Character Nugget Meme Thingee

[aearwen2]

Shamelessly nicked from spacellama:

Pick a character I've written and I will give and explain the top five ideas/concepts/etc I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to accurately depicting them.

Be kind...

Comments

[akhilanda.livejournal.com]

Donna!!!!

Can I be cheeky and ask for both Donna-Donna and your AU Donna from NQAP??

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

From both "Surviving Metacrisis" and NQAP?

Hmmmm... Okay...

From "Surviving":

1. Her physical limitations - the Doctor tells her that it's as if she's just had brain surgery. Her movements needs to me restrained, and I have to remember that if she moves her head, there's pain involved - at least, until he tells her it's safe to move, and then maybe still an ache.

2. Her poor self-esteem - her mother has done a bang-up job of making her feel inadequate. Lance only made matters worse.

3. She has a logical brain and a head for numbers, AND the dexterity to type over 100 wpm. She's no slouch at all.

4. Donna here is a less than tactful individual at times. Her mom never taught her to think first and speak later, and it shows from time to time. Even in this.

5. One word: snark. Donna is a past master at the art of snark. It has to slip out every once in a while, or she's definitely OOC.

Alternate-universe Donna from NQAP:

1. She's lost everything and everyone she ever cared about. Her parents, her husband, her child, and then her grandfather. She's a very damaged person, with HUGE abandonment issues.

2. Like the previous Donna, she has a head for numbers and office procedures. She's a logical thinker.

3. The reasons for her self-esteem issues are more wrapped up in the coping mechanisms she created for herself before Ian's arrival in her life: the one-night stands, etc. But ultimately, like the other Donna, low self-esteem manifests most obviously in a belief in her lack of worthiness for love.

4. She doesn't have a long history with the Doctor to acclimatize her to dealing with aliens. Anything "canon" that Ian uses, then, has to be reintroduced.

5. This Donna is softer, less brazen (except in her one-night-stand coping mechanism), tactful, and soft-voiced. She isn't as dependent on snark at all.

Interesting exercise to think these things through. Thanks!!

[sykira]

Gosh, wow, I LOVE this meme!

Great answers. Lots to think about it my brain wasn't mush right now. Can I have the Doctor and Ian?

[(Anonymous)]

Sure - because the two are very much related, like Surviving!Donna and NQAP!Donna and Elladan/Elrohir are. The Doctor is quite a complex individual, both in canon and in the alternate universe - so I'll be focusing only on Ten when it comes to canon!Doctor.

Sooo... Lemme think.

Tenth Doctor:

1. Is the last of the Time Lords - very much aware of the duties and responsibilities once carried by his entire race, and aware that he doesn't have backup anymore. And yet, still tries to keep the timelines and histories straight and running as they should.

2. Is the last of the Time Lords - and grieving both the fact that his people and world are lost to him now (regardless how he was a Black Sheep) and the fact that he is the one responsible for their demise. He's healing a little - learning to laugh and enjoy life again - but still very much under the influence of the Time War and what he was forced to do both during it and to end it.

3. He's lonely - and takes the responsibility for the welfare of his companions very seriously. He generally avoids becoming romantically entangled with them, as that leads to complications; but has made exceptions in both Rose's and Donna's cases. Rose he's lost, and Donna he's either going to have to deliberately lose her or find a way to save her.

4. His mind doesn't work the way a "normal" human's does. He can hold many distinct thoughts at the same time, processes information at a super-human speed - and while he is great at seeing the "big picture" due to his Time Lord heritage, he gets confounded and confused by the "little things".

5. His love for his TARDIS is absolute. He will protect her and defend her with his life, and she tries to take care of him. Unfortunately, neither of them fully understand the other, and he's thrown the TARDIS manual away. This means tinkering under the console is a constant activity, and has probably become almost a comforting occupation in and of itself.

OK - now Ian:

1. His personal history doesn't have the admittedly short healing time afforded the other Doctor - that last year with Rose, the year with Martha, and the year with Donna - and so he's still got many of the acute emotional traumas that characterized Nine at the end of his time.

2. He's not a full Time Lord - only one heart, diminished Timesense, his mind functions fast but is also diminished in its capacity, no possibility to regenerate - and awash with the elements of humanity that he's completely unfamiliar with. This can confuse him greatly.

3, 4 and 5 are linked in that the two together have created a HUGE abandonment issue for him:

3. He's been abandoned in the alternate universe - essentially kicked out of the TARDIS for the crime of being too much like the original Doctor: committing genocide against the Daleks.

4. Rose was unable to accept him as the Doctor, and thus she has withdrawn her affection and driven him out of her life. Thus he's had to create a new life for himself with no emotional support system outside Jackie (which was very much a surprise to him.)

5. He has no TARDIS, only a bit of coral that eventually will grow up into one. The bract doesn't have a full-fledged sentience about it that he can lean on in lieu of the link he had with the TARDIS, so he's asea in a world of humanity without anything but the slightest link to Gallifrey.

That was an interesting exercise - and I think the Doctor/Ian was harder to put into five points than Donna/AU!Donna was.

[akhilanda.livejournal.com]

Gosh, sorry, Christmas ate up my life, ack, and moving house too, pout. I just wanna say, i love how you use the word awash here in describing Ian as a human, cuz we really are, awash with hormones and neurochemicals and it's an emotional minefield and your Ian conveys the newness and rawness of that very well

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

Incidently, the anonymous reply was me.

Damned Firefox updated, and I've ended up logged out of all my sites. I noticed this AFTER I wrote the above - and I've had to go thru and log back into FB, LJ, DW, IBotI and a number of other places. Me not a happy camper about that!!

Sorry...

[sykira]

Lol, I figured that had to be you from the character insight! Sorry I mean to respond properly but such a busy weekend :/

[sykira]

Hmmm. I like your Doctor. I like him a LOT more than my impression of canon!Ten. There are a few key elements to his on screen character that I put down to bad misogynistic show runner and/or inconsistent ep writers, like his concern for the welfare of his companions -- he's too cavalier for his (or their) own good sometimes, IMO. Sometimes he cares and sometimes he's impatient with their human limitations, which could also stem from an emotional stuntedness that I also gloss over blithely. He's an ass to Martha. He's deliberately insensitive (eg the Shakespeare ep bed scene)

As for this:
He's healing a little - learning to laugh and enjoy life again - but still very much under the influence of the Time War and what he was forced to do both during it and to end it."

I agree but I see a lot of the laughter and joie d'vivre as forced, he's in denial, he's forced-cheerful because the grief is too much to process. All that he can do is grin maniacally and run run run until its less acute...he deals with all loss this way until he loses Donna. THAT drives him over the edge into the epically fascinating timelord victorious phase--glorious and one of most woefully short lived character plots ever.

[sykira]

Argh. LJ just ate my last comment grrrrrrrrrrr

Okay. First off, I LOVED this, so insightful.

"4. His mind doesn't work the way a "normal" human's does. He can hold many distinct thoughts at the same time, processes information at a super-human speed - and while he is great at seeing the "big picture" due to his Time Lord heritage, he gets confounded and confused by the "little things".

[sykira]

I don't think I've explicitly taken that into account when I've written ten -at least only rarely. It's so very true- his cognition is not just faster or better, it's qualitatively different, with different strengths and weaknesses

Re: taking care of his companions: it does happen and makes me blissfully joyful when it does, no matter the companion. I adore especially when he goes protective in the face of a threatening figure. Ten losing it when he think Donna is burning in flames in JE is evidence to me that he cares much more deeply for her than for himself even. He's desperate. It might be more a moffat era thing but in JE at least I see him caring much more about Donna than his burning Tardis. If Moffat made the Doctor's love for the Tardis more explicit then good for him cuz I see Ten as being relatively cavalier about it.

But the fact remains he treats Martha badly and he's atrocious to Jack.

[sykira]

(I've lost track of whether I'm offering a counterpoint or just reveling in season 4 memories to basically say "I agree!")

I adored when Ten told Martha that Donna wasn't like her, wasn't a soldier. I like the notion that Ten was a bit more protective toward Donna, and tender, despite their constant banter and snark ;) and I like that he saw her differently--in my head it's because in his mind she had the status of the kind of woman he could marry/slightly regal like a Gallifreyan woman.

[akhilanda.livejournal.com]

a big HELLS YES to all of this. It bothers me no end when a writer introduces a major trauma then the next thing you know the characters are running about right as rain so I LOVE that you fully allow for Donna's physical limitations-because of this but all the lovellllly hurt comfortyness of it!

oooh yes snark...hmmm i think i need more snark in my PWP!

THANK YOU for these intricate thoughts. I so enjoyed reading this.

[samtyr.livejournal.com]

Elladan and Elrohir (I know, two individuals but they are twins, so...)

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

For me, Elladan and Elrohir are very two different individuals. Yes, they're twins, but that doesn't mean they are carbon copies of the other. Each has strengths and weaknesses of his own, to me.

Mind, I'm thinking of these characters as I've developed them for my IDD!verse - which I started to develop in "Light Fingers" and have expanded on since then. So those will be the differences I pay attention to when I write them now - and when I list their five points here.

Elladan:

1. The quieter twin. Elladan is the thinker and dreamer of the two.

2. Slow to anger, quick to forgive.

3. Of Elrond's children, the one most like his father. He's the better healer.

4. More emotionally mature - finds and marries his soul-mate before leaving for Valinor.

5. A flautist, accustomed to carrying his instrument of choice with him, even into battle.

Elrohir:

1. The louder twin - the one that demands the most attention.

2. Quicker to anger, slower to forgive, more likely to harbor grudges.

3. A consummate warrior, thinks all matters close to him through in military fashion.

4. More insecure with his emotions, falls for a mortal woman but has to watch her fall in love with a fellow mortal - carries that grief with him to Valinor & makes him less willing to settle down.

5. A harpist, and a very serious musician.

Things both share:

1. Background - naturally. They're twins.

2. Training - they both trained under Glorfindel, and became very skilled warriors. Both have also learned the healing arts from their father.

3. Guilt over Celebrian's injuries and eventual need to flee to Aman - which drives them to make endless war on the orcs plaguing the lands in the general vicinity of Imladris, including joining forces with the Dunedain over many mortal generations.

4. Love of their siblins, natural or otherwise. Both were deeply involved in raising Aragorn and training him, and both are resolved to remain in Ennor until Aragorn and Arwen both step past the circles of the world.

5. Both quickly tire of the artificial environment in Eldamar, and the subjugation of those who remained in Ennor to fight the Dark Lord to the bitter end.

I love both these guys, by the way...

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Gilraen

[lilith-lessfair.livejournal.com]

Good one!

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

Oooooo! She was a fun person to write, and I really grew to love her.

1. She is first and foremost Aragorn's mother, no matter what duty or responsibility Elrond throws at her. This responsibility toward her son fades into the background as he becomes more self-sufficient, however.

2. She is a dunadaneth, and she never forgets it in all her long years in Imladris. She never adopts some of the Elvish characteristics that would seem... outlandish... to her mortal sensitivities. She upholds her mortal cultural mores, even in the face of culture clashes.

3. The love of her life was Arathorn, and while she develops a deep affection for Glorfindel, she never really betrays her husband. And when she moves back to the mortal village, she doesn't even acknowledge Glorfindel as her gwaith gwend.

4. Her relationship with Elrond very complex, ranging from mentee to personal assistant and even into the gwaith gwend a bit when it comes to the raising of Estel.

5. She never loses her appreciation for the luxury she lives in while dwelling in Imladris - and this sustains her when she and Elrond argue and she returns to live with the Dunedain.

Hmmmm... If I were going to write her again, I think I'd like to do this exercise again - as a matter of fact, this is a good thing to do when creating an OC.