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critique wanted What Do You Think About My OC? (Layla Shade)


Chrylestia600

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~snip~

 

Let me ask you this.

 

Who did you create this character for? You.. or us?

 

If you created this character for us, then it needs a LOT of work... and frankly, nothing you can do will fix her, since we do not all have the same ideas.

 

However... I assume you created her for you... and you know.. she is perfect just the way she is. All that matters is that YOU are happy with her... if there is something wrong with her, it is because it is something you see and feel needs improvement. Anytime you create something and want to sell it to someone else, of course many are going to not like it or care for it.. and let's be honest... the character is a mishmash of ideas that some dislike. (Alicorn & Changeling).... however, that does not make her a BAD character necessarily. Even if I were to write a long detailed report about how awful she is and how I thought she sucked (or in reverse if I wrote one about how amazing she is and how brilliant her design) none of that should change how she makes you feel. How do you feel when thinking about her story and what you are trying to tell with it?

 

Personally I think she is a very beautiful design.. her colors are lovely. the backstory you presented is meh at best for me though at the moment, but that is just my own personal hang ups about certain things. That does not mean she is a bad character and you should abandon her, and I strongly urge you not to unless that is what you truly want. You have a story... so write it out.. present it if you like. Take the good and the bad.. rewrite the things you feel need work and be willing to listen to other viewpoints as long as they are helping you improve ideas and not just rewriting yours to fit what they think it should be.

 

After all is said and done, she is a weird character in a sense, and kind of out of place.. but honestly that is cool... since those kinds of characters also have the potential to introduce new ideas and new ways to look at things. They can inspire change.. and some people just hate change.

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I do if the majority of people don't like it.

 

Even if it is the majority of people, it's not everyone.

'-'

You can always make something awesome with that character, even if people don't like the design. I know how you feel about it. Once I wrote a story that made me cry a lot. Really. And everyone who read it thought it was funny. I still like that story (and cry), and I only am who I am because of that story. So what people think of her really doesn't matter, as long as Shade is important and has meaning to you.

Edited by Strumboldt
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@@Chrylestia600, Take a look at this OC I made: https://mlpforums.com/page/roleplay-characters/_/avarice-r2501

 

She's the villain of my as yet unfinished fanfic (my only New Year's resolution is to finish that darn fic!) I've had people suggesting that I change the way she looks, but thing is, she has to look that way cuz of being, you know, a villain. I put a lot of work into her so I am not changing her.

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First of all, who cares what other people think? If you like your character, then keep her looking the way she looks now. To me, the deal breaker for any OC is the back story. Think up a truly awesome back story; if it's still a work in progress, then keep working at it til it's ready. Personally, I'd rather see an alicorn OC with a super duper and yet totally believable story behind them rather than an earth pony with zero story and a personality like a piece of soggy cardboard.

I was quite curious of your opinion actually, since you're the one who created her default image for me. :)

 

Maybe I'm being sensitive today. I guess I just never realized that so many people saw negatives in her; up until now anyone who had ever said anything to me about Layla were being positive, and seeing the opposite of that now I suppose is just disappointing and bothering me more than it probably should. :/

 

Concerning the backstory though, I agree with that statement so much. I always thought the backstory was the most important part, with ANY characters I've ever created. It's why I've been so afraid to finish her backstory; to me it was most definitely the deal breaker.

To be honest... I think having Shade related to Astera doesn't make sense. They can be friends for sure, but not related.

 

Honestly... it was never supposed to. It was purely for the sake of fun at first. Then, as we thought about it more, we came up with some good ideas to coincide with it.

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As I said, I'm not going to keep a character that no one likes.

 

The only person who needs to like her is you. As long as you like her, everything else is just shadows with no substance. I say tweak her as your heart desires and keep working on her backstory. She already has a lovely design so the story is all that needs work. Just keep to your vision.

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Let me ask you this.

 

Who did you create this character for? You.. or us?

 

If you created this character for us, then it needs a LOT of work... and frankly, nothing you can do will fix her, since we do not all have the same ideas.

 

However... I assume you created her for you... and you know.. she is perfect just the way she is. All that matters is that YOU are happy with her... if there is something wrong with her, it is because it is something you see and feel needs improvement. Anytime you create something and want to sell it to someone else, of course many are going to not like it or care for it.. and let's be honest... the character is a mishmash of ideas that some dislike. (Alicorn & Changeling).... however, that does not make her a BAD character necessarily. Even if I were to write a long detailed report about how awful she is and how I thought she sucked (or in reverse if I wrote one about how amazing she is and how brilliant her design) none of that should change how she makes you feel. How do you feel when thinking about her story and what you are trying to tell with it?

 

Personally I think she is a very beautiful design.. her colors are lovely. the backstory you presented is meh at best for me though at the moment, but that is just my own personal hang ups about certain things. That does not mean she is a bad character and you should abandon her, and I strongly urge you not to unless that is what you truly want. You have a story... so write it out.. present it if you like. Take the good and the bad.. rewrite the things you feel need work and be willing to listen to other viewpoints as long as they are helping you improve ideas and not just rewriting yours to fit what they think it should be.

 

After all is said and done, she is a weird character in a sense, and kind of out of place.. but honestly that is cool... since those kinds of characters also have the potential to introduce new ideas and new ways to look at things. They can inspire change.. and some people just hate change.

I agree with all of this, thank you. I think I'm getting my confidence over this situation back.

 

You're right, she is weird and out of place. XD But honestly, that's what

Let me ask you this.

 

Who did you create this character for? You.. or us?

 

If you created this character for us, then it needs a LOT of work... and frankly, nothing you can do will fix her, since we do not all have the same ideas.

 

However... I assume you created her for you... and you know.. she is perfect just the way she is. All that matters is that YOU are happy with her... if there is something wrong with her, it is because it is something you see and feel needs improvement. Anytime you create something and want to sell it to someone else, of course many are going to not like it or care for it.. and let's be honest... the character is a mishmash of ideas that some dislike. (Alicorn & Changeling).... however, that does not make her a BAD character necessarily. Even if I were to write a long detailed report about how awful she is and how I thought she sucked (or in reverse if I wrote one about how amazing she is and how brilliant her design) none of that should change how she makes you feel. How do you feel when thinking about her story and what you are trying to tell with it?

 

Personally I think she is a very beautiful design.. her colors are lovely. the backstory you presented is meh at best for me though at the moment, but that is just my own personal hang ups about certain things. That does not mean she is a bad character and you should abandon her, and I strongly urge you not to unless that is what you truly want. You have a story... so write it out.. present it if you like. Take the good and the bad.. rewrite the things you feel need work and be willing to listen to other viewpoints as long as they are helping you improve ideas and not just rewriting yours to fit what they think it should be.

 

After all is said and done, she is a weird character in a sense, and kind of out of place.. but honestly that is cool... since those kinds of characters also have the potential to introduce new ideas and new ways to look at things. They can inspire change.. and some people just hate change.

I agree with all of this, thank you. I think I'm getting my confidence over this situation back.

 

You're right, she is weird and out of place. XD But honestly, that's what I intended, so that particular part doesn't bother me at all.

 

I'm curious though, you said her backstory is a bit meh to you. But... what backstory are you referring to? I haven't posted it yet.

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I'm curious though, you said her backstory is a bit meh to you. But... what backstory are you referring to? I haven't posted it yet.

 

You do have a little bit of info about her on your profile and in the link you gave.. that is what i am referring to. You just need to flesh it out more. Also, I am almost always meh to any OCs related to (or involved with) any of the main/side/villain characters within the show and comic. Like I said, that does not necessarily mean they are bad, it is just a personal dislike on my part.

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I think she's very original and very unique to you, so it looks good in my eyes. She has a unique colour scheme from most OC's I've seen, kind of like a punk rock palette of colours. And what does her tail look like? I feel like there is opportunity there to make it rather unique, two tails, nine tails, dinosaur tail, armoured tail, snake-like tail etc...

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You do have a little bit of info about her on your profile and in the link you gave.. that is what i am referring to. You just need to flesh it out more. Also, I am almost always meh to any OCs related to (or involved with) any of the main/side/villain characters within the show and comic. Like I said, that does not necessarily mean they are bad, it is just a personal dislike on my part.

I hear you. The part about Chrysalis was just for speculation, I honestly haven't even decided yet if it's what I wanted to go with. I just thought maybe it would make a good debate. :)

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If the large response to this thread is negative, perhaps I'll think of doing away with her entirely, though that would be very hard purely because of how much work I put into designing her.

 

 

    No. Nyoh. Stahp dat!  She's YOUR character, YOUR effort. It's not those OTHER people that be creating her, its your efforts and will that go into making her what she is! Even if you could do something that made everyone happy, look into yourself and ask, would YOU be happy knowing you did something just because you were told to? That's why they call 'em Original Characters, they're a concept that only YOU could have come up with!

 

    Sure, maybe there's always details to tweak, but just scrapping your whole story after a full day of writing & tossing it into the wastebin will only aggravate you further.

 

                  

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(edited)

Alright, everyone. Here's where I stand.

 

I've thought it over, and while I'll tweak things and work on making certain things better, I'm not going to do away with Layla Shade entirely. I honestly don't know what I was thinking... I don't know why I became so concerned with opinions, so much so that I couldn't think clearly for myself.

 

To everyone who has posted on here, thank you. You've helped me regain my confidence back over the situation, and your advice and opinions are greatly valued. There are things that have been said here that I needed to hear today, and there are suggestions I might take in order to make my OC even better.

 

Thank you all, you've helped me greatly. :)

I think she's very original and very unique to you, so it looks good in my eyes. She has a unique colour scheme from most OC's I've seen, kind of like a punk rock palette of colours. And what does her tail look like? I feel like there is opportunity there to make it rather unique, two tails, nine tails, dinosaur tail, armoured tail, snake-like tail etc...

You know, I never actually thought about her tail, haha. XD

Edited by Chrylestia600
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