So like...why are there suddenly these unwritten standards for original character designing? If the sole purpose of creating an original character is self expression or fun, what is the issue with creating them however you want? It literally hurts nobody and nine times out of ten only improves ones quality of life.
I’ve recently gotten a comment telling me what I’ve done wrong in my own character design, the main reason being that she reminded this individual too much of another already existing character just by the outfit alone. It was never my intention to do so, as many of the aspects of this design were ones I had been using for years now before ever even knowing of the character they had compared mine too, but I digress.
Even if someone had taken inspiration from another character or design choice, so long as it is not entirely plagiarised, where exactly is the issue?
There are so many canon characters across different franchises who are based on other characters, and because it is official media, no one has any issue with it being unoriginal or it having already been done before. Not once have I heard someone complain about a canon character’s design being inspired by something else. In fact, it’s praised more often than not, interestingly enough.
If this standard applies only to original characters for some reason, I’d like to remind you that the only difference between original characters and official characters is the fact that one is created for profit, unless someone out there is making money off their original characters. Which they are actually! Canon characters are somebody’s original characters technically, too!
And, might I add, some canon characters are very blandly designed to the point where I’d assume they’d be treated very differently if they were just somebody’s non profit original character.
