Dorky References In Character Design

ive got quite a few !! however im only gonna link some of my favorites here ;o

atlas's favorite mug has the aperture logo from portal on it!

in the same vein, libum is loosely based on glados!

violet's personality and occupation were inspired by entrapta from the she-ra reboot.

alastor's name came from none other than alastor moody from harry potter.

i love my gal calamity despite being quite an old oc with the typical edgy wolf aesthetic haha, but her name is a pretty obscure reference to a character (who is also a canine) from the survivors series by erin hunter of the same name.

finally, nabiin is based on a couple things, all falling under a certain trope. she seems to be an extra/throwaway character in the grand scheme of the plot but is actually spewing foreshadowing almost every time shes seen. a more commonly known example could be ronaldo from su who foreshadowed a multitude of huge events through his conspiracy theories, however nabiin is MUCH more heavily inspired by (and is almost exactly the same as in this respect) whiteout from wings of fire, a character that can see the future but only shares it in very strange and cryptic messages that most other characters dismiss as nonsense.

I’ve got a ton

• Alumon is a reference to Alucard from castlevania 
• Akirenamon and Akechimon are references to the protagonist and Goro Akechi from Persona 5. Monamon is based off of Morgana from the same game but I haven’t uploaded him
• Chromon,Marsumon,Aikusmon,Sigursmon,Celimon, Arvisimon and Rindimon are all fire emblem references to different lords and an antagonist in the series.
• Scorpmon and Piexcmon are homestuck references
• Tide Pod is a reference to that one meme
• Spring Roll is a reference to Zuko 
• Oni Ruby is a reference to the Oni, mainly the ones in Yokai watch
• Crista Gemini is based on the song “It’s over isn’t it” from Steven universe
• Rontao is also a reference to a fire emblem character 

ok so you know the time in su when the gems went away and connie, peri and lapissed had to fill in 

his hair is lapis's hair 

shhh dont tell 

Kuramei is very inspired by Kurama and Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho :)

He even has Kurama's rose whip ^^

This guy is named after a printer brand lol

It was the printer I used at my old job.

Also my character Shai is named after the sandworm Shai-hulud from the Dune novels because his dad is a nerd. He also has "Show Me How to Live" on the back of his jacket because I love Chris Cornell and I also found out that particular song used clips from the movie Vanishing Point! Also his character is based off a lot of Soundgarden and Audioslave music. He has a Dodge Challenger because of that movie as well. And her plate is a vanity plate with Colorado OA-5599. He also has the Icon of Sin from Doom on his shirt.

oatmeal wears various bandanas that are relevant to my interests

rocket's name was inspired by team rocket 

alluri has a legend of zelda inspired tattoo (a triforce)

he doesnt have a toyhouse yet, but hades' boyfriend patrick is named after patrick stump, the lead singer of fall out boy. it's a really dumb joke hgjkfs; they were originally gijinkas of haunter and phantump respectively, and i thought it would be funny to make my phantump oc a very literal interpretation of my favourite singer at the time's name. 

sakaki; idk if this one counts bc she is both a fan character and has a reference to a different aspect of the same franchise, but her name is the japanese name of giovanni from pokemon, since she's a persian

albus is named after and very loosely inspired by the character from harry potter; he started off as an AU feline version of the character but developed very quickly into something separate from that

archer, ariana, and proton are much the same way; named after and draw a tiny bit of inspiration from pokemon characters and started as an au, but are so far from what they were originally that i consider them ocs at this point

snowpoint is named after the city from the pokemon universe

love stuck and stomachaches are designed after and explicitly named after songs/albums i like (love stuck by mother mother, and frank iero's album stomachaches). on a similar train of thought, hesitance is a reference to gerard way's album hesitant alien, and vinny was designed for me based on danger by you me at six. vinny's name is also a reference to the album that song comes from.

ryan and  shane are named after the hosts of buzzfeed unsolved, and their designs and stories are somewhat inspired by the two sides to the show; ryan is my true crime boy and shane is supernatural. morti and apple, who are part of their story, are also references to unsolved things.

i think that's all my characters who have some of reference to something, but i might be missing some. 

Nightmare's design was inspired by the Xenomorph!

Peter has a couple tabs that are different outfits; the Bunny Boy tab is him wearing the bunny pjs from A Christmas Story, and the Alien Boy tab is him wearing a onesie that looks like the Xenomorph! Yup, another Xenomorph reference! Also I may or may not have named him after Peter Parker-

Ripley is named after the heroine of the same name from Alien!...Wow I must really like Alien XD

...And I might have other references but I can't remember right now! XD

I love references ;0; so I'm bumping this thread

I'll start with just my webcomic characters:

- Cyrus was named after the Pokemon Platinum boss, since I needed a name that rhymed with "Osiris". His tunic is directly inspired by the one my character Panic wears, and in-universe this is also the case. 

- Helene was name after a classmate of mine in high school. It's likely that her wavy crown was partly inspired by Feferi's from Homestuck, but I don't know if it actually is.

- Trickster has pink heart-shaped glasses just like Trickster!Dave from Homestuck - at least the popular fanon version. Did Dave ever get a canon Trickster form? Maybe in the pre-epilogues?? He also used to have the green-colored lens, but I simplified his color scheme before his appearance in the comic. His white baseball cap is likely taken from an old Gengar character of mine fittingly named Goro.

- In her earliest design Xisea had more smaller eyes around her large eyes, which was 100% a Vriska reference (you see, I was a huge Homestuck fan when I came up with this story.) Now she just has one pair of small eyes. 

Maiko, Kamui, Haruki, Alice, Ophelia, and Akiko's designs are all inspired by certain JJBA characters.

Giorno, Caesar, Rohan, Yoshikage, Ciocolatto, and Bruno were all NAMED after certain JJBA characters.

Roland's design was inspired by Connor from D:BH.

Gavin was named after and also kinda based off the character of the same name from D:BH.

Kazumi's old design was based off Homura from Madoka Magica.

Mournimar's design is heavily inspired by Dremora from The Elder Scrolls!

lennys name was inspired by the vocaloid kagamine len as well as her favorite food being bananas!

She's a little inspired by my best friend. She's not exactly like her, but for example the fact that she plays tennis is lifted directly from her lol

I was reminded of the Ticci Toby Creepypasta when I was designing her goggles with the orange lenses jshcdfjg Toned it back a little bit but it's there >:D

Tammy’s shirt says “Relax” bc that’s what Frankie says...

Dez is literally based off that bad lip reading of the empire strikes back about the seagulls ... 

Nychto's eyes are inspired by an RPGmaker game called "Fleshchild"; His brother (that's not on toyhouse yet) has "Francis" as his second name because the first time I drew him was during a philosophy lesson about sir Francis Bacon (idk why they translated his name)