See that's the thing: I'm a guy and I have trouble creating male characters, and like you I'm a somewhat experienced writer (I've been writing stuff for a few years, but lately I just haven't been feeling it). I think I've tried creating two male characters so far, but had to scrap them because I couldn't think of anything for them. I am going to make an attempt on another to go with Sapha though. It makes no sense to me to create a new race and then dump it.

If I follow your definition of OC, I have dozens of characters and a lot of series.

My definition of Original Character would be a character you created, regardless of inspiration, as long as its not connected to real character from a series.
Otherwise no character would ever be original, as they're always inspired by characters from a series of some kind.

If someone could give me their opinion on Lace Ups please, she's on the previous page.
And here are some sketches a friend made of "Triple Six" who is currently undergoing a reworking.
Her basic appearance will remain the same, but her name and back story are changing.


It's all part of the process of character creation :P

There's inspiration and then there's copying.
:>

Or maybe like an MMO, there's only so many appearances a Saiyan can choose from?
:V

ice spells like Eva nice


i cant draw however my fanfic char (looks total badass actually a masochist)
my activation keyword is "Abra Kadabra Alakazam" and i learrn fire and dark magic (love of dark evangel)

negis Magia Erebea plus the fact he learned lightning magic means he has lightining form however i dont have ssj 1,2,3 but 3 forms of Magia Erebea flame sstlye 1st blue, 2nd, purple, 3rd black (flame colours)

my strongest spell
Abra Kadabra Alakazam. pone ante oculos omnia ardens igne inferni ablatum
Abra Kadabra Alakazam. fire stolen from hell set ablaze everything in sight

BTW have you made any pactios yet

To everyone, especially Pein, if you can't come up with legitimate criticism of a character, I highly recommend not making any highly negative comments like "all fan characters are Mary Sues" and such. Actual criticism I have no problem with, but instigating is a problem.

The "Mary Sue" argument is something I'd want to avoid entirely, especially since its actually meaning has been questionable from what I heard.

But yeah, if anyone is willing to give their opinion on Sapha I'd really appreciate it. I don't care if it's good or bad. I just want something to go on to help improve her.

I'm writing a looooong essay about it. Most people are idiots who just throw the term around and don't know what its meaning or origin is. In a nutshell, it's a term used to refer to a character that's unreasonably perfect for their given situation.

TV Tropes has an excellent article about it.

To give an example of what makes a Mary Sue a Mary Sue, I'll take a quick example from Marvel Comics, since they have a canon Mary Sue who's actually intended to be that way, and I won't get any controversy for it.

Squirrel Girl is a Mary Sue. Everyone knows that. Why is she a Mary Sue? Because she can beat anyone, including Thanos off panel. Her superpowers are all squirrel-based. The only reason that she could ever be so powerful is because of the fact that she's written as a canon Sue.

Galactus is another character from Marvel Comics who's absurdly powerful and could beat almost anyone. Except, you know, Reed Richards. The reasons why he's not a Mary Sue character are pretty straightforward. He's given justifiable reasons for his strength, that being that he's one of Marvel's cosmic entities, and as mentioned, he does lose to lesser beings unusually often.

The term was really defined by the 70's Star Trek Fanfic "A Trekkie's Tale" in which Lt. Mary Sue, a 15-year-old Vulcan-human hybrid who Captain Kirk wants to sleep with. Spock takes an immediate liking to her, she receives the Nobel Peace Prize and several other similar awards, and after she dies a tragic death saving the Enterprise, her birthday becomes a holiday.

To list of the traits here wouldn't be too difficult. For starters, she's a lieutenant at the age of 15, which should be nigh-impossible, even with Vulcan heritage. Speaking of which, being a half-human hybrid is a common trait of a Mary Sue, and the fact that it mimics a canon character, Spock, makes it a trait to add to the pile. Kirk immediately hits on her as soon as the fic starts, despite her being 15. Now, it might just be that Kirk will have sex with anything that's alive and female, but the fact that she's 15 makes me question it.

Spock and Kirk both immediately liking her alludes to another trait, the fact that she's the center of attention in her fanfic. She also receives the Nobel Peace Prize, despite the fact that she's only 15, which is unreasonable. Sacrificing one's life isn't as common a Mary Sue trait as it is today, (probably because Mary Sues are often pet characters and Sue authors don't want to kill them off) but it does count. And lastly, her birthday becoming a holiday is just one more measure of absurdity.

Anyone one of those traits individually probably wouldn't have made for a Mary Sue, but piled together, you can see the horror beginning to emerge. Mary Sues are generally a collection of such traits, and often defy the general logic of their respective universe.

When writing fanfiction, it's often important to ask yourself if your character has too many traits that are common among fan characters so as to not be associated with Mary Sues. With Dragon Ball, I can tell you 95% of all fan characters are Saiyans who survived the destruction of planet Vegeta. Not all Saiyan characters are Mary Sues. I once read a fanfic with 6 of them, all of whom were actually good characters that made sense in context. They were supporting characters and the entire fanfic didn't revolve around them.

Great explanation, and good use of TV tropes (man I love that site).

Yeah when I thought about making Sapha into a Saiyan, I wanted to make sure it would make sense and not use the "survival of Planet Vegeta" deal. I even found that such usage is greatly frowned upon, which made me do these even more seriously. I first tried involving another race I made, but that didn't work out so well to my thinking so I dropped it. I then thought about using the Dragonballs, but now that I'm thinking of straying her away from the main cast I don't see it working either (unless I utilize New Namek lol). It may come to a point where I'll either have to drop the idea, or try and utilize something else...like SCIENCE.

I also gave her SSJ3 despite what people may think for a couple of reasons: biggest reason being that she can utilize it better since her skills revolve around ki usage and speed; the former being what SSJ3 uses fully. Even with having that form though, I'm designing her to be weaker than Goku and such so hopefully that won't run into any problems.