Body Types in Fiction

So I've noticed that a lot of people here in the west have gone about changing the way characters look in comic books, artwork, and stories lately and calling it 'realistic'. However, I must stress that a lot of these changes are not actually based on realistic body types for that character but rather they are based on what's currently politically correct. I won't go too much into the politics behind it as I want to tackle the actual body types themselves.

First off let me be the first to say that people are athletic, practicing things like running from rooftop to rooftop, climbing, or serious fighting tend to be very thin. Taking a super hero and making them have average body types is not realistic for the character's profession, it is instead a strange, and perhaps even offensive change to make. I know for a fact when I when I was doing two hour walks every day for a few months I got real skinny, but since I stopped doing that and fell off my diet I put the weight back on. But a lot of the character changes I'm seeing make these super heroes make me look thin. This change is unrealistic but it's also kinda offensive as it takes a lot of work to get into good shape, the work put in is hard, really hard, so it should be celebrated when people are willing to put in that much work. Instead the message becomes, 'no matter how much hard work you put in, you'll be fat' and that's not good.

Another weird choice that is based on politics and not at all realistic. A lot of these fat characters actually lose boob size... I'm sorry, but I'm a dude and I call tell you that when I don't take care of myself I get boobs! Boobs just get bigger when you gain more body fat, that's part of the place that the body fat is stored so that you can stay warm during the winter. It's a strange choice to be sure and far from realistic.

Finally one of the most hilarious choices I've seen is something that was almost right. Someone took the Iron Man suit, as in the robotic suit made of metal and machines and made it have a 'dad bod'. Now as hilarious as this parody art is, in truth it's the closest to a realistic change I've seen yet. The Iron Man suit would be a beautiful muscular or bulky machine, because it's metal and not real. The user of the suit may be over weight though. Tony Stark himself is unlikely to be fat as he does take his physical health very serious, but I could see people with Powered Armor being very out of shape in it as the suit may not actually exercise the body as there is little to no physical strain on the body itself, all the 'muscles' used are from the machine, not the person. So if Tony Stark gave up on his diet, he could very quickly have a 'dad bod' but the suit would look the same.

I want to just end with a note saying that if your writing a bunch of heroic characters who are skinny or have giant boobs, or muscles you should never feel bad or pressured to change their appearance for someone else. Your characters should look the way you want them too, I for one try to look at what a character in this position would really look like, and have had to make some cutting to characters in the past to keep up with realism. I had an overweight hero myself once, but after realizing how hard it would be for her to be a super thief and how she might get stuck climbing through a vent, I decided to cut her out of that role and place her in one that was a lot more fitting, aka she became a very powerful political figure instead. Don't be afraid to have characters that are in shape for you story, especially if it make sense.

As always, thanks for reading.

The Deadpool Character Archetype.

So I'm gonna be honest and just say that the Deadpool character archtype is one of of my favorite villian/anti hero archtypes. What do I mean by the Deadpool character archtype? Let me start with just a few examples I know of. Obviously we have Deadpool, the most fourth wall breaking of them all possibly, then we have Handsome Jack, the most villainous of the three... maybe, finally I will activate my Alucard... bad pun, not sorry, yes Alucard (From the abridged series specifically) is the last example of this I can easily think of. What is it that makes these three characters so fun, funny, badass, and most importantly entertaining?

well let's take a look at what these characters actually 'do' in order to achieve some of these things. First of all their funny, almost universally in this sort of 'better than thou' arrogant and sarcastic way. The humor is on par with characters like Harry Dresden who constantly acts better than his opponent berating them and feigning anger at some of the silliest things on rare occasion. But then why is Mr. Dresden not on this list. That is because of reason number two that makes them so awesome. They have the skills, power, and expertise to backup their sassy mouths. They generally have power on the level of any good old fashion Marry sue. Of course unlike the timed honored Marry Sue, everyone usually hates these guys. Especially the good guys. How many good guys really like Deadpool or Alucard? Not many, if any (other than Japanese Pinkie Pie of course, she loves deadpool XP) And as for entertaining we can't go wrong in talking about how much fun it is to say, watch Alucard enjoying a good episode of Adventure Time, have his TV destroyed and then go on a vampire hunting fit of rage because it was a 70 inch flat screen plasma TV that the vampires just so happened to destroy. Not because you know, the vampires are killing people, not they hurt his tv, so they must die. Or Handsome Jack naming his diamond pony Butt Stallion after you, the player. These are entertaining, selfish, and usually very hilarious feats.

So I covered some of the things that make this character archetype work, now how to implement it? Really it takes a lot of work, and I'd imagine mostly in learning how to tell a good joke. Even in the middle of an epic combat scene, learning how to set up a good punch line and follow it through with both physical action and word play is important to crafting such a character. Red vs Blue has some of the best examples of doing this in combat, sometimes foreshadowing the joke early in a season only to pay off at the very end of the season.

Now there is one other aspect of this that can usually go forgotten and it is that some part of these characters are often times relatable. Almost always they have a dark origin story that makes you understand why they are so careless about killing if not outright loving it. A story that shows you that these characters don't respect the world for good reasons. This last part can be the real challenge, because how does one go about creating a dark, sad, and often times twisted background story without hurting the humor of the present day? This tight rope balancing act truly is one of the hardest to achieve, but if you can manage it, you've got a goldmine on your hands.

As Always thanks for reading. XD

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Character Spotlight: What Makes Hit Such an Interesting and Fun Character?

So I recently began watching the anime Dragon Ball Super in earnest a few months ago. The first couple of story arcs replicated the movies for a less than stellar performance. Of course the first unique story arc I got to was the tournament arc with universe 7 fighting universe 6. The stakes weren't about death, they were about what would happen if the battle was lost. So tensions were more about winning the fight then killing the opponent, something I think has a lot more emotional weight to it then merely dying in the Dragon Ball series.

What really impressed me though was the character Hit. Introduced as the guy who'd have to fight Goku he was quiet and mysterious at first, and then once he did begin fighting he was much more terrifying than I thought he could be. Terrifying and fun. What made him such a stand out villain in the series though? That's what I am to try and uncover today.

The first thing about Hit was that he appeared to be on a completely different level of power from even the main heroes. An opponent they couldn't even think about touching. I know this has been done to death before in the Dragon Ball series but Hit went above and beyond with the fact that they couldn't even touch him. It made you wonder what his power was, if he was just that much stronger or if it was a trick?

The next thing I noticed was how he fought. Unlike most bad guys throughout the Dragon Ball series he didn't just throw some punches and kicks that looked vaguely martial arts like. He actually had his own combat style which stood out as almost alien to what we were used to. To top it all off, unlike every villain since Dragon Ball Z, Hit didn't throw any magical looking Ki attacks at his opponents. He used pure martial arts, and his unique power in combination to defeat his opponents. This was kind of amazing considering it meant we would not see a giant Ki clash where two energy beams met and pushed against each other until someone won. We would see brutal and hard combat based on skill rather then power.

Another thing, his power itself. The way he seemed to attack people without touching them, and the way he seemed to be unable to be hit. These two things created a mystery for us the viewer to be confused by. Goku was also confused, but intrigued by it as well. Part of the battle wasn't just trying to defeat the enemy but understand him.

Finally a breath of fresh air for Dragon Ball villains. Hit actually loved the combat, the act of fighting made his blood run, just as much as it did Goku's. He wasn't a bad guy that needed to be killed, he was one that we wanted to see get powered up and excited to fight Goku. He continued to grow stronger in the fight making it to the point where he actually won the fight after Goku pushed himself past his limits. This cemented Hit as not just another bad guy, but a likable character who was perhaps morally corrupt, but one we would like to see time and time again.

So to round it all up the things I noticed about him that stood out were;

1. He was a far superior enemy to Goku or Vegeta. Who didn't hold his punches.
2. He had a unique fighting style and special ability, and did not use the same tactics everyone else did.
3. His power was played as a mystery to uncover, rather than a simple wall to overcome or break through.
4. His attitude and personality made him likable and less of a bad guy, but more of a an interesting and fun character that would make us want him to live, not die.

These are just some thoughts about Hit as a character and what make shim work so well. Do you have anything to add? Maybe I missed something, please let me know how you feel about Hit down in the comments below.

As always thanks for reading.

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