Fleshing Out Canon's Forgotten Characters

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

You have, at least, one of these characters in your fandoms. You know, the one that you thought had a lot of potential and were really drawn to for some reason, but never got more than the tiniest bit of development in canon. They never got more than few lines, never more than an episode or two of screentime, and were promptly forgotten as soon as they were gone, never to be seen or heard from again. They may or may not have a fan following, depending on how long ago they were last seen and how much of an impact they had on canon, itself, but more often than not, you're not going to see a whole lot of fanart or fanfic of them. It's as if they never existed.

And, yet, you still keep on thinking about this character and what more could've been done with them. Since canon left them behind a long time ago, and there aren't a bunch of other fans stepping up to bite, you have no choice to to start writing your own fic and making your own art.

Since this character got so little in canon, the lion's share of their development is coming from you, so they're only a few steps away from being an original character, but this is something you've accepted. Unfortunately, a few vocal readers see differently and accuse this character of being "OOC" and a "Mary Sue," especially if the character's female, but there are always others who praise you for giving an underwritten character much-needed spotlight.

Do you have any characters like this? What do you think about other people doing it?

[Tim]

Betty, you've just described Rex and Hannah

R&H appeared for six episodes in Season One of Charmed and then they were gone. On the show, they got virtually no character development because they didn't stick around long enough to get any. They then fell into my hands, and the rest is history.

The Rex and Hannah Chronicles are where R&H really came into their own. Since the show was finished by the time I created the R&H Chronicles in 2008, I had a whole world to build around R&H without having to worry about the show creatively stepping on my toes (since I don't consider the comics canon, they are not a factor in things).

And yes, a certain someone has called R&H my "Gary Stu" and "Mary Sue". However, since this person's fan fiction collection consists mostly of stories they've stolen from other authors, I really don't put much stock into what they say.

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

I won't lie, Rex and Hannah were the characters I was most thinking of when I started this thread.

Rex and Hannah are probably the very definition of "forgotten by canon." They were only in a few episodes in the first part of Charmed's first season, and they didn't get any development beyond being a Big Bad for the sisters to defeat. We never really learned who they were or where they came from, and they never appeared on the show again after their last episode. And, they didn't even get the slightest reference on the show after Season 2. Canon had literally forgotten their existence.

And, fandom had no reason to remember them, either. They only appeared early on, so the many fans who came into the show in the later seasons didn't even know who they were, and many older fans had forgotten them simply because of their lack of appearances and mentions later on. Suffice to say, a Google search of their names doesn't bring you a wealth of fanart and fanfiction. Even putting their names under the filter on FF.net (aka. the largest fanfiction site ever) won't bring up any results beyond your stories.

You not only remembered these characters, but you actually went through the trouble of building an entire universe around them, which you deserve to be commended for. Sure, your Rex and Hannah pretty much *are* original characters with canon names, but they got so little in canon that it's inevitable that most of their development would come from you.

[Tim]

I won't lie, Rex and Hannah were the characters I was most thinking of when I started this thread.

I thought as much.

Rex and Hannah are probably the very definition of "forgotten by canon." They were only in a few episodes in the first part of Charmed's first season, and they didn't get any development beyond being a Big Bad for the sisters to defeat. We never really learned who they were or where they came from, and they never appeared on the show again after their last episode. And, they didn't even get the slightest reference on the show after Season 2. Canon had literally forgotten their existence.

Which left me with a nice blank slate to work with. Since nothing was revealed about them, I could easily fill in the blanks. And since they were never mentioned in the later seasons, they were completely unaffected by the events in said seasons. Those that write stories about the Halliwell family are not so lucky, of course.

Suffice to say, a Google search of their names doesn't bring you a wealth of fanart and fanfiction. Even putting their names under the filter on FF.net (aka. the largest fanfiction site ever) won't bring up any results beyond your stories.

I think that it's safe to say that, without me, R&H would have been totally forgotten. The ONLY story I've seen that featured them, that I had nothing to do with, was the story at Destined, An All Knighter. Unfortunately, as we know, that story was never completed.

You not only remembered these characters, but you actually went through the trouble of building an entire universe around them, which you deserve to be commended for. Sure, your Rex and Hannah pretty much *are* original characters with canon names, but they got so little in canon that it's inevitable that most of their development would come from you.

Thanks, Betty.

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

I'll admit that I had pretty much forgotten about Rex and Hannah until I met you and discovered your stories. I didn't really think much about the characters when I first watched the show, and I definitely didn't see them as having spinoff potential. I'm glad your proved me wrong.

Now, I'm not all that much of a fanfic writer, myself. It's not because I don't enjoy writing (I do), but it's because I can never seem to keep interested in a fic for more than a week or so, so practically none of my stories are completed.

That being said, I still come up with ideas and create outlines of stories in my head, often visualizing them with fanart or occasionally, the Sims. Alas, I have many "Rex and Hannahs" of my own, characters who have been abandoned by canon and have very few fans that I, for some reason, find compelling and worthy of being fleshed out.

Unsurprisingly, I have a lot of characters like this in 90210 fandom. With such a large cast, it was inevitable that some characters would get left behind, and while some of them deserved it (Hello, Emily Valentine!), there were a few who, I feel, deserved better than they got:

• Scott Scanlon: David Silver's best friend from the first two seasons.
  
  bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=36&pid=15833#top_display_media
  
  Poor Scott. He was shoved into the very background during the entire first season, barely getting any lines or screentime outside of David, only to be removed completely from the opening credits in Season 2 and killed off the worst, most horrible way just when they were starting to give him a little more character development. Yes, I get that Douglas Emerson didn't want to be on the show anymore, but did they really have to kill his character off like that? (At the very least, they could've just pulled the Other Darrin card and recast his character. He got so little screentime in Season 1 that few would've noticed, anyways.)
  
  Scott had the potential to be one of 90210's most interesting and dare I say, realistic characters. He was definitely an outsider at West Beverly, hailing from a less-than-rich family (featuring an overprotective mother who still treated him like a child) with his "uncool" fashion sense and "geeky" interests, but that's what made him more relatable than the likes of Kelly Taylor and Steve Sanders. When Scott got mad at David for ditching him for his new "cool" friends, I could certainly relate, having lost way too many friends just because I wasn't "cool" or "popular" enough. I'm sure others could, as well.
  
  It's times like these that I can see why some critics dismiss 90210 in favor of shows like My So-Called Life, Freaks & Geeks, and Veronica Mars. As iconic as "The Gang" was, it badly needed an outsider's perspective, someone who was neither the hippest or most popular kid in town and could've brought a sense of realism to the show. Scott would've been the perfect character for that role had they given him the chance.
• Sue Scanlon: Scott's younger sister from Season 3.
  
  bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=74&pid=26422#top_display_media
  
  The entire Scanlon family was fucked over. Sue was a cool, punky girl who didn't always make the right decisions (Oooh, she smoked!) and didn't care about being Miss Popular, so what do they do, they make her a tragic Victim of the Week for a Walsh (this time, Brenda) to heroically "save" before being discarded into the dustbin of forgotten characters. She was in a few episodes and then, poof, she was never seen or heard from again.
  
  You know, maybe if they had ditched that stupid Brenda/Dylan/Kelly love triangle storyline, they might've had more time to flesh out Sue and possibly, even integrate her more into the main cast. The Gang certainly could've used a punk, an unpopular misfit who played by her own rules and rebelled against the plastic world of Beverly Hills.
  
  If you want to see a close idea of how Sue (and her brother, for that matter) should've been handled on the show, look no further than DanimalBr's excellent rewrite of Season 3, "Peanut Butter and Jealousy":
  
  www.fanfiction.net/s/6989080/1/Peanut-Butter-and-Jealousy
• Erica McKay: Dylan's long-lost half-sister from Season 4.
  
  bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=107&pid=45061#top_display_media
  
  Good idea, terrible execution. I always liked the idea of Dylan having a younger sister, but not in the way the show used her, as a cheap plot device for some dumb con-artist storyline (And, the less said about her return in Season 8 as a prostitute, of all things, the better). I wanted to see her introduced as an orphan who's closest relative was her long-lost older brother, Dylan. Think of all the possibilities that storyline could've brought--Dylan coping with having to be a pseudo-father, Erica dealing with her parents' death and the change of scenery, and so forth.
  
  In addition, they could've also aged her up--made her a teenager instead of a little girl--and integrated her more into the main cast while still keeping the high school element alive on the show in the College Years. (Especially, if the Scanlons stuck around, as they should've. Both Sue and Scott would've still been at West Beverly in Season 4.) Sure, this Erica would've run the risk of being a Cousin Oliver/Dawn Summers-type character, but it would've still been a huge improvement over what she got.
  
  But, noooo, better keep the focus on Kelly and her family. Who cares about Dylan's family, amirite? And, this is a soap opera, dammit, can't have realistic, relatable storylines.
• Toni Marchette: Daughter of the mob boss who killed Dylan's Dad, and Dylan's girlfriend/wife from Season 6.
  
  bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=158&pid=74699#top_display_media
  
  Oh, wow, another female character connected to Dylan who was used as a stupid plot device. While I still prefer Brenda/Dylan, I liked Toni/Dylan, but I hate, HATE the way they were handled. The show used Toni as nothing more than an excuse plot to write Dylan off the show, and the poor girl didn't even get to ride off in the sunset with him, instead getting gunned down by her own father's henchmen in Dylan's car. Yay, another woman in a refrigerator.
  
  Toni had more to offer than that. Despite coming from a wealthy mafia family, she was very kind and compassionate, and she was also raised as a slight tomboy because her father wanted a son. Why couldn't the show have explored that and fleshed her out more as a character? Gave her a storyline of her own? At the very least, could they have let her live and leave the show alongside Dylan? But, no, she wasn't relevant to Kelly's storyline, so who cares, right?

[Tim]

I'll admit that I had pretty much forgotten about Rex and Hannah until I met you and discovered your stories. I didn't really think much about the characters when I first watched the show, and I definitely didn't see them as having spinoff potential. I'm glad your proved me wrong.

Glad to help.


Wow, 90210 sure did have a lot of "Rex and Hannah" characters. Seems to me that the writers of that show really dropped the ball on a lot of them. And unlike R&H, none of them that were killed off could so easily be brought back, since magic clearly doesn't exist in the 90210 reality. It sounds like quite a few of these characters had interesting potential that was never used.

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

Sept 16, 2014 11:22:34 GMT -5 Tim said:

Wow, 90210 sure did have a lot of "Rex and Hannah" characters. Seems to me that the writers of that show really dropped the ball on a lot of them. And unlike R&H, none of them that were killed off could so easily be brought back, since magic clearly doesn't exist in the 90210 reality. It sounds like quite a few of these characters had interesting potential that was never used.

Actually, dead 90210 characters did have a "Get out of Jail Free" card (however soapy and unrealistic)--Faking their deaths. Just explain that the character faked their death for whatever reason, and bippty-boppity-boo, they'll be back as if nothing ever happened to them. They infamously pulled this stunt with Dylan's dad, Jack McKay. In Season 3, he was killed by an exploding car that was set off by a bomb (planted by mob boss Anthony Marchette, Toni's dad):

bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=84&pid=31678#top_display_media
bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=84&pid=31689#top_display_media

And, then, just like magic, he reappeared years later in Season 10 with the explanation that he faked his death and went into Witness Protection:

bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=296&pid=161081#top_display_media

The storyline was widely hated, and many (including myself) think it cheapened the impact of "The Child is the Father to the Man," one of the few episodes of Season 3 that was truly great.

Apparently, there were actually plans to bring Scott back from the dead in a similar way (or, at the very least, as a ghost to help David deal with an addiction, or some nonsense), an idea that was thankfully quashed (Brian Austin Green felt that bringing Scott back from the dead would've ruined his character and cheapened "The Next Fifty Years"). While I wanted Scott to be alive, I didn't want him to fake his death or some stupid shit like that. I wanted him to have never died in the first place.

[Tim]

Actually, dead 90210 characters did have a "Get out of Jail Free" card (however soapy and unrealistic)--Faking their deaths. Just explain that the character faked their death for whatever reason, and bippty-boppity-boo, they'll be back as if nothing ever happened to them. They infamously pulled this stunt with Dylan's dad, Jack McKay. In Season 3, he was killed by an exploding car that was set off by a bomb (planted by mob boss Anthony Marchette, Toni's dad):

bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=84&pid=31678#top_display_media
bh90210.fanfusion.org/caps/displayimage.php?album=84&pid=31689#top_display_media

And, then, just like magic, he reappeared years later in Season 10 with the explanation that he faked his death and went into Witness Protection:

That reminds me of those old serials they used to make, back in the 1930's and 40's. The hero would be trapped in a car going over a cliff, the car would go over, BOOM! To Be Continued.

Next week, they'd show that scene again, except we'd see the hero getting out of the car just before it went over the cliff. Corny, right. However, this was as different time.

To expect something like that to work in the 1990's was just ridiculous.

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

Sept 16, 2014 17:12:53 GMT -5 Tim said:

That reminds me of those old serials they used to make, back in the 1930's and 40's. The hero would be trapped in a car going over a cliff, the car would go over, BOOM! To Be Continued.

Next week, they'd show that scene again, except we'd see the hero getting out of the car just before it went over the cliff. Corny, right. However, this was as different time.

To expect something like that to work in the 1990's was just ridiculous.

90210 became a different show after Season 2, and not in a good way. Maybe, it was because the show's creator, Darren Star, left, or maybe, it was because of Melrose Place, but it seemed like the writers wanted to turn the show into a trashy soap opera after Season 2. Hence, the love triangles and elaborate, over-the-top plots and the shift in focus from the more down-to-earth Walshes to the more glamorous and unrealistic Kelly Taylor. The show became less about real things that happen to real people and more about shock storylines and cheap drama.

Maybe, it's fitting that the likes of Scott Scanlon was forgotten by canon. A realistic, down-to-earth character like him had no place in the soapy, glamorous 90210 of Season 3 onwards. Maybe, in that alternate universe where 90210 actually grew into a deeper, more engaging show as it went on, and Scott was not only allowed to live, but was developed into one of the show's strongest characters. If only...

(Which, FYI, is why I *don't* recommend DanimalBr's rewrites of Seasons 4 and 5. While their Season 3 rewrite had much of the tone of the first 2 seasons, their Season 4 and 5 rewrites embraced the soapy storylines to an even worse extent than the actual show did, all the while awkwardly shoehorning Scott into that setting. Not unlike the CEU, "Peanut Butter and Jealousy" was yet, another AU rewrite that started out good, but quickly mutated into something worse than canon.)

[Tim]

90210 became a different show after Season 2, and not in a good way. Maybe, it was because the show's creator, Darren Star, left

Hmmmm, another Spelling show that drastically changed when the original creator left.

Maybe, in that alternate universe where 90210 actually grew into a deeper, more engaging show as it went on, and Scott was not only allowed to live, but was developed into one of the show's strongest characters. If only...

Too bad they don't show episodes from that alternate universe in this one

Which, FYI, is why I *don't* recommend DanimalBr's rewrites of Seasons 4 and 5. While their Season 3 rewrite had much of the tone of the first 2 seasons, their Season 4 and 5 rewrites embraced the soapy storylines to an even worse extent than the actual show did, all the while awkwardly shoehorning Scott into that setting. Not unlike the CEU, "Peanut Butter and Jealousy" was yet, another AU rewrite that started out good, but quickly mutated into something worse than canon.

Since I'm not a 90210 fan, I'll take your word for it.

Sue Scanlon: Scott's younger sister from Season 3.

The entire Scanlon family was fucked over. Sue was a cool, punky girl who didn't always make the right decisions (Oooh, she smoked!) and didn't care about being Miss Popular, so what do they do, they make her a tragic Victim of the Week for a Walsh (this time, Brenda) to heroically "save" before being discarded into the dustbin of forgotten characters. She was in a few episodes and then, poof, she was never seen or heard from again.

Sue may have been unlucky, but the actor that played her, Nicholle Tom, did well. Soon after leaving 90210, she landed a role on Fran Drescher's sitcom, The Nanny, which would run for six years.

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

Sept 16, 2014 23:56:06 GMT -5 Tim said:

Hmmmm, another Spelling show that drastically changed when the original creator left.

And, became even worse after Shannen Doherty left. My, the coincidences.

Sept 16, 2014 23:56:06 GMT -5 Tim said:

Too bad they don't show episodes from that alternate universe in this one

Oh, I know. I wish I lived in that perfect world where Seasonal Rot didn't exist, and shows went on exactly as they were supposed to.

Sept 16, 2014 23:56:06 GMT -5 Tim said:

Sue may have been unlucky, but the actor that played her, Nicholle Tom, did well. Soon after leaving 90210, she landed a role on Fran Drescher's sitcom, The Nanny, which would run for six years.

I didn't know that. I guess something good had to come out of Sue's mishandling on the show.

Do you have any other "forgotten" characters from other fandoms that you like enough to develop in fanfiction?

[Tim]

Do you have any other "forgotten" characters from other fandoms that you like enough to develop in fanfiction?

There was this character that DC Comics made, back in the mid 80's:



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kole



I felt this character had potential. However, in the nearly thirty years since the Crisis, they haven't brought her back. They've dragged every other hero that died in the Crisis back from the Spirit World, but why not her??

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

Sept 17, 2014 11:09:56 GMT -5 Tim said:

Do you have any other "forgotten" characters from other fandoms that you like enough to develop in fanfiction?

There was this character that DC Comics made, back in the mid 80's:



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kole



I felt this character had potential. However, in the nearly thirty years since the Crisis, they haven't brought her back. They've dragged every other hero that died in the Crisis back from the Spirit World, but why not her??

Ah, superhero comics... With such a large, ever-changing cast and long continuities spanning decades, it's easy for characters to get lost in the shuffle, and sadly, it appears that Kole was one of them.

I had never even heard of her until you brought her up, and I can see why. She was never the most popular character to begin with, and she had few comic appearances, all of which happened 20 or more years ago. And, then, you take into account the full-scale reboot DC did recently, and her future looks even worse.

As for cross-media adaptations, well, she was in an episode of the mid 2000s Teen Titans cartoon, and that was it:

Kole appears in a Teen Titans episode "Kole" voiced by Tara Strong. She is depicted as the partner of Gnarrk. As with the other characters in Teen Titans, it was decided to render a younger, more teenage version of Kole for the animated series. Her powers are very different from in her comic incarnation. Rather than creating crystal, she literally transforms herself into it, and is directly used as a club, axe, and a boomerang-like weapon by Gnarrk in her crystal form. Furthermore, she has the ability to absorb and even reflect energy blasts in her crystalline form. Unlike her comic incarnation, Kole's hair is pink rather than red, and two strands of her hair form a pair of fake antennae. Kole originates from the upper world, but chose a life as a recluse to escape those villainous people wanting to exploit her power. She lives with Gnarrk in a large underground cavern near the Arctic Circle that is filled with prehistoric creatures. They first encounter with the Titans when they accidentally discover their cavern while trying to stop the villainous Doctor Light. In this episode, Dr. Light wanted to use Kole's crystal form as a prism to focus and enhance his newly obtained light powers from the Aurora Borealis, but she was saved by the Titans and Gnarrk. They both become Honorary Titans, but Kole believed she would be safe from the Brotherhood of Evil, as no one knew about their location underground. Unfortunately, the Brotherhood had hacked into the Titans' communicators and used it to listen in on her communications and locate her. The Brotherhood later sent Billy Numerous and Gizmo to capture her and Gnarrk, but they failed. She, Gnarrk, and Cyborg (who had gone to rescue her) joined in the final battle against the Brotherhood of Evil. Kole and Gnarrk, as they rode into battle, take out Ding Dong Daddy as he rode up in his car.

Shame Kole's been forgotten like this. She sounded like a cool character.

[Tim]

it's easy for characters to get lost in the shuffle, and sadly, it appears that Kole was one of them.

Yeah, that really sucks.

I had never even heard of her until you brought her up, and I can see why. She was never the most popular character to begin with, and she had few comic appearances, all of which happened 20 or more years ago.

I doesn't surprise me that you didn't know about her. From what you've told me, you've never been into super hero comics. Also, the majority of Kole's appearances happened in the mid 1980's, years before you were born (yeah, call me Grandpa).

And, then, you take into account the full-scale reboot DC did recently, and her future looks even worse.

Again? DC changes its continuity more than I change my socks. Crisis On Infinite Earths REALLY f*cked them up. Thirty years later, they're STILL trying to clean up the mess it made.

As for cross-media adaptations, well, she was in an episode of the mid 2000s Teen Titans cartoon, and that was it:

I've seen the episode on YouTube. It's pretty good for a cartoon.

Shame Kole's been forgotten like this. She sounded like a cool character.

Maybe if DC ever gets its act together, which I doubt, since they haven't been able to do so in three decades now, they can bring her back.

[Tim]

Betty wrote:

Sept 17, 2014 17:18:14 GMT -5 Tim said:

Again? DC changes its continuity more than I change my socks. Crisis On Infinite Earths REALLY f*cked them up. Thirty years later, they're STILL trying to clean up the mess it made.

dc.wikia.com/wiki/The_New_52

DC's in a pretty bad place now, especially compared to Marvel. The New 52 reboot hasn't been as much of a success as they had hoped, and they're still struggling to keep up with Marvel on the big screen. The Green Lantern was a flop, and Man of Steel, while financially successful, didn't get nearly as much praise and hype as the Iron Man movies, the Captain America movies, the Thor movies, and the Avengers. Most people are already predicting the upcoming Batman vs Superman and Justice League movies to be gigantic bombs.

Alas, the future doesn't look very bright for the likes of Kole.