By Material
You know, when you filter past the really short oneshots, the pointless smut fics, and the overused character pairings, there are only four stories worth reading on the FG list, Meg's Boyfriend/Family, The Spellbook, Labours Of Love, and Whispering Illusion. now, I have decided to take the time and critique the six OC's from three of these stories. Why only three you ask? Well, becuase I haven't finished reading Labours Of Love yet, so I don't have the full story.
The six characters I am about to review are as follows:
Madeline Murdock
Rose Mary Kennedy
Jaina Ryder
Zack Murdock
Matthew Kennedy
Matthew Ryder
So, first up, lets start with Maddie. Maddie is the little daughter of Zack Murdock and Meg Griffin in Meg's Family. She is about as tall as Stewie, with blonde hair, and always wears the same red dress. As far as children go, Maddie is perhaps the most normal. She is fairly smart for her age, yet she still retains obvious toddler qualities. She can be easily fooled by adults, can be wrapped into pointless pop culture trends, and has a generally warped view of how the world works. Maddie never really stood out from the crowd until she started speaking in public. Malcolm Fox really made her a humorous plot device in many areas. She has a foul mouth on her, has a strangely close relationship with her uncle, and is as bitter and greddy for revenge as her mother and grandmother. Out of all the OC children, I would say that Maddie is the most normal. She has a striking personality, obvious faults, and plain to see abilities. There isn't much else to say, as she isn't as well fleshed out as Rosie or Jaina, but she is a very good character as far as infants go.
Now, onto Rosie. Rosie is the less than 1 year old daughter of Matthew Kennedy and Meg Griffin in The Spellbook. She was born with magical powers, and is calssified as a witch, though she is a Mage to be exact. Rosie has bright red hair, a blue dress, and the same large nose that runs in her family. Rosie posseses numerous powers, such as Telekinesis, Phasing, Levitation, and Teleportation. As far as offensive powers go, Rosie seems to lack in this field, as well as in the support field. Her ability to heal or attack can seem to leave her with little else to defend herself, and when you have Magic powers, you will probably be attacked, wether by other magic users, or other Americans. And trust me, if you have Magic powers, the American Government will be after you to strap you down and dissect you like a frog. Rosie's personality seemed to be overshadowed by her powers. But for the most part, Rosie can be seen as caring and compassionate, but like all toddlers, she can be conniving and malipulative. The fact that her closest friend is a gay evil genius doesn't help matters in the morality field, but I digress. Rosie is rather well developed, and maybe just a little more personality polishing can make her even better.
Onto Jaina. jaina is the one year old daughter of Matthew Ryder and Meg Griffin in Whispering Illusion. For those who have been paying attention, you may have noticed that all these girls have the same mother. Jaina posseses silver hair, dull grey eyes, and perhaps the most distinguishing feature, to large feathery wings sprouting out of her back. I have actually been able to mentally picture Jaina in my head, and like Maddie and Rosie, she's adorable, even with the wings. It seems to be good that, unlike Superman, or Green Lantern, she can fly and follow the laws of psysics at the same time. Jaina also posses Divine Powers, which were inherited from her father. Unlike her father, jaina posses little offensive powers, no natural weapon skill, yet has healing power that bests her father any day. Jaina can also use telekinesis, and telepathicly communicate with her father. Jaina, despite having all these powers, is reletively defenseless. When confronted with a problem, she will pull the typical toddler routine and run to her parents. Bhaal did what Malcolm and Ander were afriad to do, and set two whole chapters into the future in which Jaina started an incesteous relationship with her Uncle Stewie. Personality wise, Jaina is calm and caring, but when angered, she is cruel and sadistic. Jaina's gentle nature could be a problem in any preschool chapters where she could either be walked over by the other kids, or rip their limbs off with her powers.
Now, onto the adults...
Zack Murdock, Age 20, is a blonde, shaggy haired 7/11 clerk at the start of his story. He quickly moves into the Griffin household and marries Meg, Age 17. Zack's personality can be described as bitter and petty. His anger can sometimes get the best of him, and he hates pranks pulled on Meg. This puts him at odds with his obvious nemesis, Peter. They will often get into fistfights, or brutal brawls, often narrated with bad puns that mark the situation. Zack has a terrible fear of haircuts, and also a fear of pumpkins. While being an angry person, and petty and violent at times, he can also be caring. He had been known to, ironically, pull pranks on his family, including Meg and Maddie. Zack also has a number of strange sexual fetishes, even considering tentacle rape at one point, and this leads me with the question as to wether or not he's related to Quagmire in any way.
Zack could sometimes be classified as a Mary Sue due to his troubled childhood, and angsty nature about certain things, but this is quickly negated when his flaws and issues are used as devices to drive a particularly funny joke or gag. Zack has an obvious love of cars, and even started his own auto shop, but it was destroyed by, you guessed it, Peter. Zack is never really shown starting a chapter, or centering it around himself, but rather reacting to the other family members. A bit more polishing could have brought out more traits in him, but as it's still early in the story, anything can happen.
Onto Matthew Kennedy. This Matt is perhaps the biggest Anti Sue I have ever seen. He was featured very little in the start of The Spellbook, and even less after he married Meg and fathered her daughter. Matt doesn't really have an obvious personality, as we never see him around that much. While Zack Murdock is a person who reacts to the events around him, and Matthew Ryder is a person who starts a situation, Matthew Kennedy is a person who does neither. He really just stands into the distance off screen and someone occasionaly throws a small object at him to see if he'll do anything, or in Rosie's case, a large object, like a trashcan. Matt dresses in a sleveless black shirt, blue shorts, and a pair of sneakers. His hair style is short and brown, making me to believe that Ander just renamed Kevin Swanson and threw him into the story. The traits of Matt's personality were really only fleshed out in small peices of dialouge, but I can say these things: Matt can be a jealous person at times, as well as heroic, going to try and save a pregnant Meg from being burned at the stake, but ended up being held at gunpoint while someone else saved her. Yeah, real heroic Matt.
Matt plays the role of the silent protagonist well, but since this is a book and not a Role Playing Game, it doesn't work at all in this format. Some fleshing out of his character, and maybe some obvious personality traits would do him some good. Perhaps Ander could center a whole chapter around him at some poin. I know! What on earth am I thinking? A Matt chapter? Besides, everyone knows Ander hates to stray away from the canon. I wish some luck to Ander, I hope that when you get back from your exams that you'll have some very interesting chapters for us, and I hope you take this review to heart, rather than the flaming some poeple may think it is.
I have saved the hardest for last. Matthew Ryder is perhaps the most fleshed out and detailed OC I have ever seen. His non-canon appearance, his abilityes, as well as his faults make him rather complex, and unpredictable at times. Matthew Ryder is the polar opposite of Matthew Kennedy. He dresses in heavy set robes, carries a sword, and has long, wavy black hair. Bhaal even went as far as to tell us he has red eyes, which would be impossible to tell if he were in the actual show, but then again, he also told us Meg had green eyes. Matthew is a character that tends to start much of the conflict that goes around the Griffin household. Matthew is in possesion of Divine Powers, and is Meg's Guardian Angel. He has numerous powers, that rival God at times, such as telekinesis, telepathy to some degree, mastery of several types of weapons, as well as a strong manipulation of Light and Shadow. The only problem with these powers, is that if you take his sword from him, he's nearly powerless. Losing his invulerability, and most of his insane strength. Matt also has incredible speed when the time calls for it, he even beat an ambulance to the hospital on foot. While having all these powers, Matt is the only person with Divine powers in this story that didn't become corrupted or full of himself. He, unlike God or Evil Jaina, is well aware of his weaknesses, and works very hard to cover them. While he cannot be killed by mortal weapons, that doesn't stop him from taking up a defensive in a gunfight. Most of Matt's flaws are psychological, rather than physical. He has a major rage problem, nearly killing an omnipotent being who was trying to kill his daughter, as well as being incredibly overprotective. When Peter pulls a potentialy dangerous prank on Meg, he tends to react violently.
His other flaws include, and are not limited to, the following: Matt is bizzarly open minded. When Jaina started an incesteous relationship with Stewie, he accpeted them without hesitation, though even he had his limits as to what he would tolerate. Matt also suffers from a sterility. He is unable to have sex with Meg, which is a point Peter is always willing to joke about. In the future, despite still being only ninteen, he remedied this problem with Viagra, which Stewie found, thought were vitamins, and swallowed a whole box of. Matt also has a strange Emo fetish. When Meg turned emo for a short time, Lois and Peter were worried, while Matt could be seen cursing his lack of ability to get an erection. Matt is known as a master of armed and unarmed combat. He has gotten into several fights, one resulting in his own death, and has usually won. There has been some debates as to wether or not Matt is a Mary Sue, but he's not. Not everyone likes him, he has very potent weaknesses, and his personality can be undesirable at times. It's alright for a character to be nearly invulnerable, that just makes it all the more of a shock when something that can kill him is brought out for the first time. If Matt is a Mary Sue simply becuase he has incredible power, than that would mean that other characters, like Harry Potter ot Superman, are Mary Sues as well. While Matt is nearly invulnerable, it is quite easy to kill him by attacking his heart. He appears to have similar weaknesses to Spider Man, or Anakin Skywalker.
Personality wise, Matt can be caring and loving at one moment, and cruel and sadistic at the next. Matt was also shown in several chapters to have a nutty side, though this may be Peter just rubbing off on him. Matt shares a very close relationship with his daughter, being the only one besides Stewie who can calm her down when she is upset or scared. This may be due to the fact that he is a stay-at-home dad, but also may be due to the fact that he and Jaina share powers. All in all, Matthew Ryder is a very well thought out OC. The clear evidence of an author that spent a while working on his character, and trying to make him fit in with the family. While not nearly as funny and witty as Zack Murdock, or not as 'in the distance' as Matthew Kennedy, Matt really fits in well with the family, despite his incredible power.
Well, I hope youve enjoyed this little adventure in Character Profiling. Now we know what ever happened to, three Meg Lovers and their children.
Characters by: Ander Arias, Bhaalspawn, Malcolm Fox
Critical Assesment by: Material
I would like to thank the three geniuses who have created such likeable and complex characters.
Note: I will be doing this again when the stories have been completed.