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Xenna Kuro [PLEASE CRITIQUE BIO]

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Description

Disclaimer: Background image and original character design are not mine. I used them because this is what she has looked like since I first created her, and I wanted to showcase her in all her originally assigned marysue glory, faceclaim included. I do not know who drew the original. I take no credit for it, and I will never use this design again once she is reviewed and redesigned.
If you are the artist, I offer my deepest of apologies for absolutely destroying what you must have had in mind.

This is her OLD BIO.

Please save her.

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BASIC INFORMATION


Full name: Xenna Kuro

Pronunciation: Zeh-nah Koo-row

Nickname(s) or Alias: Fast-Changing Feline

Gender: Female

Species: Nekomimi

Age: 16

Birthday: July 2

Sexuality: Straight

Nationality: N/A

Religion: N/A

City or town of birth: N/A

Currently lives: Hollow Bastion

Languages spoken: English, Cattish, Japanese

Native language: Cattish

Relationship Status: Dating Zexion

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

Height: 5'3"

Weight: 143 lbs

Figure/build: Slim

Hair colour: Black

Hairstyle: Simple, long

Eye colour: Yellow

Skin/fur/etc colour: Fair (skin) ; black (fur)

Tattoos: None

Piercings: None

Scars/distinguishing marks: Has a pair of cat ears (later has a tail as well)

Preferred style of clothing: Simple, yet pretty.

Frequently worn jewelery/accessories: None

HEALTH

Smoker? No

Drinker? No

Recreational Drug User? Which? No

Addictions: Zexion

Allergies: None

Any physical ailments/illnesses/disabilities: "Multiple Personalities"

Any medication regularly taken: None

PERSONALITY

Personality: Very kind and caring, but also bossy and stubborn. She can change personalities on a dime, being playful and loving one moment, and aggressive and spiteful the next. Generally, though, she's sweet.

Likes: Zexion, spaghetti, Sora, exploring, Axel, teasing Demyx, Larxene (later)

Dislikes: Vexen, Xemnas (later), Saix, Xaldin, the claim that Nobodies don't have hearts, 

Fears/phobias: Losing Zexion, being alone, being forgotten

Favourite colour: Blue, black, purple, gold

Hobbies: Singing, reading, drawing, using her power to mess with poor Demyx

Taste in music: Pop, rock, classical, techno, punk

SKILLS

Talents/skills: Can control the element of Sound, controls Dusk Nobodies, Able to travel using Darkness, can shapeshift into a cat (later)

Ability to drive a car? Operate any other vehicles? No

EATING HABITS

Omnivore/Carnivore/Herbivore (Vegetarian): Omnivore

Favourite food(s): Chocolate, ramen, spaghetti, anything Zexion makes

Favourite drink(s): Soda, milk

Disliked food(s): Most veggies except carrots

Disliked drink(s): None

HOUSE AND HOME

Describe the character's house/home: Her room in the castle is pretty basic. Nothing notable, just white walls and a simple bed.

Do they share their home with anyone? Who? She lives with Organization 13, so yes.

Significant/special belongings: Nothing, since leaving home.

CAREER

Level of education: High school

Qualifications: Dedicated, loyal

Current job title and description: #15 in Org 13

Name of employer: Xemnas

COMBAT

Peaceful or aggressive attitude? When given the option, she tries to take the peaceful approach first.

Fighting skills/techniques: Gives it all she's got. Later, she attaches a blade to her tail. She prefers to strike from above or behind. Her favorite technique is deafening the target with sound, or creating echoes and distorting the sounds in the air to make the opponent think she's somewhere else.

Special skills/magical powers/etc: Darkness manipulation, sound manipulation

Weapon of choice (if any): Sound

Weaknesses in combat: She's young and not as experienced as her comrades. Also, she has a big heart

Strengths in combat: She can make you go deaf, or trick you into letting your guard down. She's especially effective when working with Zexion.

FAMILY, FRIENDS AND FOES

Parents names: N/A (never named them)

Are parents alive or dead? Alive

Is the character still in contact with their parents? Not until later

Siblings? Relationship with siblings? One other brother, no contact until later.

Other Important Relatives: N/A

Partner/Spouse: Zexion

Children: N/A

Best Friend: Nixektus

Other Important Friends: Sora, Axel, Roxas, Demyx, Larxene (later)

Acquaintances: N/A

Pets: N/A

Enemies? Why are they enemies?  Xemnas (later), betrayal and attempted murder ; Saix, rude and too aggressive for her tastes ; Xaldin, rude and against her being a member; Vexen, he's a creepy pervert

BACKSTORY

Describe their childhood (newborn - age 10): Growing up, Xenna was small for her age, and was behind other children in development. While the other kids where growing their feline attributes all at the same time, Xenna was three years behind them. It was so bad, her parents were worried she might be human.

Describe their  teenage years (11 - 19): 
15 years old
- Without warning one day, her world was attacked by Heartless. Hoping to find some way to save her family, or at the very least survive herself, Xenna leapt through a Heartless portal just before it closed. When she came to, she was in a dark alleyway, with seemingly no one around. As she wandered the streets, she stumbled upon Axel and Roxas, whose curiosity lead them to take her back to Hollow Bastion. They managed to talk Xemnas into accepting her into the organization, claiming that having her around could be beneficial, as she could be assigned to earning Sora's trust and luring him into traps, since she's not a Nobody. Zexion was assigned to watch her, to make sure she got the hang of things, and didn't cause trouble. He didn't understand why the strange girl insisted she was in love with him. Superior's assignment for Xenna, of having her earn Sora's trust, quickly ended up backfiring. The first time she met Sora, they ended up bonding and becoming friends. From then on, whenever she had a problem she couldn't tell the Nobody's about, or felt troubled by their methods, she would seek Sora out and vent, confiding in him like a best friend. She sincerely felt bad for the Nobodies, believing they deserved the chance to learn about friendship and love, to grow hearts, and felt incredibly torn by the war between Sora and his friends, and the organization. 

16 years old - By this time, Axel, Roxas, Nix, and Zexion were the only ones who knew about Xenna's friendship with Sora. Xenna had also grown her tail, a sign of near-adulthood in her species. Zexion eventually accepted Xenna's feelings and attempted to reciprocate them, but felt unsuccessful. Believing in him whole-heartedly, she found a chunk of crystal and cut it into the shape of a heart, giving it to him as a present. As Larxene started having flashbacks of who she used to be, she began having severe emotional breakdowns, with Xenna being the only one to try and comfort her. Larxene soon came to appreciate this, and they became friends. It didn't take long, of course, for the others to see what was going on, and report to Xemnas that Xenna was giving the Nobodies hearts. Xemnas didn't take too kindly to the fact that Xenna was trying to turn his Nobodies against him, and ordered she be captured. Hearing about this, Zexion, who had received borderline torture as punishment for his intimacy with Xenna, took her and fled, taking her to DiZ, who agreed to help them after Xenna told him she wanted to overthrow Xemnas and use the organization to enforce peace within the universe, as she had gotten tired of Xemnas's desires. During the meeting, Vexen managed to locate them, and told Xenn he could take her back alive or dead, but either way Zexion was getting tortured for his crimes against Xemnas. This enraged her, and she attacked Vexen, stating "I'd rather give up my heart and soul before I let you bastards hurt him any more than you already have. Even if it means becoming what I fear and hate most...a heartless." as she filled his ears with pain-inducing ringing and trying to strangle him. She went on to threaten to kill Vexen to end her friends' misery and become one step closer to killing Xemnas. Speaking over Vexen's taunts, DiZ gently convinces Xenna not to kill him, if for no other reason than to spare Zexion more suffering. She agrees, but promptly stabs her claws into Vexen's eyes, permanently blinding him. Despite DiZ's attempts to shelter the two rouge members, they were eventually captured and dragged back to Xemnas, who ordered Zexion be tortured in front of Xenna before he be forced to kill her. Zexion and Xenna both knew they didn't want things to end like this, so Zexion sacrificed his reputation further, and risked his life, to create a distraction to allow Xenna time to flee through a portal.

17 years old - Xenna had made it home safely and sound and went into hiding, staying there for about a year before Axel and Demyx came to find her in secret, just to see if she was okay. Being too frightened by the sight of them to give them a chance to explain themselves, Xenna ran from her old friends, and got hit by a car. The two took her to the hospital, and she soon awoke to see Zexion standing over her with a look of guilt on his face. Seeing him again brought tears to her eyes, but he told her she had to stay away from him after this, and that she was not to seek out the organization, as it would result in her death. She refused, kissing him and saying she would happily die if it meant getting to spend her last moments with him.

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Things I like about this character and want to keep:


I really like the sound-manipulation power.
I'm torn between making her a Nobody or human with powers.
I know that if I make her a Nobody, I either go against "We will always and only be thirteen members" (one could argue it's just his opinion), or kill someone off for her to replace.
I want her to stay as a fake friend to Sora, like she was originally supposed to be, to lure him into traps.

Things that must go:


No cat features.
No cat-based history.
No "bipolar" or "mutliple-personality" tendencies. 
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Base by EdgyBases
Character Bio Sheet by catastrotaffy
Image size
800x711px 722.32 KB
© 2016 - 2024 inside-our-mind
Comments8
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Empty-Brooke's avatar
Critique:

I can see already that you're wanting to get rid of the nekomimi aspect of the character, and I think that's a really good idea. What you might like to try out if you want to keep a cat-like feel to her, however, is to perhaps keep the cat theme, but forgo making it an integral part of her species. For instance, you can design her outfit to look more feline in appearance; you could include a belt that dangles behind her like a tail, you could have a tight, striped outfit somewhat reminiscent of a tiger, or perhaps something with fur laced around the neck, wrists or ankles. Another thing you might like to try out is, since she has sound-manipulation abilities, give her a set of custom headphones with a design that looks somewhat like cat ears.
Additionally, in wanting her powers to be sound-based, you could incorporate dance into her character, making her motions fluid and dance-like, but also delicate and calculated like those of a cat. 

I not being able to decide if she should be a Nobody of a human with powers, I instead offer up the alternative that perhaps she's a saved heartless. We've seen in the game that Sora could be saved from a heartless state, so perhaps craft a story scenario where your character, and perhaps some other humans, were turned into and then saved from a heartless state. Her powers could be granted as a result of the heartless form she took. 

Design-wise, her height and weight are fine (the weight's very accurate for someone her size and that's something a lot of people tend to underplay so good on you there). She could probably use a little more OOMPH to her clothing designs. I know you specify that she likes simple clothing, but the over-simplicity of it contrasts with the other KH character designs. Maybe try tweaking it so that you use patterns in place of heavy aesthetic details (like the zippers or fold present in canon KH designs). You could use a combination of simple, one-colour fabrics, and furs, a belt or simple, yet interesting, fabric patterns to keep her preferred design simplicity but make her fit in a little more with the cast. Based on the fact that she's meant to originate from Hollow Bastion, you could also give her a more elegant and perhaps steampunky or vine design to better indicate her world of origin. 

The multiple personalities thing is a lllliiiiiiittttllleee over the top, BUT it can be done in a variety of ways that work with the character.
For example, if you go ahead with the "rescued heartless" idea, the personality disorder could be a result of that--perhaps with other "rescued heartless" individuals having similar disorders as a result of the ordeal. You could also craft a story where someone was artificially turning people into Heartless in order to explain why these people were affected by the change and remain affected by it, but Sora wasn't. 
You could make the multiple personality disorder a result of her abilities, perhaps having them be (at first) too much for her to handle, so her mind fractured and she created an alter ego who was stronger than her.
No matter what you do, however, you MUST craft the alter persona as if it were an entirely separate person. Sadly that's something that this bio is lacking and it definitely takes away from the severity of the disorder as well as its impact on her life. 
I think you might also lack in an understanding of the implications of "multiple personalities" as your description of her personality states that she "changes personalities" but then only expands on personality traits that can become heightened (likely based on a situation). I would suggest first looking into and doing some heavy research on multiple personalities, because as you've written her now, she seems more like a multi-faceted character rather than one with multiple personalities. Mind you, a multi-faceted character is a very good thing and I would encourage you to keep her fluctuating personality as a part of her character, but I would also encourage you to craft an entirely separate character to put within her to act as the definite second personality. 
(As an example; someone who is traditionally submissive and perhaps not good at speaking up might fracture and create a second personality who is a more dominant and manipulative individual. The personalities would have different intellects and social skills, would likely have different sets of knowledge and one might be aware of the presence of the other without the vice versa.)

Personally I think it's a bad idea to have her be able to "control" Dusk nobodies. I think it might be a better idea to give her sound-manipulation powers an extension wherein she can act as something of a Pied Piper character. Like, hypnotic sounds. She could play music in a crowd of nobodies and have them lose control of themselves to the music. (Imagine her confronted by the main cast and her means of escape would be to crowd the nobodies around her, have them effectively start dancing uncontrollably, and then she could expertly slip through the dancing bodies while those pursuing her keep bumping into and having to fight the monsters.) This could definitely help with her passive attitude, wherein she doesn't fight people, she makes them dance until they're too tired to fight or she distracts them with dance so that she can escape and avoid a fight. 
Additionally, some extensions to her combat weaknesses are surely needed here. Apart from her lack of experience, I imagine she also wouldn't be able to hold her own against a primarily strong and close-fighting individual. And if this isn't the case, then why? Try to think of any combat scenario she might be confronted with and address exactly how she would get herself out of it, and if she couldn't, then why she couldn't. 

Backstory-wise, there are a lot of things you could work on. Primarily, I think the biggest problem happens to be how intricately her backstory ties into the main cast and their own stories and I think this is something you need to avoid. I also don't.... necessarily have a problem with people wanting to create characters t ship with their favorite canon characters, but there are very few instances where this is done effectively and I feel it's best to focus on the character you're creating first and foremost, rather than who you want to ship her with.
What's interesting about Kingdom Hearts is that all of the characters presented clearly have their own origins, histories and worlds that they both come from and (for some) have to get back to. Tying your character so deeply into the previously established canon character stories robs her of her own impact as her own character. Try to create a story for her that doesn't thrust her into the story so early on. Don't have her means of actions revolve around her crush on a canon character (unless she has "hopeless romantic" as a major personality trait, it's very off). Above all else, give her a goal. If you give her a goal, something that she alone wants to achieve, and something that indirectly brings her into contact with the canon cast, her own story will seem more real and she will seem like a more intricate character in her own right. She could team up with characters in KH to meet a certain end and then, when the task is done, she'll still have more to do, giving her the air of a real person with motivations, inclinations, goals, dreams and wants. 
It's best to come up with a character as if they're the main character of their own story, rather than something implemented into someone else's.

That's all the critique I can offer up at the moment. Hope it was helpful. 

(I would kinda be interested in coming up with a redesign for this character, but I'm sadly super strapped for time at the moment. If you're interested, however, maybe remind me again around mid-september and I can try my hand at coming up with a design for her?)