DE: Why ya gotta leave man?

[bjornwilde]

A great one from thekidfrombrooklyn :

We've talked about pups we've never apped recently. What about pups you've dropped? Why did you drop them, and do you think you'd try to play them again under other circumstances (more time, another game, sandbox, etc.)?

Comments

[bcgphoenix]

In a lot of cases, I've dropped pups because I've fallen out of love with the canon. Sylar's a prime example of this; once Heroes tumbled from "this is kind of bad but mostly fun" to "this is terrible and absolutely no fun whatsoever," I let aberration kill him off in her Elle plots and retired him from the game.

Other times, like changeinasnap, I've had more trouble grasping the character than I thought I would. With him, I realized I really loved playing all the conflicted angel drama, and his threads with Kali go without saying re: being awesome, but I was shit at the actual trickster part. I'm just not that good at pranking people in a way that doesn't come across as kind of dumb. (Though he's also sort of a fell-out-of-love-with-canon pup, too. I mean, he did get killed off before SPN really took a nosedive for me, but...SPN, why you gotta be. :( )

And, occasionally, as much as I love the character and love playing them, they're just not a good fit for the bar. I picked up Roger from RENT years and years ago, but he ended up being so far inside his own head -- rightfully so, considering canon, but still -- that I discovered I couldn't do much with him.

For all of them except the fell-out-of-love-with-canon pups, I'd happily sandbox them sometime. More time or another game are never going to happen, so I'll take what I can get!

[silveraspen]

For me, it tends to be a situation where I've come to the end of the character's story - or the end of the story as it can be told in the bar's setting.

The two best examples of this are Blodwen Rowlands (white_flowers) and Susan Delgado (sai_delgado). They both advanced through their stories in a way that moving on beyond Milliways was the logical and best next step for them both, and I didn't want to try to shoehorn ways to keep them in place and active.

(I have a few more "current" characters that are either at or reaching this point, which means I should really do something about that very soon. Hm.)

But just because I stopped playing them here doesn't mean that I enjoy writing them any less. I'm always glad to sandbox. :)

[bjornwilde]

With me and leaving a pup behind tyically it's because the voice has drifted or is no longer heard, there are exceptions of course. And there are some where I just felt I didn't get the character. Like I could mimic the voice but didn't really get the character.

Two that come to mind:
Ben Grimm. I loved Ben and still do, but Fear Itself really did a number on him and me. They took a character whose core is being turned into a monster yet not being a monster at heart. Then they made him into a monster in truth, which was pretty well done, but the fall out never happened. It was just shrugged off with an apology to the Avengers, when I felt Ben would've done so much more; rebuilding the neighborhoods destroyed, apologizing to the people living in those neighborhoods, etc. I could've fixed that but I was just done with cross overs and so let him go.

Valeria von Doom: Loved her, had her voice done but I had no idea what to do with her. I may base a character off her someday for personal writing as I love the idea of her, but she just didn't seem to have stories I wanted to write at the time.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

I've dropped a few because their primary stories were over and it was just time to let them go on their way through life; Ray, Harry Wells, etc. Sometimes a character just doesn't have any real reason or need to come to Milliways any more. And sometimes it's a case of a character I liked and who still had story, but who turned out to be a poor fit- for instance, Hektor, who was being taken from a version of Greek mythology where the gods and powers were very ambiguous. Having multiple Greek deities wandering around like it was Take Your Patron To Work Day made it hard to keep him up.

[ceitfianna]

I dropped the Pirate King because he was too flash in the pan. Either he was there or he wasn't, but he didn't have a story or much of a way to actually connect to the game. He was a lot of fun but he taught me that I do better with characters who have stories to work with, he was too much like a strange occurrence or a guest star than a character.

I still adore him and he would be fun to play in a random way but he doesn't work as a full time character.

[bjornwilde]

I hear you. I ended up dropping a few cracky types because of this same reason. (Not to imply the Pirate King was cracky.)

I've also discovered I can't really do villainous pups for the long term.

[ceitfianna]

Oh, he was definitely cracky just Gilbert and Sullivan cracky versus a more modern type.

[try_corsets]

Thus leaving Lizzie the undisputed Pirate King of Milliways.

Lizzie: *smug*


(He was fun. :D )

[heatherandsteel]

He was, but he basically came in, caused trouble and sang at people. I loved his threads with Lizzie, it felt like the proper use of him.

[have_no_mercy]

I'd say most of the characters I've let go have simply had their endings come, Cywyllog, Melou and Clark are prime examples. Once a character is gone for me they're pretty well gone completely, though I do play a different version of Melou from time to time elsewhere.

There have also been a few who just didn't seem to fit in - I'm afraid Tess is becoming one of them. I do have others I'm considering apping, so if she gets dropped I'll probably still be here.

[the_lioness]

I brought in a few characters over the years who just didn't click or who ended up being less fun than expected. Vizzini was one. There were only so many times I could type "Inconceivable!" before it got old.

I honestly forget why I dropped Turtle (wonthewindfall), but I do miss her sometimes. I think I just didn't play her enough, which is funny considering the rest of my current roster. Ooooops.

[brobrobrobrobro]

Bro. Inconceivable, bro!

[wonthewindfall]

Turtle: *kicks a Tracksuit in the shin* *just because*

[heatherandsteel]

Turtle was awesome, because of your playing her I went and actually watched the movie of The Westing Game, which was odd. She's lovely.

[inquisitions_anchor]

There's a movie of The Westing Game? I may have something new to watch...

[ceitfianna]

Its from the 80s or 90s and kind of shows it at times but overall is very faithful to the book. My local library had a copy.

[inquisitions_anchor]

Frankly, when I dropped everyone originally, it was because I'd just decided to pick up Lois, and Tavi had very much taken over all of my time and attention prior to that. The others just weren't strong enough to compete with him (much less him and Lois), so I dropped them with the Great Milli-Migration.

Of those, the one I would be most likely to pick back up again given reason is probably Kratos Aurion of Tales of Symphonia. I still all of them much, though I couldn't play Amy Pond again, and Dave Davenport's hard. Carrot and Giles I definitely could if I had cause, but Kratos is the one I really, really miss sometimes.