State of the Muses: November 2012

[gorepasa]

character: Aang (savedtheworld) series: Avatar: The Last Airbender tagging priority: ■■■■□: For once, Aang isn't the overall dominator. He still reels in the most activity, but he's not always my first priority. It tends to rotate more, I guess it's closer to even now. muse strength: ■■■■□: He still feels like my strongest and most dependable muse. If anything, I guess I've been a little unsure if his post-canon point mindset is accurate. I guess it isn't that dramatic a change from how I've been playing him, where he's wound up already; mostly the canon update has wound up feeling like bringing Aang back to a lighter place and separating him from some of his accumulated Aangst. cast strength: ■■■□□: This is a hard one to rate. Even though many are going through their rough patches, all of those still in the cast are worth their own set of five bars. But as a whole, our Avatar cast is still lacking. This cycle fortunately brought us Suki, but now a Zuko is needed to complete the Gaang. Not to mention that the Korra cast is still severaly underpopulated, even if the current population still is pure awesome. plotting capabilities: ■■■■□: He's good! Aang is as good as ever to toss around and get involved in things. And there's the potential for more to do too, with his canon update. general fun level: ■■■■□: Sometimes things feel kinda dragged down, but for the most part I'm still having a blast with Aang. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: Still no chance.

So yeah. Aang's been going through some stuff. Last month was the draft, which had another climax of Aangst, and this month was his canon update, finally putting The Promise behind him, and kind of refreshing things a bit, but otherwise it hasn't amounted to that much of a shift. Definitely stuff to play with as time goes along. Otherwise, ever since the draft has been pretty much working at trying to raise Aang's mood while dealing with some of the aftermath of the draft's events. I'm looking forward to magical holiday hijinks for sure. I also have to try to figure out the state of his feelings and whether or not movements can be undertaken.

character: Rock Lee (niceguypose) series: Naruto tagging priority: ■□□□□: Very depressingly low. I've found I mostly tag with him when I can just impulsively think of some sort of absurd statement for him. And his tags tend to be left to sit. muse strength: ■■■□□: It's in uncertain levels. I think I'm good when presenting him in light-hearted threads, but it's harder for me to do genuinely emotional threads with him. Sometimes it feels like I've only really been able to get at Lee's surface and that it's hard for me to really be at his center, channel his emotions in ways that aren't his normal absurd and over-the-top statements. cast strength: ■■■□□: Our Naruto cast is still nice and large, Lee has his teammates and we have the best Shikamaru in the world. We have lost our main character, which is a big hit, even if we gained a ninja nemesis from it. plotting capabilities: ■■□□□: There's probably a lot Lee can and should do, but yeah. I haven't been able to get him out there and involved in things. At one point, I thought last month's draft would be a turning point due to how useful Lee would be against the power cap, but then the actual power outage kept me from getting on that. Now I'm in a state where there isn't much I want to do with him. general fun level: ■■■□□: When I can get wacky hijinks rolling for him, there's fun. likelihood of drop: ■■■□□: I'm going to see what I can do, but this drive may just be dead.

Lee's always seemed like a steady second in the past for me, but this cycle kind of opened my eyes in some ways. Kurt and Ralph have turned out to be relatively easy and a lot of fun to bring in. Specifically, I don't think I've felt this good and into new muses as I have since bringing Aang in. And that's kind of put it into perspective, I guess. Lee's just been getting dragged along. I have plenty of fun threads with him, but it's hard to feel any sense of development with him and I don't really have much in the way of plans for him. Talking about the edo tensei I thought could have also been a way to explore Lee's character, but he wound up coming out as little more than an exposition machine. Not to mention that doing CR charts made me realize that not only do I find myself favoring Aang's CR with most of the Naruto cast, but that Lee hasn't built up much in the way of cross-canon CR. It's just feeling like he's becoming a dead weight who it's fun to only occasionally let loose. So unless that can change sometime soon, he may be the next to go.

character: Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler (wildbluevagner) series: X-Men Evolution tagging priority: ■■■■□: Definitely high. He and Aang have come to actually kind of bob around top priority. muse strength: ■■■■□: Maybe close to three and a half. I feel confident in him most of the time but with definite room for improvement. cast strength: ■■■■□: It depends on how you look at it. The overall Marvel family is quite large and will probably grow further. The Evo cast is very small, but I'm oddly fine with it; he does have Rogue, who is emotionally the most important. It'd still be great to play him off of more of his pals sometime. plotting capabilities: ■■■□□: He is relatively new and full of potential. I haven't exactly been utilizing him for much, aside from enjoying having him be social, but there's plenty of opportunity for that as time goes by. general fun level: ■■■■□: Lots of fun! I didn't realize until after apping him, oddly enough, that he brought something to the table I've been wanting in a muse: snark. All my other characters have only selective levels of snark at best, so playing Kurt is very refreshing. It's also good to be playing a relatively modern character. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: He shall be kept. And then somehow I was part of the Marvel cast.

So, yeah. Not much to say. Kurt's wound up meshing with me even better than expected, and it feels like I'm doing the bringing in of new muses much better than I have in the past. I mostly have to work at building up his new CR and such.

character: Wreck-It Ralph (gonnawreckit) series: Wreck-It Ralph tagging priority: ■■■□□: Fairly good! I don't have to bring him out as much, so he only gets enough tags that they're easier to get through. Pretty much everyone who isn't Lee can shift between the first three levels of priority depending on who I'm feeling at the time. muse strength: ■■■■□: I'm not completely confident, but I'm getting there. Reviewing parts of the movie every now and then is very helpful. Probably should work on his nicknames. cast strength: ■■■■□: I'm not even sure how to count this in a canon with four prime characters (and a villain who I dunno maybe could be appable?) but having Vanellope is definitely invaluable and is good in helping to build up Ralph's voice. plotting capabilities: ■■■□□: Fairly good. Pretty much anything Vanellope can get involved in, Ralph can be dragged to as well. And I can foresee so many fun hijinks in the future. general fun level: ■■■■□: He's been very fun in his own way - to explore his dimensions and to play someone with this mix of toughness and warmth. It's also a nice substitute for playing a video game character and also fun to play around with all the video game stuff, often with meta results. likelihood of drop: □□□□□: He's good to go!

And yes. All that and more. Ralph was only partially an impulse app, since I wanted to play him since I first saw the trailer and snagged that journal name months ago. And I think it's going great so far, especially with Marbles' wonderful Vanellope. It's fun to play a self-aware character, someone who's some odd mix of modern and meta. And the unique take on bad guys could be fun to deal with.

Potential Apps:

Yeah, apps may still be a thing. Possssibly even moreso if Lee winds up going back home. Otherwise, I'll try to determine if a five character load is a thing. But none of these are definite.

*Fergus (Brave): I just saw Brave last weekend and I've been taken in by the possibility of playing him. A father figure who is powerful but also a big softie and real goofy. I feel it might mostly be a matter of seeing if I can handle the accent and learn the Scott-specific stuff. Otherwise I could foresee interesting and fun stuff for him, especially if we can get any of the rest of the family in.
*Alphonse Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist): He might still be in the running. Trying a bit of voice testing with him, but I'm still reviewing too.
*Some other character? I dunno. Who can tell, nothing set in stone blah.