i may be flayed for this but i think the osc has a Massive ableism problem that neeeds to be discussed, in terms of armless characters in particular. when you look at their gijinkas, they usually take one of these three routes:
^using squashes grown up design for example isnt he cuteeee <3
anddd i think we as a community can do a lot better!
listen. i understand we are all artists here and even barring the ableism sewn into us, using arms for gestures and silhouettes is something VERY encouraged, along with the fact that im pretty sure weve all had it drilled into our brains that avoiding drawn hands and arms is "lazy", meaning i think we all kinda subconsciously try to avoid doing that. along with "correct" anatomy in general requiring two identical arms being drawn a certain way.
butttt...i really would like you guys to put a bit of extra thought onto why making a character more "human"..means erasing their disability. and i know, drawing them with a robot prosthetic may SEEM like a good in-between, so you can acknowledge that disability while still being able to use their limbs for expressions, but i promise you it is not the move you think it is. i myself am NOT an amputee, but the folks at cripplecharacters have a VERY good collection of posts made BY amputees, i recommend reading specifically the perfect prosthetic and this post i dont know how to title but it goes a bit into why you shouldnt just always cover stumps and imply but never show it.
note its not that i think you should NEVER give osc characters cool prosthetics, its that i think giving them to ALL of the characters missing any limbs has...BAD implications, especially considering just how many characters are missing limbs. remember, the real life equivalent of missing arms is..missing arms! (and from doing research, using your legs and feet in place of hand/feet is pretty common, so portraying osc characters in this way is actually MORE accurate lol)
and anyway, if youre not convinced by the chance to do research into real life disabilities and portray them accurately..consider..it just looks better? honestly? if you dont care too much about representing disabilities, take the chance to explore CHARACTERS. you can have a much more diverse portfolio and a brand new way to show off personality and story if you dont just have every arm/legless character have the same limbs as everyone else But Like Grey Now! like ok that may SOUND harsh but look at these side by side
yes theyre all in their jammys here except squasball. i forgot i was doing that.
one of these is like. a LOT more visually interesting than the other imo, having a bunch of your characters use the exact same grey robot limbs just kinda makes them look clunky and same-y when put together, even if the designs are otherwise super different. but remember what i said about being able to explore characterization? look at how basketball uses robot limbs while the others dont-in the show basketball is a lot more of a follower than a leader, for a good while, and along with being a lot more mechanics based in her sciences, i think she WOULD be someone who wants a more traditoinal-arm looking prosthetic, while trusting her own technical abilities. you can see golfy also using a prosthetic, but hers is a direct tool that attaches to her arm stub, rather than a hand that could HOLD a hammer. GB is someone who doesnt care what people think of her, as well as someone who needs DIRECT control over everything and everyone, so i think when she uses prosthetics its for function over visual. shell have a lot more control swinging a hammer if its simply attached directly to her arm rather than playing a song and dance with mechanics and risking a mistake.
and umm thats all i have to say for now! thank you so much if you bothered to read all this, your jack assigned homework is to design one gijinka missing a limb without giving them a prosthetic. remember it doesn't have to fit any sort of cookie cutter generic amputee design, people rarely do! just do your research and have fun!
(for my favorite example, both of my nickels have one arm amputated just below the elbow, and the other fully intact...but the remaining arm is their non domninant. i just think its sorta funny, like oh thats just their luck. but its also something that DOES happen to real people-having only one arm remaining doesnt automatically make it your dominant!)
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