Grott

YES! I LOVE IT! You're my hero! Perfect interpretation! So happy with this. Seriously. No words to describe how cool I think this is.

While looking for a new comic series to read, I remembered this thread. I picked up the first two Hellboy TPBs the other day after work, because of all the talk of it being inspired by Lovecraft. I loved it. Great series. Can't wait to read more. The art, the writing, and the themes are fantastic. I used to dismiss Hellboy as a one-dimensional series that appeals to pre-teens who listen to too much Iron Maiden. What I found was quite the opposite. It's very Lovecraftian, while being uniquely its own entity at the same time. The characters have depth, the stories keep you guessing, and the humor is tasteful and befitting of the circumstances. Outstanding read. Thanks for the suggestion.

Well, totally ignoring this because it's 4 a.m. and I'm really bored and feel like talking about myself. Sorry, Xen. Nothing personal. Main Characters: Uther Skystrider (Hyur/Midlander/Male/Dragoon), Wart Totonji (Lalafell/Dunesfolk/Male/Paladin). I mainly play Uther, but Wart is fun when the mood catches me. Playtimes: I have a weird work schedule because my RL job is manned 24/7, so I'm always on but never at the right time. Server: B-b-b-b-balmunggggg RP Style: Heavy. When I log on, I am Uther Skystrider... Not really, but I am a heavy roleplayer. If you see me, talk to me. I'm not elitist or snooty (not saying anyone else on this forum is) and I love a good conversation. I'm easy to get along with. Whether I'm sitting around at the beach playing charades, or fighting for my life in a mysterious dungeon with Misericorde, I'm almost always having a good time when I RP.

Nice! Your artwork has its own unique style. I hope you do more soon.

This is a really good point, and I can imagine a lot of people would try to go the dragoon route after Bahamut's attack, as a means of hopeful retaliation or cautious defensive skills in case of a future attack. However, Ishgard Dragoons aren't just guys who kill dragons out in the world because they don't like them. To them, it's religious. It's a holy war, and it's no one's business but theirs. They've been in isolation for a very long time and from what we can gather about ARR, they've also been in eternal winter since the calamity, so I doubt they have the time or the will to train outsiders when they're probably thinking this is the climax of their holy war. Of course, this is all speculation. I just think the best way to be a dragoon out in the world, while being from somewhere other than Ishgard, is to learn the skills from a retired dragoon or an exile or something. It sounds elitist to say "You can't be a dragoon unless you're from Ishgard or know someone from Ishgard." but really, those are the only two lore explanations the game has provided. I'm not trying to hog the class to myself or anything. If everyone in the game was a dragoon, I'd be okay with that (overseeing the logical issues of having no healers or tanks). This is just going off the lore provided. After the Fall of Dalamud, I imagine a lot of people would learn some dragoon fighting techniques, especially if they were lancers already, from some exiled or retired dragoon, or some student of a student of a dragoon. That doesn't make them dragoons, even if they're just as skilled. I'll go more in-depth with an analogy I had earlier that I think works here. Say I'm a regular guy, and a mugger attacks and robs me. I might decide "Never again", and learn Shaolin Boxing as a means to protect myself. This doesn't make me a Shaolin Monk, despite learning the fighting style they're known for. I don't meditate with them, I don't follow their religious beliefs, I don't live at a temple. I'm just a guy who knows how to fight like them. Dragoon, to the people of Ishgard, is a lifestyle, not just a martial art. This is the big break between lore and gameplay. If SE does release a bit of lore saying "Ishgard has sent out dragoon instructors to certify strong enough lancers in case of another Bahamut attack." or "Ishgard has opened its gates to allow hopefuls to stand in front of the Dragon's Eye and become official dragoons." or something of that nature, I'm not going to argue it. I'm just following what they've told me, and if they tell me something else, I'll follow that too. They make the lore, not me.

This is as good as I could do in phase 3. ...That's supposed to be a blind eye, if you can't tell from the scar, btw.

This is one thing that kind of bums me out. I like the idea of Miqo'te but I hate the execution. It's no one's fault. It's more the character creator than anything. I just never get a tribal feel when I see even the most primitive looking Miqo'te because of the fact that they all have boyish faces and "good guy scars". I know it's not fair to judge people on the game's limitations, but I would be all over that race if they were just a little more feral. They're just ...more kitten than lion. Off-topic, sorry. Also, byaaayyyy more serious Lalafell!

Reaaaaaally glad you didn't go through with that plan. I've had my fair share of complaints on this site, as anyone can see from some of my posts, but it's clear that the leadership is doing their best to appeal to everyone. That's why I stick around. Everyone's trying. Ideas might not always work, but at least there's a genuine effort to make things right. If you ended up locking all the threads related to the topic, I'd lose that faith and take my RP business elsewhere. Yeah, it's annoying to see all the time and it should definitely be discouraged, but full-out silencing everyone with a dissenting opinion is ...well, it's just wrong. People should just know it's getting real old real fast. So, good on your for doing the right thing. :thumbsup:

Sounds like a fun ride. Can't wait to see how the character turns out.

Maybe. I'm not holding my breath.

I read nothing but the original post and then voted, so if I'm just rephrasing what's already been said, I apologize. My answer is simple: Hell no. Sure, it gets a little annoying seeing poaching wars. So what? Everyone should have a right to their opinion and this poll sort of opens up a whole new area of discussion, which I'm sure wasn't intentional. That area is censorship in general. I feel like any time anyone disagrees, whether it be hostile or benign, the thread is closed, locked, and never spoken of again. It's seriously like the Happy Valley skit from Flying Circus. Seen here from 00:36 to 02:10: There should be debate between the two servers. Can you imagine how politics would work if there were no public debates before election day? It'd be awful. I feel like every time I'm on this site, a new discussion is being stamped out by the powers that be. It's very disturbing to see a public community that isn't allowed to have opinions. EDIT: Also, the irony of taking a poll about whether or not you should be allowed to express your opinion is a little strange to me...

Well, you bring up some good points, and you're definitely not wrong. Your main point seems to be "How are all these non-Ishgard Dragoons walking around if they only come from Ishgard? And how are you going to react to it?" My answer to how I plan on seeing it from an IC perspective is that they fight like dragoons and have most likely trained with dragoons, but by actual definition they are not dragoons. They're not among the ranks of Ishgard's holy knights, despite them fighting in the same style. To aspire to learn from dragoons is a much more realistic approach than aspiring to be a dragoon. To the layman, the term "dragoon" would be associated with the fighting style they're known for. For instance, the average Joe would call any extremely skilled lancer who knows how to do the dragoon abilities a dragoon, while in actuality it refers to the specific unit of Ishgardian holy lancers... If that makes sense. To go into a little more depth, if Uther meets someone who is playing the dragoon class but is not a servant of Halone, from Ishgard, or tested by the Dragon's Eye, and they say "I'm a dragoon." He'll interpret that as "I've studied the fighting style of dragoons." and not literally "I'm a dragoon." If I learn Shaolin Boxing, I can use that as a defining characteristic of myself as a fighter, but it doesn't make me a Shaolin Monk. It also doesn't make me any less of a fighter than actual Shaolin Monks if I've put the training into it. They just have a more all-encompassing view of their martial art. That was kind of sloppy explanation, but I hope it made sense. I have no problem with people not from Ishgard playing the dragoon class. I'm not going to run around yelling "DRAGOONS ARE ONLY FROM ISHGARD!" I will just interpret the character as someone learning from an exiled dragoon or some such. But really, when it comes down to it, the only way to become a full-fledged official dragoon according to the lore of the game is to stand before the Dragon's Eye in Ishgard. You have to be a soldier in their holy war, and by that note you have to worship Halone. Anything else, and you're not really a dragoon. You may be called a dragoon because you have the same physical training, sure. But as far as a life philosophy and personal code goes, you're just not. To put in another real-world analogy, I can practice kendo for years and years and be better than everyone else in the world. It doesn't make me a samurai. At the risk of rambling some more, I'll just say there's a difference between the dragoon class and the lore dragoons. That being said, I'm not going to attack anyone for saying they were born in Limsa and they're a dragoon now. It's just one of those words that has sort of two definitions. It's all about context.

Without beating around the bush, I'll just give you my opinions. No one get offended by this. There are way too damn many miqo'te. If it's the route you really want to go, go for it. Play your little kitten heart out. I won't stop you, I won't even discourage you. I won't avoid you, talk under my breath about you, or belittle you. I'm all about people playing what they want. That being said, if you're on the fence about it, the rest of us could use the population boost. As someone who also RPs a lalafell (alt), I can say we're in dire need of lala who aren't clowns, as well. A lot of them lack depth and are simply as cute as they can be. Not to say cute lalafell can't have depth, but it's rare. There are plenty of lalafell RPers who have wonderful character ideas. I'm just trying to break some lalafell stereotypes. Play whatever you want. The game is here for you to enjoy, and we'll all respect your choice. But those are some important things (in my opinion) to keep in mind if you're undecided. tl;dr There are a ton of miqo'te. Lalafell are rarely taken seriously.

Well, shit.

YES! "The greatest treasures of all, Mister Land, are a sound mind and a full belly. I hope you remember that before stooping to pick up pennies." One of the most underrated characters in fiction. Completely destroyed by The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. In Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Aronnax states that he can't pinpoint Nemo's place of origin, hypothesizing that he could be from the Mediterranean regions, the Middle East, or India... yet in the aforementioned comic, as well as the movie, he might as well be Apu from the Simpsons. He's got a beard, a turban, and statues of Hindu gods everywhere. Completely ruined by cheap stereotyping. (I know, I know. He has a long beard in The Mysterious Island) That was a bit of a rant, but yeah, Nemo is easily one of my favorite fictional characters. I tried to make a lalafell and a miqo'te based on Nemo before I joined the RPC, but both were really boring and I ended up with Uther. I applaud you for succeeding where I failed. And you get bonus points for mixing Captain Nemo with Lovecraftian influences in your writing. And for the record, just to get my daily bragging out of the way, I definitely said "Your character reminds me of Captain Nemo" a few months ago, before you ever mentioned Nemo.

Uther is heavily inspired by a few characters. Most notably is a young King Arthur. He's tough, he's fair, and he holds himself to his own standards. Aragorn also played a big part in the character's personality, as someone who is an experienced exile kind of hiding in plain sight. Also, a lot of inspiration was taken from the story of Ivanhoe, the disinherited knight. I threw in a little Robin Hood, as well, for spunk and personality, despite his strong moral code. I also took some notes from a few well-written Superman origin stories, in posing the question "How do I fit into this world?" because, while Uther is still from Eorzea, Ishgard is in a state of extreme isolation.

I'm sure this has been said before, but I only lightly skimmed this thread. It's clear to me that you know the difference between Ala Mhigo's lancers and Ishgard's dragoons. Some clarification might be needed on top of what Shuck already said, though. You mentioned something earlier about your character's father always wanting to be a dragoon or wanting his son to be a dragoon or some such idea. While dragoons are seen as pretty badass in Eorzea, I'm not sure if it's something outsiders would really aspire to be. I see this a lot, and it's not just you who has this idea of outsiders yearning to be dragoons. Aside from what Shuck already pointed out regarding the difficulty of becoming a dragoon, I personally don't see why most people would want to. Being a dragoon means you serve Halone the Fury in a holy war against dragons for the defense of Ishgard. Unless you were already worshiping Halone in your spare time and had some weird connection to a place you weren't even allowed to enter, why would you want to do that? A dragoon isn't just a really good lancer who jumps around and goes on adventures, as game mechanics seem to imply. Being a dragoon goes hand-in-hand with Halone, Ishgard, and fighting dragons. Of course, you see some dragoons wandering around out in the world, but those are usually exiles who have actually fought in the holy war. The idea that anyone who holds a spear or some type of polearm would live their life trying to be a dragoon is confusing to me, and I see it a lot. It's like saying "I'm a swordsman from Mongolia, but I really want to be a Templar Knight." While Templars were very well-trained and word got around about them killing people, it's unlikely that someone from a different culture would commit their lives to their holy war, country of origin, and religion just to get some sweet tricks. I hope that makes sense. Not trying to ruin your day or anything. I just thought I'd throw in my two cents as someone who is also roleplaying a dragoon.

HOOOOGGGGWARTS?! I THOUGHT WE WERE PUTTING THE X-MEN INTO FINAL FANTASY XIV! WAY TO LET EVERYONE DOWN, SQUARE ENIX!

To be fair, a LOT of the New 52 is pretty shitty. At least, that's my thought. Yeah the New 52 kind of ruined Superman and the Justice League. I don't care about what Green Lantern's doing any more, Green Arrow lost all of his eccentricity and just became a guy with a bow and arrow (though I heard there were some improvements after issue #17. Haven't checked), Batman is still decent but it's kind of hit-or-miss (Court of Owls was good, Death of the Family was way over-hyped), and somehow Aquaman is the only series I enjoy from DC right now. The New 52 was a huge mistake on the company's part if you ask me. Not saying there's nothing of value there, but overall it did more harm than good.

I know a lot more about Ted Kord than I do about Jaimie Reyes, but that sounds really interesting. I might have to check that out. Good suggestion.

I like all Doctor Fates since they're all pretty much the same person, just with different bodies. My favorite is Kent Nelson because 1) He's the first, and 2) Nabu was/is a guy as far as we know and I always pictured his voice sounding deep and scary, so it always seemed goofy when Inza was Doctor Fate. I didn't dislike Inza as Fate, but I just prefer Kent Nelson. Hector Hall wasn't terrible, but I hated when Kent's nephew Kent V. Nelson became Fate without being possessed by Nabu. Seeing Doctor Fate crack jokes made me mad.

Agreed. I feel like both of them started off as "Shit, it's the 70s and we have no black super heroes." types of quota characters, but they've definitely become very deep and understandable heroes. Admittedly, I like Luke Cage more as a team member than as a solo hero, mainly because of his back-and-forths with Spider-Man. Still though, Cage and BP have definitely both left the stereotypes behind and become amazing characters in their own right.... The same can't be said about Black Lightning.... About the Storm/Panther relationship, you've got a point, though I always made the connection of their places of birth rather than their skin color. Both of them grew up in (or currently live in) Africa, despite being members of primarily American super teams. They could definitely relate to each other with that. I liked them fine as a couple, but I wasn't too heart-broken when they split up. There are more iconic power couples out there.

I agree with everything you said, but this caught my eye the most somehow. I love Black Panther. I think he was discussed earlier in the thread but I want to stress how much I like the character. He doesn't get a lot of screen time usually, but I think that's one of the reasons I like him. He shows up when he's needed but he doesn't hog the comic. He knows what's important and what isn't.

I start 5 days of work on Thursday...

I've never been good at the whole breaking quotes up thing that Shuck does, so I'm going to do this in a very sloppy and frankly, shitty manner. But you'll get the point. "You and I and even the person who started this whole thing are quite passionate people in our likes for certain characters. Even if this turned out to be a reasonable debate (and it hasn't had that effect already IMO), I could see the previous thread devolving into a "Superman debate thread" very easily as we pick apart things point by point." First off, I'd like to say that it was a reasonable debate. I took no offense to anything said, and like Shuck pointed out earlier, we continued the conversation in skype for hours afterward. Also, if it became a "Superman debate thread" and we started picking apart things point by point, I'd be ecstatic! I love super hero debates! I never expect anyone to agree with me on these types of conversations, and I love hearing the points of view that other, equally read comic book fans have. The beauty of the comic book art form is that it's so vastly open to interpretation, which is obviously outstanding fuel for discussion. "While I am generally alright with off-topicness and I do it myself, as I said, the previous thread is about "celebrating your favorites" and not criticizing others because of their choice of favorites. And really, this may not stop at one character, but turn into a debate about others as well. IMO, the very first post wasn't as much as an open debate, but struck me as an "O-boy-O-boy! I can't wait to win converts to my side even though I should respect people have different perspectives!" Perhaps that is a false view on my end, but that poster seems to be spoiling for fight or debate that can easily go on for pages upon pages as neither side is going to be convinced. I am sure he will not be convinced, given his wording and I will not be convinced." "This may not stop at one character, but turn into a debate about others as well"? That's the most exciting news I've heard all day! How is an endless debate about the likes and dislikes of comic book heroes possibly seen as a bad thing for any comic book fan? I went through a debate similar to this for four hours on Skype yesterday (as mentioned earlier) and I loved it. I was almost late for work because of it. Why is it such a terrible thing to want to add like-minded fans into our conversation? I really did not get the feeling of "O-boy-O-boy! I can't wait to win converts to my side even though I should respect people have different perspectives!" I got the feeling of "O-boy-O-boy! I can't wait to discuss my opinions with people who are actually educated on this subject!" "So between all the postings of favorites, we are going to have this on-going debate which, I feel, would drive away a few posters who would want to post up a hero and why they like it (without someone tearing down their position as to WHY they like their particular hero)." Hold on... "and why they like it (without someone tearing down their position as to WHY they like their particular hero)." ....What? You think everyone should be free to put up why they like their hero but no one should be allowed to ask why they like their hero? What's the point then? And how does this make any kind of sense? "Not everyone likes Strawberries, folks. Some prefer Raspberries and that's how it is. Peoples tastes and perspectives will be different. I hope I am not the only one that appreciates that fact and sees someone who may not but wishes to push a debate without seeing the possibility of a thread devolving into pure debate as these types of posts take it over." Okay. Clearly Shuck and I both appreciate the fact that people's tastes will be different. Probably even more so than the rest of the thread, because we asked each other "Why do you see it that way?" We're interested to know what the thought process behind each other's decisions was. If I like strawberries, and you like raspberries, and you ask me why I like strawberries, rest assured I won't take it as a personal attack or someone itching for a fight. I'll say "I like strawberries because of their texture and taste. Why do you like raspberries?" because maybe, through that discussion, I'll decide to try raspberries or you will decide to try strawberries. At very least you'll understand why I like strawberries and I'll understand why you like raspberries. How is this a bad thing? EDIT: I'd like to add, I'm not trying to fight anyone. Every time someone sees a broken up post that addresses things point-for-point they freak out and get defensive. You stated your opinion, here's my counter. And that's all it is. I'm sure you're a perfectly nice gentleman. I just disagree with you. I was looking for an excerpt of this post to quote so I could state how much I agree with it. But I agree with every single word here. I wrote a huge rant today about how illogical and stupid it is that there's no disagreement allowed on this forum. How does anyone in this community actually expect to learn and grow if no one is allowed to disagree? Why the hell do you think there are debate classes in high schools or even open student discussions in history classes? It's one of the greatest methods of learning. If you're so hopelessly unsure of your favorite super hero that your only option is to freak out about personal attacks when someone asks "why do you like this character?" you probably didn't have an attachment to that character anyway. If anyone's wondering where that rant is, I deleted it because I knew if I kept it up someone would cry harassment and the thread would be deleted and no one would read it anyway. I should be used to it by now, but I still can't believe it when a thread gets closed or moved because someone decides to say the two forbidden words: "I disagree."