Sylum Essay Series: Sylum Characters

 

This particular essay will combine a few of the questions that asked about adding characters or shows.   We briefly touched base on some of our reasons on a previous Sylum Q&A, but figured it would be best to go into more detail.

Not every show will go into Sylum. Yeah I know it doesn’t seem like it, but there are a few shows that will always remain off limits.   There are many reasons why.

* It could be that the characters are so bad that even Sylum can’t redeem them.

* There could be issues with the showrunner/creator of the show that makes us run away screaming as fast as possible.

* It could be the actor/actress is on our ‘Oh Hell No List’.

* None of us watched the show so we have no idea how to even build a storyline or background for the characters involved.

* The storyline/concept doesn’t fit within Sylum parameters.

* Characters and/or story slams against established Sylum storyline or characters.

* Sometimes it comes down to we created Sylum and no I’m not putting that show in it.

Q: In Alias tv show the hunt for Rambaldi’s artifacts is one of it’s main plots, with Rambaldi considered a renaissance man an inventor ahead of his time, would any of his work be of interest to Galileo? Among Rambaldis work are an equation for zero point energy, a neutron bomb that delivered micropulses that disintegrates organic matter but left inorganic matter unharmed, and a key to immortality.

A: Alias in one of these shows that fall into the category of none of us watched it.  I have no way to build any story for the characters in or around the show.   I have no idea who Rambaldi is, so trying to add him to an established storyline like Galileo would be impossible.

Q: Dollhouse tv show with Eliza Dushku, would the technology of wiping memories and implanting new memories be of interest to Crimson Moon? The whole illegal operations would be right in their wheelhouse.

A: Dollhouse falls into two categories.

First off the concept of the show, wouldn’t work within Sylum.  As said we try to have a good reason and, even with sci-fi elements, plausibility.   Basically Crimson Moon are assholes and experiment on variety of people, vampires, and things – but the technology for something like this – much like Nolan’s idea in Inception – is a few steps too far.

Second. Well let me just admit it.  I’m not a Joss Whedon fan.  Never have been, never will be.  The only character I actually liked was Angel, hence his position in Sanctuary. The Buffy and Firefly characters were introduced early in Sylum.   Even with the re-writes they were too established for me to just get rid of completely.   Hence histories and backgrounds have been changed and storylines updated.   The likely hood there will be any other Whedon characters is non-existent.

Q: Outlander tv show based on a book series, has beautiful shots from Scotland, a love story in the past involving a time travelling nurse from WWII, and a cruel villain in the past, which descendant is the woman’s husband in present time. Convoluted? Probably as much as the Back to the Future series. Would Galileo be interested in Claire journey in time?

A:  This particular idea goes against ideas and stories we already established.   When we put in Back to the Future series it was for a reason and the established storyline has ramifications that will be seen throughout the series.   Any elements that attach itself to a Time Travel idea have to be well thought and planned out.   Adding too many elements makes it more convoluted than it already is.

Q: We know that we have our racing group in the clans, that make clan leaders want to tear their hair out, will they have more additions to it like Aaron Paul from Need for Speed?

A: This is a good example of characters that are so bad they can’t be saved for Sylum.  Just to take him to be a ‘racer’ is not enough to establish him in any Clan.   We can also use this movie to showcase how we do get around the ‘OMG what was that and why Dominic why were you in it?’ Those characters or movies that can’t be redeemed or put into Sylum, but have an actor we’ve established – we can use the name as a pseudonym for the established character.

Q: Keanu Reeves was in an awesome kickass movie John Wick last fall reminding me of Neo, would this two characters be connected in a vampire world?

Q: Nick Buckhardt from Grimm tv show, descents from a line of hunters how perfect is he to be a character for the clans?

Q:  I saw this awesome sci fi movie in the summer Edge of Tomorrow, Emily Blunt as Sergeant Rita Vrataski was kickass, you think those exoskeletons and her could exist in the future of the sylum storylines, some of those are pretty far in the future?

A: These last three questions fall into the – we haven’t seen them, but will take a look to see if the characters are viable.   There is future storyline that we’ll need a Keanu Reeves character so it is something we’ll look into.  And we’re always looking for good woman characters.

By answering these questions, we wanted to showcase how we look at suggestions and additional characters when working with Sylum.   We are always happy to get suggestions,  sometimes it works out perfectly.  The suggestion for the TV Show Marco Polo was a good example and worked out beautifully.

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In the beginning of Sylum it was all about the pretty or everyone’s favorite fandoms.   Now that we’re working through the wiki, establishing stronger character motivations, and re-building storyline – we had to start thinking about the characters and how they fit into the overall universe.

The questions answered showcased some of the reasons why we take or don’t take particular characters or shows.  There are a few more reasons that are much more complicated.

You’re probably asking what is the ‘Oh Hell No List’.

The list is a group of actors/actress that have made their political views clear enough that if they were to discover Sylum they would likely sue are asses.  We’ve listed a few names from this list who have impacted storylines and the wiki.

* Adam Baldwin – all roles have been moved from the series.

* Kevin Sorbo – the roles of Hercules and Iolaus have been re-cast.

* Mel Gibson – Maximilian was re-cast, other roles were removed.

* Charlton Heston – who would rise from the dead to sue – Michelangelo and Ben Hur were re-cast.

* Shia LeBeouf – I’m not actually sure what the fuck happened there but in good conscious we had to remove him.  So yes the role of Sam Witwicky has been re-cast.

* Jeff Davis – Now Teen Wolf is a show that wouldn’t have made it into Sylum for many many reasons.  The simplest one is just no.  Second, storyline doesn’t fit within parameters. Third, the showrunner would hunt us down.   Which indicates that if he does any other shows – they won’t be making it into Sylum either.

And yes we have some names on the list that are for personal reasons.  Benedict Cumberbatch – just don’t even ask.  Ever.  It’s not going to happen.  And don’t try to convince me other wise.  Seriously guys not happening.

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All these parameters we’ve showcased also work on the Historical Characters through out Sylum.   Our #1 Rule is never take any ‘Real Person’ who is still alive.  Hence as much as there’s an interesting story for Tony Mendez – that isn’t happening.

But you have the Crab Fishing guys.

Yes and No.

We based the characters off of them, but I’m pretty sure Sig isn’t a 1800 year old Nordic Fisherman.  And yes we’ve used their images, but these guys are in the limelight of ‘hollywood’ not a private citizen who’s life depends on not having his image all over the internet.

Once we established the character we want is dead *smirks* we have to make that there isn’t family around that can hunt us down.   Hence recently we had to remove William Wilberforce – we won’t even mention how many kids he had, and a few of them are psychotic when it comes to the family name.   Also, there have been a few characters we decided against, mainly for very similar reasons.

The last thing we have to do is find images to suit them.  We look at the images, paintings, busts or hopefully some form of description of who they are.  Seriously every person in Ancient Greece has a beard!  We then search for actors/models of the ethnicity of the character.  We try hard not to ‘white wash’ the characters.  There are times we have no choice and take who we can use or if they are already played by a particular actor.  But we work hard to keep the ethnicity of the historical figure to match the image we’ll be using.  And of course this still lines up with our ‘Oh Hell No List’.

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So as you can see a lot of work goes into picking characters for Sylum.  Let alone where they’ll end up at!  Never feel shy about asking about a certain character or show, you might be surprised and find out a) we already have them b) it may be usable.  But also be prepared for the no that’s not going to work.