Question Failed Characters/Arcs

[Elias Edo]

Padawan arcs never interested me partly due to the fear of losing the other writer that you depend on.

Definitely one of those things you have to be strategic about.

 

[Azurine Varek]

I don't know if I can say I've had entirely failed arcs because what counts as a failed arc? I guess I could count the swoop race that never made it past it's first round of posts.

When threads just drop, usually I will come up with whatever ending that I decide fits with what was happening so that in the end, everything is still important. Ive noticed that more threads tend to sputter out than they do fully reach a resolution for one reason or another, and I don't necessarily see that as a failure on anyones part because it still happened and it had impact. So, might as well come up with your ending for it, put it in personal notes somewhere or even in a blog post if need be, and roll onward that way, you know?

 

[Azurine Varek]

As many of you will know, most of my characters are part of the Heavenshield clan, which I co-wrote with Coci Heavenshield's writer. She wrote one half, I wrote the other. When she up and disappeared back in 2020, it pretty much ruined every storyline we had going at the time. It wasn't just Thurion's wife that suddenly were left in limbo; it was also his eldest son and heir apparent, Théodred, who'd played a huge role in the story thus far, and several others characters.

It messed with my head for a long time. To have every plan for your characters pull away from under you, as I was told it wasn't allowed to NPC their chars since the writer technically hadn't left the site. It definitely messed with my muse; I thought the entire character of Thurion, around whom I'd built my entire cast since (not to mentioned devoted my sparetime to since 2013(!!!)), had been ruined beyond repair. His relationship with his wife and family as a whole was so essential to his character that I didn't think I had it in me to carry on, and my activity plummeted for some time because of it.

I waited several IRL years before eventually deciding to move on without them. I had a vast cast of characters I enjoyed writing that now needed a new reason to go on. So I used the emotional turmoil and confusion the loss of Coci's writer had caused me and made it my characters'. Here's Thurion, crushed under the responsibility of the crown and the conflict of him being raised a Jedi and sovereign, now having to face it all alone; effectively having to deal with the sudden disappearance of his beloved wife while also keeping his head high for his entire family, now bereft of a mother and grandmother. He's just as lost now as I was back then, and yet he finds a way to keep moving forward and adapt. In that, he and I are the same.

I'd always envisioned him and his wife meeting death together, be it in battle or from old age. "There was no Thurion without his Coci", so I figured, with his story essentially having peaked, I'd either retire or kill him off within a couple IRL years. In a strange way, Coci's disappearance and presumed death injected some much needed personal turmoil and a whole new layer to his character, which has restored my love of writing him immensely. He's this broken man now, incapable of ever feeling truly whole again, ever grieving for his wife's departure whilst still having to push forward and be strong for his people and his clan. He'll always be the same huggable teddybear, just with more baggage.

I also want to give massive thanks to writers like Caltin Vanagor , Valery Noble , Kahlil Noble , Nida Heavenshield , Arden Durane , Darth Carnifex and many others for sticking with me and giving Thurion a new lease of life through continued interaction. I was ready to throw in the towel on so many occasions in the interim of my writing partner poofing to when I decided to make it part of the story, but you guys kept the flame lit through my darkest days as a writer. It's safe to say that, without you, I'd most likely no longer be an active member of this site. Just like Valery or Caltin continuously interacting with Thurion to keep his head in the game, you did the same for me IRL back then. So, a heartfelt thank you to all of you. <3

Just like I can no longer look to my writing partner of 7 years (2014-2020) for advice or laughs, neither can Thurion turn to his wife of five decades. But he'll always have his kids and grandkids, and he'll always be their loving dad and doting granddad. As I grow older and mature (surrounded by little children whom I adore everyday by virtue of being a kindergarten teacher), my appreciation for having Thurion interact with children and young people in general only increases, and I like to think it comes across in my writing. All whilst sprinkling in that juicy grief for added effect — chef's kiss!

I hate to double post, but I saw this and I just wanted to say that I'm so dang glad you decided to stick with it in the end <3

You were one of those people when I was still a little Chaos noob that had me in awe. Thurion Heavenshield has become one of the inspirations to Azurine and has had such an impact on her character development, I don't think she would be exactly where she is with her story without him, so thank you and I'm so glad to have gotten the opportunity to write with you!

 

[Elpsis Kerrigan]

I believe in evolution, not failed character arcs. Some chars don't work out, I cut my losses.

Writing partners leave, due to an ooc falling out, IRL commitments, or because they pass away (RIP Coryth)? Adjust.

If these OOC events throw a curveball in a character's life? Use that loss.

Because, frankly, just writing about one's character having a shiny happy life, where everything always goes well and they get to settle down with their chosen love interest and spend eternity together is not interesting to me. Stories thrive on conflict, whether external or internal.

But then I prefer to maintain a certain distance to my characters, since they're not projections of me. Maybe that's why I like making them miserable. Maybe why Kyriaki and Elpsis are the ones I write the most, since soldiering on and obsessively doing their duty without the prospect of reward or a shiny and happy life is their whole thing. Especially for Kyriaki given how fatalistic she is.

I drastically rewrote a bunch of stuff for Siobhan and killed her off after coming to the conclusion that her arc was done, keeping her around was holding me back as a writer and she was frankly a pretty shitty person who deserved a most unglamorous death to mock her hubris. Provided more drive for Elpsis' story, since she was a character with greater potential and needed a push. Siobhan's arc wasn't failed though. The shadow of her (toxic) legacy still looms large over various chars I write. She got her legacy...just not in the way she thought she would.

 

[Liin Terallo]

All of my arcs have been failed ones. They have promise and at times a good start; but then the momentum of it from others dies quickly. I had started up a handful of characters that since were deleted due to lack of activity.

I think that finding reliable writers is the key to any story arc's success.

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

Mainly ambition vs actual feasibility in my case.

I mean sure, I've actually reached the point where I had a major faction once, but my own lack of muse and writing inspiration more or less killed that idea quickly, add to that the fact my ambitions ran amok and the feasibility of said ambitions was and still is somewhat hampered by my own activity and somewhat anonimity on the board compared to bigshots like carnifex and empyrean who've been around for ages and thus don't have those restrictions on their ambitions.

There's also my own inability to keep focused on certain storylines or simply not having the time/skill/muse to make the prequisites necessary through codex/factory...

generally, most of my failing stuff is inevitably an "it's me, not you" issue

 

[Amara Zambrano]

This character, Amara, was originally going to be completely different and had an entirely different plan written out and everything way back in 2022 when I was planning her predecessor's (Vesta / Darth Mori) death. Then, once I had everything queued up, things started stalling out, plans fell through, and after a brief break I tried to come back only for my SSD with everything I used for Chaos dying abruptly. Needless to say when I eventually decided I wanted to write again I popped back in last december and decided it'd been too many years since I originally planned all of the stuff I had in mind for Amara and none of it really fit with the current state of affairs on the site. There's still some remnants of what I had in mind which shaped some of her backstory, I guess, but she's effectively a reboot of failed attempt at writing the character the first time around.

 

[Katherine Holt]

Technically, Katherine Holt is a failed character. The original inception of her at least.

Originally she was meant to be a sleeper agent for the Kainites within the NJO. But when creating her my mindset was "this is what she is, I'm placing her into this scenario, let's see what unfolds." And what resulted was her meeting the right people, and going down a different path.

 

[Tamsin Starfall]

A Clone

He was just becoming a copy of Caltin

You just need to learn to clone right.....make him evil next time.....

I have so failures at this point even a prototype character for Tamsin who was an attempt at a legacy character to mix a little of the old with new. They never took off saddly a lot of dead end stories that where meant to lead up to the revelation of who they were.

Tamsin though has been mildly successful thankfully though it hasn't fully been revealed who she is yet most know and she is a lesser evil then what came before her.

If at first don't succeed try again I always do.

 

[Luka Felcado]

Normally I'm one of those Evolve the story types, I've hit a wall for this character and I don't really have the motivation to try to make it work, not worth the effort when I have more compelling characters.

At one point I had a plan for Luka as a backstory character to become a Sith, had a Force ghost of her brother Jo'Han Felcado and his head separated from his body that she was dragging around in a steel coffin type thing like some revenant, she was hearing an imaginary voice of Jo'Han from trauma/Carbonite sickness and the actual voice of the force spirit was kind of following the head and had a rough idea for confronting the illusion of her brother with the actual spirit of him, reuniting the head with the body, some sort of conflict that would end with either ghost fading and the body resurrected like some monster, or Luka talked into being sane again by the spirit.

But none of the characters involved in Jo'han's death remained active, I never could find a consistent tone for her, never really set her up to form any connections, and then let the body she dragged around get blown up in the first PvP she appeared in, which was practically the only thread she saw any use in. At the time it seemed like an interesting direction to take her, then the thread kind of died immediately after.

So I wouldn't say it's a failed character necessarily, I'll still keep them in case something might come up later just keeping them in limbo/captivity.

It's certainly a failed arc, however, as they never became a sith, just a dark Jedi at most, never reunited the head and body, and never confronted the force spirit, and I have no interest in trying to brute force it, just lost all interest.

 

[Imperius Indomitus]

I don't believe in failed characters or failed arcs. They're pivot points for the character or a point where you've learned something doesn't fully work and you're just back at the drawing board to take what you've learned and make better.

I've had a lot of pivots with Allyson in particular, I've had to adjust her timeline a bit with the boards story timelines. I've had to deal with fallouts OOC and people just not wanting to write with me because they have a preconception of the character I'm writing. Already Allyson is the type of character that is greeted with mistrust because she is a spy. Those kinds of characters no matter how much you want to believe the person you're writing with is unbiased there's going to be a little bit there. Take it in stride and just write. If it doesn't work out, then pivot and change.

Just like in real life, character's lives are ever changing and flowing. You might meet someone in a public thread that all of a sudden becomes the reason your character falls to the dark side or even finds redemption.

So I think in a more positive mindset we can look at these perceived failures and storylines that have abruptly stopped as points where our character have to make a choice. Just like we do in real life when something doesn't fully pan out.

Makes things more fun in the long run.

I think this is probably the best response and explanation I have seen that hits right into the spot that I have been at for many, many times now.

And every time I reach that point, due to loss of muse, an idea that just does not work, other writers (or myself) disappearing, OOC drama, it feels somehow wrong to change direction, feeling like the little flag in the wind that goes this or that way. Feeling inconsistent, unreliable and straight up bad writing. Its the price if you actually only want to write one character and are unable to do a different one for more than a very brief peak and then abandoning them.

It is a learning experience, not failure, even if it feels like that. Great inspirations usually only last as long as the people you share them with and who share them with you. An abandoned character or arc is a lesson for what you wanted to try but it did not last and you need to move on.

I was really excited for my character to turn Sith and stay there, taking the place of his long lost personal "hero", but circumstances decided against it and pivoting was necessary. It just happens and one continues.