Anime and Manga
Kana: Don't worry, I won't tell this to anybody. I will carefully lock it into my heart... (smiles creepily) and take it out sometimes to look at it. Yes... intently...
Mika: What the hell?
— Kanamemo
Comic books
Grant Morrison: Someone else writes your life. They might play it safe and write you as a straight action superhero who fights animal-inspired supervillains every issue. They might do the obvious and go for shock by turning you into a meat-eater. I don't know.
Animal Man: How can they make me eat meat? I don't eat meat! I don't want to eat meat! I'm a vegetarian.
Grant Morrison: No, I'm a vegetarian. You'll be whatever you're written to be.
Animal Man: How can they make me eat meat? I don't eat meat! I don't want to eat meat! I'm a vegetarian.
Grant Morrison: No, I'm a vegetarian. You'll be whatever you're written to be.
— Animal Man, "Deus Ex Machina", Grant Morrison's last issue as writer.
Fan works
"Listen carefully. You remember how you asked me to investigate why your powers fluctuate wildly?"
"That's... that doesn't matter right now!"
"It matters more than you know. This may be difficult to believe, but listen to me." Bruce closed his eyes and gathered his remaining strength. "Our universe is controlled by impossibly powerful extra-dimensional beings who call themselves 'Writers.' We're nothing more than their playthings."
"Some outside force, likely something we cannot even comprehend, changes how the Writers manipulate our world. That's why your powers vary. When certain Writers are in control, you are a living god, but other Writers weaken you substantially. I have no idea why."
"That's... that doesn't matter right now!"
"It matters more than you know. This may be difficult to believe, but listen to me." Bruce closed his eyes and gathered his remaining strength. "Our universe is controlled by impossibly powerful extra-dimensional beings who call themselves 'Writers.' We're nothing more than their playthings."
"Some outside force, likely something we cannot even comprehend, changes how the Writers manipulate our world. That's why your powers vary. When certain Writers are in control, you are a living god, but other Writers weaken you substantially. I have no idea why."
Live-Action TV
Crow: Why do they need so many writers?
Tom Servo: Oh, they needed one guy for the verbs, one guy for the nouns, somebody for the adjectives, y'know, adverbs, gerunds.
Tom Servo: Oh, they needed one guy for the verbs, one guy for the nouns, somebody for the adjectives, y'know, adverbs, gerunds.
Actually, the show can't make up its mind about Danny. One minute he's a nervy, shy, nice guy, and the next, he's behaving like the biggest shit-eating posturing little bum-balloon you've ever seen in your life.
There are lots of different versions of Michael Scott. Some writers would write him as childish, others would write him as incompetent, some would write for the version of Michael Scott when he was at his best.
—Gene Stupnitksy, The Office (US) writer
Podcasts
I was struck yet again by how insane it is to read those issues where it jumps between him and [Louise Simonson], and it's like one ongoing conversation, and in the Weezy issues [Madelyn Pryor]'s a mustache-twirling supervillain, and in the Claremont issues she is a Euripedean tragic heroine, and it's really kind of fascinating.
—Connor Goldsmith discussing Inferno (1988), Cerebro episode 100
Video Games
Tails: Sonic... Am I a burden to you?
Sonic: Wow. And how did you come to this well-thought-out concern?
Tails: Whenever there's a crisis I'm either running away or standing on the sidelines! You're always rescuing me when all I do is just follow you around!
Sonic: Hey! Who was it who stopped Eggman from blowing up Station Square, huh? And who broke me out of prison, or saved me from the Deadly Six's trap?
Tails: I... then I'm wildly inconsistent!
Sonic: Wow. And how did you come to this well-thought-out concern?
Tails: Whenever there's a crisis I'm either running away or standing on the sidelines! You're always rescuing me when all I do is just follow you around!
Sonic: Hey! Who was it who stopped Eggman from blowing up Station Square, huh? And who broke me out of prison, or saved me from the Deadly Six's trap?
Tails: I... then I'm wildly inconsistent!
Web Original
If you were a Jimmy Olsen fan during the Silver Age, it was a tough row to hoe.
For every story in which Jimmy demonstrated intelligence, resourcefulness, and competence, there were a dozen in which he was depicted as a vainglorious, overconfident doofus. And that might not have been so bad, if most of those tales had been smartly scripted ones about a vainglorious, overconfident doofus. But most Jimmy Olsen plots fell into the category of ridiculous, relying on outlandish gimmicks and impossible coïncidences.
A Jimmy Olsen fan longed for his appearances as Superman's partner in a Nightwing and Flamebird story. In those, Superman family editor Mort Weisinger insisted that Jimmy be presented as responsible and mature. The same held true after Mort took over the editorship of World's Finest Comics, when Jimmy appeared regularly at the side of the Man of Steel. "Upgrading" Jimmy was the only way readers would accept the notion that Superman would rely on his assistance so heavily.
But those occasions were infrequent. Most of the time, fans got the doofus Jimmy. Toss in an alien or a magic relic or anything invented by Professor Potter, and you were stuck with a plot that would insult the intelligence of a first-grader.
So you had the goofy Jimmy stories and, on a blue-moon schedule, the heroic Jimmy stories. That was pretty much it.
For every story in which Jimmy demonstrated intelligence, resourcefulness, and competence, there were a dozen in which he was depicted as a vainglorious, overconfident doofus. And that might not have been so bad, if most of those tales had been smartly scripted ones about a vainglorious, overconfident doofus. But most Jimmy Olsen plots fell into the category of ridiculous, relying on outlandish gimmicks and impossible coïncidences.
A Jimmy Olsen fan longed for his appearances as Superman's partner in a Nightwing and Flamebird story. In those, Superman family editor Mort Weisinger insisted that Jimmy be presented as responsible and mature. The same held true after Mort took over the editorship of World's Finest Comics, when Jimmy appeared regularly at the side of the Man of Steel. "Upgrading" Jimmy was the only way readers would accept the notion that Superman would rely on his assistance so heavily.
But those occasions were infrequent. Most of the time, fans got the doofus Jimmy. Toss in an alien or a magic relic or anything invented by Professor Potter, and you were stuck with a plot that would insult the intelligence of a first-grader.
So you had the goofy Jimmy stories and, on a blue-moon schedule, the heroic Jimmy stories. That was pretty much it.
As for the differences between the two: Evan’s style on IDW Sonic is obviously influenced by Ian’s since she’s a fan of his work and it’s still the same series, but I definitely got a different vibe from her stuff right away.
Amy’s probably one of the best examples. Evan clearly set out to make Amy a frontline fighter again right away. Not that Ian was sidelining her or anything, but she’s literally been going on adventures in all of Evan’s first eight issues back to back. She’s also definitely writing Amy more as the platonic ideal of Sega Amy, whereas in Ian’s solo run… Okay, I think people exaggerate the claims that Amy got turned into Sally, but consciously or not… there’s definitely some Sally in the way Ian was writing her for a while. The two are certainly distinct characters, and it’s Sega’s fault in the first place for making her one of the heads of the Resistance, and they drifted even further apart as Amy fell out of her leadership role. But it’s there in a lot of Ian’s run as he slowly weens her off of her role from Forces. There’s a lot of good Sega-style Amy scenes, too, but when I go back and reread pretty much any scene where Amy is commanding the Resistance I can just feel the specter of Sally looming over the story.
Amy’s probably one of the best examples. Evan clearly set out to make Amy a frontline fighter again right away. Not that Ian was sidelining her or anything, but she’s literally been going on adventures in all of Evan’s first eight issues back to back. She’s also definitely writing Amy more as the platonic ideal of Sega Amy, whereas in Ian’s solo run… Okay, I think people exaggerate the claims that Amy got turned into Sally, but consciously or not… there’s definitely some Sally in the way Ian was writing her for a while. The two are certainly distinct characters, and it’s Sega’s fault in the first place for making her one of the heads of the Resistance, and they drifted even further apart as Amy fell out of her leadership role. But it’s there in a lot of Ian’s run as he slowly weens her off of her role from Forces. There’s a lot of good Sega-style Amy scenes, too, but when I go back and reread pretty much any scene where Amy is commanding the Resistance I can just feel the specter of Sally looming over the story.
— Bobby Schroeder
on the differences between Ian Flynn and Evan Stanley's styles on Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW).
on the differences between Ian Flynn and Evan Stanley's styles on Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW).Noah Sterling: Well, that's the history of the Joker. Or, uh… one of the Jokers. Maybe parts of two of them… apparently, there are three now. Still waiting for full answers on that. Ugh. Trying to condense eighty years of this character's history into one clear through line is kinda impossible.
The Joker: (suddenly appears) And that's the joke! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The Joker: (suddenly appears) And that's the joke! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco, Peter David and J. Michael Straczynski and J.M. DeMatteis do not write Peter Parker’s personality consistently.
There are different aspects to why this is.
1) No writer being perfect and sometimes even the good ones drop the ball and engage in mischaracterization. I mean shit even the Lee/Ditko/Romita era sometimes did that. The good writers are the ones who keep that stuff to a minimal, the bad ones are the guys who make it SOP; again see Slott.
2) Writers will present a character in different situations. Is DeMatteis Spider-Man, a married man with a few more years of experience, who’s been tormented by Venom, buried alive by Kraven, seen Ned Leeds betray him and die and in the course of DeMatteis’ run go through mentally/emotionally traumatic events going to act as Roger Stern’s Spider-Man (who had none of that stuff going on) did?
No.
3) Not only will specific situations affect how a writer handles a character but also in an ongoing series each successive writer is in a sense writing a version of the character the former writers innately didn’t. This is because the incumbent writer is now writing the character with a backstory full of more experiences than the former author.
Let me simplify that.
When DeFalco began his run on ASM his Spider-Man was not the same as the Spidey from the Spider-Man Roger Stern began writing at the start of his run, precisly because the latter hadn’t yet lived through all the experiences OF the Roger Stern run and was ‘younger’.
4) Different writers by intention or by accident will wind up emphasizing different traits more than others. Case in point Peter David’s Spider-Man is a lot more grim and angry than DeFalco’s when they were simultaneously working on Spec and ASM respectively. this is partially because PAD just saw Peter that way and partially because editorial wanted him to make Spec a more gritty crime orientated book.
This being said even that aside, PAD, to put it delicately, emphasized Peter’s libido more than DeFalco did. This isn’t out of character, most people have a libido and its part of being human.
But technically it’s inconsistent to Peter’s prior portrayals. But that’s just a case of an area that was mostly unexplored as opposed to ‘not who the character is’.
Similarly DeMatteis made Peter much more spiritual than he was before. This too is ‘inconsistent’ but again only because nobody raised the topic. it wasn’t like JMD made Peter a devout Catholic like Daredevil it was just that, he made it clear yes Peter is a man of faith and wanted to talk about that.
See what I mean. It’s inconsistent in perhaps the most literal sense but its not a case of rendering the personality of Spider-Man less important than his central premise. It was just adding to his personality or exploring it from a previously ignored angle.
This is different to say Dan Slott having Peter be selfish and take paparazzi photos which is something he’d literally never ever do.
Western Animation
"And I gave that man directions even though I didn't know the way 'cause that's the kind of guy I am this week."
— Homer Simpson, The Simpsons
"Batman's rich history allows him to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. To be sure, this is a lighter incarnation, but it's certainly no less valid and true to the character's roots as the tortured avenger crying out for Mommy and Daddy. (Makes the paper disappear.) And besides, those Easter Bunnies looked really scary, right?!"
— Bat-Mite, Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Squidward: Patrick, just how dumb are you?
Patrick: It varies.
"Early on, I learned that writing in a shared world works a whole lot better if you don't define 'sharing' as 'everything in the lore is up for grabs, no matter who created it'."
— Elaine Cunningham on Realmslore
"People get into all these debates of what's Canon and what's not, and sometimes forget the special nature of telling a good story and creating great characters. Part of the fan debate in the past always used to be 'What's canon? What's not?' because there was George, and we always knew George was the canon. I look at it very broadly, and I just say there's a love of Star Wars. Because I knew George, I worked with him, and none of us are going to be him. But we love the Galaxy he created, and we're very much a product of it; growing up with it."
—Dave Filoni on Star Wars
"We work with any creative who is wanting to tell a story of Star Wars, and we help them find the story that they want to tell, while also make sure that story fits within the framework of Star Wars. So it's not just about making sure the number of moons over a planet is correct, it's more about, you know, thematically what are you going for and what's the best way to achieve that with Star Wars. And also, is the story that you're telling—is it something we've done before? Or is it something that's also actually in development somewhere else in the company? So we become this sort of—this point that coordinates all storytelling across the board so that we don't inadvertently tell something that is contradictory, not only from a continuity point of view but from a thematic point of view. Or if we are departing thematically for whatever reason, we understand the artistic decision behind it and it's never because 'Oh we didn't know that was the right way to do it' or 'We didn't know—we did "Y" because we didn't know that "X" was an option.'"
—Pablo Hidalgo clarifying the function of the Lucasfilm Story Group
I know that three writers take turns writing episodes of Glee, and someday I would like for them to meet each other.
"Anytime you want to know who would win a fight between The Incredible Hulk and Galactus or Spider-Man and the Human Torch or anything: the correct answer is, it depends on who's writing the story and who he wants to win. Because the writer is like GOD."
