Is your doll's character a doll or a person?

My boy Nika has 3 "versions" of himself, and in essence, it's always the same character with the same personality, just a different background.

The first "him" was just the drawings I made of him, which was either him as a normal kid, and the ones of him as when he was an orphan and going crazy (those had a bit of blood in those). He is this version in the artwork I draw and nothing else.

The second "him" is the story he has as a major character, where he's got DID (Disassosiative Identity Disorder, or multi-personality) and tries to grow up after all the psycological damage and abuse he suffered in the orphanage (that story starts at his adoption). This is him usually in the stories I write and occasionaly (when I get Alistair) in photostories.

The last "him" is the one that he is in when I talk about him as a doll. That's the person he is as a doll sitting on my shelf, or living in my room. Any photomessages or even photostories I create of him is usualy him this way.

Sometimes, any number of these will mix or blend and end up in some form of media (drawing, writing, photography) but in the end it's the same character, same personality(s), same traumas, and those things will never change.

 

I don't have a doll quite yet, but it would definitely be a human in a different universe. He's a bit of inspiration for the novel I'm writing =)

 

This, exactly for me as well. To me and in RPs with other owners the subject of them being dolls will occasionally come up and be acknowledged, but the rest of the time (even in the same RPs) they're treated like actual people. In their own stories, too they're real, living (or not, as the case may be) people (or not-people) who have histories and families and everything else people generally have. They live in an AU where vampires and demons and faeries (among other things) are real, so I don't actually exist to them in their own world. ...Unless maybe I'd the mytserious and unnamed landlady of the building they all live in.

 

My family - both the ones I have and the ones I've yet to get - come from two worlds. One world is living with me while the others' worlds are some far-out fantasy realm place. It's an ongoing joke that those of the world I am in try to enlighten the stubborn air-headed fantasy characters that they really are dolls and their strings are being pulled by some sadistic big-giant-human who bought them.

It's the cause of much argument here with them.

 

I think of them as sentient dolls. They're dolls, but it doesn't stop them from having sentience - a self-aware doll if you like. Like Pinoccio or Chucky or any number of filmatic or literary sentient dolls.

Phil.

 

When I purchased my unoa doll, I thought she'd be my model doll for whom I would make clothes,
but her human-like features sometimes make me think of her as more than a doll. Shes only been here for a couple of weeks and Im already well attached to her.

 

It's a bit of a mix for me at the moment. In photostories, Tala interacts with me and is a doll. When I write/rp as him, he's a person, though still not actually human heh. He has a backstory, world family everything. I just find it hard to portray that in my few photostories so far. Maybe that will change once I have his brother in doll form.

 

Thank ya. I figure it'll be a lot easier on my wallet this way >.> Most of my cash (after I buy my 3 member cast) will go toward heads, eyes, and wigs.

 

Haha. I think she'd be like a fictional character. But sometimes break the fourth wall, knowing she's a doll...

Curiouser and curiouser....

 

i think he's a fictional character that fits with my daily life, i'd refer to him as my 'son' and some of my friends like him and treat him like a kid, so it's all good

 

So, the way my Andre lives is a bit odd. His story originated when he "moved into my head." My friends had started joking that I was like the scarecrow from wizard of oz and I didn't have a brain, so I decided that I'd rent out the space. Andre moved in. He draws pictures (eg he's a personification of my imagination) as his way of paying rent. At first he didn't talk to me much and didn't venture outside of my head, but the longer he stayed the more his story developed. The inside of my head is now a 2 bed 2 bath house where he lives with Sara (my inner female, not yet realized in bjd form). Andre has aquired a work place, age, personality, etc. He also has an existence as a person in a world that is essentially our own. What makes my perception of Andre even more complex is that he has met me in my own world in dreams. I know that doesn't sound any different to y'all than me writing myself into his story, but it's a whole different level to him that honestly creeps me out...my dreams are exceedingly real, so it's like seeing my made up character alive....

 

My dolls characters are more human (even though they look like cat-children). Despite what they look like on the outside, their characters are more like the average college student. I had always imagined them as being in their late teens/early twenties, and coming from their own world with their own quirks and hobbies.
Jeremy and Ashley are twins; Ashley being the stern intellectual type and Jeremy being a bit of an ass-clown xD Chester is two years older than them, and he's a burnout slacker with a surfing addiction.

 

uhm...I actually think of her as a person...but sometimes it's really hard
for example, she gets a completely new wig, how do you explain that? well...she "lives" in the victorian area,
so dying her hair is out of question (she's currently a baldie, but that's another story^^)
She doesn't have any specific occupations or obligations, she doesn't see herself as a doll...more like a friend of mine

 

hrm. i dont have a doll yet, but ive been coming up with many personalities/stories for him, in advance (and for fun)

I already know what I'll name him, and i have a few different personality archetypes that ive made for him ^^; (because i used to use his personas in a few different RPs on SL)

The first personality i made for him was that he was shy, quiet, etc, but not in the 'cool guy' type of way. he was kind of a wimp, but easily annoyed, and would snap at you if you annoyed him, only to sulk afterwards. he was a bassist in a band in Nagoya.

the second personality i made for him was much more abrasive. he was fairly rude, argumentative, and was always insulting his pseudo-sister (they werent really related, but he saved her life when she was young and feels responsible for her since both of their parents died.) he also picked fights often and carried both a sniper rifle and a shotgun at all times (because the world they lived in was dangerous. such precautions were necessary)

The third personality i had made for him was completely insane. not the giggling mad 'ill kill you because the voices told me to' insane, but the whimsical, cheerful, 'i had a conversation with a strawberry yesterday. she was very pleasant, and had much insight on the world...' kind. he thinks items talk to him, and subsequently replies to them, to the dismay of those surrounding him. hes generally nice, though overbearing and hyper. he dresses in fancy clothing, and values his hair.

well.... all three personalities i made for him are fairly vain and very concerned with their face/hair....

the problem is, that when i finally obtain the doll that id model after him, i wouldnt know which personality to choose o_o

 

Hm it's interesting question And for me a little difficult to answer...

I don't have my doll at home yet but I already have a character for her.
On one hand she will have her own world with her own story where she is fully living human, on the other hand when it comes to talking and other things doing with me, she will live too... but she will be still doll - aware of the fact I can take out her eyes, put off her wig etc. but she will still live. She will be living doll with emotions, name, personality etc.

For me it will be my friend but also a character in her own story

I hope I explained it just ok

 

Doll :3 All except one, who is from a story of mine

The whole concept that I based my BJD's personalities off of, was the fact that they are dolls

 

Dess is a character in a novel, which is set in a sort of fantasy-steampunk world, where she goes to a girl's school and studies witchcraft in her spare time. The other dolls I have planned are all characters in the same world. But she also has a character as a doll, where she reads manga, watches Star Trek, and pesters me to get her more wigs and clothes. That way I can play with her in a modern, normal setting, while still writing about her as if she was a real person in a made-up land.

 

My dolls are each a doll version of a heart-throb of mine,actually I have three Dollfies who are to me doll versions of the same person, but they are not all doll versions of the same person to me.

 

I've got one doll and am planning for another 2 atm xD

Anyways I think for the most part the dolls I have in mind are both aware and not aware of it. Yuji ( my current one ) is definitley not aware of it. I think the concept is somewhat beyond him but he does realise subconciously he's not exactly like humans either. The world is a more interesting place to him for it and he interacts with the world like a smaller person. You would not find him saying this like 'he's going for a faceup or restringing' in any photo story because to him he is...alive? xD

However his brothers, the eldest, knows and understands their dollie existance but chooses not to bring it up. His twin has a mild suspicion of it. But, as someone already mentioned it, they're their own characters to them ^^

admittedly they have their own backstories, likes dislikes etc. But most backstoried end with 'and then they came to my house where I adopted/got forced to keeping them/ they're staying with another doll etc. otherwise I would wonder why they're in boring Australia and not the other planes of existance they come from.

 

Hello everyone! I'm new to the BJD Community, but I had a question I thought would be interesting discuss, based on what I've been thinking about while waiting for my first little cutie to get here. I'm curious, what do people think of the entire concept?

Now, I don't nessesarily mean basing it off of an original character but even for that! I ordered a doll that I really love, my first BJD! And I haven't even picked a name for him yet, and don't plan to until he gets here. However, I was looking through Mintoncard to find some nessesities for him before his arrival and happened across another doll, one that would be in scale with my first cutie even! An Asleep Eidolon 1/6 male Lian Rong. The moment I saw him, It was love at first sight, which doesn't always happen so strongly for me when I look at BJD's! But I saw his face, and immediately I think one thing. Dean Winchester.

To me, the little guy struck me as an uncanny resemblance to my favourite Supernatural (The Tv show) character! As a child mind you, but even so! Immediately I just... I had /just/ placed my order for my first doll, and suddenly I'd ordered a second. And I know I love his sculpt to pieces, and don't regret buying him one bit! I was still underbudget for what I could afford to spend total on my first doll, so everything was okay! But I knew that I was going to dress him as a Six year old Dean Winchester, and probably do photoshoots for him that way, and I don't know. The more I think about it, The more I feel kind of guilty for that fact, if that makes any sense!

I like the idea of dolls having their own personality, I like them speaking to you (Metaphorically) and telling you who they are in person, the idea that when you get a doll you bond with it and really fall in love! But.. I feel as getting a doll with the idea already in my mind that he's a character from a show I love, I may be restricting him? I hope I make sense, but I'm sure I don't! I considered that perhaps he will speak to me and be someone else, and then simply Cosplay as dean for Photographic purposes! But I looked into other dolls, and already found a 1/12 to be his little brother Sammy (Also from the Show) And another that would make a PERFECT Castiel and.... (Obviously I haven't ordered them yet, But you get the idea!)

Is my guilt justified?

Going beyond my own back and forths however, have any of you had experience like this? Do you regret buying a doll with a specific character in mind, do you ever tire of them after a while for BEING a character that maybe you didn't even fully come up with yourself? Or did you love them even more for it, And ENJOY the fact that others can maybe relate to them because of it in your own fandom community!

Any opinions you have on anything relating to the subject would be great! I'm truly curious.