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#1: Heavy Metal - Character Mental Images? Author: Thunderbird, Location: Rising from the ashes

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 10:03 am
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BBS has asked me for further definition to some of my characters. I'm wondering how solid a mental image some of you may have for these individuals - if it matches what I see in my mind's eye, etc...

Some of them have been left a little vague, which she has noteworthily pointed out. Perhaps this means I need a bit more description in the text for some of them, but in many cases, I've left a lot of small details to your imagination quite intentionally.

So I wanted to start this thread to see if these characters have developed enough of a life of their own beyond the prose to have inspired any particular images in the minds of the readers.

I'll put one character at a time under the spotlight and in so doing, I'm asking all who've been following this tale to help me develop their desciptions down to the little details pulling from the images you've formed in your mind's eyes as readers. Who (and specifically WHAT) do YOU see when you read about this character?

Hopefully, this will be a fun little exercise.

First up: Thomas Forsythe.

Last edited by Thunderbird on Sun Mar 06, 2011 3:18 pm; edited 2 times in total

#2: Author: Crunchyfrog,

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:09 am
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For me, if there's too little or no physical description, the mental image automatically fills in from memories of things the character's circumstances remind me of.

Therefore, Forsythe has always had the look of Silas from the Da Vinci Code film, to me. Obviously not the same costume, of course.

#3: Author: Thunderbird, Location: Rising from the ashes

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 8:36 am
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Silas... wasn't he the albino assassin? hmm... that's an interesting mental image.

#4: Author: Tikanni Corazon, Location: Running through the plains of my mind, my wolf spirit at my side (but doing so in the UK!).

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 9:02 am
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Same here, just filled in the lack of physical description with something that reminds me of that character. For me, I've always pictured him like Eric Stoltz character, Simon, in The Prophecy, who is in very similar circumstances, a holy man fighting the forces of darkness and all that. Well, he's an archangel, but still similar. Wink

I have to say though that I've not found that this lack of description has ever taken anything away from the story for me personally. The image seemed to just come automatically to me, and I guess that comes from the circumstances being described very well. In fact, I never even realised how little there was until you opened up this thread. It's already proving interesting to see how differently Crunchy sees Thomas, and likely will become more so as others add their opinions. Smile

#5: Author: Thunderbird, Location: Rising from the ashes

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 10:19 am
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After a quick google search to remind me who you were referencing there, I can really see what you mean. Not only a very different mental image of the character, but just as drastically separate from what I had in mind too.

Truth be told, he's remained quite vague even in my own mind's eye. The more I try to pin it down, the less definition I find... ack!

This is a fascinating discussion. Both of you have presented concepts I simply would not have thought of on my own and have given me two new ways to view the character.

I figured we should discuss this before art was designed for him considering I often find artwork or casting to fly in the face of my own mental images when I've read a story and formed a character in mind then see such things after the fact and I usually feel that's somewhat disturbing... So I thought maybe we could create some harmonious image together first.

#6: Author: Thunderbird, Location: Rising from the ashes

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:14 am
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I think these two lines amount to pretty much all of the description that has been written in regards to Thomas... aside from the activities he's been described as undertaking.

1) His sky blue eyes flickered open.

2) Perkins looked up to momentarily bear witness to a black robed figure, wearing a gleaming silver cross around his neck, nut-brown hair stylishly cut short with bangs fluttering in the breeze above… glowing white eyes?!?

I really had not realized how little I had given about him! The more I think of some sort of hybrid between CF & Tika's mental images there, the more I like the concept. Anyone else have any footnotes to add regarding their own mental image of Thomas?

#7: Author: Guest,

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 2:05 pm
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My anime mental image, just younger looking... The face is what I'm going for... but I'll try and add features of what you guys explained. Of Roy in Solty Rei

Last edited by Guest on Mon Mar 07, 2011 8:12 pm; edited 1 time in total

#8: Author: Thunderbird, Location: Rising from the ashes

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2011 2:21 pm
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That's actually not far from what I'm aiming for myself, BBS. (but the site has a virus so you might wanna remove the link and replace it with just the pic) Much the build and facial features I had been imagining.

#9: Author: Guest,

Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:59 pm
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Ok I'll spend the rest of the time reading heavy metal offline...

I could try a riddic eyes... atleast I know that story!

#10: Author: Thunderbird, Location: Rising from the ashes

Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:07 pm
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I do like the conceptual design in Thomas's facial features. What does everyone else think?

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