#character design thoughts

[duckpasta-kamonabe]

saw some post of umamusu fans not liking scarlet's/hayahide's "floofy gigantic hair", makes me wonder if certain character designs are seen as gaudy by today's standards and sorta fell out of fashion? (esp. in weeaboo aesthetic franchises)

[yourfanficocmightdisagree]

Ok I’m thinking really hard about Chained!Tsuki’s design so. First off a picture (original for comparison)

Picrew link for the first picture: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/610761

MY DOLL MAKER

あなただけのドールを作りませんか？ クラシック＆ロリータな雰囲気のドール画像を作れる着せ替えメーカーです。 作者Twitter＞kuren.@seep_999 コーデバトルを不定期開催中です！他更新のお知らせなどもツイートしていますので、ぜひフォローください。 当メーカ

Anyway. So the reason for such a heavy redesign is because I wanted more visual distinction between the two (Tsuki already has pink/purple eyes which is the hallmark for Pecharunt possession), plus I love redesigning characters and am absolutely obsessed with old doll aesthetics (Tsuki and Delphine both are victims of this)

So a big part of Tsuki’s personality is that she cares about appearances, both her own and other people’s. And even if Tsuki asked for peace of mind about her friends and not specifically for beauty, Pecharunt decided to do her a “favor” and grant her something it knew she wanted: beauty.

Problem is, Pecharunt doesn’t understand human beauty. Just as a concept. It’s the equivalent of like a kid, and its only exposure to humans has been the old couple who were taking care of it a very long time ago, and then the Mossui Town incident which. Pecharunt didn’t really learn anything from that other than ‘don’t get caught next time.’

Anyway, so Pecharunt’s basically a kid. And what frame of reference do kids have for beauty?

Dolls.

So that’s what Pecharunt did. In response to Tsuki’s unconscious wish for beauty, it unknowingly genie’d her and made her look basically like a living doll. Hard, plasticky skin that’s hard and smooth to the touch, eyes with no light in them, visible joints on like her knees and elbows, etc. (this also gives everyone who looks at her MASSIVE uncanny valley energy)

In regards to her personality, Pecharunt overwrote that too. That was more of an unintentional effect of the toxic chain, but an effect nonetheless. Tsuki’s natural determination and sweetness were turned up to 11, to the point of being borderline insufferable to be around. She’s almost unhealthily lovesick when it comes to Arven, a twisted version of the crush she had before. (“Die for Me” by Lydia the Bard is a pretty good example of Chained!Tsuki I think, especially about Arven.) And what’s worse, she’s extremely protective of Pecharunt. Which means the little brat now has a Champion-rank guard at all times. And Pecharunt wants revenge on everyone who wouldn’t “play” back in Mossui Town—which means it’s got its eyes on the rest of Tsuki’s friends.

Too bad it has a near-unbeatable Champion who’s more than happy to help it do that. But the rest of the Paldea/Kitakami gang are also having weird dreams about Tsuki herself… why? That’ll be for a later post

[scyllaenjoyer]

Vague thoughts about the warrior Penelope au character designs:

Penelope~~ has pale skin, and dark hair that looks like it's tinted somewhat blueish. This is because she's half naiad. She also has pointed ears. She starts out wearing mostly white with a red cape over her armor, but as the story progresses the red starts overtaking her wardrobe more and more. From the ocean saga upward she stops wearing armor and starts wearing a peplos, a dress Spartan woman wore that also showed off their thighs, because she thought she was about to get home and the got immediately thrown to Tiresias's island. Maybe it starts white with a red sash but she slowly starts adding more red details and by the time act 2 begins she should be fully in red.

Odysseus is wearing himations and long clothes that cover him a lot. You can probably guess why. Olive skin, brown hair that goes around his shoulder blades, gray eyes. In Penelope's memory he looks young and handsome and vibrant. By the time we meet him he looks tired and like he cries every day (he does). He's dressed in lots of calm, albeit washed out colors, low greens, pale blues. They should be drowned out by the colors of the suitresses, slowly at first, but by the time we reach Hold Them Down, their brighter more abrasive violets and maybe reds (different shade than Penelope's) should completely make his softer tones disappear. He, alongside Telemachus, is the only character to wear pearls; currently envisioning it as one of those collections of strings that go around the torso, plus the snake bracelets.

Telemachus should wear teal, combining his dad's green and blue tones into a brighter, bolder color. Maybe his pearl details are a necklace/chain (one of those lopsided ones that goes down the arm) and earrings. He wears only the blue and green here since Odysseus was the one who raised him. He's paler than his dad and has darker hair and pointed ears, and also his mom's eyes.

[084392]

imo only thinking about whether a design looks cool without taking the characters traits or anything else into consideration can make it feel....impersonal ig? Which obv makes sense for /some/ characters but...if you want a character that feels real I think part of that is making them look and act like an actual person ykwim? Basically for the most part you shouldn't just go by whether a design "looks cool" Idt..

But on the other hand being too restrained with whether a design is grounded in reality can make it way too boring😅

Basically. Try to balance the two instead of leaning super far into one or the other..

[a-dauntless-daffodil]

there's such untapped potential in Mothwing's basic design and idea though. A golden dappled tabby associated with moth wings, does not care what the spirits are saying, local doctor ignoring the part of her job that usually involves spooky talk with the dead stuff...

imagine. she's the least spiritual medicine cat you'll ever meet

but her coat also has a pattern on it like those moths who pretend to have Eyes to scare off predators, so no matter what angle you look at her from, it's always like she Staring Back At You a little TOO much

so she's also the most unsettling medicine cat you'll ever meet.... unless you're Jayfeather

not that he'd care even if he COULD see her

cats see them sitting next to each other and it's this friendly will-help-even-when-it's-against-the-rules doctor with a GREAT bedside manner who's also a fluff ball covered in EYES, and then the small blind cat who's grumpy at almost everything except for that one stick he fell in love with for a while

imagine...

[nekojiima]

[laidenbreecatchall]

So I'm in punk hazard rn and I gotta say... Oda kinda fucking killed it on Caesar's design. I love his lipstick and eyeliner and the purple accents in his hair. Fantastic color palette love to see it. Horns? Cute. Big whispy cloak? So good. His deep v jumper is kinda silly, I will not lie, but like overlooked for big flowy coat long hair combo. I like how angular his face is too. It's too bad I find him SO ANNOOOYING otherwise he might be on my kiss kiss list.

SMOKER HOWEVER is climbing on the kiss kiss list. Him and Tashigi are swapped rn but the undercut is mmm very nice.

[video-gh0st]

Seeing Muncher again in GBSU reminds me that I actually like the early concept version than the one in Afterlife.

I love the tardigrade inspo for the ghost, but I kinda wish the face was a bit less human like? I think the concept version has more room for expressiveness and I love being able to see all the metal inside it's body. It's a nice touch. But eh, I feel like they wanted to make their version of Slimer and he had a somewhat human like face? Idk what happened where they decided to go in that direction.