing petty crimes (mostly theft) around Kuwahawi and maybe even help the bad guys once in some plot, not because he's a bad guy, but because he's taken his position in life hard and wants to stay afloat however he can make it happen. He'd get confronted eventually, but the crux of the issue would be that Jaws could not reform Johnny, and it would be a hit in the ego for Jaws and a sad story for Johnny. Johnny might find somewhat of a decent ending, perhaps moving down a road of proper recovery through proper means instead of relying on a washed up shark actor, but it never got that far in planning because I made the mistake... of reading up on the movie Johnny Tsunami.
You'd think that kid in the picture there is Johnny Tsunami, wouldn't you? Nope, that's Johnny Kapahaala, played by Brandon Baker (who, in RP of course, would've gone by Johnny Tsunami in the same way Jaws uses his more recognizable name for publicity, but Baker wasn't ever Johnny Tsunami in the first place!) No, the guy who IS Johnny Tsunami, is this guy.
And that guy did not fit the plot that I had cooked up. Technically I could have tried to rescue the plot from there, but removing the Johnny Tsunami name that made the premise work was a killer for inspiration, and it had more than a few similarities to Sonic Man's arc but with a negative spin. Rather than trying to fit the Kapahaala peg in the Tsunami hole, this character angle for Jaws was abandoned and, along with it, the kid who was never truly what his movie title seemed to promise.
Ichirin and Unzan
Origin: Touhou
Before there was Cirno, there was Ichirin.
Once the Touhou infection truly took hold in ZFRP, I decided to dig deeper into Touhou wiki. Not really to commit much to memory, but to see who looked interesting. Ichirin, of all the characters I found, seemed the most interesting of the characters not already claimed by a different RPer, partly because of her unique design, but mostly because of Unzan there.
Although I'm sure I could work up some angle for Ichirin (although I feel I'd be restrained by her vague Nun/Monk aestethic), nothing ever came up. The ring weapons were cool too, but Aviaticus did a lot of what Unzan might've done as a cloud guy, and ultimately these two don't really inspire me anyway save visually. Ichirin for a while was my favorite non-RP touhou, and some day she might be again once we clear out the others, but I doubt I'll ever make her an RP touhou at this rate.
Brienne of Tarth
Origin: Game of Thrones
Brienne is without a doubt one of my favorite characters in Game of Thrones. A determined individual trying to prove herself in the world, Brienne has one of the less "Game of Thrones"-y storylines in the series, and while I haven't seen what becomes of her in the show, she stays pretty great in the books. Of all the characters in Game of Thrones, she was the only one that stood out as a possibility to integrate into RP, and she could still carry most of her story with her rather than shedding some of the unfortunate stuff that GoT trends towards. However... there was one big obstacle that would be impossible to get passed to RP her. One thing that would completely compromise one of her core components if I put her into RP...
No one in RP would think she's ugly! It was hard to find a proper picture of Brienne where they don't make her attractive, and even in the show she looks perfectly fine, but in the book it mentions she is not an attractive lady and she gets a lot of flack for her appearance and her "manish tendencies". She wants to be a warrior in a world where women aren't meant to fight, and her size and proportions even are more masculine than feminine. This stalwart and brave knight would enter RP likely to try and pursue her knightly calling away from those judging eyes, but in RP, no one really calls other characters ugly. Everyone seems blindly positive towards the appearance of other characters save rare exceptions like Sister Alice, and that's because she's a bad guy. Every female is beautiful and every male's appearance ain't worth commenting on, so putting Brienne in RP would just attract a lot of blind "Oh you're so beautiful!" sentiments that aren't really conducive to carrying over Brienne. At that point, with so much positivity, she'd just be an armored lady, and I've got Effie for that and a character arc picked for the girl that isn't dependent on varied opinions.
Carson Jr. (or Possibly Carson the Third)
Origin: Original (co-created with Ven)
A long time ago, Ven and I were talking at I believe a library and we somehow came up with an apocalyptic scenario that didn't involve WMDs or zombies or a virus, but just a really insane leech infestation. The leeches were intelligent enough to be a threat and numerous enough too, and they were draining too much blood from humanity. It was meant to be a series of books, in the way that children will say something will be a series just because they can say it will be, but the first book was the emptying of Earth of humans, but the follow-ups would be about the last humans who escaped Earth being attacked by the leeches, and then aliens being attacked by them. It was mostly just a universe where leeches were taking over the place despite not being too too intelligent.
When Ven entered RP, the old leech stories returned to my mind, and it was tempting to try and bring them back somehow. A leech plot likely wouldn't work and might trend too close to Cornwind's cockroach plot. Instead, one day while talking at the hockey rink with Ven, I came up with an idea I only half remembered later. Mainly: I forgot the name for the character, but remembered the rest. The leeches would be a collection of like-minded but not hive mind leeches who all travel together in a big group. I couldn't find a good picture of a group of leeches of the size I intended, but it would have been maybe 100 strong. There would be a lead leech who did the talking, but even if it died a similar one would step forward with the same personality, suggesting that while they aren't all controlled by the same mind, they all think alike. This was even represented in their names. The talking leech would introduce himself as Carson Jr (or perhaps Carson the Third), and then start indicating the other leeches, saying "And that's Carson Jr, and that there is Carson Jr. Over there is Carson Jr and yeah I think you get the point." They'd all have the same name, although I don't think it was Carson Jr/Third but a name quite similar to it that I can't remember for the life of me.
Their main method of attack would of course be their numbers, swarming things to suck them dry. However, I also considered them being able to drain certain powers if they drank a target's blood, stealing enemy abilities or possibly an ally's if they needed a boost. It wouldn't be anything too crazy, but they'd likely get beam powers and elemental manipulation quite easily. Also, for some reason, I always imagined the lead leech would have a cigar he'd be chomping at most times, likely based on an image I saw somewhere but forgot.
Scrapping them was mainly from my dissatisfaction from failing to remember the original name, which I'm somehow assured myself was so great and hilarious. ...Admittedly scrapping them also came from inevitable Lotta comparisons, not fleshing them out beyond being leeches, worrying about the power stealing aspect, and just having better ideas for other things. Maybe one day we'll see some leeches, but not like this. Sorry Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., Carson Jr., and Carson Jr.,
(No Name, called tentatively Whyt)
Origin: Original
This little thing is exactly what it appears to be. A featureless white humanoid shape. And its possibly one of my more ambitious ideas I've ever had, and hence why it was scrapped.
This thing would enter the bar with no prompting or real narrative hint at its personality. It would be small, maybe like the height of a toddler, but it would approach some bargoers, unable to speak, motion at them, and then evolve from there. I literally mean evolve, by the way. This thing, this nameless thing (that I called Whyt in my mind because in Final Fantasy IV for the DS they had a summon called Whyt who was a white humanoid whose face you could draw) was meant to be a character that was created completely through interaction. Every aspect of it would come not from me, but from what other characters said about it. For example, someone might call it "little guy", thus locking it not only into its small size, but its gender would be male. Whatever people decided to name him would be his name. If someone said "He can't talk", he'd literally be unable to talk for the rest of his life, but I'd probably figure out some means for him to communicate. His skills in combat would be what people said they were, and people could give him weaknesses simply by saying he had them, as long as they don't contradict other locked in aspects of his character.
The reason I never attempted it should be fairly obvious. It has a huge margin of error. He might become useless. Characters might not pick up on his aspect and never give him any traits. One character or user could potentially just sit him down and make them into whatever they wanted, potentially something overpowered or uninteresting. No one might ever think to give him battle skills unprompted.
I think it might still be neat to do something similar to this, but trying to RP them in a protagonist role is not a route I feel would produce the results I'd like or others would like.
Coolio Squad
Origin: Original (based on stuffed animals)
Once upon a time, while trying to think of a game to play with my little (very little then) sister CKR, I came up with the idea of a game where she was the bodyguard for a very famous celebrity: Coolio! ...Did you think I meant Coolio the rapper? No, I mean that one-eyed lime-green dinosaur toy there! If you squeeze him, he makes a loud squealing noise! The game was mostly an excuse for us to fight, as for some reason CKR and I enjoyed trying to punch each other and the other trying to block, and this wasn't the first game of its nature, although our parents did ban it like the others.
Coolio managed to move into one of our other games: Cookies and Cream, the same game Pteron would one day join as my game with Rainbow Dash called Team Power got retired. Coolio wasn't alone this time though, and he had a new range of bodyguards to make up for the lack of the one he lost. On the far left you see Color Bear, named for these circles you can't see on his paws that had different colors on them. Color Bear was a circus performer but his main thing was he thought he could fly, which he'd do by spreading out his arms and jumping, usually either just falling immediately, briefly gliding before falling abruptly, or actually flying because of an outside source. Swim Bear is to the right of him in the picture, named for her clothes that I assumed were a swimsuit for some reason. She is the only lady in the group and is really good at swimming! Right of Coolio, we have the horse named Horsafex, a take on the phrase Jumping Jehoshaphats! He was a horse and I guess the most brash of the group, as he seemed to be the only one with a temper. The mallard beside him is, of course, named Loon. Despite not being a loon, and probably being the most sane of the group and least interesting for it. Coolio himself of course had a larger than life personality and was cool. For some reason, the Coolio Squad had the power to join together to form... Winnie the Pooh. Because I had a Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal that was somewhat bigger than Coolio, but in games Winnie the Pooh was a gigantic force to be feared.
The Coolio Squad would go on to appear in my writing series "Ghetto Bananas" as recurring side characters, appearing alongside Coolio the Rapper and still turning into Winnie the Pooh as well. For RP though, I was thinking of abandoning the more absurd parts. The Coolio Squad were not stuffed animals in Cookies and Cream, but they were in Ghetto Bananas and would have been in RP. Coolio's fame would have come from being a sentient stuffed animal, and he would've come to the bar to investigate the claims of The Dolls, although really he'd just try to make sure he was still famous despite their presence. The Coolio Squad would be with him, but they would not combine to make Winnie the Pooh. They'd likely still have what little personality they had, and its probably the size of the group that made me decide against them. That, and not really ever coming up for a reason for them to exist in-universe or metatextually, as they were basically me just using old stuff for the sake of it, a practice I try my best to avoid.
Nikolai
Origin: Bravely Second
I was certainly not immune to the hype of Bravely Second, and although the game has amazing characterization and a great cast, it was Nikolai here who stood out to me the most. Possibly helping him beat out other characters like Norzen was his early introduction and constant importance throughout the plot, even though he was not one of the main characters. A kindly priest who could add to RP's thin ranks of healers, he had a lot of character but no real direction, hence me hesitating to use him. It even sucks to put him on here, admitting I never found a true angle for him besides just introducing him and hoping he'd find somewhere to stick. I know the urge to use him was stronger early on in Bravely Second, and the story's progression did change how I would have to consider how to use him, but trying to fit him in the strange morass that is ZFRP's interpretation of the Bravely world could've been either a blessing or a curse, as it could be freeing in its own way or limiting in another.
If anything, me wanting to RP him was just an extension of really liking his character, but these days I usually pick a character not for who they are, but for who they might be if I used them.
Sergeant Sapp and Private Piddler
Origin: Bravely Second
Unlike Nikolai, these two guys from Bravely Second had a lot more potential for use in RP. In their source game, they are a goofy duo with a bit, a perfect fit for JRM joke characters! Sapp is the serious one, but Piddler is always misinterpreting what he hears, turning words other words. He might hear something like "pretense" and think it meant "pre-tents", as in some tents someone had set up before. If that example seemed pretty weak sauce, then there you see one reason I decided against them. Their humor works very well in game, but trying to come up with examples of it never really worked in my head, and while I bet I could find some fluid ones in RP itself, it was likely these guys would be ineffectual villains, hence I would be setting up most their jokes and thus a burden I was afraid I couldn't succeed in lead to my hesitance.
Another reason I didn't use them came just from the structure of my future plots. I've tried to work in all kinds of angles for these guys, but every villain or villain group I come up with has no reason to work with these two. Even when they need goofy henchmen, they have a theme that doesn't mesh with the singular military style of these two, and it would require a more hodgepodge group to accommodate these two. With so many other joke character possibilities and bits I can do without the pressure of source material, these two aren't likely to be added to any villain group anytime soon, and more likely set for a future as a surprise inclusion or fite club at best, rather than the characters I was hoping to make them.
Origin: Tokyo Jungle
For the last character on this list I chose another strange concept. One day Ven and I were playing Tokyo Jungle on the PS3 using the DLC that included unusual characters like a businessman and the caveman you see here. The game is about surviving in a world post-humans where nature has reclaimed Tokyo, and these two are meant to stand out in a weird way as they are forced to live like animals instead of humans. While Ven and I played, we discovered that the businessman was goofy and weak, diving like a loser for his food, while Homo Erectus was incredibly strong and capable. Thus, it became a joke that Homo Erectus was carrying this puny human through the apocalypse, a brains and brawn arrangement except the brains wasn't really smart at all. Ven and I started talking like the two as a joke, and it was so much fun I later considered the possibility of it being an RP angle.
The issue there, of course, being that it would require us to be on around the same time if we want them to stick together. Yes, the idea would still be the caveman was helping the businessman survive, but only in the real world instead of apocalyptic Tokyo. Fighting with the Kobbers was enough to show how it worked, and there'd be a good few jokes to be told in the bar as their imbalance of power was highlighted. I'm not sure where the idea could go beyond humor, and if it could even go very well as it would probably be one-on-one RP rather than the two interacting with people, since I didn't feel us both controlling both characters at any one time would preserve the concept. It was an idea killed so quickly by Reality Ensuing, but it was a fun concept at least, and one I wish could be done.
Conclusion
And I believe that is it! For now at least. There will always be more, and I've probably forgot a few. Many of these never had a specific year they were going to appear, and were more floating ideas that I eventually had to kill or else forever keep elaborating in my mind on concepts I'd never use. There were a few characters left out of here on purpose, but that would belong more in a Reject Plot blogpost that I might make sometime down the line. For now, take a look upon these rejected characters and despair!
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