14 HMD meme

[k_squared_mods]

  ☑ HOW'S MY DRIVING MEME

All of us have those moments where we are uncertain about our characterization. Sometimes feedback is the best medicine! So, step on up and post your roleplay accounts and the games you have them in. Let others come by and tell you how you're doing and let others know what you think! Give legitimate reasons and not just "I love you!" Save that for our monthly love memes.


     » Anon is enabled but do not abuse it!
     » Don't circlejerk.
     » Flaming will not be tolerated, play nicely!
     » Remember to give critique


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!PLEASE READ: There have been instances of anon bullying & threats in both the HMD and Love memes, so we wanted to stress how important it is that you bring this to us if it happens. Don't ignore something just because you think it's "too small" to bring to us.

Also, please be considerate of the players browsing this meme! Try to limit the amount of graphics and sparkle texts you use while commenting to others! 

**The basic formatting of this meme was borrowed from hmd_me 

Comments

[waddledoodles]

Link | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword | sky_child | destinystrings
Pit | Kid Icarus | gforceinmyfaaaace | destinystrings
Zelda | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword | thezeldaoflegend | amatomnes

[(Anonymous)]

I think your Zelda was OOC in her replies to others in her intro post. Zelda isn't that hysterical when surprised. We've seen her in canon react to strange and new things and she's never been that over the top.

[waddledoodles]

Well I admit a good chunk of that was played up for comedy, as my writing style's not 100% serious.

[(Anonymous)]

You can write comedic without straying into the OOC realm. It was a big turn off regarding how you characterize her and I ended up not tagging her as a result.

[waddledoodles]

Do you have any specific pointers on how to amend that? "She wouldn't do that" isn't too helpful.

[(Anonymous)]

"She wouldn't do that" is plenty helpful if you know the character.

Maybe you should start with a canon review of her reactions to being surprised and shown strange new things. It's most of what we see of her on screen during the credits, so it should be easy for you to find on youtube if you don't want to play through the ending again. Assuming you played it and didn't just watch a LP that might not have covered that. Take some notes on how she responds to the Kikwi and to being captured at Eldin Volcano.

Tone the stereotypical high-strung reactions down. You can still be comedic without being over the top.

[waddledoodles]

What specifically do you see wrong with the character?

[(Anonymous)]

I just told you what I saw wrong.

[waddledoodles]

How, precisely, do you want me to fix it? I can do those things you told me, but that still doesn't mean my interpretation of those scenes is going to match yours. I'm trying to get specifics, that's all. What specific sort of behavior would you like to see out of her? How do you interpret the character?

[(Anonymous)]

Have her react ICly. She didn't freak out and throw her harp when she stumbled on anything. She didn't screech and yell and panic, she was startled for a few seconds and then apprehensive and then determined.

You had her reacting like Groose did in the game, not how Zelda did.

[waddledoodles]

...well now I'm tempted to have a bunch of tiny birds flock to her whenever she goes into the park.

That being said--thank you. Those were the specifics I was looking for. Just making sure we'd be on the same page as I look over those scenes.

[(Anonymous)]

I have thought a good deal about how to phrase my crit for you appropriately and in a clear manner. I apologize beforehand as I do not intend to insult, offend, or hurt your feelings, as I only wish to help, if I can, as I greatly enjoy Skyward Sword's Zelda.

I think, first and foremost, that interacting with your Zelda I can see, feel, and hear potential in her. Some things you write for her (at least per Amat's network dialogue) do come across as very Zelda to me, which is great. She could, however, benefit from some improvement.

I think I saw - within the last week or so - a statement you made that said she was, admittedly, not one of your stronger characters and that you hadn't quite played her much in game settings as opposed to private storylines and what not. I'm not claiming you need to do this, but if you are not entirely certain of a character's voice, or you are not positive if something sounds like 'Zelda,' then a canon review may be beneficial to you. (I imagine not everyone gets the same help from canon reviews, so perhaps it may not be as useful to you as I'd like to think.)

Sometimes it seems as though you may not factor in Zelda's personality as an entirety. The anonymous above me mentioned canon point and your portrayal of Zelda being more representative of Zelda at the beginning of Skyward Sword rather than the ending. Zelda most certainly does have a more 'harsh' behaviour, perhaps entitled (but to a far lesser degree than some of the other games' Zeldas), and per chance a mite spoiled. She understands her responsibilities, of course, and spares no effort in reminding Link of his.

Throughout the storyline, she is something akin to a flower. She grows with almost a deliberate shove from Destiny to learn that there is more to the world than simply Skyloft - that there is more to her than simply what she's grown up knowing. She matures, perhaps because she is forced to, and she is required to do many things without Link's assistance, even knowing how much she would prefer it if he could be at her side. It is a friendship, and close to a potential romantic inclination between them, I think.

By the end of Skyward Sword, she seems far more emotionally aged and again, mature. More likely to accept things not going her way all of the time with a bit more grace, instead of potential temper tantrums and childish antics.

I brought the above up to show the contradictions in Zelda's game personality versus much of the personality shown (in both your prose writing and your dialogue) during the Shayla Shayla and Link (of the Sky variety) conflict. It is admittedly true that to some extent each Zelda in each game is a bit manipulative of the game's hero. Maybe not intentionally, but manipulative all the same. I think the degree by which you portray that in your Zelda (by way of guilt, passive-aggressive behaviour - which I do not find to be entirely OoC for her) is a bit excessive.

I think you have the right idea, but that you may carry it a little too far, and perhaps pulling back some would make Zelda more believable. (Not saying that she isn't currently, but that rather she - in my opinion - can be interpreted as an easily unlikable character in Amat, and it really ought to be more the opposite.)

Again, I do not wish to offend and I apologize if I do, however, much of how you have Zelda handling the situation (in her talks with OoT Link, Nabooru, Shayla, and so on) could be contrived as you pushing very hard for the shipping between Sky Link and your Zelda. I am not saying that you are doing that, only that it could certainly be a possibility based on Zelda's portrayal, which certainly seems to be more OoC with regarding her relationship with Link as opposed to her conversations that don't involve him. I have no way of knowing how emotionally invested you are personally to the characters or their relationship, but I also believe that to bring a character truly to life, one must be at least a little emotionally invested.

I appreciate the time you've taken to read this as I'm aware it is no short little ditty. I hope some of the things I have said are helpful and insightful for you. I'd like to see Zelda improve as I'd really like the chance to gain more CR with her. I wish you the very best of luck.

[gforceinmyfaaaace]

Well this is certainly a Comment! (Not a bad one; I just glanced at the length and went "whoa lemme take care of some things first before I sink my teeth into it.) But thank you for leaving me such a well thought-out, detailed comment. Since I'm debating some things I'm not going to respond in depth at this moment, but I just wanted to say I did read it and I appreciate the time and effort you put into this comment. :)

[(Anonymous)]

I'm going to echo the anon before me in saying that I think you have a good grasp of Zelda's voice when she is not speaking of her relationship with SS-Link/speaking to SS-Link.

"I am not saying that you are doing that, only that it could certainly be a possibility based on Zelda's portrayal, which certainly seems to be more OoC with regarding her relationship with Link as opposed to her conversations that don't involve him."

It's really only during those interactions that she has sounded OOC, her reactions being stretched beyond belief for her as she is depicted in canon. The larger issue is that such interactions have been the vast majority of what you've shown her of us. You aren't tagging out so far as I can tell, and outside of her intro post, she has only interacted with her cast and it has only been about her relationship with SS-Link.

Because of this, IMO, it does come off as extreme ship-pushing. It is my understanding that SS-Link mun enabled you into the game, so I expect the ship was intended to happen, but as it stands, if it does happen a this point, it will not feel natural. It will feel contrived.

The conflict they are having could have happened and been resolved in an IC manner and would have been more IC had it not been so obviously, well, forced. Mood whiplash is what I got reading the last thread she had with SS-Link after reading all the threads she'd had before that. There were multiple conversations Zelda had with people where she was getting many of the same answers and she stubbornly refused to consider that those answers could be right. And then she is suddenly rethinking her own reactions. While she sounded the most IC in that thread, there was no indication in any of her previous interactions that she was being at all convinced to stop ignoring what she was being told an really think about it.

I think she has a good possibility of rising from this if you can stop focusing on interactions between her and the rest of her cast, and start focusing on tagging outside the cast. Develop and encourage her voice without the restriction SS-Link being nearby is obviously causing, and then step back in to playing off him. Zelda needs to be played as herself, not as an accessory tied to Link's arm.