Talk:Barn Owl (Olivia O'Ryan) - Earth 7/@comment-44735393-20191227193659

For some insight into how I created Olie:

Barn Owl, like many of my characters, was created specifically to represent myself. Her creation was around 2017, where I had this idea for a character that (originally) was symbolic of my autism – the idea that autism is honestly more of a gift than a curse, but this idea became a lesser focused topic as time went by, and as I decided to focus on other elements of myself.

The backstory and powers came first but she went through many changes overtime. In 2017/18 (early for the latter, if it were that year at all), something changed my vision for Barn Owl.

Around this time, I’d started to become a boxer, heading to the local club in my town. At first I wasn’t particularly mind blown but it was that point that I watched the Rocky movies for the first time in quick succession, and I had an idea. What if I could combine the often underdog-themed, humble and relatable roots of sports films like Rocky, with the action-packed, sometimes-redemption-fuelled, cocky attitude of a superhero. This is where my true vision for Olivia began.

I went with an owl when the concept of a flying superhero was created, as well, with the concept of telekinesis, I knew that it technically enabled other powers through itself, such as flight – so I decided to theme this new character around, quite simply, birds. I went with a barn owl because, well, I simply liked the bird in real life and chose it as my basis.

Originally, Olivia was far different in terms of abilities, going in a more Spider-Man-like direction, favouring agility, acrobatics, and stealth. She would retain this agility and acrobatics, but importantly, back then – her only ability was telekinesis, and she didn’t use it very often, instead using more Batman-like gadgets at the time. I decided to change it up to go in a more psychic direction later, liking that more.

Olivia’s personality was unclear at first, as you’d probably expect. But as time went by however, I started to put more effort in, her personality becoming more and more apparent and prominent as my work continued.