T. K. Arispe

A smattering of miscellaneous classwork from my character design class in college.

 Most of these are just extremely random character designs based on directions from the teacher, but that is Saturos at the top! I'm so glad I finally found a storyline to put him in years later. Yes, he does use those energy blades at one point in the novel. He doesn't often have opportunities to use his combat skills (and he prefers it that way), but when push comes to shove he can unleash some serious fury and is capable of single-handedly taking down skyscraper-sized elementals.

Down at the bottom is a cast lineup from a hypothetical story pitch we worked on for part of the semester about characters in an old Western town. The lineup was supposed to be about practicing utilizing different character shapes to create a visually varied cast, and also using visual cues to inform the audience of the personality and role of each character. For example, the villainous sheriff is drawn with sharp angles to suggest a sinister edge, while his brawny deputy is built with square shapes to depict physical solidarity. The token girl's rounded features give her an air of friendliness and innocence, while the beanpole unlikely hero is basically made of spaghetti to emphasize his total lack of physical might, which he presumably makes up for by having plenty of heart or something like that. (Honestly my favorite character to design was the female lead's dog.)

If you'll pardon the rant, I didn't come up with these characters or the specifications for their designs, but I'm so tired of the cliché of the rather underqualified hero winning the affections of the female lead, usually by either outcompeting or rescuing her from a bigger, stronger, and/or more powerful male. It must be a male psychology thing, because as a woman it just doesn't resonate with me. In real life, there are plenty of smart/strong/powerful men out there who are also very nice, and I've also known way too many "underdog" type guys who were extremely insecure and obnoxious to be around (the Napoleon complex is a real thing). 

I'm pretty sure stories with wimpy heroes who defeat the stronger dude to win the girl are always written by men, but what a woman really wants and needs is a man who can keep up with her, someone she can trust to have her back in whatever challenges life throws at her, someone actually capable of taking care of his family and giving his wife a sense of security and safety and being one half of an equal partnership. Not a man who sits around playing video games and drinking soda all day and can't figure out why women aren't interested in him.

Saturos himself actually gets on a soapbox about this in the novel I recently finished, when Carrie, one of the heroines, has been away from her boyfriend for a few weeks and realizes that he's never done a single thing for her, and their entire relationship consists of her buying him video games and listening to his lengthy geek rants. Spurred by Saturos's opinion that men should actually try to be worthwhile for the women they're interested in, Carrie confronts her boyfriend and discovers that he has absolutely no interest in making any sort of effort for her sake, and in fact is relieved when she breaks up with him because he can now spend more time fanboying fictional females.

At that point Carrie returns to Saturos's world, where she learns that Saturos has feelings for her but didn't want to say anything while she already had a boyfriend, and realizes that, despite the unusual circumstances, he is exactly the kind of man she's really wanted all along. They start dating, and eventually (once all the world-saving is done) get married.

With this novel, I really wanted to speak to women who feel like they have to settle, or feel like they have to date a guy just because he's interested in them regardless of what they think of him. Girl, you go get yourself that demigodly sorcerer who rules his own planet and lives in a super comfortable castle. You deserve him.