THE 5 WORST CHARACTER DESIGN TRENDS [in cartoons, movies + games]

these things drive me so crazy!!! What design things bother you?

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[CGFillertext]

My favorite take on the “Hollywood Ugly” trope is Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Instead of taking the ponytail and glasses off and looking cute, Flint thinks Sam looks better when she has the ponytail and glasses *on*. He likes her for who she really is, not the dumb blonde she pretended to be

[sianaaa]

I hate it when two characters are married and they literally looked like twins and dress the same (this is rlly only in animated movies but stillll) like it freaks me out

[apieceofgarbage]

When "glasses + ponytail = ugly" is brought up I always think about the movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 1 where the polar opposite happens. After the glow-up the character starts wearing glasses and has a ponytail instead which definitely feel intentional and against the mentioned... thing.

[riymeep]

The "not drawing ugly characters" one reminds me of a manga I read where the main character is a maid that the hero falls in love with. People are surprised that the hero likes her and claims that she isn't attractive, which I found so weird because both the maid and the princess (who is constantly praised for being beautiful) have the exact same face

[evajezovnik]

When characters with animal ears have another set of human ears so they end up with two set of ears.

[KNY__-qmsx]

It really annoys me that if your character has blonde hair that means that she is a bully or really toxic person.

[MallowMaranta]

Similar to the last one, it always annoys me when female versions of characters are only different because they have a bow and eyelashes and lipstick. The male equivalent could have nothing that implies masculinity but the female version is female because it has long eyelashes??? For example Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Mickey has practically nothing masculine about is character and could feasibly be gender swapped without visual difference but to make a female version they add a bow and eyelashes. It's like if a character has no detail they are male, but if you simply add eyelashes and lips they are female. I don't think I explained that the best but I hope I got my point across.

[ayyymacaroni]

High School Glow-Up scene

Character A: "I'm so ugly...my nose is so big"
Character B:"Who told you that?? That's a normal nose!"
A: "Can you make me pretty?"
B: "Sure!"

*in glowup montage*
Character A: pulls off Character B's glasses, cleans them, and puts them back on
B lets down her hair, A combs it and puts it back up.
"Makeup?" "Not needed."
"Here's some ChapStick, use it."
"What about my hoodie?" "Uhhh, I don't care, keep it?"


Character B looks the exact same at the end and they're like "this hasn't changed anything at all!"
"Exactly."

bonus points if they end up dating

[artemiswolf]

My biggest design pet peeve is when they have to create the parents of a character, so they just make them exactly like the character and the mom and dad look identical, it seems like two siblings had a kid together.

[punkrockgal]

ever find it weird, that in cartoons and tv show's the "unpopular character" has like 12 friends, but the "popular kids" have like two? i just find that kinda funny.

[river-of-noodles]

I think Lola rabbit is a good character not like “omg best design in history” or “brilliant backstory and balanced personality” she’s just funny and when she gets character development she gets pretty interesting, I just think she’s neat

[veebutcher]

I noticed that with the 'bait and switch' a lot of them are poc and then get turned into random creatures/animals. It just plain annoys me like I just wish they made a normal movie that includes poc just once!

[glamoire]

It kinda annoys me when the like “super smart girl” has worked hard, her entire life, day and night, to achieve her “power” status or whatever.
*and then this skinny, lazy, whiny voiced girl waddles in and just automatically shoots lasers out of her eyes or something just because she’s the protagonist.*

[andriuwu]

There's a movie called "not another teenage movie"
Where they make fun of other movies that say a girl wearing glasses and a ponytail is considered ugly xD it's so fun

[PhoenixAura]

Speaking of the baby thing, the birth of that baby must've been an absolute NIGHTMARE. The mother probably would've had a serious c-section and must've bled out so much that the blood loss would be life-threatening. I know I'm severely over-analyzing a cartoon trope, but still.

[kazooooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

About the first one, a game that handles that character design thing really well is Skyrim. I absolutely love how the beast races look and how they don't just give up on the females.

[racheln]

Ah, yes, the “ugly” characters in movies—you’re not the first to notice that. I think there’s an actual name for it—“Hollywood Ugly.” It’s similar to the trope of the librarian who whips off her glasses, loosens the bun in her hair, and becomes gorgeous. That one’s been around forever, and is probably almost as old as film itself.

[reeseygeesey]

it annoys me when adults write movies about teenagers interacting through the internet but realize we dont use emojis ironically and dont use correct punctuation... and especially for cyberbullying, bullies dont comment things like "hahaha look at this freak LOL" as a caption. its more like stupid trends like band kids jokes and the CEO of thing.

[sunderthorme]

For the ugly rep, I LOVE a webtoon called ‘the makeup remover’ because most of the characters you follow are not conventionally attractive, or only are when wearing makeup, it’s also just a really good read tbh

[trulybutnotyours]

Thank you for saying things about the “ugly girl” type tropes because it’s coded to make little girls AND boys, and all others to feel insecure and buy stuff in the beauty industry.

I love your videos you’re my idol❤