Character Feedback: Willow Harper

[Rosetango]

This is the feedback thread for Willow Harper. Something I was kind of scared off from doing because of how harshly she's memed in OOC.

If you don't want to or can't post in this thread, I'm also reachable via Discord (Rosetango#9810) and through the Byond messenger.

If you do post in this thread, thank you for taking the time out of your day to do this when you could be doing something else. If you don't, that's okay, I'm happy enough that you at least looked.

[VTCobaltblood]

I haven't interacted with Harper much, but I enjoyed giving her a tarot reading. I want to know more about her, because I feel she's somewhat similar to one of my characters. I'm somewhat neutral, for now. Her escalation thing hasn't affected my characters.

[Doxxmedearly]

I’m glad you decided to do this. I hope the complaint thread ends without administrative action. I also hope you review what was brought forth by people in the complaint thread, as well; even if it seems harsh, it IS feedback, and when many people are bringing up the same issue, it’s an indication that something is wrong.

I’ll preface this by saying why I haven’t contacted you on Discord, personally. This isn't critique of Harper, so I'll throw it in spoilers.

It’s not that you’re scary or intimidating. You’re not. But I feel that any criticism that IS brought up in OOC (Memes and rude shit aside) is brushed off by you, and always ends with you saying “contact me on discord.” You don’t HAVE to agree with feedback, but you should try your best to acknowledge it. However, I felt like if I did DM you, it would just be a series of weak justifications and frustration for me. This is just the tone I feel like I get when legitimate thoughts are brought up in OOC. It may not be true, and may be a bad assumption on my part, but it’s my perception of how you handle criticism, and if nobody has contacted you, then perhaps it’s one that others share.

Additionally, it is not our job to contact you to make your character better. It’s harsh, but it’s true. You know people are critical of her and her behavior from OOC. If you want to know what to improve, you need to make the effort to reach out to these people and make the first message. You need to ask people “What do you feel I need to improve on?” You need to seek criticism. Telling people “message me” is a passive avenue. This thread, however, is an active one. You’re opening the conversation by creating the feedback thread. This is a great first step.

I hope everyone with feedback takes the time to post here. Unfortunately, there are some people with grudges who want to see Willow crash and burn. You can’t do anything about them. Most of them will still continue to say shit behind your back to their friends, rather than be adult human beings and try to provide feedback or thoughts. I’m not even suggesting you contact them. But I hope you don’t consider honest feedback to fall in with that crowd.

 

Onto Willow herself:

Your latest post in the complaint thread says that Willow doesn’t want to be the center of attention. If that’s true, then this needs work. You have done a decent job so far, back from the Willow of a few months ago. The main issues were: Constantly screaming on the radio, esp. arguing with antags, rushing to the scene of any cry for help, and 0-100 escalation.

-Radio comms: You’ve improved, and anyone who cares to remember back to may-june can say this. Honestly, it was at the point where I knew OOCly when Willow was the antag with the voice changer on comms. How? Because she wasn’t arguing with them nonstop. Now, she’s still feisty on comms. But it’s getting to be more reasonable.

-Rushing to the scene: Again, something you’ve improved. But remember your previous complaint thread and MDP’s comments in your current one, and continue to work on this. I’ve seen less “rushing with a first aid kit” and more “staying in the scene and being obstructive.” I’ve witnessed this as Sunny, and tbear also brought up another incident:

 

I can recall another incident where I was the Head of Security, when me and a few others were speaking to a traitor we'd locked up in solitary. Willow ran up to solitary, and began bothering security, getting in their way, and heckling us about us 'violating the prisoner's rights.' She refused to leave until she was flashed, cuffed, and literally dragged out of security, only avoiding being charged because we were too busy at that point.

And this pretty much shows the same thing, to a lesser extent. She tried to help her friend, while ignoring several orders from security to leave, and was willing to take any punishment she received just to make the point.

 

-0-100 escalation: I’m not going to repeat things said in the complaint thread, as they’ve all been said better than I can put. Breaking through glass to fight someone was insane, but you’ve already admitted it was a bad move.

These three things contribute to the perception that Willow wants to be the center of attention. And if she doesn’t, then I’m not sure. Perhaps you do? I understand wanting antag interaction. But a few months back, if someone cried for help on the radio, you could guarantee Willow would be there as soon as possible. I still don’t think this behavior is totally fixed, but it’s improved. As Resi said in the complaint thread, you’ve started to relapse a bit into old habits these last few weeks.

Other thoughts:

-FearRP

You’ve talked about not understanding the idea of needing to work on FearRP. I’m sure you’ll talk to staff about it, but I’ll give you my own thoughts.

It means you need to display reasonable fear. Tbear’s example in the complaint thread is a good one. Yes, you want to protect your friend. But, really, you were going to fight a malfunctioning security cyborg, with its baton out, with a bar stool?

Every character has different reactions to fear. But you have to display it. In the above situation, fear is reasonable and likely. One character might back off and run away. One might call fearfully on comms. And another might stand firm, but still afraid. You should display your fear more often, and take it into account. Maybe she’d be threatening the bot, while holding the stool with shaky hands, knowing that if she tried, it would end with her being hurt or killed, but hesitant to abandon a friend.

One thing I’ve noticed is that you tend to justify Willow’s escalation and lack of fear as “defending her friends.” This is a good character trait, but not an excuse to throw fear out the window. Think about it in IRL terms. I love my friends. I would defend my friends. If people started beating up my friends, I would probably jump in, even if I would get my ass kicked. And yet, I would still shit my pants if my friend was being held at gunpoint by a heavily armed raider. And I probably wouldn’t fight space cops who are arresting my friend with reasonable justification (“He shot so-and-so.”) I’d react to it, and maybe come to their defense (“No, he’s a good guy, he wouldn’t! You’re confused!), but I feel like impeding an arrest is kind of a really extreme thing to do. Or, at least, as often as Willow does.

Your previous complaint thread is a good source of feedback for this, too. “I need to get this medkit to help people” does not erase “There is a fucking firefight/guns-drawn standoff and most death-fearing people would know better than to just run in.”

-Good or Evil

You made a point to say that Willow was designed to not be “Good or Evil, she can be both.” While good, this in itself is not… a unique trait. This is the basic requirement for making a complex and believable character. It’s good that you do this, though.

My closing thoughts are this:

At the end of the day, you need to decide what criticism is valid and what is not. It’s easier to justify and dismiss critique as being wrong, “memeing,” or an attack. Certainly you receive plenty of this, and that can be fairly disregarded. It’s my hope that you really do try and take things that people will post in this thread, really consider the points, and then decide if it’s helpful or not. It’s not easy to do, by any means. Nobody wants someone they’ve developed and invested in to be poked and prodded under a fine microscope, having their flaws listed off one by one. But what it will do is help you refine your character.

I want to like Willow. I think she can be a really good character. But right now, she gets joked about because of the issues brought up in the complaint thread. I won’t say I haven’t made a few. The way she acts is really hard to take seriously a lot of the time. But at the same time, I really want to see her grow to be more than that.

I hope my feedback has been helpful!

[Trazz666]

Willow is a Big Gay and I love her. Even on the characters that butt heads with her, she's fun to play with.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

If she pulls her punches then she's fine for me

[Allakai]

I've been on Aurora for about a month or so. I've really only recently as in the last two weeks become more involved with Willow and truthfully? I have no issues with her.

I certainly will say that she is one of those characters that when they're onboard, you'll notice. But I don't mean that in a bad way. When involved with my characters (usually Jazmine) its always great. I've always noticed Willow as the trouble maker of the station. She always gets into fights or always as some sort of issue with someone, but is that a bad thing? Not at all!

Personally I think Willow Harper is a great character. Certainly I agree with others that she might need to be less I guess robust, but aside from that I have zero issues with her!

[Hendricks]

I've known Harper ic for ages I feel like, for the longest time we never talked and I was ok with that, I will admit I have seen some of meme stuff from both ends whether it be giving it or receiving it, but I never let it shade my opinion of your character, I don't know what it is but sometimes, at least for me the memiest characters or at least if they seem that way can be a lot better when you take a closer look, look beneath the surface, I think a real eye opener to me for just how good at roleplay you are is on a classic Kyres as a antag, in this case a Changeling, they were doing there thing, making everyone nervous and all that, good times, and we stuck together and barricaded ourselves in a room and just rp'd fear, which is a lot of fun to do in my opinion, I saw Willow get emotional, something I rarely see obviously this being a work place, I would hope not. But in that specific situation, you allowed emotions that not many other people convey well, I'll get to it, you made it very immersive for me as my character tried comforting yours while also being shit scared of a blade armed scary person saying their name over the radio. From there on there, we've had small interactions, the one's I kind of cherish is players I don't see too often say different time zones and all that, but we recognize each others presence and when one of those specific scenario's pops up and by luck we're together, we can just build off of each others rp and it leads to the experiences I love. Anyway little bit of sentiment, I'd never want to see the character dubbed as just a meme and trashed, because I know theirs always more beneath the surface, I know this from *cough Shane... But anyway just what I think of the character that I've interacted with the most, as for Leah Siskin, 10/10 personal bully defense system.

[Rosetango]

Just a gentle bump to revive this.

[Itanimulli]

Spoiler

I bet she smells like beef.

More seriously, I think most of my characters have more or less enjoyed her presence. 

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by Itanimulli

[IAmCrystalClear]

She's way better than Siskin was, but I've always seen her as "someone who's meant to be quiet, but it didn't turn out right." Most of my memories are of her verbally assaulting people for little to no reason, or else arguing with antags.

[Rosetango]

Thanks for the feedback, Crystal. I do intend on rewriting her flavor text to better suit what she's become, as well as cut out unnecessary fluff. Willow has definitely changed since her conception. Though, if there are any recent incidents that you can recall clearly about her yelling at antags, please tell me. Provide details in question and tell me what you thought was wrong. Thank you again for the feedback!

[Rosetango]

Soft bump for those interested.

[AmoryBlaine]

Willow Harper is ironed out well by the current era. There isn't much I can think to say on her, or the other active Rosetangoians. Other than them being good, that is.