Ramblings: Understanding Saguru

[ickaimp]

Recently got a PM from some ff.net authors looking for help getting into Saguru's head. Copying my response here, since other people also tend to have trouble with him.

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Heya! Apologies for the delay, I have a job that keeps me travelling the
majority of the time, which makes correspondence sometimes difficult.

To be honest, Hakuba was the hardest character for me to get into his head as
well. Two things helped me get into his head.

One: Reading the Arsène Lupin books by Maurice La Blanc. They're hard to
find, but several of them can be found here: http://www.munseys.com/detail/mode/tag/Arsene_Lupin

... if the link doesn't work, it's at Munsey's period com, Look under
'Mystery', you also get Holmes' books there. My version of Kid has been
greatly influenced by Lupin as well. Hakuba, to me, is a cross between
Guerchard and Ganimard. Guerchard has the stick up his butt, but Gainmard is a
friendly rival with Lupin.

The second was reading into British Culture and History. Effingpot.com
is a great site for vocabulary, there's several other good references for
'writing' British in the Harry Potter fandom. If you're used to thinking or
writing in American, there are several subtle differences, all the extra 'u'
aside.

As far as writing Saguru... more research. Yay.

Back to the second part. Saguru was at least partially raised in England,
that's going to have a large impact on him, he's not going to read as
'Japanese' to the native Japanese characters who have never left the country.
Doing some reading on Japanese 'Haafu/Daburu/Ainoko/Konketsu' if you have a
time, depending on how much research you have done on Japanese culture, may
come as a rather large shock or surprise.
Basically boils down to the fact that stuffy attitude aside, he's pretty much
always going to be on the fringe, since he's not exclusively one culture or
the other. Not as big of a deal in the UK, but a very large deal in Japan.

For speech patterns, he's one of the easiest. As few contractions as possible
and using the largest, most educated vocabulary whenever possible. If given
the choice between a short common word or a longer rarely used word, he tends
to go for the longer word whenever possible, at least in my head. He tends to
be a very linear thinker, as compared to Kaito.

I've gotta run, but if you have further questions or need clarifications,
please feel free to drop me a line directly on e-mail, ickaimp at gmail, it's
easier for me to reply from there.

Thanks for the PM!

-Icka!

Comments

[purplevks.livejournal.com]

1. Links! To those books! YaysyaysyaysYES.

2. More linking! To something I needed!

...other people also tend to have trouble with him.

Huh. I've never had that problem. Characters like Hakuba are the easiest for me, excluding the whole half-British thing. (Not that MK fiction of my has ever made it online. ^^')

[were-allmadhere.livejournal.com]

I find the hardest thing about Saguru, is the intelligence factor (same with Kaito), I'm more at Nakamori's level, so it's a bit trying. The rest...well, it was a lot harder to write him in the beginning, before I started my longer "Dance" series, in which he's become more relaxed, thanks to Kaito, Akako and Kiden, so not so much of a stuffed shirt (maybe I should work on that before my next series starts...)

The British factor wasn't so bad, after five years of writing Harry Potter, though some of my words still slip into Americanisms.

-Saitaina

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

Ahh, Saguru. He's so much FUN to poke.

Starting from canon, of course, there's the utter smug, the huge differences in his MK portrayal and his DC portrayal, mostly due to the different demands of comedy vs. drama... His arrogance/smugness being played for very different effects depending.

For me, the most important bits are that he's very much, as Icka pointed out, an outsider, not only due to his ethnicity, but due to his intelligence. Add in a family life that has to have him separated from at least one parent at most times, and likely little opportunity to make friends, and he's probably very used to amusing himself. Canon shows him with a tendency to fixate on a problem or puzzle... It's very easy to see him developing obsessive fixation on something or someone, which is scary, as Saitaina's been excellent at exploring.