Why Cronos? Why OCs?

[Jade Tatsu]

I'm not trying to denigrate any fic here, and am genuinely asking about an answer but why Cronos? Why are so many Guyver fics based in Cronos? Which usually then requires the making of an OC. I make OC's all the time but they aren't usually the focus of the fic, but a lot of the Cronos based fics they seem to be.

So really can someone explain to me what the attraction of writing Zoalord/Cronos stories is? Since I've been predominantly a Guyver side writer, I really am genuinely interested in the answer.

[river_chaos]

Well, for me it's because the history and personalities of certain Zoalords can be manipulated since we don't have much info on them (nor have we seen them interact with others very often). They're pretty much enigmas to the readers at the moment. That and since Cronos is such a big organization that is military based OCs can fit right in some how as a rebel scientist, a soldier, or what have you. Guyver I's group is pretty much well established at this point and would be more difficult to fit an OC in, and since they're hiding most of the time it would be hard to keep an interest in the story going.

Now that I think of it, if one were to write on the Zoalord/Cronos side there wouldn't be much of a need to create an OC unless they really wanted to.

[Jade Tatsu]

Ah but that's a part of it. I have browsed through several Cronos side fics and maybe it's just the ones I'm looking at, they all have a OC as the main character and the plot focus. If there are others, then please feel free to point them out. I don't pretend to have read everything.

While the individuals of Cronos may be somewhat vague, especially if you only had the Anime and early Manga to go on, they are becoming more fleshed out now and I'm actually not saying you have to put an OC in, in fact, I'm hinting that that is not bad... but perhaps for some not as enjoyable as merely playing with the cannon characters and their situations.

Perhaps I should clarify about OCs. Supporting OC's are usually essential. Often you have to make them up simply because the cannon doesn't have them. To take your example, the scientist, the nameless zoanoid grunts, the fic reader knows that they have to exist and so when Professor Sandaime of the Konoha Branch shows up, the reader accepts it and makes a few assumptions about the person - Professor = nerd, and in the case of Cronos = Zoanoid creator. So that's pretty easy. And depending on the fic other OCs are either implied or created by the plot - the bad guy in a lot of cases since often the manga/anime has killed off almost everything to leave us in dubious peace.

So perhaps that's what I'm trying to get at, why play with the enemy - Cronos, who is militaristic, and will predictably respond to situations when going with the other side means, in my feeling, the potential for more creativity with responses to situations. Why try to humanise them when in the case of immortal zoalords, used to killing hundreds if not thousands with some decisions, it’s a very unlikely situation? We also tend to love the heroes, so why write the enemy?

[river_chaos]

How about Darkest Hour by moonstoneglows (or Obsidian Ice....I think that's his name on here)? That doesn't have an OC for a main character.

I guess everyone's just tired of writting abou the heros and find it more interesting to write about the enemy....while portraying Guyot as the sadistic slimewad he is. All the same, while the Zoalords are being fleshed out there is still some manipulation room for writers to portray them in their own way (like Kenji's version of Carleon being a pyromaniac that loves to kill humans). There's plenty of room for the imagination to go wild despite the restrictions set by the manga and what Takaya-sensie has revealed.

[*Jess♥]

I don't know of other people's motivations and I have not written anything in a very long time.

I prefer to use canon characters as it means less work for me!

If I ever decided to write a fanfic in cronos, I think it may be because it seems like a safety net. we have already seen a lot of the organisation of cronos so we can easily predict what the environment is going to look like and what the general behaviour of the secondary characters is going to be. situations are easy to set up and the day to day is already pretty much provided. there is a large potential for relationships between comrades and crossovers between scientists, female and male. relationships are easy to fabricate without having to provide too much backstory.

cronos provides a good, easy foundation for a fanfic writer.

I am no writer to be honest. I am sure my method of writing is irksome to people who write more often and have studied a lot of grammar and language rules, but I like to play with situations nonetheless. I always like to see something new and interesting. something playful. but there is so many writings that are truly well written, some great writers out there, it's just that their actual plot is boring as hell. but it's been a while since I read any so i can't really name any specifics. uh... what's my point? ah yes, it's that the most of the boring ones i have read is when it's yet ANOTHER new character i don't care about, being turned into a guyver in a manner i don't care about. then meeting other people I don't care about. it's all personal. it's all vanity. it's that persons way of taking control of their story and making it about them. they live the character instead of crafting a story. it's roleplaying really. and this is ok. people can roleplay. but don't expect other people to enjoy vain roleplaying. unless they are roleplaying alongside you.

[*Kenji Murakami]

I've been all over the place, writing-wise, in my Guyver 'fics - and all of my other 'fics, but we're discussing Guyver, here - I've actually created both an OC Guver and an OC Zoalord. I think, for me, the fact that the personalities of the main characters are already so well-established makes me enjoy putting them into different circumstances and seeing how they would react to other people while still essentially remaining themselves.

[Toku Warrior]

That's a good point. I think, with fics based on Chronos, they seem so appealing as many fanfics to al the manga's and animes out there are almost always about the hero side of the story but very few every tell one from a villains standpoint. That can be considered refreshing.

Adding in an OC into the story is a good idea sometimes, especially if they are not the entire main focal point. But I think some people create OC's for Zoalords to either take focus off already well known characters or, if a relationship is involved with a cannon character, to help drive the depth a bit more than what is normally focused on.

Now, writing a fic that takes already well established characters and moving them forward to greater heights or proceeding further in a storyline than what a person was left with in a manga or anime can practically be a hit and miss. If it is not done right, well...you just try again to see if you can do better.

But, yeah, OC Zoalords/Zoanoids in Chronos based stories are interesting as you are taking focus off of a well known character and giving that focus to a new character and/or driving the depth of a relationship between and OC and Canon Character. It's sorta refreshing in a way.

[*Kenji Murakami]

Yeah; the best OCs - in my opinion - help bring more depth to an established character, or to explore a side of them that the canon didn't. Or else to explore different facets of the universe while sometimes interacting with the canon settings and characters. Really, they're best used to compliment the setting, living within it rather than overshadowing it.

[*YoungGuyver]

I think it's the Vampire syndrome.

Stan Lee pointed out that the most popular fiction is that which you want to become. Hulk is powerful, but big green and ugly, so although people like to just vent rage, he's not as popular as Spiderman, whom just wears a mask (he could be anyone) and has cool powers.

Cronos is powerful, the Zoalords are akin to eleguent vampires... sipping champaign, and deciding the fate of lives on mere whims. That kind of fantasy is very seductive. And to OC, to Mary Sue it and put yourself in there is just another level in the fantasy play. A form of mastrobation for the ego, or escapism.

One thing that I have is that I also don't want to contradict the main story too much either. Writing a story off to the side can keep it safe, you won't hit any plot conflicts as often

[Oberon]

Or could people be afraid of screwing up the personalities of the more defined cannon characters?

I haven't seen a good display of Chronos that really makes me feel the same about them as I do from the manga. They are too nice.

[*Kenji Murakami]

Or could people be afraid of screwing up the personalities of the more defined cannon characters?

I haven't seen a good display of Chronos that really makes me feel the same about them as I do from the manga. They are too nice.

Really? Why do you say that? What makes you feel that way?

[Oberon]

I'm sorry Kenji-chan, which bit do you mean?

People screwing up the characters? That bit's easy. The cannon characters we see mostly in any manga are defined and as the story progresses and we get further into it, providing they are a semi-main character, their reactions, their personality becomes more defined. So take the main characters of Guyver, Sho, Mizuki, Tetsuro, Agito etc, as the story has progressed they have become deeper, and I'd almost say less stereotyped. But with that extra definition for a fanfic writer comes extra controls and extra limitations on the characters in terms of their personality. By definition, a fanfic is going to take them out of their cannon setting, but the idea, at least in my opinion, is to try to keep the personality, the character the same but with the really well defined characters this can provide more of a challenge and on some levels, perhaps people are afraid of screwing that up. Especially if you write a fic that say is AU from a particular point in time. For example, imagine writing a Naruto fic, just after they've come back from that initial mission in Wave Country. You've got the main characters basic personality down, but not completely defined so you can conceivably have your Naruto being very different from the one we currently have in the manga. Which then if people read your fic, they may not like because they feel you haven't captured his character properly. Now people can be afraid of that.

As for the second bit, I just really haven't seen a good portrayal of Chronos, not one that I would agree with and makes me shiver going 'you bastards' the way I did when I watched the 12 part OAV and to some degree the new anime and read the manga for the first time (From the English VIZ publications ) There's always an aspect that makes them too human for me. But I'm not claiming to have read every fic out there.

[*Kenji Murakami]

Well, that can either come down to a matter of personal interpretation, or a lack of study. Or, a lack of understanding of the human condition, but that's rare in almost any case you want to think of.

Differing interpretations will lead to different portrayals of an established character, and all you can do in those cases is either deal with it or stop reading. A lack of research, however, is probably easier to spot, and should be more simple to correct.

I still don't understand quite what you mean about Chronos seeming too human; most of them were born human; sure, some of them are fairly fanatical about the Chronos "party-line" shall we say, but they do mostly have understandable motivations all the same.

[*Jess♥]

could be similar to what youngguyver was talking about.

the zoalords have become almost like vampires, so from the top down comes this attitude of being apart from humanity and seeming almost monstrous. this inhuman attitude comes across quite plainly from the very beginning. sure, after time in the manga we start to see themes of honour and respect, but at the very basic level, they all see normal humans as merely fodder.

[*Kenji Murakami]

That doesn't really strike me as an inhuman mindset, though; sociopathic, yes, but humans are perfectly capable of being sociopaths. Heck, some people have even thought of other groups of humans in nearly the same way as Chronos seems to. I won't name names, but there's still that to consider.

[Oberon]

While that's quite true Kenji-chan that there have been groups of people who view other groups of people as not human, Ryuki has kind of hit on what I was getting at. None of the fics I have read have made Chronos out to be as amoral as they are shown to be in the manga. They might have started off human but for most of them in the intervening centuries they stopped being human because for a lot of them they stopped caring. This happens really fast for Guyot or however you spell his name. He is one sadistic, manipulative bastard who cares about nothing except his own promotion. Even Alkanphel is similar. He doesn't care much for anything, except to get what he wants.

Obviously we know they are very powerful individuals, but think about the bad guys you get in some movies. Not the ones that are action bad guys, the ones who are business bad guys.The ones who will manipulate anything, kill anyone, so long as their company gets a profit and they get the promotion. The CEO who sits at the top and considers the customers to be nothing more than faceless minions who will buy their product because they have no choice. To me I haven't really seen that cold edge of ruthlessness.

Zoalords and Chronos do not have children, they do not have limitations or restrictions or laws they care much about, they only have what they can conceive of and do without restraint or consideration of the pain it can give to others.

On the other bit, the bit about people being afraid and perhaps not using the cannon characters, I think you are missing part of my suggestion Kenji-chan. In many cases, I don't think it's a lack of study. People aren't writing fanfic for a fandom they don't like after all, but it could be simply that there was nothing to study. However in some cases I think it could be because people are afraid that their portrayal of the more displayed character will not level up is at least part of the reason that people do not write them, especially in a smaller fanfic fandom. Where there's heaps of fics, such as the previously mentioned Naruto, it's easier to get Naruto wrong and still be okay because there are a lot of readers and people will either like your plot or not, but for a small fandom, if you get Sho wrong for example, no one's going to read since he's not the character they expect.

We all have preconceived notions in our heads about what the characters we read about are like, if the writer doesn't match that up, then people won't enjoy the fic. Hence it's easier, sometimes, to go with the characters that have less information about them given in the cannon. And that's not a lack of research, but it could be a lack of something else.

[*YoungGuyver]

could be similar to what youngguyver was talking about.

the zoalords have become almost like vampires

Not quite what I was saying, but what you are saying is also true.

I was just saying that people like writing about Chronos for the same reasons that people like reading about Vampires. Wish fulfillment. You get to be immortal, beautiful, all powerful, and with just a taste of evil to be cool. The regular humans become fodder level zoanoids. Is there any fic out there where a regular zoanoid is a regular ongoing character in the fic? I doubt it, as it wouldn't be very good wish fulfillment to have that in, and a lot of fics I've come across are done by ameteur writers who don't do literary quality work where the full dynamic array of characters is important (just griping here).

[Jade Tatsu]

I think that's probably because the regular guys either come and go and so you use a different person each time or they get killed off in a lot of fics really fast. I should know, I killed plenty though it does depend on the situation in the fic.

Most stories, fanfic or not are usually about the powerful guys. Or at least predominantly about those who are the 'important' people in their universe so even if they start off normal or ordinary, you know they probably won't remain that way and there's only a few I can think of where the main characters weren't those in charge.