Shattered Realities: Creating Characters (Part 2 - The Rogue)

Welcome back. Today, we will be making the second character.

Admittedly, this one was more difficult to find references for. Mostly because I didn't want her to be related to something specific (more on that later), but also because she was mostly based on one main idea, with some other shit mixed into it.

This one was initially called the Masked, and if that doesn't immediately tell you who inspired it, look at the first reference and you'll understand.

References

Shy Guys (+ Bandits), Mario series

The shy guys are an adorable little species of enemy in the Mario universe. I've always liked their design, and my favorite two types of them are the main Shy Guy, and the Bandits. Shy Guys originated in Super Mario Bros. 2, where they were just one of the many common types of enemies within the 8-Bit army (led by Wart). They're still a part of the universe of Mario, but for the most part it seems like Shy Guys are more native to the island the Yoshi's come from, as they don't see much use in the mainline games. Yoshi's Island makes the Shy Guys feel like the second common society(?) of sorts on the island. Along with them comes a new type: the Bandits, who steal Baby Mario off your back, and are otherwise skilled in dickery.

Shy Guys are short and stout little fellas, with the classic cartoon boot/shoe design like the other Mario enemies, along with a strange full-body hoodie that stays on them presumably because of the belt they wear on it. The hood ends in a little taper, and their arms are small stubs. Their main feature, however, is their big fucking mask that makes people think they're shy, hence the name. It's a big smooth circular mask, with three holes within it: two big ones for the "eyes," and one small one for presumably the "mouth." The Bandits have an alteration of the design, though it still incorporates a lot of the attire. Bandits are lankier, and have actual arms and hands (which are gloved), coming out of wide sleeves. They don't wear a belt, and their mask is altered: the mask has a drawn mischievous face on it. This "face" drawn on the mask has been shown to change expressions every once in a while in certain media (like if they fail to steal anything in the Paper Mario series).

This character is female, and a big inspiration is the Shy Guy. If you haven't already guessed, something like this has been done already. There was a design put out there called a Shy Gal, made by an infamous artist/animator (who, from the research I've done, is no longer online). If you don't know why this animator, along with this design, are controversial, research it at your own discretion. I admit that I liked the designs of the Shy Gal, but I honestly want to be as far away as possible from that area. The only idea that I would take from this is the hair poking out from between the hood and mask, that's it.

So because I want this character to be her own thing, and not related to the Shy Gal thing, I went looking for other references. This is where the difficulty came in, as I didn't know what else to base her on.

Thief / Iceskimo, Castle Crashers

To help myself find another character that hides their face, along with the vague role she'd fit in her team, one of the ideas I thought of is the Thief and Iceskimo from the game Castle Crashers. In a medieval time, the Thieves are everywhere, they're essentially the basic enemy. They're only the Main Enemy in one area, from what I recall: the woods past the warzone. They're mainly known for shooting you from afar with arrows, but can still slice you if you get close. They don't have a main loyalty to any "faction" within the world, which makes sense, because they are inclined to steal shit. The Iceskimos are the main enemy of the winter region, where they do a mix of fighting, shooting, and magic.

These two are mainly recognized as having their faces completely covered by their hood. By completely, I mean that the fabric is apparently sucked into the face, as if this is the result of them taking 30 lemon heads and letting them work their magic. Or you can be vulgar and just say that they have an anus face. Due to them being from Castle Crashers, they have their arms and legs in the typical armor that everyone else apparently has, so we'll ignore that for now while talking about their designs. Thieves have some sort of hooded tunic, leaving a taper as well, while the Iceskimos have a very fluffy winter coat, also ending in a taper.

Raven, Teen Titans (the original cartoon)

This is gonna be the oddball out of the selection of references. However, I think I can incorporate some other ideas from her into my character's design. Now, I haven't fully watched the show, but from the small research I did, she's half-human, half-demon. Very introverted and pessimistic on quite a few things, and snarky to boot, but throughout the show she starts to come out of her shell. In addition to magic, she also has some spiritual and empathetic powers.

She has a pale grayish skin, is very thin, and has some almost-symmetrical purple hair, alongside a red jewel in the center of her forehead. Her attire consists of her signature blue cloak, which is closed off by one of her many red jewel amulets (with two more being on each of her hands, and the rest around a loose gold belt), some blue ankle-cut boots with huge cuffs, and a dark long-sleeve leotard, with blue cuffs.

(Extra bit here to talk about the wiki I got this information from: no, you do not [and honestly, it's preferred that you don't] need to call every action this character does as beautiful. in the beginning of her description, the wiki says that, while she keeps a mysterious atmosphere around her, that "she is a very beautiful girl." Also, some of the captions on some of the images go like "Raven meditating cutely," and "Raven beautifully stopping time." I get it, you find her attractive, and I'm not gonna blame you for that. I will blame you, however, if you think opinionated words such as "beautiful" and "cute" are fit to go onto a wiki, where people go to find the straight up facts. My site isn't a wiki, so I get to say "Man, Raven's so hot, dude," and be fine, because that is someone's opinion. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk)

Now, I should have most of the references for this character of mine, but there is another character I would at least like to look at.

The Blue Spirit, Avatar: The Last Airbender

[Spoilers for the Blue Spirit abound]

Let's get another sneaky character, complete with another mask! The Blue Spirit is an interesting character within the cartoon A:TLA, as you find out that they are in fact, Prince Zuko. He dons the outfit in order to capture/rescue Aang from his Fire Nation captors. Obviously, Fire Nation wants the Avatar, and Zuko is part of the Fire Nation. However, Zuko wants to be the one to escort him to his father, the Fire Lord, so having some generals keep him captive is detrimental to his own personal quest. Thus, he dons the Blue Spirit mask.

He's probably the stealthiest one here (with the Bandits being a close second), and due to the influences of the show, it looks like his outfit while being the Blue Spirit is Ninja-esque. It's a slim-fitting outfit for the most part, the only exception being the part around the knees, which are baggy and are tucked into his knee-high boots. He's essentially covered, head to toe, and what helps is the mask that named the "entity," the Blue Spirit mask. It's design makes me think of the Japanese ogre/demon creatures called Oni. The mask is a blue color, with an exaggerated chin and jaw line, with a mouth stretched into a menacingly angry grin. Light blue / cyan are on certain other parts. One strip connects the nose, cheeks, and the back of the jaw. The color is also around the eyeholes, and it makes the marks of the angry eyebrows too. Three sets of horns extrude off the side and top of the mask, which are also said color.

The Process

In my notes I do have the "hair peeking out from the mask/hood" thing, but I also apparently had the cloak be a "Hunter Cloak," which is the name of a thing in Terraria that is some sort of mid-bicep-length cloak, with a hood. It's apparently inspired by some of the things people wear in Attack on Titan. I also had her wear a jacket and short-shorts under the cloak, with some long socks (and presumably some sort of shoes). She's going to be the stealthy smart gal, which is a thing now I guess. I don't know what I'm doing here, as this is the most disjointed one I have planned out (I have a decent idea of everyone else).

"REPORTS OF BURGLAR BREAKING-AND-ENTERING; NO SIGNS OF STEALING"

"Cassie Tomes was on her way to work last week on Monday, enjoying the warm weather that one can only get in between Spring and Summer, when she stumbled upon a concerning site: the Midoutum City Library's door was left ajar. What happened next was a wave of telephone calls and some sleuthing on Mrs. Tomes' part, but imagine her surprise when it was revealed that nothing was missing! In fact, the books that weren't in their homes on the shelves were instead found in the very back corner of the MCL."

"'There were some books that were just, like, piled there,' Mrs. Tomes told Midoutum Weekly reporter Shawn Ickens, 'they were neatly stacked, and some of them even had some bookmarks in them. And get this, as I was cataloguing through them, I happened upon some notes.'"

"Now, we here at Midoutum Weekly pride ourselves for doing our part to help the community, so when Mr. Ickens was given the notes, they were transported to the local detective, a name you should remember: Detective Rensby. Upon analyzing the notes, Detective Rensby requested our assistance to deliver a message to the citizens of our humble city, and being a charitable news source, we allowed it. Here's what Rensby has to say:"

"'Upon my findings, this is eerily similar to several other break ins that have been happening around town. Every one of them has the same result of nothing being stolen, but this is the first time we've found a real clue. It seems this 'bandit' is not stealing our items, but our information. The notes have several lines referring to our city hall, and several books that were around the notes involved city planning, specifically around the time that ours was built. Whoever this is, they want to break into city hall, for a purpose I have yet to identify. It could be to steal important, classified documents, or worse, it could be a plot to kill our mayor! Everyone, keep your wits about you, and report any suspicious behavior to your local authorities, and help us find this crook, lest we suffer from what's in store.'"