Characters The OC Revolution | NEW! 2Q 2024 Challenge Is Up: Friendship

I was going to write that I don't use faceclaims for my characters--but then I remembered that is not strictly true. I based one of the minor characters in my 2016 diary off a local man who cuts up beetle-killed wood (just look up the Mountain Pine Beetle to know more about that term) for firewood in my parents' woods. The resemblance is mostly physical (well, mostly--my character is, like the real person, an obvious lifelong smoker), but definite, and I do think that if anyone who knew him were to read the opening scene in which the character appears, they would see it. I based an even more minor character off the man who worked the desk at the business that also served as a Greyhound bus station in Glendive, Montana back in the 90s.

Obviously, I don't have pictures of either of them to share, but I think my written descriptions in the story work well enough.

The best part is, regarding an actual casting scenario: while I doubt either of them could act, since they would just have to "be themselves" in a small part, it wouldn't matter.

 

Name - Laa'vé Vendara, also goes by Lavender
Race - Twi'lek
Appearance - About 5'6", slender, muscular, lavender skin
Weapon of choice - Blaster
Age range - Young adult
Backstory/Personality - Laa'vé is generally polite and friendly, but also strong, determined, and won't take any poodoo from anybody.
She is a self-taught Force user with moderate abilities. She usually uses the Force to enhance her natural skills, (run faster/longer, jump higher/farther, punch/kick harder, shoot straighter) but also to shield her thoughts and as a tool for persuasion. She is also able to hide her presence in the Force. She is very skilled at martial arts and fistfighting in general.
Though she is highly skilled as a bounty hunter, she views it as something of a sideline. Her real passion is music, and in addition to being a skilled bounty hunter, she is also a very popular entertainer, known to the masses as Lavender. Though she claims to be neutral in regards to the ongoing conflict, privately, she hopes the rebels will win. Her music reflects this, but as the pro Rebellion messages are so heavily couched in metaphor, the Imperials are clueless. They think it's just good music.
When bounty hunting, she often keeps her blaster on a stun setting, or if not, shoots to disable, preferring not to kill if she can avoid it. She is, however, capable of killing quite quickly and efficiently, should it be absolutely necessary. She habitually refuses bounties that she believes to be morally questionable. And that actually means something, since she has far more moral scruples than certain other bounty hunters that I could name. (*Cough! Boba Fett! Cough, cough!*)
Stories she appears in - None yet. Still writing.

Name - Aayla Vendara
Species - Twi'lek
Appearance - 5'9", Similar build to Laa'vé, Blue skin
Weapon of choice - A katana with a Mascadus (GFFA "Damascus steel") blade, forged in Mandolorian Iron, blaster
Age - 21
Backstory/Personality - Aayla is usually fairly polite to others, but tends to be a bit more brash than Laa'vé. She is confident, resourceful and very self-reliant, but even though she isn't afraid to ask for help if she needs it, she still gets in a little over her head sometimes. She possesses the same Force abilities as her sister.
She's an ace pilot who can fly just about anything, and a terrific mechanic who can fix just about anything. She maintains their ship and equipment, and does a lot of the heavy work of setting up stage shows.
Her name, "Aayla", is also the Twi'leki word for peace (my fanon), but when her mother Aa'sha was dying, she confessed to Aayla that she was also named after her mother's second cousin.

Name - Chaa'va Vendara
Species - Twi'lek
Appearance - 5'3", a bit thinner than her sisters but otherwise similar build, pink skin
Age - 19
Weapon of choice - Chakram, nunchuk, blaster
Backstory/Personality - Chaa'va is very positive, upbeat, and enthusiastic, almost bubbly. Because of this, she sometimes appears to be a bit of an airhead, but that is far from the truth.
She is frequently underestimated because she is the youngest and smallest of the trio, but she is equally as strong as her sisters, both physically and in the Force. She is the tech guru and business manager, and a very skilled computer slicer. She does a lot of the planning, and most of the cooking.

 

The music is her real passion, but the time spent is approximately equal, and both activities influence the other. Her touring schedule affects the bounties she accepts, and the bounties she accepts affect her touring schedule.

I do have a few Lavender plot bunnies scampering around in my brain.

 

Oh, and I forgot this when I was writing my previous post: the younger brother of the narrator of the aforementioned diary (who is mentioned briefly, and doesn't show up on the stage) also has a faceclaim, and a retroactive one. It turns out--and I only discovered this picture recently when my mother was looking through my grandmother's old scrapbook--that he looks a good deal like my great-uncle circa WWII.

Spoiler

*
So it seems that I do have the occasional faceclaim, though only for the minor characters. But in general, I'm not too keen on the idea--besides the fact that I don't usually need concrete references to envision my characters, I would rather that the readers use the descriptions in the text to imagine them for themselves. As for the protagonists: I'm reminded of a story I ran into somewhere online in which J.D. Salinger was asked who he would want to play Holden Caulfield in the movie version, and he said (though he was easily several decades too old for the role at that point), that he should. That's how I feel about the vast majority of my protagonists--I'm the only one who plays them, in and out of the movie version. To (partly) quoth Flaubert: The narrator c'est moi.

 

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Cowgirl Jedi 1701 I'm looking forward to seeing Lavender in a fic. The bounty-hunter/musician combination promises to be interesting

About this:

I wonder if you have any RL sources of inspiration for this idea? (There were a few examples of such people during the Greek Junta in the 1960s-70s.)

Regarding faceclaims (I also learned a new word today!) I can't say that I've been doing that unless it was retroactive -- meaning trying to find a RL face that matches the way I imagine my OC. The one exception to this is the arts professor Nazmat Koch, whom I pictured as Judi Dench before I started writing her. I do base OCs on RL people I know though, but for their personality/attitude rather than their appearance.

 

Basically one day I was just woolgathering, thinking of nothing in particular and everything in general, when a bunch of elements from my various interests collided with each other, and when the dust cleared, there was Lavender. Examining the crash site, I find that the participants include Zoe from Firefly, Mulan, the Twi'lek dancer from Jabba's palace, the Black Widow, Uhura a la Zoe Saldana, a little Beyoncé, some Pat Benatar, the song Blowing In The Wind, and maybe even a touch of Princess Di. An eclectic mixture to be sure, but somehow it works.

 

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I've used faceclaims for most of my OCs, and generally of pro wrestlers because I think it's a bit less jarring than using actors or more mainstream celebs. And then there's characters like Leco Daam and the two smugglers in my Tales of the Jedi works, who pretty much are Adam Cole and the Young Bucks transplanted into Star Wars...

 

Pat Benatar brought purple and Princess Di brought the moral code.

 

OMG, leiamoody! Ever since you put up that avatar, I knew it was familiar from somewhere and it took me ages to figure out that it's from mom's 1990s issues of German and American Vogue. Sophie! <3 I remember looking at that and thinking she was one of the most beautiful people ever. And mind you, I don't care about beautiful people in general. But this is the first time I'm seeing the actual commercial. We didn't have satellite TV until 1999, so I didn't know it existed. The days of sniffing perfumes in Vogue are now coming back to me. And I still want Joop! and Batik.

'Murica?

Seriously, I would not know who any of those people are, I just know that they...pretend to fight?!

The more you say, the more I am intrigued. This will be an eclectic combo.

 

Pretty much, yes.

 

I updated my OC post yesterday. Couple new characters.

 

Hi everyone! We've been attempting to simplify and complete the information in the index of past challenges.

(http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...7-challenge-announced.50004117/#post-50060902)

We may have missed a challenge or two, especially the non-competitive ones. If anyone remembers a challenge/challenge entry for this thread that is not listed in the revised post above, please PM the sock with as much information as you can recall. Also let us know if you find an error or missing link. Thank you.

 

Cowgirl Jedi 1701 If you want to keep an archive of all your OCs, the OC Index is the best place to do it, since it's an index-only thread where your post won't get lost in the discussion. Which doesn't preclude posting about your characters here too of course if you want to discuss them as you create them

About Aayla Vendara who was named after her mother's second cousin: would that cousin happen to be someone we know from canon?

Also, I like the implication that the three sisters are working together ("... does most of the cooking" ). Did you define a timeframe for their adventures?

 

If I could draw faces, I would not do this faceclaiming thing - new word - but I cannot, so I do.

A LOT.

Probably for less than ten of my OCs, but my images are innumerable.

 

Thanks. I guess I got threads tangled up or something.

Most of the plot bunnies I have about them happen around the time of the Original Trilogy.

 

My internet has been on the move to my new home but now I am back.

 

Welcome back, then.

 

Welcome back, earlybird-obi-wan!

 

Welcome back, earlybird-obi-wan! Glad your internet's OK now.

 

Welcome back, earlybird-obi-wan

 

Welcome back earlybird