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Cosplay help!
No, I'm not cosplaying. :) This is the Seekrit Project I mentioned the other day: I'm starting to create a database of characters to cosplay as, with a list of characteristics in stupidly fine detail, that I can use to feed into a quiz/form that people can fill out to get back a list of suggestions of character to cosplay as. Woo, aren't you excited?
Anyway, I now need your help to feed data into it! I have created a Google Docs form to fill out for each character that feeds the answers into a spreadsheet (currently private), which I will then run some basic authority control on (spelling, standardizing names of series, etc.) and then import it into a database which I will be creating shortly. :)
There has been MUCH discussion under filter as to what characteristics should and should not be in the database, and how to handle them. I am arbitrarily declaring RIGHT NOW as the point after which I will no longer add or remove characteristics for version 1.0 of the quiz. Feel free to chime in with your opinion and I'll happily consider it, but if it affects the structure of the database or the form, it'll wait until Version 2.0. Make sense?
I would LOVE YOU TO DEATH if lots of the people who will read these words would take the time to add a few characters to the spreadsheet using this form. Yes, it is indeed stupidly long, which is why I hope that many many of you just add a couple of characters each, which would mean I'd have many many many many characters in there!
I figured out how to make a separate Google Docs spreadsheet that contains just a few columns from the original spreadsheet so I could make it public (I'm guarding the other one because it has potentially identifying info from submitters in it, which I will not make public), in order that you could tell what characters are already in there. I am not sure how often it refreshes, so it may be a few minutes behind the actual spreadsheet. You can find that lurking behind this link.
If you need more clarification on what I mean by a particular entry on the form, or if the character has an edge case that you can't decide one way or the other on, feel free to let me know.
And, really, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I truly do appreciate any time you may give to this project. THANK YOU!
Anyway, I now need your help to feed data into it! I have created a Google Docs form to fill out for each character that feeds the answers into a spreadsheet (currently private), which I will then run some basic authority control on (spelling, standardizing names of series, etc.) and then import it into a database which I will be creating shortly. :)
There has been MUCH discussion under filter as to what characteristics should and should not be in the database, and how to handle them. I am arbitrarily declaring RIGHT NOW as the point after which I will no longer add or remove characteristics for version 1.0 of the quiz. Feel free to chime in with your opinion and I'll happily consider it, but if it affects the structure of the database or the form, it'll wait until Version 2.0. Make sense?
I would LOVE YOU TO DEATH if lots of the people who will read these words would take the time to add a few characters to the spreadsheet using this form. Yes, it is indeed stupidly long, which is why I hope that many many of you just add a couple of characters each, which would mean I'd have many many many many characters in there!
I figured out how to make a separate Google Docs spreadsheet that contains just a few columns from the original spreadsheet so I could make it public (I'm guarding the other one because it has potentially identifying info from submitters in it, which I will not make public), in order that you could tell what characters are already in there. I am not sure how often it refreshes, so it may be a few minutes behind the actual spreadsheet. You can find that lurking behind this link.
If you need more clarification on what I mean by a particular entry on the form, or if the character has an edge case that you can't decide one way or the other on, feel free to let me know.
And, really, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I truly do appreciate any time you may give to this project. THANK YOU!
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...And now I have to figure out costumes for Abenobashi Magical Shopping Arcade, LOL.
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For "character role", maybe add in a neutral/background/DNA option? Some very minor supporting characters are popular enough to get cosplayed but are difficult to class as protagonist/antagonist -- they may not be actively opposing the heroes, but they're not really helping them, either; they're just sort of there. (In A:tLA, which is what made me think of this, Chong, Lily and the hippies could fit into the protagonist slot, since they do try in their spaced-out inept way to help the Gaang; and Cabbage Man can technically count as an antagonist, since in his first appearance he does try to get the Gaang tried for damaging his cart; but how would you class someone like Foamy (http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Foaming_Mouth_Guy)?)
Secondly, since you've now split character gender identy and outside perception of their gender presentation into separate questions, for clarity's sake you might want to put in something for the identity question specifically mentioning canonical trans characters. (For examples, Yoshiki Kitazawa in Gravitation and Aoi Futaba in You're Under Arrest, both MtF, Yellow has a couple of MtF characters as well. I can't think of any likely cosplay-bait FtM characters off the top of my head, alas, and for trans characters who don't explicitly identify as binary male or female the only suggestion I can think of is maybe Asia the Invincible from the wu xia film The East Is Red/Swordsman III. (Originally male-bodied character, magically physically transformed as a side effect of a magical Scroll of Ultimate MacGuffin Powah, switches back and forth between male and female dress, etc. -- other characters refer to post-transformation Asia as a woman, but IIRC it's rather ambiguous as to whether Asia's own sense of identity is male, female, or neither/both/other...)
Also, FYI, you've got two typos in the new "gender-confounding" section at the end -- "counfounding" in the bit about Count D, and "enver" in the bit about Leon.
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(Also, if you want another example of characters who do get a handy costume change to signal their shifts in loyalty, Zuko from A:tLA does this repeatedly...)
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For makeup, perhaps a "both" option for characters with both glued-on items and painted-on marks? Just off the top of my head, Mononoke's Medicine Seller (pointed ears, red facial markings, greyish/whitish foundation) or Saiyuki's Jiroshin (long trailing mustache, large chakra) would glue and paint. And speaking of unnatural skin colors, perhaps an edit in the text noting if humanoid creatures with non-human skin colors like blue, green, etc. should go under "dna". Similarly, for costume complexity, maybe a note on proper classification of garments that are simple to construct, like a t-shirt or kimono, but would require complex/skilled surface embellishment with paint, embroidery, etc. to properly duplicate a particular iconic piece?
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I can do some editing of current characteristics - I just don't want to do major changes. Adding "both" would work fine, I think. :)
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I need to keep in mind the *costume* and what a cosplayer may look for when thinking of these questions: what, exactly, is a cosplayer looking for a trans character to cosplay looking for? Are they doing it because they want to celebrate this character? Because they want to crossplay? Because they want to highlight their own physical characteristics while playing a character of a different gender? Hmmm.
Edited the gender explanation - and I wish I could add line breaks in the actual form! -- to read:
" Now this is the most complicated question of all, I think! And I can't put line breaks in so bear with me. This question refers to the gender with which the character *identifies*, irregardless of appearance. (There is another question that deals with the character's appearance, placed at the end because I added it late.) "Androgynous" refers to human-appearing/passing characters identifying as a blend of the typical male and female genders. Humanlike characters identfying specifically as a third distinct gender or as no gender are currently placed in "other". "dna" refers to characters for whom the human concept of gender has no meaning, such as dogs (hello, Ein the corgi!) or robots.
If a human soul is in another body, such as another human body or a robot or animal body and the human soul identifies as a specific human gender (for example, Al Elric or the giant robot chicken from Planet Ladder), then use that gender. Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu and other transforming characters that may switch gender are edge cases: use your best judgement. I'd consider the Sexy no Jutsu female in and of herself even though Naruto identifies as male.
Characters who identify as one gender but who dress in typically oppositely-gendered clothing should be listed as the gender they identify with - for example, Oscar from Rose of Versailles and Smellerbee from Avatar: TLA both dress typically masculine, but identify as female. If an alien race has three or more genders, two of which correspond to human male and female, then the others count as "other." (Have I come close to listing all the possible edge cases yet? If needed, these questions will be revisited in version 2.0.)
Canonically trans characters should be listed as the gender with which they identify. If it's unclear as to what the character identifies as, use "other" or your best guess and explain in the notes field. I'll revisit this and the related question in version 2.0 in order to make it more helpful to cosplayers looking for someone to cosplay as."
Re: typos - fixed, thanks!
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I like the questions and the whole concept!
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