Inspired

[Georgina Parkinson]

I N S P I R E D

Who inspires you? Who influences your characters? Is it the actor or actress themselves and a role in which they've played? Is it the personality of another? Or a quirk you've seen in a friend? We are all influenced in some way when it comes to our characters, so this is a little shout-out thread for all those things that inspire our creativity with regards to our wonderful characters! 

So, I'll go first. You'll find my Georgina 'Inspired' here:
I N S P I R E D

Warning: The woman in the photos may cause offense to some who recognize her, but I doubt that anyone will. Just bear in mind, if you do, I don't intend offense to anyone, I'm just recognizing the woman who is the soul inspiration behind Georgina's character.

[Deleted]

I've wanted to reply to this since you posted it but thought I probably owed some replies first but I can resist no longer.

Have to admit i've no idea who the woman who inspired Georgie is but I hope I never meet her, she looks like some sort of model/actor?

Regulus' is obviously a canon character but as canon's go he's a lovely blank canvas with really only a few facts and Sirius' and Kreacher's opinions to go on and thus really fun to make. He's made of lots of bits and pieces but compared to Frank he's a much tidier character. I guess his broadest inspiration is the 'vibe' of The Smiths, it wasn't intentional at first and I'm not even a massive Smiths fan but he's all about that desperate slightly self indulgent yearning, that the Smiths seem to capture so well.

Frank another canon but with even less known about him, his apps a bit of a mess as I'd originally intended to make a Prewett but then changed my mind and so he's a bit of a muddle. My intention was to create someone who would fit with the snippets we know of the Longbottom family and could have potentially fathered Neville but Augustus would considered Neville disappointing in comparison to, Frank just finds life much easier than his son at least partially because his life until recently has always been pretty easy.
I also wanted the sort of character who'd be easy to thread with as he was my first character on the site and in that respect he's lovely. I picked Russell Tovey as a playby as I think he fits in quite well with Neville and I adore his ears! (Besides which he's a great actor (everyone should watch The History Boys and Being Human.))

I love the idea of this thread character inspirations are fascinating.

[Deleted]

I'm really glad Tish replied to this, because I had intended to and forgotten. Hope you enjoy getting a little behind-the-scenes info on my characters...

Sirius is a canon, so much of his character is set-in-stone, but there's still much to be said about inspiration. I play him as if I would play a Captain Jack Sparrow sort. He's unpredictable, a mixture of light and dark, he's got his demons and such but at heart he is genuinely a good guy, he's untamed, he loves his drink and his women, he is deceptive, self-centered, and obnoxious but you can't help but like him anyway. I could go on, because I draw a lot of his character from this pirate, but I'll spare you of my obsessive ranting.
There's also a tad bit of Tony Stark/Iron Man in Sirius. Arrogant, but brilliant; occasionally rude and snarky but hilarious; a hero, but selfish. I'm picturing the scene from the Avengers (SPOILER ALERT (; ) in which Stark is arguing with Captain America, who claims he only works for himself and is never the one to lay down on the wire, and he replies that he would just cut the wire. Then turns around and makes the 'sacrifice play' at the end of the movie. Basically combine the two above and you have my Sirius.
I once said that this scene basically sums him up: www.youtube.com/watch?v=reP-dunjOVg

I haven't as much to say about Addie. I have more trouble playing female characters than male for whatever reason, so I had to make her in a way that I could easily work with. The one thing that really sets her apart from everyone else is her Seeing ability. I guess I could say this: her playby is an American Idol contestant, and a fellow contestant from that year (my favorite) had tourette's and Asperger's, and because of him I thought it might be interesting to have a character with some social handicaps like that. Schizophrenia came to mind, and somehow I came up with the idea that her hallucinations could actually be predictions of the future. I pushed it to the back of my mind for a long time, but as I was creating her character I thought of it again and decided to put it to use just to see how it would go.

Tony has a good story, so brace yourself. His playby, Aaron Hernandez, is the entire inspiration behind this character. I wanted to create a Death Eater, and I wanted someone big, burly, with that intimidation factor. As a football fan, I immediately considered some big football-playing athletes. It came down between Hernandez and another guy, and I ultimately picked Hernandez because 1. I could play off his Hispanic heritage and 2. Hernandez, for those of you who don't know, was arrested for murder in late June/early July of last year. He had a lot of talent, a heck of a lot of talent, but he had a bit of a history. In college, he had some issues with drugs and affiliations with gangs, so it made him less desirable to teams, but my favorite team gave him a chance and brought him in. He immediately succeeded, everyone loved him, and though he was admittedly a little hard to control at first, people saw big improvements in his character. After a few years, he was given a huge contract extension because he was not only valuable on the field, but off-the-field his behavior was improving. He donated a lot of his extension money to a great charity, he showed up at player events in the community, he had a kid and looked to be on the rise up. Until last summer, when he was arrested for murder, and all of his murky history started to come into play again.
Needless to say, Hernandez is not on the team anymore and I am no longer a fan of his (and, if anyone really cares that much, he has yet to be convicted of anything so he could still technically get off), but I thought he'd make a good complex character. He's got that good side and he has potential to be a real good friend, talented and brilliant person, but he can't let go of his past and his violent streak, which is a lot of what makes up Tony's character. He's personable enough, and he works hard and can cooperate with others, but it's a whole lot more difficult to get to the truth of him, to get to know him actually.

[Dominique Keys]

Okay. I owe a few more of these, so here goes.

James is canon, of course, but I think out of all the Marauders he's probably the one you know the least about. The other three you met in the books, but you only hear stories and see flashbacks about this guy, so there's a lot of room to work with. I was never sure about the way I was playing him, when I started. He seemed too mature - too serious - too grown up, but people seemed liked him like that. I don't really know whether there was anyone in particular I based him on... this is, of course, challenging my memory to try and remember what I was thinking back in 2012... 

Raphael... I'm equally as clueless about since, again, 2012 was a long time ago. From what I can recall, I had a character on another site - a Hufflepuff who was about fun and drink and having a good time, though nowhere near as wild as Raphael. He was girl mad on there, and he was seriously one of the best characters to play. I wanted another character like that without recreating the same one, so thus, Raphael was born. I wanted him to be a bit of an ordinary-Jo, after the previous guy had been the kid of a Quidditch player, so he was just... ordinary.  There was a lot of him that I didn't plan for and didn't expect when I started working on him, such as him being a twin,  etc, but it worked out.  

Dominique... I remember her a little better. Kayla - who made this site - made another. A post-potter secrets site. Every character had to have one bit secret and the site was sort of based around that. I wanted a canon and opted for Dominique Weasley, and her secret was something about being compared to her sister. All of her current signatures were made for her as a Weasley - the Slytherin Weasley. The outcast Weasley. The Weasley who didn't feel like she belonged. Only, there she looked a lot like her sister - the blond hair, and veela blood, of course and she charmed her hair to make it different so she didn't look like her sister. Remaking her here, she obviously couldn't be a Weasley, so she became Keys, and while there was a reason for that surname, it comes under the same warning label as Georgina's above, so I'm not going to say it. Anyway, I wanted the same basic story, so instead of Victorie and Louis, her siblings became Gabriella and Sebastian, but otherwise, she's pretty similar. Dominique took a bit of an era jump, basically. I like this version of her more.

Georgina had her moment of glory in the opening post, and I really can't go into much details about her - warning label and all. But what I can say is this: I made Georgina on a different site before this one. She was a seventh year Slytherin, and you know that Huffle I said came before Raphael? Well, he had a muggleborn GF on that site, and his Quidditch player father had recently been killed. Georgie took great pleasure in luring the pair of them into the forest, and making muggleborn girlfriend believe that it was because of her heritage that his dad was killed, and then she used the imperius curse to make him carve the word mudblood into her arm. It was tense. And emotional. And absolutely gloriously amazing. I loved her, and knowing that this place needed more active death eaters... well, there was no second thoughts. I tried to put off making her for ages but this is one girl I thoroughly love played, because she quite genuinely has the ability to frighten me and make me question myself.

Then, I believe, we move on to Curtis. I wanted a Gryffindor after we were reduced to like... one left after graduation. Val had made Brandon, and Curtis was the result of a lot of plot talking - a friend, Quidditch partner, and possibly a source of curiosity for when Brandon questioned is planned-but-didn't-happen relationship with Gwen. He started off as Harry Styles for a play by, because, YES OKAY I ADMIT IT, I went through a short phase. I emphasize the word SHORT. Long enough to make a character of him, but it clearly didn't last. I chose Harry initially because he made a good oddball character who could come from a mucked up past and still be the good guy as the result of it, and, admit it, Harry has WEIRD clothe style. Ultimately, though, when I started playing him, Harry just didn't seem right. I didn't want the good guy. I didn't want the innocent victim. I wanted someone who was affected by his past, who looked a little dark and brooding, and who was sort of torn between who he was. Ash became the new part because he just looked like he'd fit the part, and the idea of making Curtis grow to love tattoos was appealing - a way of letting-it-out without trouble or hurting anyone, but lasting.

CJ, my newest, probably has the least story to him, if I'm honest. I've tried a couple of Ravenclaw's recently because I really want one student in each house so I can actually be involved in house events as/when they happen. I also wanted a Head Girl, originally, because there are plays to get groups like players and prefects more active this year, and I wanted someone who I could use to sort of take control and ensure stuff happened... Clearly, CJ isn't Head Girl, but he is Head Boy. Using Colton, he looks like such a typical guy. The sort who likes sports, girls, being part of the cool crowd, etc.  Just a typical guy. That way, I could have someone who struggled to deal with things on an emotional level, be intimidating when he needs to, but has room for so many flaws and problems that it keeps loads of plotting doors open. I just hope he works out and lasts longer than the girls did.


And so, 1000+ words later, now you know 'em!