Thoughts on Author Created Characters

[G-Force offline]

Author Created Characters, also known as ACCs, it seems like almost every CL fanfic under the sun has them. Some readers avoid them like the plague while others embrace these latest additions to the Lyoko Universe. Since there are many users here on LF who have at least encountered stories that use ACCs and since it is such a widely debated issue I thought it would be cool to see all the different opions we have. Essentially, what makes a good ACC, if there is such thing. Are they a blessing to a fic or a curse? I'll post my later as I gotta hit the hay soon but I think it's obvious on where I stand.

[Carth]

I'm okay with them, as long as they aren't MARY SUES.Y'know, characters that are perfect. All-powerful. They may seem cool, but they're really just annoying.

Also, they're good if they don't just jump outta nowhere and take over the story. Try blending them with the storyline. Like, a character's sibling. Or my Human XANA (though he's more of a fan design...)

[. offline]

They're a necessary evil.

[darktemplar offline]

People make them because already existing characters are just boring... New story must include some new pieces, like ACCs, who make ground for story...

[KayLenny#7 offline]

I myself avoid them for the most part, but I make exceptions now and then. I don't even know how to write a good fic without ACCs. ^^'

[darktemplar offline]

Ha! See it. I have difficulties writing(not about Lyoko) without them too. They[ACCs] give some refreshment to the existing system. You'd end up making new monsters, and it's hard to make up next history/information of Lyoko, Xana, etc.

[Star Way]

I think it depends. Too many ACCs can take the spotlight off of the canon characters that we all want to read about, which is annoying... And of course, Mary/Gary Sues are bad.

I guess my standpoint on it is that ACCs *can* be okay, but only if they're written about well and aren't annoying. The problem is, that's not very often.

[DeadViolet offline]

They're a necessary evil.

*whimpers* Erika-chan aint evil. she's a wittle angel/princess!

[Skysong offline]

People make them because already existing characters are just boring... New story must include some new pieces, like ACCs, who make ground for story...

Um, no. That's just silly. Plenty of people write stories with the existing characters and they're great. The point of writing fanfiction is to be able to USE the existing characters for something of your own!

I'm sorry, but I completely HATE ACCs. If you need to make up a character to think of a story, that's just kind of sad.

Characters like human XANAs or a new sibling for a character are... passable, I suppose. But so often those characters are used for evil! I will read a story with ACCs if the ACC doesn't have a love interest or if it's by an author that I know is good. Too often people think that "OMG! I can write a story by making up this girl (can be a boy, girls are just more common)! She'll be smart and pretty and everyone will love her! And then everyone will love ME!"

...I suppose I'm rather biased, because I have seen WAY too many CL summaries something like this (insert spelling errors and netspeak as you will; I'm not that fond of making my eyes bleed): A new girl comes to Kadic and Odd (I name him because he's the most common target, but there are probably ones out there when other people get attacked) falls for her/she falls for him. But OMG! She has a BIG SECRET/finds out about Lyoko/insert plot device here. I suck at summaries, please review!

And so on and so forth for the thousands of stories on FFN.

Another term for these that I like better is original characters. See the ORIGINAL? The problem with them is that most of them aren't.

[/rant]

[Mewberries151]

Skysong, I really agree with you on that about a fanfic needing new stuff like ACCs and monsters to be good. That's completely and utterly ridiculous as there are plenty of good fics that don't have either or (alot of them can be found on the Fanfic page of this site). Anyone can just add something new to the storyline to make their plot work or to put an alter-ego of themselves into the story (which is the case with most ACCs). The true challenge comes in working with the characters, monsters, and plausible scenarios provided with the show itself, and only those characters. It's not really a Code Lyoko fanfic, if it doesn't have at least some tie to the show. That's the whole point of fanfiction: writing something for the show and it's characters. At least that's just my opinion on dark templar's extreme example.

[G-Force offline]

As a fanfic author I believe that a fanfic shouldcapture one's emotional attachment to their favorite series be it animated or live-action. As a reader I see fanfics as a way to continue the show's experience. There are only fifty-six episodes of Code Lyoko that have been made. When the current stream of episodes have been "exhausted" I turn to fanfics as I can keep enjoying the series long after its run on television. A good fanfic brings what you know and love and holds it in a slightly different light which makes you look at a series in a slightly different way also.

Notice that I did not say in the above paragraph that fanfiction needed ACCs. Now let me admit, when you create a character it's hard not to glorify them a bit. All arguments of Mary Sue's aside, when an author writes an ACC, they themselves are putting their own personal touch to the CL universe. With an ACC an author knows everything about them, their history, personality, behavior with others, hopes, dreams ect. Unfortunately this much wealth of info can not be said about the existing cast of the moment. Granted we do know a general background about Yumi, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremie and Aelita but not in the same depth as our ACCs. As viwers we're only aware that certain facts exist but are cluless of the whys. For example, we know that Yumi's family used to live in Japan but we don't know their motivation for moving. We know that Ulrich practices martial arts but we don't know why he took up the sport.

To say that ACCs are evil is a gross overgeneralization. If there is one lesson in life that we've all learnd is that there is nothing out there that is absolute. When one says ACCs are all horrible, they're dismissing an entire element of fanfiction writing. There are certain ACCs out there that are considered "official" and are embraced by fanfic readers all around. Aoi Tamashi from Eva-R is well-loved in the Evangelion community. She "guest stars" in several other prominante Evangelion fanfiction and even has a few fan pages devoted just for her.

To use an analogy I see an ACC as a spice when cooking. They're not essential to story telling but when done correctly they add to the overall experience. If mishandled they can botch a fic and make it quite undesireable to read.

[oddsgrlfriend offline]

I always use ACCs in my FanFictions not because I find the characters boring but if I feel there is an area where someone should be and there is not a character in Code Lyoko that fits those needs. I my one FanFiction (which I'm still writing) I need someone to be Jeremie and Aeltia's kids, Ulrich and Yumi's daughter, and Odd and Sissi's son. I had to create all those characters from scratch using existing characterists from Aelita, Jeremie, Ulrich, Yumi, Odd, and Sissi. ACCs can play very important parts in some FanFictions.

[Skysong offline]

I'm not saying all OCs are evil. I'm very big fans of two stories with OCs because I know the writers and are big fans of their stuff (and the characters in question are Mary Sues, ). And I LOVE OCs when they are used for a purpouse. That should be the reason for OCs- you need someone to fill in the gaps. If it were, I would love them. But as is, I've seen faaaar too many bad fics to like them for being them.

But I do agree that it's nice to have someone you know everything about.

[Ranma Saotome offline]

I've been reading fanfiction for quite a while now (not neccessarily Code Lyoko fanfiction but fanfiction none the less) and i've found that ACC can be both a blessing and a curse for a story. A blessing in the fact that they allow you to take a path with a story that you couldn't before due to the restraints in using a character that isn't yours. They also allow you to inject some life into a series that doesn't have much to begin with. They can be a curse if the author just throws them into the story with out giving a good reason for them being their. Or if they are given god-like powers in the story. The ACCs overrunning the original characters of the cannon storyline is never a good thing either. Overall a ACC can be a wonderful thing if used correctly but they can also completly ruin a story (Of course some stories are just badly written in the first place and you can't blame the ACCs for it.)

[Darkborn offline]

The only time I like them, is when they are specially introduced somewhere in the story. I don't like it when the story starts out as though we are supposed to know the person.

[Zaeryth offline]

I think ACC's are a good thing because you don't have to worry about them being out of character to fill a certain role, and you can completely control them however you wish. But, there are those people who make their ACC's annoyingly smart, pretty, popular, and the center of the story, and they just have to be the hero. That is extremely irritating.

[darktemplar offline]

Yes! Make heroes out of existing characters, with their existing capablities.

That reminds me a D&D session where my GM let my sister play.. He gave her lvl 80 character.

[Rycr offline]

Well, I believe that an ACC can be a blessing or a curse, depending on how you use them. If they are perfect or nearly perfect, then they degrade the story. Also, if they somehow come in and save everybody's lives right from the beginning, that's bad too. I suppose they have to have a few flaws, be introduced at some point in the story, and not steal the spotlight from canon characters.

I have read fics where the ACCs really add a lot to the story and improve it a lot. I have also read many where the ACC completely ruins the story. It depends on how they are used.

And Mary-Sues should never be used in a story, unless you're making fun of them, like this one fic I read about the attack of the Mary-Sues. It's hilarious, but I don't think it's about Code Lyoko...

Basically, everything is explained nicely by the spice metaphor that G-Force used. If they are used right, they are a real asset to the story. If they aren't, the story goes down in flames.

[G-Force offline]

What I noticed a great deal with ACCs (aside from the fact that authors either make them all powerful, the center focus or a combination of both) is that they usually don't "fit" in the Lyoko Universe.

Any series be it anime or not has its own set of rules that it's characters abide by. For example, the concept of flight is considered highly unusual in CL, however, in a cartoon like Dragonball that's normal. If you wish to continue your reader's emotional connection to Code Lyoko then its essential that your story plays by its rules.

The same can be said for ACCs. Many ACCs I've noticed have histories that really seem out of place or are just plain unbelievable. Such as ACCs that were victims of government testing and have hightened physical abilities as a result. Although the concept of government involvement has been toucned on in episodes like "Franz Hopper" such a concept still feels a bit out of place.

On the issue of "special abilities" there are too many examples to list. For some reason, I find the whole notion of a character having special military knife trainning a bit phoney. Granted, the Lyoko gang could be portrayed as being a bit stronger than the average student at Kadic but people tend to forget that they're only thriteen and fourteen years old. Their knowledge in the field of martial arts can only go so far on account of them being so young.

The mark of a good ACC is the simple notion that readers will stop thinking of your character as an ACC but more like an extra character in a series. That's my major litmus test in a nutshell.

[Mewberries151]

What I noticed a great deal with ACCs (aside from the fact that authors either make them all powerful, the center focus or a combination of both) is that they usually don't "fit" in the Lyoko Universe.

Any series be it anime or not has its own set of rules that it's characters abide by. For example, the concept of flight is considered highly unusual in CL, however, in a cartoon like Dragonball that's normal. If you wish to continue your reader's emotional connection to Code Lyoko then its essential that your story plays by its rules.

I completely agree with you on this, G-Force! One of the biggest traps that ACC writers fall into is making their Lyoko Avatar either way too powerful, or something that doesn't fit into the generally accepted rules about fights on Lyoko.

The biggest ACC Lyoko Avatar trap, I think, are the "Summoner" types. The ones that can summon phoenix, dragons, unicorns, etc, within Lyoko that obey them and then proceed to annihilate huge hoards of XANA monsters. Summoner types break the rules because...what is there that physically exists in Lyoko to summon? In other shows/games like Final Fantasy, the summons, or aeons, are spiritual beings with a long history of dwelling on the said planet. Lyoko was created by one programmer and it's more or less a dead world now. There's nothing there that would have been programmed to be summoned there. ^^

I have however, seen "Beast Tamer" types avatars work within a CL fanfic...they're actually pretty clever. Beast Tamer's, usually as a special power, can charm one or several of XANA's monsters to fight for Team Lyoko (somewhat a la "Marabounta"). This works within Lyoko's rules, because Franz Hopper has shown the ability to control XANA's monsters and thus as a power, it could likely br programmed into a Lyokian character.

At least, that's just my musing on it, though. ^^ There's lots of really creative Lyoko avatar types that I haven't seen used in fics yet, and would really love to actually.

[G-Force offline]

Ah good ole Final Fantasy, always the prime example on how big it's influence is. I wouldn't be surprised if I see an ACC who weilds a Keyblade or two and can "unlock" towers for Aelita.

*Cues Simple and Clean and ends the random Kingdom Hearts refference*

Mew brings up a good point about Lyoko Avatars and the fact that its the area where authors won't hesitate to make a super cool character. The biggest challenge a writer faces when making an ACCs Lyoko form is to create something very different while at the same time balance the elements with the rest of the other characters. The problem is that most fics that use ACCs only go as far as the first step and take things from there. The underlying trick is that any character if handled correct can work in fanfiction. For example, take the Summoner example mew brought up. Instead of my ACC just calling forth creatures out of thin air, my ACC would have to use a combination of his internal energy (be it lifepoints, or his stanima) and an external energy force (such as a monster/tower/laser fire) to create a being of pure energy that they then could manipulate and control for a brief amount of time (I like it call this process "Energy Bending"). The concept of "magic" exist very slightly through abilities like Ulrich's Triplicate and Yumi's Telekenisis. By requiring the Summoner to use both an alternitive energy source combined with his own as a means of attack, not only is this type of character looks like it belongs in Lyoko but you also create a major flaw in their attack style preventing the avatar from being too powerful.

My advice to authors who wish to create Lyoko forms is to actually make thier character weaker than the existing cast. You heard me correctly. I said weaker. Use the perameters of the existing cast as limiting factors for your ACC. They can't be as agile as Odd, a stronger close-range fighter than Ulrich nor be more defensive than Yumi's fans. Instead of making a character that overshadows the existing cast, try to come up with a different area of expertise that your ACC can specialize in. Ok forgive me for using my ACC Jin Ishiyama as an example, in a topic like that a refference to Retelling is bound to happen. On Lyoko, Jin is a gunman who's aim rivals Odd's However when fighting on Lyoko to make up for the fact that he indeed does have a weapon like this he is intentionally weak. He actually has to hit the XANA eye TWICE in order to destroy a monster as his bullets were made to stun his enemies. Designing this Lyoko form I really wanted to make Jin reliant on the other characters as he's the first "support class" type in the group. This is what I'm trying to say. Notice that Jin is not all powerful and that his limitations can be easily exploited if he's left to fight a large number of bad guys. However, he's still a valuable asset to the team without hogging all the spotlight.

[Skysong offline]

My advice to authors who wish to create Lyoko forms is to actually make thier character weaker than the existing cast. You heard me correctly. I said weaker. Use the perameters of the existing cast as limiting factors for your ACC. They can't be as agile as Odd, a stronger close-range fighter than Ulrich nor be more defensive than Yumi's fans. Instead of making a character that overshadows the existing cast, try to come up with a different area of expertise that your ACC can specialize in. Ok forgive me for using my ACC Jin Ishiyama as an example, in a topic like that a refference to Retelling is bound to happen. On Lyoko, Jin is a gunman who's aim rivals Odd's However when fighting on Lyoko to make up for the fact that he indeed does have a weapon like this he is intentionally weak. He actually has to hit the XANA eye TWICE in order to destroy a monster as his bullets were made to stun his enemies. Designing this Lyoko form I really wanted to make Jin reliant on the other characters as he's the first "support class" type in the group. This is what I'm trying to say. Notice that Jin is not all powerful and that his limitations can be easily exploited if he's left to fight a large number of bad guys. However, he's still a valuable asset to the team without hogging all the spotlight.

...thankyousomuch for saying that.

I'm an X-men fan, so I've seen about all a person can take when it comes to "special powers". If a fic features an OC who goes to Lyoko, I never read it on principle unless all the words in the summary are spelled right.

Another thing about ACC stories is that they seem to naturally die. About seven times out of ten the person who wrote it wasn't too much into writing in the first place and unless the person is particularly motivated, they stop after one or two chapters.

[Pika53 offline]

I can relate to what you posted about acc's but am unsure if I'm following such criteria correctly. Please read and review my story called "Nocturne of Shadows" and PM me about wether I'm doing it right or if I need to change something. Thanks for your time.

[MY85 offline]

Another thing about ACC stories is that they seem to naturally die. About seven times out of ten the person who wrote it wasn't too much into writing in the first place and unless the person is particularly motivated, they stop after one or two chapters.

Word. Aside from the fact that you need to have a good name to get it to be succesful.

When did the CL fanfic boom began, right after Season 1? 'Cause after that, it kinda died and many other stories get ignored, unread, etc.

[G-Force offline]

From what I can tell, a majority of CL fics came up during the long period of time between season one and two when fans were on pins and needles waiting for new episodes. In order to release this pent up fandom many new fanfic series were created to pass the time.

When season two aired even more fanfics were posted as now viewers were interested in exploring the love triangle between Ulrich, William and Yumi. Course the Lyoko battles added to the total and now we're at 2,000+ stories.