Characters
From TLKFAAwiki
The single most used subject in any piece of artwork in TLKFAA is a character. They help give life to art and are featured in every fictional and most non-fictional entertainment sources, the art of TLKFAA especially.
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What is a Character?
A character is any living organism (or non-living organism, given life by the magic of imagination) that an author, screen-writer, producer, artist, or other artistic person creates. In the community of TLKFAA, a character is accepted as being an animal that an artist commonly uses in his or her uploads. The character often has a fictional story behind it. There are two kinds of characters in TLKFAA: canon and original.
Canon Characters
(See main page, Canon Characters) Canon Characters are characters that appear in the original "The Lion King" movies and are most often accepted as also including any characters that Disney has officially introduced into the Lion King universe, such as those in TLK6NA or Disney comics (such as Tojo or Malka). These characters, although they never appeared in the Lion King movies, can be considered canon because they are owned by Disney, the creators of "The Lion King". Some 'canon' resources (the books, comics, et cetera where the characters can be found) contridict each other, whether it be as simple a contridiction as how Zazu became majordomo according to a story in TLK6NA (How True, Zazu) and how he became majordomo according to a Disney published story-book entitled "Friends in Need" or as large a contridiction as Kopa being Simba's supposed first cub in TLK6NA and Kiara being his supposed first cub in "Simba's Pride". Many artists use canon characters, whether as well-known as Simba or as little-known as King Joe, in their personal theories, fan-fics, fan-art, et cetera. Some artists use certain inconspicious (or not so inconspicuous) characters so often, they use them as if they were their own fursonas or other high ranking original characters. Obviously, since the artist was not the original creator, they are not true original characters, but they are still accepted by the community as a representational symbol of the artist. Two very famous examples are [1]Timali, who uses the bird featured in the song "We Are One" from "Simba's Pride" as her representational character, and [2]Sarafina, who uses Sarafina, Nala's mother, as her representational character and artist namesake.
Original Characters
As quoted from TLKFAA's "Edit your Characters" page- "here's where you can post each of the original characters you've created for art, role-playing, stories, or any other reason. You can designate a picture for each one as well as a description and other information to help your fellow artists refer to the character." As explained, original characters (or OC's) are characters that are not canon, meaning they are created and owned by someone who is not employed by Disney and has not been accepted by the Walt Disney Corporation as an official part of the canon Lion King universe. Artists create original characters to, as Brian said, draw for fun, role-play with, write in fan-fiction, or for some other reason. They often intertwine with the Lion King universe, especially those included in fan-fiction, but do not have to. Many are created simply because the artist wanted to draw them. Some are realistic to the point of the realism of the original Lion King characters, others are bizarrely and completely unrealisticly designed. TLKFAA accepts both kinds of characters as long as they fit in the guidelines of the archive.
Fursonas
The word 'fursona' is a portmanteau of 'fur' and 'persona', used in the "furry fandom" to describe an anthropomorphic animal used to represent the artist. Fursonas can be any animal, but are predominantly lions on TLKFAA, although there are several exceptions. Sometimes artists give fursonas "mates" or friends. Often these additional characters are representational characters of people around the artist, maybe a significant other or a real-life friend. Sometimes they are completely fictional and based off no one or nothing in particular. Both fursonas and 'regular' original characters are sometimes adopted on the Trading Tree or chosen from a contest that an artist posts.
Character Controversies
As with most things on the web, original characters bring with them a lot of drama. Design theivery, sometimes considered a form of art theft, is the most common of the problems. This problem occurs when one artist is upset and claims another artist has copied specific design aspects of their own (or another artists') character. Overreactions do occur quite often, but sometimes characters really are copied. As with everything in TLKFAA, the best way to avoid running into this is to be completely original in all of your work. Characters can be registered by choosing "edit original characters" on an artists' page, however remember that ideas cannot be copyrighted, and to register any character there must be evidence of it, such as art or fan-fiction. --Razzi 15:11, 6 September 2006 (PDT)
