Dema, you've drawn a lot of Zuko. I can't 'see' Zuko in the images I've seen from the upcoming movie. Other than the scar, he looks like a new character to me.
Can you explain what are some of the main visual elements of a Zuko? I'm wondering if the bangs are making his face shape look different, or if I'm being thrown off by the insane muscles.
I...might have gone a bit overload.
Extra Zukos + character design comparison between ATLA Zuko and Movie Zuko + long ramble about the danger of beauty conventions under the cut!
So, a little rant to complement...whatever this is.
I genuinely think that, out of all members of the Gaang, Zuko's the one who resembles himself the most in the new movie. Aside from the Ozai-bulk (which, yes, it does serve to distract you from everything else—except for his lack of lightning scar whereisthelightningscar); Movie Zuko looks like an adult Zuko would.
Compare his new design to, I don't know, Katara's (which I'm SO salty about), and you'll quickly notice which character is more identifiable as themselves.
(I'm adding my reference board for Zuko + a comparison between ATLA Katara and Movie Katara. You know. For evidence.)
See what I'm talking about? The sheer difference is asinine, but the explanation behind the change in design is both fairly simple and insultingly predictable:
Attractiveness.
Or, rather, what is believed to be found attractive by certain audiences.
Listen, I'm not saying anything new. Certainly nothing that a thousand other people haven't already explained far better than my uneducated self ever could. But it goes like this: the new art style draws a lot from westernized anime, not only in the animation itself (which is awestriking), but also in the character design. But that influence carries its own vices.
In other words: the new Avatar movie, gorgeous as it is, has been infected with Same Face Syndrome.
Why? Because, in anime-inspired art styles, the less identifiable facial features your MC has, the more attractive they seem. Wide noses, thick lips, or small eyes are a big no-no, especially if you're the female deuteragonist in a coming-of-age story written for male audiences. Or any kind of audiences, really—it has less to do with open misogyny than it does with artistic conventions.
Make an experiment. Remove all openly identifiable characteristics from each Gaang member (I'm talking hair, scars, skin tone, etc) and compare them to one another. Would you be able to differentiate Aang from Sokka? Toph from Katara?
The erasure of distinct facial features comes from a place of "beauty equals perfection", and what is perfection if not the lack of flaws? What is a wide nose or full cheeks if not a flaw?
Now, I don't mean to come across as snippy or judgemental—these are just my observations on what this kind of art style entails given its characteristics, and the effect it has on the facial design of characters so widely known and loved. Especially characters with identifiable ethnicities.
The new style affects characters like Katara, Sokka, and Aang more than it does others in the series because some of their features simply don't fit with what's considered attractive here. That's the reason they look so alien and out of place—because what made their design so organic has been watered down or erased to fit a beautiful mold.
So, you may ask, what's the deal with Zuko?
Why has no one complained about his design (other than the missing lightning scar)? Why does he resemble himself the most? Why—characterization problems aside—does he still feel like Zuko?
The answer is...pretty simple, actually. A bit dumb, if you will.
The new over-beautification of the Gaang doesn't affect Zuko as much because he was already designed to be conventionally attractive.
Yes, I said it. And I'll say it again.
Zuko, Azula, Ozai, Ursa—they were all, canonically, gorgeous people. The Royal Family was intentionally designed to fit traditional East Asian beauty conventions. The long faces, the delicate, narrow features... It's a perfect, immaculate beauty, dutifully in line with the perfect, immaculate image royalty is meant to project.
So.
So.
All of this to say that:
A) most of the misgivings we have with the Gaang's adult designs can be blamed on the new art style/direction.
B) ethnic erasure for the sake of abiding by westernized beauty conventions is not alright. Nor does it work, so just. Stop it.
C) having distinctive features is awesome, actually. Plastic-perfect "attractiveness" can go check the #BanTheSameFaceSyndrome tag and learn a thing or two.
And ultimately:
D) Zuko has always been, canonically, the poster boy for Conventional Beauty. So we have permission to draw him as gorgeous as we damn well please.
I love that everything about Corbeaus outfit is designed to make him look taller than he is (From a both in-Universe and Character-Design perspective)
1: He wears high waisted pants that shorten his Torso and make his legs look longer -> his pants also end just above the ankle to amplify that effect
2: His suit is the lenght of his knees (including the poison-drop thingies) and he doesn't Button it, making his entire front and back silhouette look elongated
3: His Accessoires also aid to that effect, wearing a long tie (instead of for example bow tie) as well as his droplet Glasses chains
(4. I dont necessarily count it but he does have a good amount of heel and his hair is sticking up just a bit)
Considering that Corbeaus suit is (most likely) custom made by him, everything about the outfit is fully intentional
From a Character design perspective (not a professional, just an educated guess!!): We’re supposed to perceive him the way he wants to be perceived, but still notice that there’s more to him than that. We’re supposed to know that he’s that authoritative, smart, cynical and ruthless figure, just someone who should not be messed with.
However, Given that he is that short, and has kind of a Babyface (imo) and round-ish design features (accessories and hair for example) we just know that’s not everything there is to him. But we only truly find that out after getting to know him in-game
TLDR:
He's fully aware of how short he is and is actively trying to make himself look taller. It serves both in-Universe and Character design purpose, since we get a good impression of what kind of a person he is before we even meet him, and then get to fully appreciate him once we meet him in-game
In my humble opinion: Very adorable- he's trying so hard to look intimidating- i love him-
I finished my analysis of Silco’s Act 1 outfit (which is actually me just bullying him for several pages) and I figured somebody else besides me might find this interesting, so here you go :)
Gosh I LOVEEE the Powers in Ultrakill and how well pretty much every part of their designs help translate into the "Holy but not complete" part of their lore.
The small, singular wing serves to fill negative space inbetween the cosmetic golden arm and the actual body, while also being a great visual contrast to how Gabriel's wings are large and make him look bigger and more imposing (Like a bird). The singular wing of a power looks small and weak in comparison (esp with how it droops down) but still flaps along with the movement of the body in order to LOOK like how Gabriel moves.
Their proportions are also more noticeably inhuman compared to Gabriel, which is interesting since we know that higher ranking angels look more humanoid. Powers have unnaturally longer limbs and more angular shape language, with the shape of the helm and length of exposed neck making it more obvious that none of them probably have a human looking face under there.
Plus the GAUNTLET!!! I LOVE how it's thicker and shorter than the other arm, and the general round shape and intricate carvings on the surface make it look more like Gabriel's arm than the second arm of a Power which is really important since they're trying to emulate his look.
The lack of halo is also a great contrast to Gabriel. His halo frames his face in blue light and adds to the silhouette. The sharp tip of Gabe's halo becoming round at the bottom with the triangles jutting out adds more focus to his face sorta like a spotlight. The Powers do not have a halo, and instead have that ring at the back of their helm that's meant to look like one. Focus on the face is instead commanded by the way they move and hold themselves, and by the shape and size of the helm compared to the rest of the body
Idk man this probably sounds like insane ramblings but they're just really important to me and I like to analysis the designs in this game because they're just SO GOOD.
Something I think is pretty cool about Teru’s character design is that it reflects how fake he is and the way he just hides a LOT.
Okay, so it’s pretty obvious that Teru is fake, right? He hides behind an act of being perfectly nice, cool and collected, and charming and likable. But something I noticed is that the way he looks and dresses reflects that. First of all, we always see Teru wearing long sleeves and very covering clothing.
Sometimes in official arts he’ll have short sleeves (as shown below)
And something that we notice whenever he’s wearing short sleeves is that he seems to be injured/bandaged. Another thing that stands out to me is that it’s only in arts where he’s a child/younger (at least, so far as I have been able to find.) Whenever we see art of Teru as a child he’s almost always hurt. I’m talking likeee. Plasters and bandages on his face and arms. The above images are my proof for now but I’ve seen more.
The rest is under the cut because I don’t want this to be a giant wall of text!!!
I think that says a lot about him. First of all the concealed clothing choices show us that he’s not someone who’s open and hides a lot about himself most of the time, unlike his little brother who’s constantly shown wearing short sleeves (keep in mind that Kou often even rolls up his sleeves to the form of a muscle shirt/sleeveless shirt) and such and reflects that in his personality too (Kou is not only much more open than Teru with his emotions and thoughts, he’s also significantly more OPEN MINDED! Towards supernaturals!)
Another character this reminds me of is Hanako, who is very mysterious and it’s a whole thing with him that his past is a secret and he rarely if ever opens up. Hanako also consistently wears long sleeves, even in an ASHK chapter that takes place at the beach, he’s shown wearing long sleeves under a short sleeved shirt. This is interesting because it actually contrasts with Amane Yugi, who can be seen wearing short sleeves! In fact, a similarity between Amane Yugi and Teru is that when they wear short sleeves we can clearly see plasters and bandages covering their arms.
For Teru, covering the wounds he gets from fighting supernaturals with long sleeves and concealing clothes is just a way to keep his life as an exorcist away from prying eyes. People are constantly watching him at school, and if he walked around scars and bandages on full display… well. That’s not happening, right? So, being an exorcist, and getting injured that way, is just one thing he has to hide.
Now, wearing long and covered clothes isn’t the only way we see physical manifestations of Teru hiding who he is!
Whenever Kou or Tiara smiles or opens their mouths, we can see very clearly that they both have fangs.
Now look at Teru’s smile.
It’s very drawn and thin. Usually we only see his bottom teeth when he’s smiling, as if hiding his fangs on purpose. Even when he does smile big like his siblings do he’s still purposefully not smiling wide enough to show his fangs, another thing which shows he’s not exactly a “normal” human. Occasionally we will even see him LITERALLY
PHYSICALLY COVERING HIS FACE WITH HIS HAND WHILE HE LAUGHS. HE’S HIDING FANGS BRO I KNOW HE IS
And you might think im being silly or making that up. But im not. Because he literally does have fangs!! In official arts and multiple manga panels such as below:
Thank you for coming to my. Ted talk? Rant? Spiel? Whatever it is, thanks for reading! I hope it was entertainin!!
eddie's clothes resemble both a normal office suit AND a matador outfit, right?
for ref:
just from the two images above, even if i'm making a stretch, there's a real trend there: a jacket that doesn't hang down to or below the waist / is cut above the torso line, a button up shirt with a tie (both bc of his office work and from this attire), and tight-fitting pants that hang above the ankles, even if not connected to the vest part that the matador's tie is usually tucked into. the only differences i'm finding is the 8 ball belt (which was obviously only added for aesthetic theming), the vest part not connected to the pants, and the very flamboyant and decorated clothing characteristic of matadors to have.
i just found it interesting that eddie's jacket was fashioned the way it was and found this from what matadors wear, so it makes sense that the showhosts made bull fighting allegories in eddie's outfit as the Brutal Bull, even if he asked to be dressed in smth normal. sure, the gloves aren't typical of matadors, but we already know eddie just wears gloves a part of his constant design. and the turtleneck underneath the shirt isn't typical either, but again, he isn't an ACTUAL matador, so. figured i'd share this since i never saw anything of it
Genuinely angered that nobody's made a text post about this yet, so I will be taking some creative liberties here in order to explain myself leave me alone
This. This thing right here. you remember when he threatened to kill himself right ???
This is the only time we've see Vox cry real tears. The other times? Guess what it's been.
Blood.
This is gut-wrenching, obviously, because only when feeling something truly human can he call upon his humanity past his demon exterior, and said real thing is his love for Alastor
But also. You guys ever take a look at that frame where the TV crashes on Vincent's head?
