Well, I was very happy with the responses on my thread about my concerns that my characters might start to resemble characters from other movies/books/mangas. I realised that I would just have to describe them to you, and let you judge (I doubt I can still be objective about it after putting so much thought into them). I'll use the character-build-thingie Raven so kindly provided; Daimon of Silverhill is a 16 year old boy who was born and raised in Silverhill Keep. He is about 1.65, has black hair and blue eyes, as is usual for his family. Being the fourth son of the sixth most important noble in the kingdom (name for the kingdom still unknown), he isn't of any real significance too his father. Never the less, he has a save and fun childhood. He is very protective of his little sister (7 years younger then him). At the start of the novel, he is in his second year of his military training, and is trying hard to be a model student, although he has a tendency of oversleeping. He is friednly, kind and respectfull, although he has some problems with the simple life of a soldier in training, being used to the comfort of a bed and a hot meal every day. His goal is to become a member of the Order of the Violet Maiden (Order of the Maiden or even the Order for short). He has just has just spend a year in the capital to study the history of the order, as well as reading battle plans and anything that has to do with the justice system. (The Order can be seen as the not-so-secret-secret police of the kingdom) Daimon is trained fighting with a shield and sword, but eventually gives both up in favour of the longspear or lance. Although at first he despises weapons, he later starts to understand the need of one being able to defend himself. After his 2nd metamorphosis, he actually enjoys fighting. The main reason I was so afraid he would turn out to be Annakin is his relationship with the Mentor-character and, more importantly, the development of that character. He wants to learn to be a Knight of the Order, eventually start to question his judgement, then breaks all ties with him. Eventually, he tries to kill him, is mortally wounded instead and comes back as something even more terrible then before. Any loopholes I didn't see or consider? Or any other questions?
"It's not the [originality] that counts; it's how you use it." I do see some strong parallels to Anakin Skywalker, but a description of a character is not going to tell us whether the character is cliched or not; every character is basically just a collection of tropes and archetypes. Someone mentioned that the characters you were worried about imitating are themselves imitations of other, even older characters. Try looking up a book called The Hero with a Thousand Faces. It explains some of these basic archetypes of the hero's journey through comparative mythology; myths, after all, are the foundations of storytelling as an art form.
Whow, excelent wiki-page scattercat, thanks. Will definetly try to look it up, although I doubt many of our Dutch libraries will hae a copy... maybe I'll try the American Book Center or Waterstones. Either how, thanks
Ungood, I salute your wisdom. Just finished writing my plot, currently working on the first chapter. 3 pages so far, still introducing the characters. Will probably ask for someone to proof read it in a couple of weeks.
