Clash Champions: The Second Great Renaming

[tangaroa]

I decided to rename several characters in my Smash fanfic.

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When I started to write one scene with characters named Ceilidh, Cela, and Celestia, I could tell that it was not going to work. Just as characters in a cartoon should have such different appearances that you can tell them apart by looking at outlines of them, the names of characters in a written story should look different on the page/screen. When the author is getting confused, the reader does not have a chance.

Celestia is not changing. The name recalls the base character that she is an expy of, implies an angelic personality, and provides the nickname Tia that some characters call her by, which gives these other characters some personality depth in terms of formality versus informality. It works too well to change.

Ceilidh has two stories behind the name so I resisted getting rid of it, but it had to be done. My IRC friend Zibblsnrt joked about inventing characters with names from all around the world like Olubayo MacGregor to screw with the reader. Here, I have an expy of an undeveloped character that I could do whatever I wanted to, so I took up Zib's challenge by giving her the name Ceilidh Minh Bustamante along with a South Indian appearance. The name Ceilidh is stolen from an old and dead webcomic called Avalon that I liked.

This did not work out. Whenever Ceilidh and Celestia were in a scene together, I kept typing the name of the wrong character. If the author can't tell the characters apart, the reader is screwed. A change is needed. I decided to call her Siobhan Minh. This keeps Zib's gimmick and drops the name Bustamante which is too heavy for an elegant and graceful character.

Cela is a minor character who not originally part of the story but I liked her so much that I gave her a few scenes. A girl with the unassuming name Cela Porter, she is secretly Lady Midnight an Assassin's Creed type of character. After spending more time than proper to agonize over the perfect name for a minor character who has two scenes, she is now Rona Porter.

With the new names, the scene will be between Celestia, Rona, and Siobhan. The characters will be the same, the dialogue will be the same, but it will be much easier for the reader to tell them apart.

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I'm not done yet because that was not the only naming problem in this same story. Meet this pair who fit together too well, when they should not.

Solaria the Sun Sorceress has a clunker of a name. It hurts me to think of it being said out loud. Her new name Solana Sondager sounds much better.

Sunny Delight is a Japanese character with a silly Engrish name like Shiny Chariot. The name is ironic since she's a bit of a rebellious slacker. She is not supposed to have anything to do with the sun or Solana's solar theme. She is a different character. When she is teamed up with Solana, the reader can be confused by the implication that there is supposed to be a common theme between them when there is not. She needs to be renamed. Pleasant Beauty will work.

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Hey look, I did it again.

Alif Arkanian and Alex Smith have confusingly similar first names. Alif and Alex. I worked around this by using full names often, but I can change Alif's name to Leph Arkanian which keeps his family's naming convention of being based on Hebrew letters. The "Alif Armor" that Mick favors for power armor becomes "Leph's Armor."

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In summary:

• Job 1: Clear up the confusion between Celestia, Ceilidh, and Cela
  • Cela Porter => Rona Porter
  • Ceilidh Minh Bustamante => Siobhan Minh
• Job 2: Fix Sunny and Solaria
  • Solaria => Solana Sondager
  • Sunny Delight => Pleasant Beauty
• Job 3: Fix Alex and Alif
  • Alif => Leph

The First Great Renaming was changing the title and expy-izing the main characters when I restarted this fic.