The Worst Epithets

Do you dislike when authors use epithets in their writing, like "the blonde" or the "the younger man"? Do you cringe when fanfictions make up new ones based on hair color like bluenette and greenette? Or, do you actually like them and enjoy reading or using them yourself?
Here's a discussion from Reddit all about it! Tell me which opinion you agree with most, or what the most interesting/strange epithet you've ever seen is!

0:00 Noirette
1:28 Bluenette
2:35 Ravenette
4:50 "the other man"
6:30 Enjoying epithets
7:56 Confusing epithets
9:44 Color rules
10:45 Member thanks
11:31 Final thoughts

[kristheheretic]

I get around this because non of characters in my fandoms have hair

[Caskie-lm]

"Why would they call her smurfette if her hair isnt smurf"- my friend after I told her I hated hair colour epiphets

[TheDanishGuyReviews]

Tangerinehead absolutely sounds like a slur for a person from a place where they grow citrus. Like a derogatory term for a Floridian.

[justsomerandompersononthei]

The best epithet i've ever seen was someone referring to their friend as just "the iron-deficient boy"

[DanteNFerno]

I remember reading "The pineapple haired male" once. HIS HAIR WAS BROWN.

[TheStripeTailedFiend]

“Yeah, so I was visiting my friend the oth-“
“Broette visited his friendette.”

[rainbowprisimatic]

Brunette is the only acceptable one, as its a legitimate term for brown hair. Bluenette isn't THAT bad but is kinda odd. But Noirette?? Thats... no

[li_ka]

I ran into "tealette" once, and it took me a solid five paragraphs to realise it wasn't a kitchen appliance

[serenegenerally]

Okay unironically, epithets CAN be useful, if you’re using it sparingly… it’s like salt, add a little bit and you’ve cooked well, but too much it just tastes like salt. When I don’t want to say protagonist’s friend’s name I just say “his friend” :) it’s very cute imo

[faybonsels]

I have a character named Anya whose hair is naturally violet-colored, so I guess you could consider her a… *violette*

[flyingbicycles]

Old epithets: Odysseus, breaker of horses
New epithets: [H/C]ette

[thegoatcarnival]

When I was in The Owl House fandom, I saw so many fics refer to Luz as "the latina." She's literally the only human around just call her "the human."

I tend to use epithets in writing, but only when the feature of the character is relevant to their actions. Like "The warrior stared out over the battlefield, " or "The look in the criminal's eyes made me shudder."

[thephantomwolf]

When I heard "the dorito" I had to pull the tab open just to see if Peridot or Bill Cipher was shown on screen

[sirlightningpotato]

Fun fact! I’ve read MULTIPLE FICS where the author forgot that brunette was a word so they wrote “brownette”, I wanted to cry

[mekafinchi]

'the <literally any color>ette' makes me take mild psychic damage every time I read it and being in a fandom (project sekai) where about half the main cast has an abnormal hair color dooms me to suffer

[kaiju]

2:18
it's not anime logic, it's actually a very neat and cool reference! back in the 80s and 90s(and even earlier), due to the quality of both ink and printing, dark details on black background were absolutely indistinguishable. if someone had black hair and/or black suit, it looked like there was a gaping all-consuming void. To counteract this, artists started highlighting black color with blue one, and over time some characters changed irreversibly because of it. Spider-Man's suit was supposed to be red and *black*! And same goes for Miguel O'Hara, Spider-Man 2099! His suit is supposed to be black! so, Marinette's hair being blue but actually being black in-universe is a neat reference from Astruc and his way to show that he knows what he's doing
regrettably it's the only thing he knows he's doing

[JasonAizatoZemeckis]

Im strangely certain I saw "Deadette" used unironically

[basiltheflowerboy]

I guess someone is an annoyedette about this

[GothicAngel]

Ngl i feel like The Noirette could be a cool Assassin name-

[anyacad]

I blame my teacher from when I was 9 years old who told our class that we could only write "I" once per paragraph (that's once every 4-5 sentences btw) IN A FIRST-PERSON STORY. My first fic was filled with epithets and after re-reading I desperately want to edit them out.