Dorky References In Character Design

Posted 6 years, 11 months ago (Edited 5 years, 2 months ago) by Lonestarcelt

Is there anything more fun than creating new characters? Probably not...but there are certainly things that we enjoy outside of that creative process. From movies we love to watch, songs we listen to on repeat, books we can go back to over and over, and games we could play for hours if not days on end, and as a result. Sometimes, intentionally or not. We inject a bit of our other loves into the creative process. This thread is for that very purpose. Was your character's name a reference to someone from your favorite book? Was their fashion sense lifted from a show you watched? Did you get their hairstyle from an anime you saw ages ago or did some aspect of their past come about from listening to that song that you just love? Why not post the connections here? All references from big to small. From details that may seem super obvious to you to the minor minutia that someone only as in-depth in whatever lore as you would even start to recognize? It doesn't matter. If you have something that helped influence your character why not share it here and let everyone know, not only something that went into your creative process, but also maybe introduce people to something new. 

Examples: 
Your character's pet is named after something from a video game
Your character wears a bit of jewelry taken from some part of a short story
Your character has a phone charm of some video game faction

Please note: This is just a thread for references. Sure these references could inform large parts of a character's design or world but there's a difference between that and say a fan character for whatever bit of media they were made for. Nothing against fan characters it is just not the goal of this thread. However, if you have a fan character who has a reference to some other bit of media? Say a wizard for the Harry Potter universe who loves a particular band from the 90s enough to have some merch on them to a Homestuck fantroll with some obscure video game reference? They are more than welcome here. In essence.

X: A fan character on their own
✔: A fan character with a reference in their design to some outside media. 

hex shadowcat13

she has an anime ref rance(if you wanna guess what the anime is comment on her profile: hint it is on NetFlix)

 Candida VictoryDrawsStuff

Candida's design scheme is mostly white and she is a sniper, which is an reference to the sniper Simo Häyhä nicknamed "The White Death", who she and her character is inspired by!

🌌 | Midnight vriska

the mechanics of their magic is slightly inspired by steven universe!

Leon Summers bulgariansumo

At some point, I gave Leon Sailor Moon bangs and for fun, decided that his universe's version of Sailor Moon is his favorite anime.

...I also decided to design the main cast and write a full plot and character summary of his universe's version of Sailor Moon.

I have also never watched an episode of the real Sailor Moon.

Kasia Drevis Blumenkranz

Her last name comes from Aya Drevis, the main character from Mad Father!

Skrímsli Grimjaw ☆ VincentTheServal

His last name was totally inspired by a Bleach character :') 

Kenneth JayBird375

Kenneth's looks and personality as well as storyline is a weird Hamlet/Zuko hybrid that works so well. I have no clue why