...Personally, I don't much see the point in them. I long ago stopped being so attached to others' fictional characters that I would "take them home," so to speak. I get the notion of taking elements of a character (and who doesn't do that?), but a full-out transferrence makes very little sense to me creatively. I don't like transferring my own characters from setting to setting, form to form. They kind of make me a little sad, and I'm prone to ignoring their bios at first in the hope that maybe they'll just go away, which about half of them do. Then again, it's not really any of my buisness. I certainly wouldn't try and stop anyone, or rant about it without first being prompted... I'd rather like to get some defenders in here and see what goes through their heads.

Ravyn is based entirely off of myself, including the name.
(:
Did I do this right?

I fully agree with Seed.

Tally~ <3

I have a few deer who were more or less *inspired* by fictional characters.

Mystress/Jyuniper- Mystress was very much inspired by A chapter book aimed towards young teens called "Wise Child" by Monica Furlong. It about a little girl in medieval times, who is adopted by the town "witch" who is really a kind-hearted healer. I didn't take anything directly from Monica's character Juniper-- the witch, for Mystress, but she just sparked a little idea of my own, for a kindhearted, healer.

Lady Bones- Was at first inspired by "The Path" made by our own Tale of Tales. "The Piano Lady/Man" with the white hair gave me a few ideas and in the end the only thing Lady Bones and the Piano Man/Lady have in common is the haircolor, and the fact they both play instruments. For her personality, I was inspired my Morticia Addams-- and enjoyed the idea of making her a bit looney too. Lady Bones had other ideas, and made HERSELF after I gave her a few things to work with.

Jizo: Inspired by a Japanese Saint, that I got into recently. She doesn't have a whole lot of character development going on because I wanted to keep her a bit-- predictable.

Odin/Kire: I have no idea how I was inspired to make Odin, I wanted to try a shy character-- which fell apart pretty quick but didn't want to kill him off or make him dissappear. SO I just--... changed him. Kire, obviously was inspired by an RP with Aegle and Zerg, and ideas flew through the air, and the Phantom was mentioned, and-- that's the end of that story.

I consider all of these characters my own, and in no way do they have a stable foundation created by anyone other than myself.

I find the more mainstream characters that some people lke to choose are annoying, simply because I can't see a place for them here. But they have the right to do so if they'd like.

Long post will be long, many things to say on this topic...this thread is a god-send!

For the most part I dislike when a player simply removes a character from its original story, and transplants it into TEF. Sometimes this can work, but many things that make that character who or what they are can and will be lost in the translation, not only into TEF but into a deer. If the deer wasn't a deer, or deer-like animal to begin with, this can be a huge issue.

If I know the character, or story the character is from, I usually can't consider the character as (for example) Harry Potter. It will always be 'somebody took Harry Potter and made him a deer'. Even if the player of that character is deeply familiar and can RP Harry Potter very well...that still leaves me interacting with a Harry Potter character who has been removed from everything that makes him who he is. There is no Dark Lord for him to battle, no deatheaters, no Ron or Granger to be his best friends, no Hogwarts. He is simply Harry Potter put into TEF.

However, people have the right to make whatever characters they wish, and if that means they want to play as their favorite character from something else, so be it! Myself and my best friend have had hours of hilarity from fan-characters from several different movies/books/anime. These are characters who we have designed and given great thought to, these characters have hopes, dreams, fears, they have reasons behind what they do. I have much more respect for someone who will take the time to think up an interesting fan-character, than someone who copy and pastes their favorite character.

In conclusion, I find it hard to take fan-characters or borrowed fictional characters seriously. To me they are made in the spirit of sillyness, for the simple enjoyment of experiencing a story you enjoy. There's nothing wrong with that, but in doing so you owe it to the original author of those stories to keep that character true to it's roots. If you find yourself changing a character, for instance, playing a serious villain as a goofy bad-guy, perhaps try making your own character instead.

Hm, I don't see a valid reason not to make a deer that is an already existing character, providing you stay true to how the character is originally. I tend to not like such characters if they're based off characters I don't like (obviously). An example of this being Twilight characters... No offense, but their original characters are terrible. Those playing them I hope are giving them more than one dimention; in which case, they're simply inspired, not taking a character and sticking it into a deer.

Personally, I don't see the fun in making a character that already exists, but that may be because I've never found myself having a favourite character in anything. I guess if you're facinated by a character from an anime or whatever, chances are you'd quite like to have a go at playing as them in some form because you're a fan of them.

If I were to make an already existing character, it would have to be... something that I could manipulate to a full extent in order to fit into TEF. Like, playing a character befitting the universe in a film; for example, playing a raccoon character from the anime 'Pom Poko' would be all sorts of fun. For those who haven't seen the film, it's about the Japanese folklores of Tanuki (raccoons) being able to transform into all sorts of different things, and their primary instinct is to have fun and eat food. Now that would be befitting the TEF universe. See what I mean? =)

I prefer to develop my own characters as it gives me more license, however, elements of their desings are draw inspiration from, books, pictures, nature, rela life etc , down to complex hair color and concepts. I neither approve or disapprove of pre-existing characters in the forest, I don't feel it's my place, however, I do like to see how they are interpreted as forest inhabitants.

In my opinion, I don't really care how people make their deer. I just know that most people have their own characters, and just for fun they make their favorite characters from something else into deer.

I know. I'VE HAD LIKE A MILLION LOL

Because first of all I had like 10 Hetalia deer. Yeah I remember that... I used to live in Hetalia, so I made a bunch of fandeer after them. But really, when someone makes a fandeer, they tend to get rid of them because the obsession usually dies. Sometimes there are the few fandeer that branch off and grow into their own thing, make too many friends, and are just overall too fun to play |D

Shows are one thing... I was kinda hoping there would be more video game deer HAHA like my Trevordeer >>... Anyone else play Metal Slug? Just curious |D

I can see why people think it's unoriginal and a bit disappointing though, especially if a user doesn't have their own original deer before the fandeer. But hey, some people just need some help getting started. Really it's kinda fun making fandeer because you get to shape them into something completely different. You just have to be kinda... choosy with who you pick. I've seen several points made about taking a character from a show or book and just slapping them into TEF without their friends or story.

So like... Trevordeer... didn't have a lot of story in the first place... That's probably why I still have him.

Anyway that was kind of a rambling post, wasn't it XD Oh well, just participating I guess *shrug!*

I created The Demon Gazelle without much a plan behind him. He would grow and develop as his time progressed through TEF. Later, his name was uninspired by any other influences but after seeing Jeff Dunham and his Walter puppet, I do admit to some traits being shared, although some are unintentional.

All of my characters are made from scratch. The names are too, aside from "The Sleeper of Halycon Nights" which I adapted from a Japanese song.

This is an interesting topic for me, because I have played many characters(Not necessarily here) that are taken from movies, comics, books, etc.

And I tend to play villains, no less. One, because they're almost always attractive ! but also because...

I want to know what that villain is doing offstage. I want to know why they're evil. Are they always evil? Do they have good days? Do they have legitimate reasons for their actions?

This is what makes me play the canon characters that I do - because I want to know what makes them tick. I feel that they have just as much right to have their story told - even though I realize I am not the original creator.

When I do play canon characters, I try my best to do as much research/homework I can on them, to make sure I keep them as close to character as possible.

As a result, I generally have no problem with people playing canon characters; for me, my complaint is when they play them in a manner that completely belies the character's established nature.