Rory and Miya

Separated at Birth?

Well, not quite. For one thing, Miya's three years older than Rory. For another, the two creators have (as of this writing) never met, in person or online. However, there seems to be some confusion about the two characters and their respective origins.

There are certainly some amazing corollaries between Rory and Miya. The child of an older series character, with red hair and an attitude to match, freed from Galactor and now using the skills they taught her against them...on the surface, the two seem very similar. But closer observation reveals that the differences far outweight the similarities. (Sure, they both like the Condor, but Rory's first love was Kentaro Washio, who in my faniverse was Miya's father. Incest is not cool.)

What follows is a point-by-point comparison of Rory and Miya, comparing the telling points in each character's creation and existence. Hopefully this will put all rumors and accusations of plagiarism or mistaken identity to rest.

Aurora Brighthead	Miyae Washio
17 years old	20 years old
Daughter of Benjamin Brighthead	Daughter of Kentaro Washio
Brown hair, brown eyes, dyes hair red and wears tinted contacts	Red hair, blue eyes
5'7" tall, 150 lbs.	5'10" tall, 130 lbs.
Only child	Has a younger brother (Ken Washio)
Ran away from home as a child to join Galactor's organization	Was kidnapped as a toddler by a Galactor agent
Trained as one of the "Sugar & Spice" squadron	Trained as one of the "Flower Girls"
Received experimental injections to create a "super-agent", was one of 7 survivors out of 20 original subjects	Received brutal training on a secret island installation, was one of 25 survivors out of 100 original subjects
Worked for Galactor willingly as an active agent	Was trained by the Syndicate, but was never an active agent
Wore an iridescent blue and purple costume as "Lady Peacock"	Wore a green and yellow jumpsuit and red flower-petal mask as "Poppy"
Has killed a lot of Galactor's soldiers	Has killed a lot of Galactor soldiers
Never had a confrontation with Galactor or any of her superiors	Confronted Berg Katze on Petal Island (and got knifed for her insubordination)
Captured by Red Impulse during battle, became an ally of the RI squadron	Captured/rescued by Gatchaman after battle, became an ally of the Science Ninja
Was recognized by Kentaro Washio as his best friend's daughter	Was recognized by Kozaburo Nambu as his best friend's daughter
Fell in love with Red Impulse before his death	Fell in love with Joe Asakura before his death
Has a crush on Dirk Daring, one of her ex-teammates and still carries a torch for the late Kentaro	Men other than Joe don't exist for her (except her brother, but he doesn't count as a romantic interest)
Lives in isolation from her family and friends	Lived in isolation from her family and friends for several years
Very good with a gun	Passable with a gun, prefers melee fighting
Has a pet cat	Doesn't keep any pets (unless you count Joe)
Goes by a shortened version of her real name ("Rory")	Goes by a shortened version of her real name ("Miya")
Chain-smokes like her father	Wouldn't touch cigarettes if you paid her
Has existed a long time as a fan character (10+ years)	Has existed a long time as a fan character (20+ years)
Openly bisexual (Rare for a fan character, and amazingly cool)	Openly Condorsexual
Unrequited crush on Dirk Daring	Oh, come on, she and Joe are inseparable...
Featured in her own fanfic series	Featured in her own fanfic series
Has her own website	Has her own website, KiSS doll, image gallery, etc.

Like I said, a lot of similar points, but only superficially, and there are a lot MORE differences between the two. In any case, Rory's creator swears up and down that Miya did not inspire Rory. I believe her, and so should you. But even if she had been inspired by Miya, which she says she was not, what difference would it make? Actually, I always think it's supremely cool when my creativity energizes the creative forces of others. It's happened before, but not in this instance. If there were no such thing as "coincidence", the word wouldn't exist.

So. If any of the people who have been accusing Anita of ripping me off are reading this, please do everyone a favor and lay off. The only one who would have a right to be annoyed with her, if she were guilty of what she's being accused of, would be me, and I don't think she's done anything wrong. For me to rag on her for creating a redhead who lives in the same world as the bird people would be at least as ridiculous as N.K. Stouffer suing J.K. Rowling for the use of the term "muggle" in her Harry Potter series, and I'm not that much of an idiot. It's not like either of us are making any money off our creations. We're doing it for love of the series we grew up with, and in the end, that's the only similarity that really truly counts.

To learn more about Rory B. and her origins and stories, please go to her website.

Return to the Loft