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[protect_vester]

I've been thinking about something curious about character design:

Take a story where a character is cursed to look like a monster, and must go on a spiritual or physical journey in order to take back their original form.

My question: Why is it that most people prefer the way they looked as a monster?

Comments

[ladynorbert]

Well, I know in Disney's The Princess and the Frog, the human form of the prince is generally preferred to the frog form. But on the other hand, that might not be the best example -- we see the human form first and know just how he ends up being a frog.

[protect_vester]

Exactly! I thought it was the opposite - I got really attached to seeing him as a human, and so when he turned into that frog (the design of the frog seemed really half-hearted and almost hard to watch compared to his human form, imo) I was irritated the rest of the movie. It was almost the opposite of Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle; her grandma form was incredibly lovely, with a lot of thought put into it, and I was okay with it.

I guess the thing to keep in mind, visually, is that the "monster" or interesting form has to actually be interesting for us to want to go on the journey...

[angelari]

I totally agree with you. I hated the Prince at the end of Beauty and the Beast, and while Tiana and Naveen spend a good chunk of the movie as frogs, we do get to know them as humans first. Also, in that universe, they are EXTREMELY limited in what they can do AS frogs (and are therefore less interesting as characters, which goes along with your argument); the Beast still runs his castle and interacts with Belle and is not in danger of getting eaten by alligators or stereotypes of hicks hunters with guns. Louie doesn't actually change, and he's still capable of interacting with the human world and being super-scary when necessary. If Louie got turned into a human, it'd probably be disappointing too.

[hamiltonia]

Unfortunately I have nothing to add to this, save some surprise regarding how true all of this is. The Beauty and the Beast is an awesome example- it is annoying when he changes into his blah human self.

[protect_vester]

I first started to think about this after I saw this picture. That it has so. many. views. makes me think a lot of viewers feel the same, maybe the great majority, and I wondered why. I mean, we should be happy for the Beast to not be a beast anymore, but it ends up just being awful.

[venefica_aura]

I also think in Midna's case she has something even more going for her imp form--she's a female character that is IMPORTANT in a video game that is not sexy! And having spent RIDICULOUS amounts of time trying to explain the "you know, chicks don't have to be ugly in our game, but they don't have to be sexy to you guys" to my development team, that sort of thing is kind of awesome. And then turning her into a SEXY CHICK at the end is really disappointing!

And I say this as someone that likes chicks. XD

Well, a close example (but not quite) as to the contrary would be Bigby from Fables, mainly because his big bad wolf form comes out to be TERRIFYING, and in order for him to keep being the sheriff of Fabletown he has to be in his human form, so bad juju is associated with his wolf form. That and how can he get with Snow White otherwise... But that could be my personal preference, and you do see his human form first, despite the fact that it is entirely a facade.

[protect_vester]

Midna is so interesting - I'd say she's still an excellent example of why cliche sexiness is not necessary for male characters to be interested in a female character. From being in Zelda fandom, I've read "Ugh, why was Sexbomb Midna necessary, she was more attractive as an imp" much more often than I've read the other way around

[venefica_aura]

Fables is wonderful, I highly suggest it. I've been sloooowly collecting it, and Bigby and Snow White are by far my favorite characters. Cinderella is also awesome. And Boy Blue. Ok most of them are awesome.

[drakonlily]

I think when someone looks like a monster then they have to have a better personality. You can be pretty and have no other values and still get a lot of attention. Monsters must be interesting.