Application for MoM
Mar. 14th, 2017 08:10 am〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Liv
AGE: 28
JOURNAL: N/A
IM / EMAIL: running.blind.ok @ gmail.com
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
chirality
RETURNING: Former player, no one currently! I used to play such shining stars as Minato Arisato, Gregor Vorbarra, and Catherine Chun.
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Bruce Banner
CHARACTER AGE: 42
SERIES: Marvel Cinematic Universe-- specifically, The Incredible Hulk (2008).
CHRONOLOGY: Very shortly pre-Avengers.
CLASS: Anti-hero! Or reluctant protagonist. Or sometimes antagonist. Bruce is a complicated guy.
HOUSING: Anywhere? Although he might not stay there.
BACKGROUND: MCU wikia, although I use some minor comic points to fill in the substantial blanks in his backstory.
PERSONALITY: Things pulled from comics are in green.
Bruce is quiet, guilt-ridden, and uncommunicative. He's incurably paranoid and justifiably so - he hasn't used credit cards or had an ID in years, and he rarely uses his real name. It's easy to understate how deeply he feels responsible for what he does as the Hulk, but in one deleted scene from the movie we see that he tried to kill himself in the Arctic of Alaska, only to be stopped by the Hulk itself. While a small scene, the implication that Bruce is readily willing to commit suicide - even for such an altruistic reason as protecting people as a whole - is undeniably telling. There are largely two levels to him: what he admits and accepts about himself, and what he denies and tries to eradicate. This push and pull between the facets of his personality is directly psychological, and the Hulk is but a representation of it.
In general a decisive, unassuming person, Bruce doesn't flinch from his circumstances. He is withdrawn and broods more than is healthy, but in the end, he is very practical and constructive about what he does. When it's more prudent for him to return to civilization instead of retreating to hermitage, he does so. He is, actually, very lonely, and longs for something as simple as being able to make friends without putting them in danger - yet his sense of responsibility is too strong to put aside. He's a person that takes absolutely nothing for granted.
He is a deeply emotional person that nonetheless rules his decisions by logic. Inherently wary after an abusive childhood (comic canon that Edward Norton has stated he used as material for his role), as an adult he maintains poor self-image and a strong reluctance to argue or yell. This is a naturally developed trait and not one he trained himself into after gaining the Hulk. Despite this deep well of negativity, though, his rational mind is constantly overriding his emotions, discarding or ignoring those that are hindering him and examining critically even the ones that aren't. However much he doubts himself, his unceasing capacity for sharp logic keeps everything else in check. Uncomfortable as it may make him, Bruce is willing to do things against his conscience and his feelings if logic dictates that it's the best course of action. This is exemplified in how he completely leaves Betty behind for her own safety, and how later he does endanger her when needs must.
This trait is as much a positive as it is a negative; it can easily lead Bruce to act almost callously, and although he is an innately compassionate person (he repeatedly helps other people and even a stray dog even when it puts him to great trouble), he's not without his faults. Bruce is not very good at being a hero. He repeatedly rejects opportunities to let others support him, he is hugely resistant to being part of a team, and he sees himself as, at best, a deliberately detonated bomb. He has the capacity to act as an anti-hero, defying conventional heroic actions and instead doing what is in cold rationality the best choice by his own determination. He resists input from everyone and is insufferably stubborn. He lets Betty and presumably others very close to him influence him sometimes, but by no means all the time. It's always considered and purposeful when he allows someone else into his decision-making process, and that trust from him is unbelievably hard-won.
The abuse his father inflicted on him and his mother made him a wary person at the outset, and years of living on the run has compounded his innate caution. Bruce has long trained himself into emotional distance from other people, particularly now that it would put them at risk - if not from the government, then from himself. Those people that with calm persistence make it past his internal barriers gain a lifelong, loyal friend. Because it takes Bruce so long to trust and open up to someone, by the time he does he is absolutely certain that they are worth his consideration, and he rarely if ever reverses that decision. The list of people he openly cares about is a short one; in canon, we pretty much only see him display this sort of committed devotion to Betty.
Bruce is drawn to Betty because of a combination of factors. On their own, these are not unique character traits, but together they are compelling to him: ready kindness, an intelligence and wit that can keep up with his, and a kind of independent strength that we see when she stands up to her father time and again. Betty is well able to take care of herself, but cares about Bruce simply because she finds him worth caring about. The unconditional simplicity of this is powerful to him. Someone that relied on him too heavily would make it difficult for him to relax around them, unable to stop thinking about his responsibilities; as strongly responsibility-driven as he is, then, Betty's ability to compel Bruce to stop and think about himself compassionately is crucial. She is one of the few things that unequivocally provokes a sense of calm rest in him - even as the Hulk, something unique to her.
The Hulk itself is a purely visceral expression of emotion, an outletting of everything Bruce denies himself during his conscious, waking life. In some story lines in the comics, the Hulk is written almost as an alternate personality, but ultimately it is simply an expression of repressed anger and hurt, and most especially an overriding, absolute refusal to be made a victim. In a very real sense, there is something of it in everyone alive. Hulk is strong because Bruce constantly feels weak; Hulk is angry because Bruce won't let himself be; Hulk is the perfect protector because Bruce feels he can never protect anyone, including himself. They mirror each other.
Bruce states in the movie that he isn't interested in controlling that other force, only in getting rid of it. This is a very childish, if understandable, reaction. He's scared of the uncontrollable force inside him that he's tried to suffocate for so long, and he's tired of waking up with new, violent memories to have flashbacks of, unsure of who he's killed. Hulk tore apart his carefully constructed and painstakingly fought for life with Betty, with a stable, prestigious, meaningful job. But wanting to 'get rid of it' lends it more power, as denial of our inner feelings always does, and it's at the end of the movie when he decides to stop fighting it that he's able to accomplish something more: a glimpse of a reasoning, thinking Hulk. There are hints of this earlier when it protected Betty and took care of her, but those were abstract and basic concepts. Once Bruce does work in cooperation with it, the Hulk speaks and starts to understand consequences on both a real and emotional level. As he says later in the Avengers, his secret is that he's always angry, meaning that in order to obtain control he has to accept that he is angry. Bruce, not Hulk, is the source of the anger.
His intense reluctance to accept the Hulk is a clear mirror of his reluctance to accept himself. While rationally he understands that this is a product of unproductively bad self-image, practically that makes little difference: Bruce struggles with his own identity and his unwillingness to acknowledge that inside of him is the capacity to be the same kind of monster that his father was, a perfectly human one. He grew up with his father convinced that he himself was a monster, and had genetically passed it onto his son, so this is a very real fear to him. To Bruce, the sheer possibility is horrifying, no matter how unlikely we may realize it is for him to ever become a selfish, unstable, violent person. He obsesses over control, ever striving to maintain a perfect grasp on his every emotion and action. Obviously, this is impossible, but his deep, gnawing fear of being a monster in truth - one without the excuse of gamma radiation - drives him to attempt for it constantly. The Hulk is only a metaphor for his own unexpressed emotions. Doing away with them entirely would make him actually insane, and inhuman in truth, but Bruce has yet to fully realize that. He's only made grudging steps towards it.
The true irony here is that Bruce is incredibly selfless and moral. He does have a sense of humor, sardonic and rarely seen, and in average interactions is calm, unjudging, and even kind. He is the kind of person you would trust when you had just met him; there is a compelling levelness about him. When he is not in danger and has room to think for himself, out of the heat of the moment, he is extremely reliable and not unfriendly. Dauntless and moral, Bruce is always striving to do the proverbial right thing that so often eludes the best of us.
POWER: First and foremost, he's (1) the Hulk. When his heart rate exceeds a certain point, whether by exertion or strong emotion, he transforms into a massive, green, and nearly unstoppable monster. He can fall from heights of thousands of feet and get up a second later; missiles and large explosions don't make him flinch; and he's extremely protective of Betty (and presumably other people he cares about).
His weakness in his form as the Hulk is probably his acute hearing, but even zeroing in on that tends not to keep him down for long. A larger weakness is his lack of intelligence-- this is strictly a 'savage Hulk' with very limited capacity for speech. The entire conceit of the Hulk is that he is an expression of rage and therefore unbeatable, and Bruce tries very hard not to transform. His unwillingness to transform should probably count as its own weakness, though he's increasingly getting over that. The fact that he can be easily induced to transform against his will by threatening his life or manipulating his emotions is definitely something he personally counts as a weakness.
(2) CR empathy, for lack of a better term, is obviously not a canon power and largely denotes that long-lasting, firm relationships of any kind will leave a lasting impression on Bruce and on the Hulk. They will gain some trait 'borrowed' from the person their CR is with that exemplifies that person; e.g., being close with a very calm person would make them calmer, being close with someone with a stubborn sense of self-determination would enhance that, and so on. In practice, I hope to use this to engender some interesting, deliberate CR (deliberate by the characters, that is) and to affect some long-term characterization growth in both Bruce and the Hulk.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
FINAL NOTES: None except that I use Edward Norton as PB because I'm a crazy person.
NAME: Liv
AGE: 28
JOURNAL: N/A
IM / EMAIL: running.blind.ok @ gmail.com
PLURK:
RETURNING: Former player, no one currently! I used to play such shining stars as Minato Arisato, Gregor Vorbarra, and Catherine Chun.
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Bruce Banner
CHARACTER AGE: 42
SERIES: Marvel Cinematic Universe-- specifically, The Incredible Hulk (2008).
CHRONOLOGY: Very shortly pre-Avengers.
CLASS: Anti-hero! Or reluctant protagonist. Or sometimes antagonist. Bruce is a complicated guy.
HOUSING: Anywhere? Although he might not stay there.
BACKGROUND: MCU wikia, although I use some minor comic points to fill in the substantial blanks in his backstory.
PERSONALITY: Things pulled from comics are in green.
Bruce is quiet, guilt-ridden, and uncommunicative. He's incurably paranoid and justifiably so - he hasn't used credit cards or had an ID in years, and he rarely uses his real name. It's easy to understate how deeply he feels responsible for what he does as the Hulk, but in one deleted scene from the movie we see that he tried to kill himself in the Arctic of Alaska, only to be stopped by the Hulk itself. While a small scene, the implication that Bruce is readily willing to commit suicide - even for such an altruistic reason as protecting people as a whole - is undeniably telling. There are largely two levels to him: what he admits and accepts about himself, and what he denies and tries to eradicate. This push and pull between the facets of his personality is directly psychological, and the Hulk is but a representation of it.
In general a decisive, unassuming person, Bruce doesn't flinch from his circumstances. He is withdrawn and broods more than is healthy, but in the end, he is very practical and constructive about what he does. When it's more prudent for him to return to civilization instead of retreating to hermitage, he does so. He is, actually, very lonely, and longs for something as simple as being able to make friends without putting them in danger - yet his sense of responsibility is too strong to put aside. He's a person that takes absolutely nothing for granted.
He is a deeply emotional person that nonetheless rules his decisions by logic. Inherently wary after an abusive childhood (comic canon that Edward Norton has stated he used as material for his role), as an adult he maintains poor self-image and a strong reluctance to argue or yell. This is a naturally developed trait and not one he trained himself into after gaining the Hulk. Despite this deep well of negativity, though, his rational mind is constantly overriding his emotions, discarding or ignoring those that are hindering him and examining critically even the ones that aren't. However much he doubts himself, his unceasing capacity for sharp logic keeps everything else in check. Uncomfortable as it may make him, Bruce is willing to do things against his conscience and his feelings if logic dictates that it's the best course of action. This is exemplified in how he completely leaves Betty behind for her own safety, and how later he does endanger her when needs must.
This trait is as much a positive as it is a negative; it can easily lead Bruce to act almost callously, and although he is an innately compassionate person (he repeatedly helps other people and even a stray dog even when it puts him to great trouble), he's not without his faults. Bruce is not very good at being a hero. He repeatedly rejects opportunities to let others support him, he is hugely resistant to being part of a team, and he sees himself as, at best, a deliberately detonated bomb. He has the capacity to act as an anti-hero, defying conventional heroic actions and instead doing what is in cold rationality the best choice by his own determination. He resists input from everyone and is insufferably stubborn. He lets Betty and presumably others very close to him influence him sometimes, but by no means all the time. It's always considered and purposeful when he allows someone else into his decision-making process, and that trust from him is unbelievably hard-won.
The abuse his father inflicted on him and his mother made him a wary person at the outset, and years of living on the run has compounded his innate caution. Bruce has long trained himself into emotional distance from other people, particularly now that it would put them at risk - if not from the government, then from himself. Those people that with calm persistence make it past his internal barriers gain a lifelong, loyal friend. Because it takes Bruce so long to trust and open up to someone, by the time he does he is absolutely certain that they are worth his consideration, and he rarely if ever reverses that decision. The list of people he openly cares about is a short one; in canon, we pretty much only see him display this sort of committed devotion to Betty.
Bruce is drawn to Betty because of a combination of factors. On their own, these are not unique character traits, but together they are compelling to him: ready kindness, an intelligence and wit that can keep up with his, and a kind of independent strength that we see when she stands up to her father time and again. Betty is well able to take care of herself, but cares about Bruce simply because she finds him worth caring about. The unconditional simplicity of this is powerful to him. Someone that relied on him too heavily would make it difficult for him to relax around them, unable to stop thinking about his responsibilities; as strongly responsibility-driven as he is, then, Betty's ability to compel Bruce to stop and think about himself compassionately is crucial. She is one of the few things that unequivocally provokes a sense of calm rest in him - even as the Hulk, something unique to her.
The Hulk itself is a purely visceral expression of emotion, an outletting of everything Bruce denies himself during his conscious, waking life. In some story lines in the comics, the Hulk is written almost as an alternate personality, but ultimately it is simply an expression of repressed anger and hurt, and most especially an overriding, absolute refusal to be made a victim. In a very real sense, there is something of it in everyone alive. Hulk is strong because Bruce constantly feels weak; Hulk is angry because Bruce won't let himself be; Hulk is the perfect protector because Bruce feels he can never protect anyone, including himself. They mirror each other.
Bruce states in the movie that he isn't interested in controlling that other force, only in getting rid of it. This is a very childish, if understandable, reaction. He's scared of the uncontrollable force inside him that he's tried to suffocate for so long, and he's tired of waking up with new, violent memories to have flashbacks of, unsure of who he's killed. Hulk tore apart his carefully constructed and painstakingly fought for life with Betty, with a stable, prestigious, meaningful job. But wanting to 'get rid of it' lends it more power, as denial of our inner feelings always does, and it's at the end of the movie when he decides to stop fighting it that he's able to accomplish something more: a glimpse of a reasoning, thinking Hulk. There are hints of this earlier when it protected Betty and took care of her, but those were abstract and basic concepts. Once Bruce does work in cooperation with it, the Hulk speaks and starts to understand consequences on both a real and emotional level. As he says later in the Avengers, his secret is that he's always angry, meaning that in order to obtain control he has to accept that he is angry. Bruce, not Hulk, is the source of the anger.
His intense reluctance to accept the Hulk is a clear mirror of his reluctance to accept himself. While rationally he understands that this is a product of unproductively bad self-image, practically that makes little difference: Bruce struggles with his own identity and his unwillingness to acknowledge that inside of him is the capacity to be the same kind of monster that his father was, a perfectly human one. He grew up with his father convinced that he himself was a monster, and had genetically passed it onto his son, so this is a very real fear to him. To Bruce, the sheer possibility is horrifying, no matter how unlikely we may realize it is for him to ever become a selfish, unstable, violent person. He obsesses over control, ever striving to maintain a perfect grasp on his every emotion and action. Obviously, this is impossible, but his deep, gnawing fear of being a monster in truth - one without the excuse of gamma radiation - drives him to attempt for it constantly. The Hulk is only a metaphor for his own unexpressed emotions. Doing away with them entirely would make him actually insane, and inhuman in truth, but Bruce has yet to fully realize that. He's only made grudging steps towards it.
The true irony here is that Bruce is incredibly selfless and moral. He does have a sense of humor, sardonic and rarely seen, and in average interactions is calm, unjudging, and even kind. He is the kind of person you would trust when you had just met him; there is a compelling levelness about him. When he is not in danger and has room to think for himself, out of the heat of the moment, he is extremely reliable and not unfriendly. Dauntless and moral, Bruce is always striving to do the proverbial right thing that so often eludes the best of us.
POWER: First and foremost, he's (1) the Hulk. When his heart rate exceeds a certain point, whether by exertion or strong emotion, he transforms into a massive, green, and nearly unstoppable monster. He can fall from heights of thousands of feet and get up a second later; missiles and large explosions don't make him flinch; and he's extremely protective of Betty (and presumably other people he cares about).
His weakness in his form as the Hulk is probably his acute hearing, but even zeroing in on that tends not to keep him down for long. A larger weakness is his lack of intelligence-- this is strictly a 'savage Hulk' with very limited capacity for speech. The entire conceit of the Hulk is that he is an expression of rage and therefore unbeatable, and Bruce tries very hard not to transform. His unwillingness to transform should probably count as its own weakness, though he's increasingly getting over that. The fact that he can be easily induced to transform against his will by threatening his life or manipulating his emotions is definitely something he personally counts as a weakness.
(2) CR empathy, for lack of a better term, is obviously not a canon power and largely denotes that long-lasting, firm relationships of any kind will leave a lasting impression on Bruce and on the Hulk. They will gain some trait 'borrowed' from the person their CR is with that exemplifies that person; e.g., being close with a very calm person would make them calmer, being close with someone with a stubborn sense of self-determination would enhance that, and so on. In practice, I hope to use this to engender some interesting, deliberate CR (deliberate by the characters, that is) and to affect some long-term characterization growth in both Bruce and the Hulk.
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
FINAL NOTES: None except that I use Edward Norton as PB because I'm a crazy person.
