So, I thought it would be cool to start doing some sort of analysis or "spotlight" posts about specific characters. Just as a sort of means to be able to talk more about these characters and how they came to be. Because I feel like I have so much I could say that may interest people, or maybe at the very least help other writers if they feel they struggle with character creation. I love talking about these characters and outside just doing it I don't really have an opportunity or excuse to do so. Thusly I've decided I'll just do it and maybe people will dig it and start requesting ones in the future I don't know, but I feel for some characters something like this could be very interesting. So all that being said since it's Native American Heritage Month, I felt it was only right to start with Coyote, or as some call him "Mica."
I don't really recall how I got the idea to include Coyote in the game, just only that it was a sort of happy accident. If I recall right, I knew I wanted a trickster character to get the reader and Elrohir up the stairs to the secret library in Literature class. And I believe at the time I was actually looking at fox mythical creatures, because typically foxes seem to represent tricksters. Actually, yes I recall now that's what happened, because there was I believe a specific fox from folklore. But upon reading the Wiki page for trickster, I stumbled upon Coyote and a bit about his story. And the more I read the more I was like, "he's absolutely the perfect character."
The next thing though I had to consider was the fact that he was from Native American mythology. And I love Native culture, so I really wanted to use him. But I knew Natives in the past had been poorly represented and can be pretty protective of their culture. So I just wasn't sure if I should include him I knew I was doing the research and putting in the effort to make him feel authentic and the culture respected. But that didn't mean Native readers would feel that way. So I kind of just had to make a call, and I decided to just take a chance on Coyote.
So with Coyote I kind of tried to keep him vague originally again I just didn't want to commit to some depiction of him and offend a bunch of people. So yeah I just kept him vague. When Coyote really came alive and was fleshed out, was after I cast him.
After talking with his VA I really became more confident with what I had done with him no matter how small it was. That I just doubled down, at that point I had already sort of began fleshing out his backstory. But it was those conversations that really pushed me to just go for it and I knew if I messed up his actor would be there to set me straight. But before I launch into the choices for his backstory. I wanted to talk design. Because in the book Coyote is really vaguely described. All you know is he's a bipedal Coyote, again that was me sort of trying to not offend anyone or give myself sort of an out if people didn't like him. But like the more I had thought about it the more I wanted to commit to the character. So actually design was probably that first step of like, "I'm really just going to go for it." I looked up proper traditional Native attire, I felt like while yeah I could just keep him naked, pants wouldn't hurt. Though I guess technically he still doesn't wear "pants". And then I went and found someone who makes authentic traditional Native jewelry and just found one that I felt made the most sense. Which was one that included buffalo teeth because of his connection with the buffalo.
So anyways, as far as backstory goes, Coyote really gave me a run for my money. There are other characters like say Wepawet who have complicated origins that sort of take fenagling to work. My philosophy writing PSA has always been, "validate as much of the traditional mythology as possible, use as much as can be used." With Wepawet it was an issue of there being essentially 0 lore to use mixed with conflicting information, and I sort of had to make definitive calls on what to keep and rework into the mythology of his complicated family tree. Coyote the issue was there's SO much mythology, and 0 consistency. Coyote is essentially who he needs to be at any given time. Essentially how Loki is in Norse mythology. So it became a question of how do I make it so this character represents all tribes respectfully instead of just one. Because the myths vary by tribe some see him has a villainous character while others he's a hero. So the solution was simple, it's all true. I guess like Schrodinger's Cat. I just decided I wasn't going to commit to anything necessarily specifically, but I wasn't going to say anything wasn't true. And I used that to determine who Coyote was. I made so even he didn't know. Which sort of came from something Marvel did with Thor. Thor in the comics is so old that time just doesn't mean anything to him it all sort of just blurs. So I took it a step further and said, "okay well if you're immortal and have been around since essentially the dawn of time what happens to your memories?" We humans have a capacity, things get hazy and blur as the brain makes room. So I figured, "okay then yeah why not Coyote?" He's not really a god he just has god like powers. So I then used that decision to flesh out his personality, what would that do to someone? How would you react and process things if you didn't even know the truth about yourself either?
This book or game has always said, "everyone is flawed, no relationship is perfect." And Coyote was sort of the embodiment of that, because to accept him as he is now is to accept the possibility that some pretty messed up things about him are true. In a way I guess it asks players to evaluate how they judge someone as "good" or "bad". And I think maybe that might even make some people uncomfortable which sort of was the point too. Which I mean arguably every character at PSA sort of forces the player to consider a morally grey world. Even the ones who are seemingly nonproblematic have something about them that is questionable. But without a doubt Coyote is the one who really represents this, and I think too Coyote really represents people who have made mistakes and are trying to be better in a world that is incredibly critical of mistakes. Maybe he'll be someone's beacon of light that says, you can be redeem, or at least you can try. I don't know, he's so unintentionally multifaceted, just because in his own real world mythology he's multifaceted. Anyways that's a breakdown of Coyote, aka "Mica" hope you found this insightful. And perhaps I'll do another one in the future!
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