Amassment Message Board

1) Have you noticed any sort of patterns when it comes to the type of characters you like vs the type of characters you end up making a shrine for? Are they the same or different?
There isn't much difference between characters I like and the ones I shrine, but I do tend to stray more towards characters that aren't well liked when it comes to shrining them! I love all of my shrine subjects very much, but I'm more likely to lean towards writing for less popular and more complicated characters. Re: Yukari as not well liked, and Hamuko re: more complex characters. I always do end up going with characters I like a lot, otherwise I wouldn't be motivated! But if encountered with a decision between more than one character, I will go with the less popular and/or more complex characters.

2) Why do you make a shrine for the characters you end up making a shrine for? (i.e: What affects your decisions to make a shrine for a character?)
As mentioned above, it vastly depends on the complexity and popularity of the aforementioned character! If battled between the two, I will go for the character with more complexity! I like writing about subjects that aren't usually covered, and I like delving into a character's complicated history.

3) How do these characters you make shrines for relate to you personally? How do they reflect you? Do they reflect your personalities to some degree? Are they someone you wish to become?
Most of the characters I shrine i can relate to on a personal level, my upcoming and not-so-secret shrine to Ranka Lee is a testament to that. Yukari, and Chie are also characters I relate to! I also see myself looking up to all these characters at the same time though-- some more than others, some less than others. Mitsuru and Polka are characters I really look up to, and shrining those characters was actually a bit of a challenge for me since I'm not used to writing content for characters I more than usually admire. It's a little odd as someone in their late 20's looking up to fictional characters in their teens, but there's something to be said about their development that really makes me look up to them.

1) Have you noticed any sort of patterns when it comes to the type of characters you like vs the type of characters you end up making a shrine for? Are they the same or different?


So my shrines are usually:

1) Male protagonist
2) Some type of creature

I find that these days I end up making more shrines for non-human characters!

2) Why do you make a shrine for the characters you end up making a shrine for? (i.e: What affects your decisions to make a shrine for a character?)

Usually it depends on how much I really like that character. Since sites take me so long to write these days I have to be really emotionally invested in that particular character. I used to have plans to do characters I like but now they have to be something I love. This depends on the visual design of the character, how much I relate to that character, my emotional connection with said character.

3) How do these characters you make shrines for relate to you personally? How do they reflect you? Do they reflect your personalities to some degree? Are they someone you wish to become?

This is an interesting question and I think could be a whole discussion on its own! I think the one shrine that I have that reflects my personality is Paladin. I think there are elements to Lloyd's character that I relate to or also see in myself, which I think is what really drew me to his character in the first place. He grows through the game and goes from naive idealist but then learns to make some difficult choices to achieve equality for those he loves.

I'm working on a site for Godzilla that I hope to finish at some point. I don't think this character reflects my personality per se, but he's a really important character to me. (This sounds really dumb but it's true.) I grew up loving Godzilla movies and had gotten back into it about 6 or 7 years ago, at least. There are some elements of this character and I want to relate to such as the way he can conquer any adversary, even his own death, and his fearlessness.

Link is a character that I am not sure if I relate to or what. I just know that this character has been very dear to me since I was a child. It might be because he represents the bond I had with my siblings, especially my younger brother, who we would watch as he relentlessly beat the Zelda games over and over again. Maybe those were some good moments in my childhood that I want to hold on to by liking this character? On the other hand, Link is an everyman type of character and who doesn't want to be on an epic adventure? I think I am drawn to this incarnation of Link due to the fact that he is childlike and reflects my childhood desires to leave home and escape reality. (much deep, wow, so psychoanalyze)

Other characters I have made sites for I just think they are cool or interesting!

Bonus Questions: Do you try to step into your character's shoes when you write about them in your shrine or do you take a more objective/omnipresent approach when you talk about them? Why? How do you find one or both approach(es) beneficial or help you with how you write your content?

I do! I like to approach the sites from many different angles. In fact, I have been debating on/working on some shrines where the shrine is a narrative written from different point of views. (Not sure if they will ever be online, though!) I write in a more of an outsider tone but I think I definitely try to get inside the mind of the character when writing. I think one good example of this is this essay from my Giovanni shrine in particular!

Fiona wrote:I actually forgot what prompted me to make the comment, but I think we were talking about character building in that particular class. Actually, your answer to my last questions reminded me why I bought up my comment from that one time. It relates to how to make your characters believable in writing or something like that, but my question is actually related to shrine-making. lol.

I actually don't believe I'm a good writer. In fact, I wouldn't even call myself a writer at all, but this is interesting to me and I'm just really curious to know/learn more.

Bonus Questions: Do you try to step into your character's shoes when you write about them in your shrine or do you take a more objective/omnipresent approach when you talk about them? Why? How do you find one or both approach(es) beneficial or help you with how you write your content?

If you remember more about how that conversation went, I'd like to hear about it, I'm very interested :D

Bonus question answer: While I do both in understanding how the character is like, when I write for a fansite I think my content ends up being more on the outside...not out of choice, now that you're making me think about it - I'd just never considered that I could get closer than I do. Huh! I'll try to challenge myself more in the future. :)

Have you noticed any sort of patterns when it comes to the type of characters you like vs the type of characters you end up making a shrine for? Are they the same or different?

I tend, like most people, to make shrines for characters I love; however, I have also made shrines or plan to make shrines to characters I didn't love (Chiaki Tachibana, Sakahagi [as part of my Manikins shrine]). The one link that unites all my shrines is interest. As in, do I have something to say about the subject? Do I bring something interesting to the table?

Why do you make a shrine for the characters you end up making a shrine for? (i.e: What affects your decisions to make a shrine for a character?)

I am mainly motivated by two things in fandom, love and spite. Most of my shrines are labours of love. Most of my fanfictions and meta are works of spite. 95% of my shrines and projects are works of love, love for the underdogs, the quiet, the forgotten. My Chiaki Tachibana shrine, however, is a work of spite, because as much as I think Chiaki is hitlerian, I got very pissed that she would have a literal ton of adoring fans, even as a power-hungry despot, had she not committed the crime of having been born with a vagina.

Hell, even my Ryotaro Dojima shrine was partly a work of spite against the fandom depicting him as a raging abusive alcoholic.

How do these characters you make shrines for relate to you personally? How do they reflect you? Do they reflect your personalities to some degree? Are they someone you wish to become?

I don't believe the subjects of my shrines reflect me as much as they reflect the interests of my trivia-and-obscure-knowledge-powered, iconoclast mind.

Bonus Questions: Do you try to step into your character's shoes when you write about them in your shrine or do you take a more objective/omnipresent approach when you talk about them? Why? How do you find one or both approach(es) beneficial or help you with how you write your content?

I tend to use a more omniscient approach, but that's probably because I've been writing for a long time and I've been to grad school. It's a style of writing that's easy for me to fall back to.