Gravity Falls OC- Cora Tanaka
”Bold is me, mod Bill, the reviewer
((This is a bit long, so feel free to take your time and stuff.))
I don´t know when you submitted this since I haven´t checked my inbox in a while, so sorry if I took too long.
Name: Cora Tanaka
Cora is an alright name for someone living in America. Tanaka implies Japanese decent, again it´s okay for someone in America. Both these names can actually be used as names, it´s fine.
Age: 22
Physical Description: Is 5′5′’. Weighs 130 pounds.
This is perfectly normal height and weight for someone her age, no problem here.
Half Japanese, half American. Has brown eyes, brown hair, and tan skin. Her hair is short, only reaching a bit past her chin. Dresses casually, usually in a t-shirt, jeans, and boots.
Just want to say this, jeans aren´t very good for moving around. Cora is a swordfighter and wearing jeans probably restricts movement in her legs. If you´re going to have her wear jeans, you may want to make movement a problem for her.
Almost always wears fingerless gloves that cover her wrists. Carries her sword around whenever possible. Has a scar on the left side of her abdomen.
Carrying a weapon may seem suspicious to people. Does she ever have to explain why she´s carrying around a sword? Gravity Falls is a pretty weird town, but surely people would question it. Hope you explain the scar in the backstory.
Personality: Tends to act on intuition rather than reason. Is calm and composed during most situations, but can still lose her cool. When she’s really scared, she’ll freeze and her hands will start to tremble. Acts reserved and stoic around strangers, but is very encouraging and kind to loved ones. Stoic nature is broken during a fight, in which she moves and acts with a lot of confidence, especially if her opponent is easy. Will smile more when she’s around friends and is very nurturing to them. When you get to know her, she has a very passionate personality. Is an ISTJ.
ISTJ is the Logician, and www.16personalities.com does imply a stoic nature, though you said Cora acts on intuition, but ISTJ is more analytic. This isn´t a major problem, you don´t even need to fix it, everyone is different and even when grouped together with people of similiar personality types, they´ll all be different.
Is very independent and driven. Has a hard time asking people for help. Has a dry wit sense of humor. Is insightful and is easily able to empathize with others. Is easily manipulated and reckless when loved ones are in danger. Is more street-smart than book-smart.
The manipulation and empathizing do go hand in hand, this part is just fine.
Fighting Style: Has learned the Kenjutsu art form of Japanese martial arts. Uses a katana. Fights very fluidly, easily moving from one strike to the next. Can get too over-confident when facing a foe she thinks is easy, which leads to her taunting them in the middle of the fight. When facing somebody who’s a challenge, or somebody who she might lose against, she takes things more seriously. If she’s pushed far enough, she’ll go into a beserker mode and unleash a series of strikes. This makes her more deadly, but also vulnerable, as she can get too reckless and end up seriously hurt.
Her recklessness and over-confidence are good flaws to have and keep her from being over powered. Fighting does happen in the show, though it´s more focused on the mystery. Does she where any protective gear during fights or at all? The fact that she carries a sword and learned swordfighting implies she knows she´d have to fight at some point, but her description never mentions protective gear.
Back story: Cora was born in Watertown New York, 1990. She is the only child of Brooke and Ren Tanaka. When she was five years old, Ren’s father, Kaito, came to live with them after his wife died. Ren’s side of the family are descended from samurai, and some today still learn how to use a sword by going to dojos that teach kenjutsu. Kaito was actually a teacher at one of these schools before retiring. Cora is eventually caught rifling through Kaito’s books about swordplay, and even playing with one of his swords,
Like a real sword? Kaito, keep an eye on this kid! Hope he´s more carefully about where he places dangerous weapons.
but Kaito agrees to teach her when she shows serious interest in learning how to use it.
Glad you expalined her knowledge of kenjutsu.
In addition to learning how to use a sword, Kaito has her read stories and legends about great sword play, stating that they were very inspirational to him when he was learning how to fight.
By this time, Cora had two best friends: Amy and Mark. Cora and Mark are often reckless, enjoying doing daring things and having adventures. Amy has the lucky combination of beauty and brains, not to mention a kind personality. Cora grew up with the two of them, and they became a close-knit trio. The years passed by, with Cora enjoying sword fighting as well as spending time with her friends. During middle school, she became involved with choir and continued being involved in it throughout high school.
During her freshman year at high school, in 2004, she and Mark start becoming closer, and end up developing romantic feelings for each other. Amy plays matchmaker and ends up getting them together at the end of their freshmen year. They remain together throughout high school, having their ups and downs, but ultimately remaining faithful to each other.
Most high school relationships don´t last, but realistically there are ups and downs.
Cora hits a tragic time in her life when her grandfather dies in April of 2007.
WHAT? You killed Kaito? Man, I liked that guy.
Cora takes the loss hard, since her grandfather was her biggest role model. It’s soon after this that she hears about a sword-fighting tournament. She plans to enter and hopes to win in the memory of her grandfather.
AVENGE HIM.
The tournament arrives in November of 2007 and as she moves up through the ranks, she starts becoming obsessed with winning, much to the worry of her family and friends. Throughout the tournament, Cora has an eye on her biggest potential rival: Alyssa. She’s a little older than her, and has won the tournament twice in a row. The match between the two arrives in December of 2007. Cora, however, fears that she’ll lose and fail her grandfather. Desperate, she hunts through his books for any techniques she can learn to beat Alyssa the week before their fight. It’s there she stumbles across a page on Bill Cipher, and how he had infinite knowledge and wisdom.
Oh snap, don´t do it. Also, where the heck did Kaito get a book that talks about Bill? Has he also encountered Bill and wrote about him? If so, I´d love to hear about his experience.
Figuring it couldn’t hurt to try, Cora summons him, and is astounded to see it actually works. Cora and Bill come to a deal: he can help her win the tournament, but he has to get inside her body to properly show her the sword techniques he has in mind. She agrees, but soon finds out that Bill isn’t about to give her body anytime soon. She helplessly watches Bill mess around in her body for a whole week, doing anything he pleased.
Nobody has noticed that “Cora” is acting differently, except for Mark. He believes that Cora has gone crazy, so he decides to try and stop her from fighting Alyssa. During the fight, Bill plans to kill Alyssa, knowing that Cora would take the blame. His fight is a bit harder than he expected though, since Alyssa is a master-swordswoman. He tries to kill her, but Mark manages to get in just in time and stops him. Everyone watched, shocked, as Mark wrestles with Bill. Bill manages to escape Mark and flees, but Mark is right behind him, along with Cora, who has watched everything. They manage to corner him in the woods near the tournament site, which happens to take place near a steep ravine. It’s here that Bill decides to reveal what happened between him and Cora, figuring that it didn’t matter anyway since he was going to kill Mark. He and Mark duke it out, and Mark eventually manages to beat down Bill since he had been running Cora’s body ragged. Cora reenters her body, but she and Bill fight for it. During the mental battle however, Cora ends up pushing Mark down the ravine. When Cora gains control, she collapses.
When Cora awakens, she finds herself in a hospital. She learns from her parents and Amy what happened. Mark had gotten his head badly damaged, and he was now in a coma. Alyssa had decided not to press charges, since most people deemed Cora’s actions to be the result of a mental breakdown. Nobody can prove that Cora had a hand in Mark’s accident, but his family holds a grudge against her anyway. Cora recovers physically, but not mentally, from the experience.
Realistically speaking, she wouldn´t be over having her body taken over and accidentally putting her boyfriend in a coma.
She blames herself for what happened to Mark. She never figures out whether she or Bill was in control of her body when she pushed him down the ravine. Nobody believes her when she tries to talk about what happened, as they figure her crazy stories are just another result of her mental breakdown. At first, she throws herself into research, trying to find some way to reverse what Bill did. Her obsession drives away her friends and family. When her search becomes futile, and she realizes that she’s all alone, she falls into a deep depression. Then, in July of 2008, Mark’s family decides to pull the plug on Mark. Realizing that there is nothing left for her here, Cora decides that if she can’t help Mark, she can at least help others who have been hurt by supernatural forces. She soon packs up her car and drives away, but not before paying Mark one last visit before his plug is pulled. Soon after, she cuts her hair in attempt to start over and begin her new life.
From July 2008 to November 2010, Cora travels across the country, trying to find supernatural forces to battle and people to help. However, actual supernatural occurrences are rare, so she doesn’t have much of a job market. As the years go by, she starts doing shadier things in order to get money. At first, she tries to get honest part-time jobs to make a quick buck. But as time goes by, she mostly steals and even mugs people for their cash or belongings. She becomes more and more depressed, and she’s finally pushed over the edge when Bill visits her in her dreams for a whole week, taunting her and nearly driving her insane by playing on her fears and insecurities. Cora becomes broken and distraught after this. She doesn’t take care of herself and is very reckless, essentially destroying herself bit by bit.
She arrives in Gravity Falls, Oregon in December 2010 after hearing of its weird supernatural happenings. Unfortunately, this is when her car breathes its last breath in the middle of a snowstorm. She hikes through the woods of Gravity Falls, and is surprised to find that the rumors she’s heard are actually true when she comes across a small pack of gnomes. She soon finds the Mystery Shack, but not before she comes across a pack of huge dog-wolf creatures known as crocottas. She starts to fight them, and it catches Stan Pine’s attention.
Oh boy, canon characters, hope you can pull off having your OC interact with main cast members.
He’s more than surprised to find a bunch of dog-wolf creatures outside his establishment, as well as a samurai-woman fighting them off. Cora does manage to defeat them, but when Stan mentions taking her to a hospital because she looks more than a little shabby, she protests before passing out. She wakes up inside the Mystery Shack, and after chatting with Stan for a bit, he lets her stay with him until the snow dies down. The two start to bond, as Stan has gone through some of same things Cora’s gone through, like living on the road and being on your own, and Cora sees a lot of Mark in Stan. She decides that maybe she can stay in Gravity Falls and check out the supernatural forces here, keep the town safe from anything dangerous. She even thinks about trying to stay at the Mystery Shack itself. It’s an ideal location, since it’s close to the woods and the forest is where most of the supernatural creatures are. However, after digging around the place, she finds out that Stan has gotten in trouble with the police more than a few times. She tries to get answers out of him about it. However, Stan wants to know a little more about Cora in exchange. Cora, however, refuses to talk. With neither of them willing to spill their secrets, they decide to strike a deal. Stan agrees to let her stay at the Mystery Shack. But in exchange, she has to help him with a scam of his. In an effort to get the cops of his back, he’s been trying to find someone to pretend to be his “caregiver.” But, finding someone shady enough to do it and to even be willing to work with him was tricky. Stan figured Cora would be perfect for the job. Cora agreed to do it, and they also agreed not to poke into each other’s pasts. The deal was then struck.
This isn´t out of character for Stan, I have trouble believing Stan would help a stranger, unless they have something that could benefit him. I´m honestly not a big fan of a fan character having a sort of relationship with a canon main character, but if you can make it work, go for it.
Cora’s new life begins in Gravity Falls. Her life revolves around her three main jobs: helping out the Mystery Shack, looking after Stan, and investigating the town’s anomalies. Over the months though, she finds herself fitting in with the town more than she had thought she would. Sure, she turns strangers off with her stoic manner and quiet mannerisms. She’s especially intimidating when she has her sword at her hip.
So she just walks around with it attached to her hip? People probably wouldn´t want to be around a woman carrying a weapon around, but there are definitely going to be people willing to speak with her. Though, there are going to be places where she won´t be allowed with that in, keep that in mind.
But, she finds herself bonding with the Gravity Falls employees, Soos and Wendy. They’re not too put off by her reserved nature, and eventually gain a little bit of her trust.
Soos is the type of person be friends with almost anyone, Wendy doesn´t really seem to care much about people´s past and is pretty friendly, this is fine.
She bonds with Stan as well. The two become partners in crime, and are constantly helping each other get out of trouble. Cora is especially grateful for this when her depressive episodes kick in. On the anniversary of Bill turning Mark brain-dead, her depression really kicks up, and it’s during this moment that she finally tells Stan about her past. The whole experience makes the two true friends, and after that, they constantly have each other’s backs. Before the summer of 2012 comes along, Stan tells her that Mabel and Dipper will be staying with them over the summer. From what Cora hears about them, they seem like nice kids, but she’s intent on protecting them from Gravity Falls’ secrets. She has this mindset when the show begins.
Throughout the series, Cora begins to trust Mabel and Dipper as they investigate Gravity Falls. At first, Cora’s not a big fan of them doing this, since it puts them in danger. But in time, she sees that they want to find out answers just like she does, and she feels it would be hypocritical of her to prevent them from finding out information she’s seeking herself. She thinks of the kids as like her own children, and is very loving and nurturing around them. They’ve also helped her pick up some of her old hobbies again, like the singing and dancing she did in choir. She also grows closer to Soos and Wendy. They become friends rather than acquaintances and Cora knows she can rely on them. Cora has also gone through some development of her own. She’s gotten some lessons in knowing that it’s okay to ask people for help, facing Bill, and that she’s not a bad person because of the mistakes she’s made. She even reveals her past to Dipper, Mabel, Wendy, and Soos, deciding that she can truly trust them.
I´m interested in how they would react. The way you word this implies this is after Bill appears on the show, so they´d probably be sympathizing with her and angry at Bill.
When Ford comes into the picture, Cora admires the man greatly. He’s everything she wants to be: smart, strong, and always knowing what to do. The two of them manage to bond thanks to Dipper’s persistence. However, she knows of the tension he has with Stan, and just wishes the two of them could get along. She also knows that Bill has messed with his head, and that that can make him dangerous at times. Her relationship with Stan remains strong though, and she cares about him as much as she always has. At the end of the series, she goes adventuring with Stan and Ford.
To be honest, I don´t really like the idea of her going with the Stan twins. I understand her relationship with Stan would make this a possibility, but their voyage is heavily based on their childhood dreams. But, Cora is very interested in solving the mysteries of the supernatural and she would want to travel around if she gets the chance to not only be with someone she really cares about and study mythical beings. Even if the brothers don´t agree to her joining, I feel like she´d probably find a way to go anyways.
Miscellaneous information: Is intermediately fluent in Japanese. Likes to read in her spare time. Her favorite genre of music is alternative rock. Is decent at cooking. Her favorite type of tea is jasmine tea.
Cora is a pretty good character. She could use tweaking, her outfit isn´t the best for fighting and inserting her into the main cast is kind of an annoying thing for a OC. If you can do it right, you´re golden. I think you did good, or at least, better than I´ve seen before. The whole sword thing is kind of off putting for me when it comes to this fandom, but Cora isn´t over powered and has a good amount of flaws.
I give this OC an 8/10
OC belongs to @tumb1rprincess