Do you have an OC you want to redeem?

[Wdinatx]

We all have characters who we’re not proud of for one reason or another but sometimes there’s an inner concept that can be salvaged and while you could just scrap the rest and move on… wouldn’t that be ungrateful? Not necessarily of course but that’s my question.

For me it was my character in an RP all the way back in 2017. Won’t say the site because most of my stuff there was embarrassing but there were two characters I loved:

• Aven was the first character I put genuine effort into and it showed. My understanding of SAO was downright insufficient for the RP and I thoughtlessly connected him to canon events in a way that didn’t contribute anything. But I also gave him a genuinely good backstory, a meaningful name, and a personality that didn’t feel forced to write. Before the RP even died I knew in my heart of hears that I’d made a gem that I wasn’t ready to polish. Because there are some things you can’t write no matter how well you can answer the question of “what would [X] do in this situation?” and I simply wasn’t able to keep up with the other writers at the time. But a couple years ago I joined an RP in this community and brought him back. I remembered the things that made him a better character than I was a writer and made the unnecessary parts of his backstory contribute to his arc. Back then he was related to Argo but might as well not have been, as this was never addressed in-RP, so I changed that. Instead of him being brought up by an older sister who’s important in canon he was now bringing up someone who’s not a central character. This was half of the most important thing I changed about Aven... his identity. While his name back then was meaningful it didn’t make sense for a “Jacob” to be in SAO, which was only released in Japan and was difficult to get for them. Yeah, there are some ways to get around that but he’s not supposed to be a mystery. The newly dubbed Ayano Enso was a shining light for his little sister to follow. Ayano Keiko, who you may recognize as Silica, was an important character from floor one and a part of the “Tween Trio” alongside her brother and someone else’s PC. Silica, the girl who literally spends most of her screentime in the background, was a role model for the kids in SAO. Playing up her Onii-Chan’s recklessness ensured she’d pick up the slack and keep him in check. Two awesome characters, one OC. Not bad for someone’s first try, huh?
• There was only one RP on that site where I made a character that didn’t remotely disappoint me. My character in a 2019 Fate/ RP was a Berserker who lacked a single True Name by their nature. The Berserker of Dark was taken from the highest theoretical number of people who died in war… an amalgamation of one billion dead. While that might not be the actual count and they themselves don’t know their true numbers, it‘s fitting for the sheer pessimism that permeates their soul. The RP was serious and awesome while it lasted, something rare for me at the time, and their fights were among my best written for years. The situations they keep and lose their rationality, their strengths and weaknesses, their interaction with allies, and much more proved to me I had what it takes. I could make a nuanced character from the ground up. So even when I wiped my hands of a site where I rarely RPed without embarrassing myself there was someone I wanted to take to another RP. But unlike Aven… I haven’t successfully done so. While they were in UFW I didn’t give them the focus they deserved and as such are in the shadows. Just a few steps from being as buried as the nameless soldiers whose resentment made them.

So what about y’all? Who’s someone you’ve made that you want to see again for their sake? Have you had any success in it?