The anthropocentric nature of entity/deity writing makes me sad. I think I worded that wrong. Let me try again.
This is usually a mistake only poor, fan-service focused or cash-grabbing series tend to make in galore, but making creatures of all kinds so… humanoid. I understand all the fantasy races, as that makes the scientist in me jump with joys, but I’m referring to angelic deities.
+ it’s way easier to create demons (and similar creatures) because their writing is usually centered around interactions with humans. Contract demons, succubi (the works), demon rituals, you get the memo. Demons are centered around a higher intelligence that they can interact with. It’s why seeing designs leaning so far into humanity and even going as far to present as human still works for me.
But angels aren’t, or at least they shouldn’t be. They’re supposed to represent something better. Considering all the evolutionary fuck-ups (spine not made for bipedalism, not being able to produce vitamin c), even the most human-centric, basic angels shouldn’t look THAT much like them. Angels represent perfection and purity, while flesh is quite the opposite. Hell, you can keep their upright form, but clarify that there’s nothing within. Give me SOMETHING to work with here. Give me heavy uncanny valley. Give me a concerning lack of curves simply because they don’t need allat. Show a human without their birthright flaws and make it uncomfortable.
People do worse with gods and deities. And aliens. That’s for another time, though. I’ll see characters that the author swears to hell and back has nothing to do with humanity or hates humans or yada yada yada and then the main characters confront them I’m straight-up faced with a human. Maybe with an extra pair of arms if I’m lucky. There’s an idea I have that could hypothetically manage it correctly, but it would never work in my universe. It’s the idea that some bold god tampered with human evolution to force them to resemble them, but ultimately gave humanity more flaws in the process (tell me if there’s any media like this PLEASE). I can’t see it in any other way though. Maybe more shy, kind, or humble gods turning human to help out the itty bitty mind, but bold gods that don’t give a shit about/despises humans? Absolutely not. I’m so tired of the “incomprehensible form” junk (OH I WOLL GET BACK TO YOU). You think they care if their form is too complex to be understood, or that their form, once understood, can destroy the mind? No bitch, they’ve got superiority complexes that would make P*blo Picasso cry.
That’s not alone what I’m getting at, though. I’m asking for more innovative design, really. Stop using all human senses and no senses of other creatures in things that pride themselves off of not being human. I see too many deities associated with eyes, but hell, must’ve taken so much goddamn effort from natural selection’s side of things. Use them on creatures of nature to force the connection between humans and whatever the fuck it is. Force your viewers to realize that they shared some ancestor with this thing. Nature-based superiority should have all senses, including all necessary for echolocation and magnetoreception. Base characters completely lacking in human-centric behavior with things that humans can’t survive in. Extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme pressure, oceans, space, all of that. I know it’s difficult, it took me a whole while to think outside the box of design, but the more you stick to humanity within existential design, the less fun you have with it.
Thats just my opinion though lol
And on that note, I’m working on an angel who gradually becomes more anthropocentric due to believers. I already know that this guy is gonna be awful. I’ll prolly get into them and my personal definition of angels at some point.
