One of the things I've wanted to talk about for a while is where I've gotten inspiration from that influenced Rico's character/powers. (I haven't gone into detail on his powers yet here and theyve changed since I last posted abt them on my personal. But that's a separate discussion. The details of how they work is not relevant here.) We'll start with a list and then break each entry down.
Watson (from BBC Sherlock) (HEAR ME OUT)
We'll start with one of the earliest things that has influenced multiple characters I've made up over the years. This particular thing was first introduced to me when X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out when I was a kid and its stuck with me since. It released in like '09 so obviously, the original Ben 10 series is older, but the thing that I drew from Ben 10, didn't really fascinate me until I was older and more appreciative of it.
Anyway. Actually- there's two things for this one, but they go hand in hand.
The first is possessing healing/regenerative powers, but still feeling pain. And the second is being immortal/functionally immortal/having an unnaturally prolonged life and that being, truly, a curse.
Darker takes on simple concepts, but they are so fascinating to me. With how it relates to Rico, I want it to be understood that while he has these powers which greatly enhance his physical capabilities, they come at a severe personal cost. He can heal, but he still feels pain. He can live longer than any other person, but he will eventually lose everyone he loves. The vehicle by which he acquires his powers is not a blessing, but a curse inflicted upon him by a man who thought he owned him. And though Rico eventually frees himself from that man, he still must suffer the long term impact.
I don't want it to be misconstrued that my inclusion of Ben 10 here means that this story will be intended for children or be heavily influenced by children's media to the point of intentionally or unintentionally pandering to a young audience. There's just one thing that I think the original series did very well and that's the transformation sequence. It came off as a sort of darker riff on the magical girl transformation sequence at the time. I think the show takes inspiration from both anime and western comics, so that was likely intentional. What I love about it specifically is how visceral the transformation is. When you watch those old sequences, you really get the sense that Ben is changing on a deep, structural level. Flesh, muscle, and bone reshaping into something wholly unfamiliar. It looked painful, though you'd never get that impression from him once the sequence was over
I'd like to carry that painful, visceral sensation into how Rico's transformative abilities work.
So this one really comes from a post I read about Spider-Man some amount of months or years ago. It's not something I found out for myself. Because of that, if this is not an accurate thing about Peter Parker, forgive me.
It was a post about how, while Peter has demonstrably enhanced super-strength, the degree is actually much, much greater than the audience tends to see. He's essentially constantly holding himself back.
I'm still trying to figure out how exactly I want Rico's powers to be scaled against everyone else in the series, especially since he's not exactly surrounded by superheroes, I really want to explore how restraint plays into his character. And not just in regards to physical strength, but his other powers and his general authority as well. He'll also have enhanced senses which feed into his natural perceptive abilities. And, he's also just going to have a good chunk of money courtesy of reparations from the Healey Estate.
This one relates less to Rico's powers and more just a central aspect of his character. Watson, in BBC's Sherlock - perhaps also other renditions or the original version of the character as well, I honestly have no idea; again, im so sorry - is depicted as gravitating towards Sherlock and his shenanigans because the battlefield never left him. Not in the sense that he's haunted by the trauma, but that the rush of the battlefield and terror of the war has left him constantly craving adrenaline even if he does not necessarily want to return to the front lines specifically.
Rico's tenure with Healey is an incredibly traumatizing experience for him. There was years of grooming (in the general sense, not as it relates to adults influencing minors specifically; Rico was an adult at the time), isolation, betrayal of trust, extreme control - augmented by magic, and sexual violence. Rico does not want to return to that life. He does not want to be under someone's thumb like that ever again. But he can also no longer return to ordinary life. He craves the adrenaline provided by being shot at by mercenaries in some random place looking for treasure. And that's what he returns to.
Now that we're at the end here, obviously these concepts and tropes were not invented by these pieces of media nor are they necessarily the best or only examples I've ever encountered of them. They just happened to hit me right in the brain during my formative youth.
I've carried these concepts with me for a long time and I'm super happy to get to explore them all with one character!
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