Controversial Question: Why do most Episode LL Default Female MCs Look So Basic?

You may have already seen this topic on “another forum”, but who cares if you have.

The features are almost always the same: generic eyes, generic nose, and full round pouty lips. What is these author’s obsessions with this look? Heck, even y’all make your MCs look lile this with customization! Why? It just looks so unoriginal and barely diverse. What’s wrong with choosing looks like this for the MC (whether you’re writing story or not)?

Better Looking and Diverse Female MCs

In case you’re wondering, their ethnicities (in order from 1st to last) are Afro-Latin American, Biracial Irish, Australian, and Asian (no specific type). These kinds of characters have so much potential for being like real people! If you’d like, feel free to use one of these characters in your story! :blush:

In case you didn't know what I meant by 'basic' MCs

I stole these character features from that famous author on Episode, Andrianne Roxi lol

Idc what eyes you guys use, but if that MC still has that nose and mouth, she’s still basic. Besides the facial features, these female MCs usually have little to nothing to make them seem like a unique character. Barely or no personality, hobbies, or flaws. All they do is hang out with friends, work, date or have casual s*x, or talk to the LI before building a relationship. Seriously, where is the diversity?!

I’m still learning about diversity, but even I know that basic is not the way to go. What do you think? Do you agree with my opinions on LL female MCs? What kind of female MC do you wish to see more in Episode LL stories? Maybe show me a picture for visual reference!

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Mine is basic I guess, but it depends on what the author like right?

Current Story

Upcoming story

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Your MC isn’t basic! In fact, she looks unique! I just wish some famous authors used those lips for more than just Asian characters (Idk about you, but that’s the only time I see those lips being used). And the Medium Heart Natural lips are underrated. I only see authors use them for old ladies. My MC has the Medium Heart Natural lips, and I think they look great on her! :blush:

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Haha thank you! I feel like authors always use either full heart pouty or full round pouty, it’s really annoying. I always change mine to the small heart ones, because there are other lip shapes!

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It’s annoying because not every girl or woman in the world has big lips—especially not a white woman unless it’s genetics (I guess) or fillers. One of my characters has thick lips because of fillers. And also, I used the small lips for my Asian MC example to prove my point (not trying to be a hypocrite, but hopefully you get it).

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I know where you’re coming from and I agree with you!:grin: Most of the MCs look alike :eyes:
But I think everyone has their preferences and if they want to use the basic character traits, let them do it. For me it doesn’t matter how the character looks like, and I never really change the appearance of the character, even when we are offered to customize them. I like to use the characters as the authors have envisioned them, what really matters to me is the story line :blush:

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Yeah, true. Sometimes I customize, but other times, I leave the character the way they are because they look fine to me (or I just don’t feel like customizing lol)

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This isn’t to start an argument or anything lol, but i think the word you’re looking for is fillers. Botox blocks chemical signals from nerves (relaxing the muscles and reducing the appearance of wrinkles). If you inject Botox into your lips, all it would do is make them smooth. Fillers make the skin plumper by helping it retain more water using a chemical called hyaluronic acid.

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Ohhh. Okay, let me edit my post.

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I think diversity is a lot more than just one character, I wouldn’t mind if one or a few characters look like that because sometimes, it’s just how the author envisions the characters (and there are only so many features to choose from) but for some stories, you kind of start to notice the same features over and over again for almost every character and it gets slightly weird and annoying. It gets very obvious that the author has biases (conscious or unconscious) towards certain features. I have found myself doing that in the past and I’ve stopped making characters look the same, but there is a bias still present if I’m being honest lol.

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No, no… I agree with this more than I can explain. I’ve spent lots of time ensuring good and proper diversity within my stories. Most MC’s have the same look… and when I had beta readers testing my stories, both of my MC’s were called ugly. It sets a sort of “standard” for PIXELS. Gets me super mad.

But I’m proud of my MC’s so I’m showing them off. Enjoy.

Charlie Torres from The Florist

Wafiya Vasanth from One Kiss Less (not out yet lol)

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:scream: How dare they say such a thing?! Your MCs don’t look ugly at all! And a couple of questions: which one of the characters is Charlie? And are the females on the left and right the same? Different?

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Yes, I agree that authors use a lot of the same features, it honesty probably because of the “beauty standards” we have for an MC. Most people don’t pick the “out there” features and if they do it will be on an extra character. I have been trying to make my characters as diverse as possible so everyone can see themselves at one point in my stories. I hope I have done a good job of that. I do have an MC that does look “basic” but to make up for that I have tried to make my characters look different. The one I am currently working on the MC is plus sized (If you keep it in the authors image) and I avoided the “basic” features as much as possible.

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They’re all Charlie! I gave my readers the option to play with any one of those body types :smiley:

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I have examples of my MC and LI, I don’t believe they look “basic” so I decided to share them.

Characters

MC

and her LI

I tried to make them look completely different from anything I have seen on the app before. I have never seen a plus LI so I wanted to make one myself after being extremely disappointed in episode for not letting my LI be plus. And to ensure it stays plus they won’t be body customisation on the LI because I like my LI being plus. Plus characters are lacking from the app, I know people say things about the closet being smaller than the generic but I feel it is enough to have one.

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They both look great! And I’m glad that someone is actually putting the plus size body into use some kind of way, so a good job on what you did there. How did you get that beautiful hair color for the first plus size MC? Is that a new one in the portal?

Yes it is Ash Brown

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OMG now you have me reevaluating my episode life choices. :rofl: @bakedpotato your characters are really good. Hmm, I dunno why we choose the characteristic traits that we do. I know I spend ages playing with my MC before I go with my choices. I just like their appearance and it was what I found to be pretty to me. I feel when you give the reader the option to customize straight away it is ok to choose what you want them to look like. :woman_shrugging:t5:

MC


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Oh, is THAT what hyaluronic acid does?

I can answer your question, OP. I myself don’t agree and thankfully grown out of this mindset but this is the answer you are essentially looking for.

  1. Influences and unconscious biases. (There was a video of Young beautiful African-American or maybe African children who were given both white and black barbie dolls to compare. And all of them choose the white barbie and say the black doll is ugly. But even they themselves don’t know why. So from young this mindset was already unconsciously and subconsciously ingrained into the minds of young children.)

  2. Subjected to racial prejudice and stereotypes:

  3. Conforming to the present Western modern societal standards of beauty. Usually no one would admit but it is essentially true and can’t be hidden. A certain type of face, hair, nose, mouth. That kind of thing.

  • For acceptance of the general population to fit in and be in trend. Dictated by fashion magazines… even at one point in time Vogue magazine declelared Clevages to be off trend. Most who were unaware were like there’s a trend for that?
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