I was just thinking about characters with interesting designs and... one thing that always kinda bothered me is when characters are made to be physically imposing/athletic/dominant, but look rather average when it comes to their actual physique.
This trope is a bit more tolerable in explicit superhero media where characters either have otherworldly origins or have undergone some sort of experiment or accident in order to gain otherwise impossible superpowers. But in stuff like JRPG's, anime, etc, it just kinda takes me out when characters that are made to seem extremely physically capable just look like average teenagers.
Take something like Ruby Rose from RWBY, for instance.
In this world, you have all these young characters training to be monster hunters, except they're already extremely skilled & athletic as exemplified through the extravagant fight scenes. But when you look at what they're doing, you realize that the characters should actually look more athletic than they actually do. In Ruby's case, she carries around this scythe that's twice her size & is also a sniper rifle. Something like that would have to weigh a ton, and yet Ruby swings it around like it's made of hollow plastic. So, you would think that her core strength would be enormous & would be pretty cut & stocky... but she just looks like a regular-ass anime girl. This gets especially silly when the show portrays Ruby as being an ineffectual hand-to-hand combatant. Not only does that not matter - she has a fucking gun-scythe, can literally turn into rose petals & fly really fast, and has a secret sharingan - it's also very absurd that she wouldn't be effective with the hands. She apparently has the core strength of a world-class bodybuilder & is faster than anyone in that doesn't have access to teleportation, she should be a problem in hand-to-hand fights with grunts, at least.
For another example... in Final Fantasy XIV, I main Monk & play as a female Roegadyn (basically a hot orc race) with nearly max muscle because... well, it makes sense. A demigod who prefers to use their physical strength to impose their will should definitely look like an otherworldly amazon. And that's why I chuckle a bit when I see other Warriors of Light playing as skinny & frail catgirl Monks, or little toddlers hawking around axes & claymores twice their size.
Personally, I always feel like the physique should match the feats the character performs. I don't necessarily think every character should be built like Lebron James or anything, but I think if your character relies specifically on physical strength or speed to be effective, their design should largely reflect that. And in contrast, if your character relies on more strategic planning, or magic of some sort, their design should reflect that as well.
For instance, take Weiss who's also in RWBY.
She's a summoner who uses a gun-rapier as her weapon (though it's functionally more of a wand), and can materialize glyphs that she can stand on irrespective of gravity. She has more of an "elegant" design to her, in which her average anime girl build works, since she's not reliant on her physique.
Anyways, share some stuff you find pretty cringe when it comes to character designs.
This trope is a bit more tolerable in explicit superhero media where characters either have otherworldly origins or have undergone some sort of experiment or accident in order to gain otherwise impossible superpowers. But in stuff like JRPG's, anime, etc, it just kinda takes me out when characters that are made to seem extremely physically capable just look like average teenagers.
Take something like Ruby Rose from RWBY, for instance.
In this world, you have all these young characters training to be monster hunters, except they're already extremely skilled & athletic as exemplified through the extravagant fight scenes. But when you look at what they're doing, you realize that the characters should actually look more athletic than they actually do. In Ruby's case, she carries around this scythe that's twice her size & is also a sniper rifle. Something like that would have to weigh a ton, and yet Ruby swings it around like it's made of hollow plastic. So, you would think that her core strength would be enormous & would be pretty cut & stocky... but she just looks like a regular-ass anime girl. This gets especially silly when the show portrays Ruby as being an ineffectual hand-to-hand combatant. Not only does that not matter - she has a fucking gun-scythe, can literally turn into rose petals & fly really fast, and has a secret sharingan - it's also very absurd that she wouldn't be effective with the hands. She apparently has the core strength of a world-class bodybuilder & is faster than anyone in that doesn't have access to teleportation, she should be a problem in hand-to-hand fights with grunts, at least.
For another example... in Final Fantasy XIV, I main Monk & play as a female Roegadyn (basically a hot orc race) with nearly max muscle because... well, it makes sense. A demigod who prefers to use their physical strength to impose their will should definitely look like an otherworldly amazon. And that's why I chuckle a bit when I see other Warriors of Light playing as skinny & frail catgirl Monks, or little toddlers hawking around axes & claymores twice their size.
Personally, I always feel like the physique should match the feats the character performs. I don't necessarily think every character should be built like Lebron James or anything, but I think if your character relies specifically on physical strength or speed to be effective, their design should largely reflect that. And in contrast, if your character relies on more strategic planning, or magic of some sort, their design should reflect that as well.
For instance, take Weiss who's also in RWBY.
She's a summoner who uses a gun-rapier as her weapon (though it's functionally more of a wand), and can materialize glyphs that she can stand on irrespective of gravity. She has more of an "elegant" design to her, in which her average anime girl build works, since she's not reliant on her physique.
Anyways, share some stuff you find pretty cringe when it comes to character designs.
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