DUUUUUUUUUDEEEE YEAH Simon is my favorite OC nowadays, has been for 2 years, arguably the second most well developed, the one I've drawn the most, and originally he was supposed to be the "stoner but he's also the matrix-esque programmer I.T. dude" gag character. Nowadays he's pretty damn complex, my main vessel to discuss body image, eating disorders, toxic relationships with narcissistic partners, fatphobia and that kind of inherent societal bias, neurodivergency (specially autism) and how that affects relationships, the intense landscape of working while neurodivergent and being overworked, burnout, depression, suicide and different forms of self harm, love, feeling unloveable and it's logistics, and lastly healthy relationships for comparison and acceptance of yourself and your body. Uh… yeah, it started from a silly doodle of a coked up, high as a cloud gamer guy wearing a beanie and glasses that I drew in 2019 at age 14. He's not a drug addict this time so… at least he's gotten better in this point (I made another character be the drug addict lol)
When I was like… 11 I made a character who was literally the edgiest idea of a character that an 11 year old could come up with, who was, NO JOKE, A FUSION OF PURPLE GUY AND THE PUPPET FROM FNAF. They were gender-fluid (I didn't even know that term existed at the time, but "they could shapeshift to be a girl or a boy" in 11 year old me's words), an alcoholic, smoked, was depressed, super powerful, all black white & purple, literally an emo, 8ft tall, super skinny, super edgy, super powerful but no one knew because they didn't use their powers often. I made it more as a joke but then I got a little too invested and eventually made him do a COMPLETE 180. Nowadays, he's William, his design is still of an 8ft. tall super skinny emo dude, but now he's tall bc he has gigantism, he's skinny from undereating due to depression, is disabled (uses crutches to walk and is an ambulatory wheelchair user), is super shy and awkward but still friendly and got bullied a lot growing up. Now he's 100% divorced from the FNAF franchise at least, but lemme tell ya, I was OBSSESSED with this character from ages 12 to 14. Like, OBSSESSED.
Another character I used to be obssessed with was Henka, and JESUS, Notebook.ai has seen my obssession in 2020-2022, but he didn't start as a joke character, just a pretty boring plot device lol