Spherical Time

I hope you really do favor criticism, cause here's some more: I think that G. Palmer is right. I'm a genre writer and fan, and what little I know about Daniel sounds like a cliche. He's not in the bloodline, but he's the "second comming" which is both a biblical cliche and a "Wheel of Time" cliche.

He's also "the good guy." He's a selfless warrior with a heart of gold. So I find myself not really caring about him, because he seems to perfect to be true. Christ might be a good role model, but he's not a very interesting fantasy character.

Further, "Lion Heart" sounds suspiciously like Aslan. Granted, it's different enough so that I wouldn't worry about infringing on the FFVII copyright of the "Lionheart" weapon except:

So, all of this could be considered copyright infringement. You may able to write the story using these names, but no reputable publisher is going to touch it with copyrighted/trademarked names.

This is odd, considering that the rest of the names are okay. "Daniel" is fine, as are "Caine" and "Suran." I may not particularly like "Daniel," but you like it, I'm not going to complain about you using it for a character if you think it fits, although I am getting shades of "Richard" from the "Sword of Truth" series by Terry Goodkind.

Mike C

I didn't make any association with Aslan, but lionheart automatically associates with Richard Coeur de Lion - Lionheart - King Richard 1 of England.

He's the one who shows up at the end of Robin Hood movies.

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Aced

Lol, I couldn't think of anything else at da time when I first thought out the characters. I am trying to find new names(thus why I made the topic, so I can find a way to make better and newer ones) so those are just basic names. And taking the name'Lionheart' from ff8... So many things have Lionheart in them... It would be infringment if I made Lionheart the ultimate sword with a blue blade and it could be used as a gun. Just the name Lionheart can be used, as think of everything with it used in it.

And obviouslyYou guys don't know enough of Daniel... After becomeing the hero in the story, he begins to hate his life, actually throws away his life a few times, dies about three, and realizes he isn't really real. For the heart of gold, not really. I actually give him a reason to fight in each story, and some of them are less than good(one whole story is about his revenge on the real him and he does whatever necessary to get there, including sacrificing his 'friends'). Sorry if I sound snippy again, I'm truly not trying to, just trying to defend him. Plus, he's still being revised to make him fit better in the story, so who knows what he might be like next. I just try to make him seem like a real person, giving him all the flaws of humanity that I can(only 15. there are some flaws I can't express quite yet)

Also, on the Seph, cloud thing, anyone got any ideas for names? So far, I thought of Boe and Michael.(sorry if this post is long winded, Ijust woke up and me mind's ablaze with thoughts of the coming day)

dwellerofthedeep

Sorry, posted this while Aced was posting his above.

I made naming easier for myself by putting aside 'cool' sounding words for characters. Often I'll name a character for a thing, or just look up 20,000 names (Link: http://www.20000-names.com/) for a good one that fits the setting. I don't think making up brand new names is a good idea for any story, even fantasy, it can create more confusion than it's worth. As long as characterization is good and the name isn't overtly silly or incronguous with the rest of the world or style of the story I think you could get by with anything.

As a side note I don't think anyone could trademark Sephiroth as it is originally a name given to the members of a host of angels with the duties of looking after God's fingers and toes or something similar to that.

I still wouldn't use it as it's a well recognized name. It's very similar to Darth Vader in that way really, far too recognizable and, on top of that, it sounds a little cheesy to begin with. The first part of the above statement probably applies to Cloud as well.

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Aced

Lol, just said I was trying to find new ones. and ont he angels thing, never knew that. I only heard it in FFVII stuff and that's where i got it, since I was unable to think of anything else.

Oh, and I doubt these are, but since I'm not the biggest guy here in knowledge of copyrighted stuff, has anyone used Daith Darain?

G. Palmer

Well, when it comes to name I just throw two and two together, occassionally I'll set certain qualifications for the names, the common how it sounds, but it also depends on the character. I won't name a rich character Joe, I won't name an elegent woman something bland. And I usually try to come up with something relatively memorable. Recently I was writing a piece set in Greece revolving around the assasination of a guy called Argyris Pontius, and was coming up with his mistress as a character. I got a first name, but couldn't come up with a last one, so I made her his wife and low and behold I got the wonder that is: Delta Pontius.

Right now I am trying(probably should read some first!) to write some Fantasy, and I've given the God's all Latin or French names. This has carried on through to the royalty (whom I also added some Russian/Czech names) of the story, but for the main characters, the poor ones, I've gone for Celtic, Slavic, Anglo-Saxon names etc. To try and create some diversity and while some of the latter names sound cool, none of them sound as important, grand or regal as the former names. I also hope that giving minor characters more important names those names will kind of stick in people's heads.

Aced

Did you post that fantasy here, cuz id be willing to read. I write Fantasy, and its always good to see how other people word stuff.

G. Palmer

Nope, currently it is less then a page of a disorganised opening.

Aced

Well, if you post it, tell me.