Can we please stop shaming mc characters for looking "basic"

Community Episode Fan Community
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I have seen a lot of posts saying that many popular authors are biased and making the mc’s basic.
I do not believe in the term basic because everyone is in fact different and there should not be certain beauty standards that an author has to live up to when it comes to customization.
No one should have to make a character the way another person wants just to be considered popular of trending.
Ethnic diversity is a real thing and giving a person the chance to be who they want and customize who they are the way that they see fit should be given.

I am not saying that limited or no customization is bad.
All I am saying is that if you do have limited or no customization to also say that this is the way you see your story and you don’t know how to add customization or it would completely mess up the story because the ethnicity is included and/ or greatly talked about within the story.

If your character is considered “too popular” or “too basic” by someone ,then give them the opportunity to change that up and make their character the way that see fit so that they don’t think that, or inform them that is due to ethnic purposes.

I personally like to customize my character the way I like and I know that other people can feel the same way, but if an author doesn’t provide a lot of customization or no customization, I do not believe that it gives you the right to call them biased or basic.
If anything, it gives you the chance to communicate with them and ask them about the character and their race, culture, family heritage and more.

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Thank you for this! I feel like it is shaming people and authors (likely unintentionally) a bit for picking out the same features, though I understand that it gets repetitive and thus boring. I personally customize my characters with similar features using hair colors and styles that I like, so I have a lot of female LL with straight/straight sideswept bangs because I really like how the hair looks (it’s so shiiiiny).

And if the MC is customizable to begin with, it’s not as big of an issue since you can change around the features to fit the character that you want to design (I personally so not stick to the same complexion with my MCs because I enjoy adding variety. That’s why the human race is amazing–there’s so much diversity, yet we’re all beautiful and special!). But I sometimes run into trouble with family members whose complexions may not change, or who may have features that are mismatched (ie, if I make my MC pale and blonde, and the parents end up being different complexions, though recessive genes do exist and can lead to this happening. 'Tis not improbable). I am also bugged when the features of the parents don’t change to echo that of the MC’s (limited customization is a different thing, though, as the character’s features are restricted to their heritage/how the author imagines them in general).

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Exacty I totally agree with this! I love seeing other people’s character and uniqueness, but shaming someone for the way they are is just wrong.

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I don’t think you fully understand the reason why it’s said though. If a character is unique in everyone’s story, why does the “unique” character look the same in every story? Doesn’t matter if the MC has a basic or default appearance or not. That’s why they said they’re basic because at some point they all end up looking the same. Which is why I said in another thread that people should step out of their comfort zones if they truly want to make a character special.

For me it’s to the point that if the MC was a white character with small lips and looked more on the average side, I’d praise it as being unique because everybody’s MC looks the same.

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this!! majority of MCs are white characters with white LIs. we shouldnt even have to ask for diversity. Im not shaming authors but if i see how most stories are the same with the MCs then im gonna try to stand out! which is why im in the process of my own story!

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Right we should no have to ask for diversity, but if you have customization of an entire family or just a main character and love interest, shouldn’t that be enough?

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im speaking on stories that dont allow customization

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Then I 100% agree.

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No. CC doesn’t count as incorporating a diverse cast of characters. I’m not saying people shouldn’t add Cc, but those characters are still typically written through the lens of whiteness. Just changing the MC to Neutral 07 and giving them afro-textured hair doesn’t make them a Black character (just as an example) or give them a Black narrative. I mean, identity is complicated and diverse perspectives can take a lot of different forms.

But we’re looking at MCs that all have most of the same features, including some that the overwhelming majority of people their racial and ethnic group don’t actually have. Having white characters with a gold 05 skin tone and full round pouty lips is unrealistic outside of the context that they’re (intentionally or unintetionally) appropriating (usually Black) features to look more “racially ambiguous” in an othering, “””exotic””” way. Authors are obviously allowed to write white MCs, but assuming everyone has similar experiences in the world as white, cisgender (& usually heterosexual), non-disabled people is also not realistic.

Technically authors can make their default MCs look however they want, but others have the right to have an opinion about it and about the narratives those MCs represent.

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Okay so the way the story is portrayed even if you get to customize is not enough. The story needs to go along with their race and the way they talk or act is based on their race?
If I am wrong please correct me, but is this what you are saying?

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I’m not saying they have to. Authors can do whatever they want. But CC is different from having an actual diverse cast of characters. But if the default MC is going to be white, they should look the way white people actually look.

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Okay. Thank you for helping me to understand this. As a white person myself it in hard for me to invision myself in another races shoes or even understand how they feel about the diversity and script. What I do understand is what you just explained to me and I agree. Different races have their own cultures, life, and they way they speak and act it different from the way I myself would talk. Therefore the plot and story should be based on that race when it comes to that particular character or family and the way they talk or act.

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Now you can use this knowledge (if you choose to) to think about how you make your default characters. You want to make them white, because that’s what you are? Go on ahead! You want to give said character full pouty lips? By all means! But look at the broader stream of things. Recognize that while certain features aren’t exclusive to just one race, it’s important to have an accurate portrayal.

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I know that this thread is calling out mine just because I said most default LL female MCs look basic. If you didn’t see the rest of my posts, you would know that I’m not shaming anyone for customizing their female MCs with the full round pouty lips, generic nose, and generic eyes. Basic does not mean ugly, I just meant that the look is unoriginal because it has been done thousands of times already. Not that customization is the only thing that makes a character diverse, but it’s a good start. If you want more information, take a look at my thread. And besides, you can mix those features with different ones that aren’t often used! Also, I agree with @Dmfan91 and @mikc.

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Nervously laughs in MC with full CC.

No but you’re right, and I myself am pretty much against full CC to begin with, for literally the same reasons you mentioned above. The only instance where I tolerate full CC is when appearance has literally zero impact on the society MC (and other characters with full CC) live into. Which, translated, is either a fantasy setting or a utopia.

In that story of mine with full CC sigh, MC is not a human, therefore they can look anything the reader wants and it’d make no difference in how they act > fantasy. All this, in a future/alternative society that is heavily mixed and integrated > utopia.

The problem is that the majority of the stories on Episode take place on modern day planet earth, so they lack either fantasy or utopian elements. Don’t even get me started on ‘historical’ fiction on Episode that allows full CC as if the world back then wasn’t more racist than nowadays.

Anyways @VanessaWritess, I don’t like the term ‘basic’ myself, but you can’t deny that certain looks are overused. The best you can do is educate yourself on how people that race in that country look like on average, see what they can also look like and stay true to that information. If people know that most of white Americans don’t have pouty lips and super tan skin, why does the majority of their cast follow that combo?

And the problem is never dark skin or pouty lips per se. It’s how you incorporate them into the design of a character whose roots and heritage should be defined during story planning. If the combos you use don’t make sense in relation to the character’s ethnicity, you shouldn’t be surprised that readers start questioning what is going on.

In short, statistics are pretty much against white caucasian people with Full Round Pouty lips, we should all stay true to this knowledge when making our casts. The issue could suddenly become an excessive trend of blonde and blue eyed white MCs and, even if it’s more common for white people to have blonde hair and blue eyes than pouty lips, it’d still come across as annoying. In some areas of the globe it’s a pretty common combo, but in other parts it really isn’t. Besides, it just looks unoriginal after a while.

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I mean I don’t think there’s an inherent issue with offering full CC and indeed a lot of people want it, and for the kind of self insert stories that do well on the app CC is important for people who still want to play as a character who looks like them. It makes sense to offer CC if the default MC is white, though it would behoove authors to break down their CC a little more to get accurate hair textures and lip colors when people CC.

I think part of the issue is people thinking a character can be diverse. You can’t have a “diverse character,” only a diverse cast and set of narratives. So my only real point was that offering full CC for the MC doesn’t make a story diverse nor does it actually incorporate a narrative reflective of the experiences of someone who is not white, cis, etc. it’s not wrong to include it, though. Authors can say “it’s just how I want my MC to look” but those preferences don’t exist in a vacuuum. That’s all I was saying.

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I understand what you’re saying, I guess I have a slightly different opinion on it. Because like you said here

allowing full CC isn’t likely going to lead to an accurate representation of the ethnicity/culture/religion of the character if any of those change through the CC compared to how the character was originally envisioned by the author. On an idealistic level, if full CC is followed by appropriate variations in the narrative to accommodate any CC changes accordingly, then I’d see no issue. But most of the time, like you said

I think CC is great, but while limited CC is easily humanly possible (in reference to what I wrote earlier), full CC can produce a naive narrative. Which is why I’m happy with limited CC, not so much with the full one (given that the story takes place in the same reality I live in).

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I think it depends on the story. For example, my first story has a Latina MC and I didn’t allow customization because I integrated a lot of latinx cultural things in my story and it wouldn’t make since for any other ethnicity to have a Quinceañera or use Spanish terms for their family members etc. And I really hadn’t been around long enough to know that people had templates and whatnot. Now I know better and will be adding it to my next story.

I do agree that if the culture of the MC isn’t consequential to the story, that authors should allow at minimum limited (as my next story will).

Also, it is really annoying when all the talking characters are white and the BGs are poc OR have the token poc/lgbt+ friend and people slap #Diversity on their story like they’ve done a good job with it.

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I’d like to know what you define “basic” as?

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I would define basic as any overused extremely popular mc and or li.