by Maya Mills » Fri Oct 24, 2014 2:11 am
Final Four has Begun! We have:
Nina Madaraki v. Dana Lawrence
Hannah Murphy v. Alexandra McDougal
And for some extra fun, I've decided to do some quick write-ups of what I feel are the strengths and weaknesses of each of these characters. Because I don't talk about them enough already:
Nina Madaraki:
Nina is one of my first characters and has a great history. She’s well connected in the XU community and great fun to play. Cute, friendly, and more than a little nuts, Nina just has an engaging personality that lends itself easily to character interaction.
Now, in my mind, Nina is someone that wants to do good, but she doesn’t understand what “good” actually is. This is the core strength of her character, since it makes makes her forgiving and compelling. We want to see Nina become a better person. We want her to become the kind of person she wants to be. Especially because we’ve seen what happens when Nina goes to the other side of things and it’s very, very scary.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t downsides though. Nina has gone off the rails in recent times. While it may be good character growth, joining SHIELD moves her away from her original concept and what makes her fun in the first place. If the conflict of Nina is between the type of person she wants to be and the type of person she is, then turning to an outside source for her moral code makes sense, but it’s a cheat as far as resolving her character arc.
Also, her powers have always been a bit difficult to pin down. Her probes are an interesting approach to healing, but I think I can count the number of times they were actually used for healing on one hand. Most of the time they act more like a personal healing factor for Nina and not much else.
I don’t have a whole lot more to say about Nina. Everyone knows her pretty well and I think she has some real strengths. However, if I end up playing her again I definitely will need to give some thought to where she’s going.
Bottom Line: Isn’t Dana just a ripoff of Nina?
Dana Lawrence
Dana is a neat idea. Someone with an accelerating post-human intelligence brings up all sorts of possibilities. Even without having to resort to ripping off Lucy. There’s an inherent tragedy with Dana, summed up in one of her first interactions with other characters, where she expresses a fear of going to sleep because she’s not the same person when she wakes up. That’s unsettling in all the best ways.
Another thing I like about Dana is that she isn’t a gadgeteer or a tech genius. She’s just generally really, really smart and getting smarter everyday. It’s an ability that makes you think outside the box about what the human brain can really do.
The major problem with Dana is that her main character motivation has been undermined. Her powers were killing her and that was going to inspire her to be a hero. Nice idea, but one that kind of got transplanted on Winn. And the last thing I need is two characters whining about having to die.
In the end, Dana is a character with a lot of potential, but one that needs to be reworked a bit. What it probably comes down to is whether you think her potential is better than Nina’s established character.
Bottom Line: oh hey i have an original idea maybe this time nina could sleep with someone and then get sad when they fall in love with someone else
Hannah Murphy
Murphy is adorable.
Writing like this is hard.
Bottom Line: Shouldn’t she be at the school already watching her sister?
Alexandra McDougal
Riot cracks me up. She’s a perverted, disgusting, troll who doesn’t give two fucks about anyone but herself. She’s great and if you don’t like Riot at least a little then you are wrong.
The thing I like about Riot is that she’s a character with a lot of room to grow. She’s an anti-social extremist dropped into an environment where she has to interact with the type of people she hates. Even worse, she has to interact with people in situations where they don’t have to put up with her shit. That’s a great setup for conflict and character growth right there.
But there are a few downsides to Riot. While I actually do like her disabilities, since they add a bit of sympathy and backstory towards her attitude towards the world, they can be difficult to play. Her “proxies” make up for that a little bit, but it is an annoyance.
The other problem with Riot is, well, what is her goal? What does she want? While I know that I want her to open up more to people, that’s not really Riot’s goal. In fact, she doesn’t seem to have a goal or any clear motivation. She’s very reactive and that makes her difficult to play sometimes. If she wins, I definitely need to think about what she wants out of life and her time at XU.
Regardless, I love Riot and she never fails to crack me up. Even when she’s being a pain to play.
Bottom Line: Because Murphy had to become a lesbian werewolf before she was even remotely interesting.
With all of that in mind: On your mark, get set, WAHLBERG!
