Yeah. It's been polled like twice in Paradisa's history, and in the past I've been like "no OCs because I don't wanna deal with the apps/wank" but I think I've just hit a point in Paradisa's "life" where lots of the things we used to stand by firmly just seem so arbitrary. Has anyone ever made a compelling argument on the differences between canon characters and OC characters and why one should be allowed over the other beyond fears of it being abused?
Like, we all know players in the community who highlander their fandom characters as if they were their own, and we all know canons that are inconsistent as fuck or that jump the shark or retcon things. I mean, fuck, Damian Wayne has been written by literally dozens of people in his canon, and even his creator can't keep basic details like the circumstances of his birth straight. How is that any more reliably consistent than a single RPer's writings? Why is one version of canon more valid than another, beyond the fact that one reinforces your interpretation more than the other?
Or like… characters with little canon, whose writers build up huge amounts of head canon… I bet that in the years I played Bad Girl, I put more thought into her motivations and personality and whatever than her creators ever did, because to me she was a character and to them she was a boss battle. Can we realistically say she wasn't 90% OC? I mean, I doubt she'd be accepted by today's standards as a canon character, but not once in 2+ years did anyone ever tell me I was playing a "Canon OC" or even get any crit on her. Yet the Bad Girl I thought up is seen as legitimate, whereas a Bad Girl-esque OC… wouldn't be? I dunno, man.
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Like, we all know players in the community who highlander their fandom characters as if they were their own, and we all know canons that are inconsistent as fuck or that jump the shark or retcon things. I mean, fuck, Damian Wayne has been written by literally dozens of people in his canon, and even his creator can't keep basic details like the circumstances of his birth straight. How is that any more reliably consistent than a single RPer's writings? Why is one version of canon more valid than another, beyond the fact that one reinforces your interpretation more than the other?
Or like… characters with little canon, whose writers build up huge amounts of head canon… I bet that in the years I played Bad Girl, I put more thought into her motivations and personality and whatever than her creators ever did, because to me she was a character and to them she was a boss battle. Can we realistically say she wasn't 90% OC? I mean, I doubt she'd be accepted by today's standards as a canon character, but not once in 2+ years did anyone ever tell me I was playing a "Canon OC" or even get any crit on her. Yet the Bad Girl I thought up is seen as legitimate, whereas a Bad Girl-esque OC… wouldn't be? I dunno, man.