Character Redesigns: Yay or Nay?

[EvilChameleon]

From certain angles in these pictures, the bow just looks like an inverted bandanna.

 

[Stofen]

Why did they have to turn Team Magma into NERDS? It's going to be hard seeing a rivalry between the 2 teams when Aqua looks like they can give Magma wedgies and then stuff them into lockers.

 

[Alola]

Why did they have to turn Team Magma into NERDS? It's going to be hard seeing a rivalry between the 2 teams when Aqua looks like they can give Magma wedgies and then stuff them into lockers.

Wow, that isn't hurtfully stereotypical at all. In fact, what is with this "nerd" mentality in general? Just because Maxie happens to now wear glasses, everyone wants to inaccurately describe him as a nerd. And even if we were to use this stupid label, it would only apply to him as none of the other members fit the criteria!

The term "nerd" is a negative, derogatory word that implies that a person is overly intellectual, socially impaired and obsessed with what isn't accepted by the social norm. It characterizes people as weak, physically inept, unattractive and uncomfortably weird. That's hurtful. It's used to maliciously label others under someone else's flawed system of judgement. Just as there was an argument earlier on people's overweightness and ignorance/rudeness that transpired from that discussion, those same principles apply here. We need to be wary of what we say as many people view these threads daily. What one may like in Maxie's redesign, you (as well as other people) just shot down with a cruel term that can also seriously affect someone's own personal psyche and or self esteem. I understand I made this thread to invite your opinion on characters, but you can at least be a bit more considerate and polite with your answer. Maybe say he looks too intellectual for your taste, or just not-threatening.

But I'm getting sick and tired of the words nerd, geek and the like. It's ridiculous. It shouldn't be used in this regard, especially just because someone wears glasses (For a reason that might even be necessary due to impaired vision. But then again, no one ever stops to take the time to think about that).

 

[Almonds]

Maybe Maxie is wearing glasses to protect his eyes since he's probably staring at lava all the time in Mt. Chimney. In Emerald, Team Magma literally worked in an active volcano, complaining about their ears burning from the heat.

 

[Team Gaara]

I just noticed (sorry if I'm late) that all of Team Magma, sans Maxie, are making the same pose~ I just find that a bit interesting. They always did give off sort of a cult feeling and this sort of emphasizes it.

I also noticed Maxie and Archie are posed just so that they hide their Mega Stones. Nice~

Why did they have to turn Team Magma into NERDS? It's going to be hard seeing a rivalry between the 2 teams when Aqua looks like they can give Magma wedgies and then stuff them into lockers.

And what kind of locker is anyone going to be stuffing Tabitha in?

 

[Pokemaster97]

I'm not really fond of the Team Magma grunts redesign, they look like friendly people trying too hard to look tough. I really enjoy how unique they made the administrators for both teams look though, the all look like their own person rather than glorified grunts.

 

[DoctorWhy]

Personally, I've grown to like all of the redesigns. Especially Aqua and Magma. They both look great throughout, and I love how their redesigns further contrast them. Archie and Maxie both look fantastic especially. Brendan and May are alright I suppose. Not bad. Steven looks fantastic, better in every way, and his in-game model does too. Looking forward to seeing more redesigns! I just hope they don't stray TOO far from the originals.

 

[Dieter]

I think I already mentioned liking the redesigns, I still do, but there's one thing that slightly bothers me.

With the old designs, Team Magma always reminded me a bit of ninjas (with the hoods, the partly dark colours) and now with their redesign, not really anymore (except for the grunts), which is a pity, cause I always thought it was a nice contrast with Team Aqua being pirates

Nonetheless, I do like the redesigns, and they uniqueness the grunts now have (also, I always thought Maxie was more intellectual than Archie, and I think his new look fits him)

 

[Ivysaur]

I'm not really fond of the Team Magma grunts redesign, they look like friendly people trying too hard to look tough.

I like that actually. After all, they believe they're the "good guys" are doing the right thing. So it kinda works.

 

[ReadsALotOfBooks]

Roxanne's is just plain hawt. May's is iffy. Brendan's is Ethan Hoenn Version. Steven's is OH HOT DAMN. Maxie's is FINALLY ANOTHER GEEK IN THE HOUSE. Archie's is OH HOT DAMN HIS BEARD LOOKS BETTER THAN EVER. Shelly's is Where the hell did the red go? Tabitha's is GET THE FUCK OUT OF DUNKIN' DONUTS!!! Matt's is AWWWWW YEEEEE BOIIIII. Courtney's is Can I borrow your hair dye? Grunts I have no reaction to.

 

[jokool]

I don't know... I kind of like the pirate theme that Team Aqua has, and I kind of like May's new look (maybe a bit too much hnng), but I just feel like updated artwork would have been better than such drastic changes.... I mean, Shelly looks completely different..... Why'd she go and dye that gorgeous red hair? :bawl:

 

[TayRanitar]

I hardly recognized any of the evil teams except for Maxie...
I love that team Aqua are pirates now, that is amazing. I like Matts new look, unsure about Shelly her design is so different. Archie looks great though.
Tabitha now has the worst design, he looks nothing like how he used to! Courtney looks cool and so does Maxie.

 

[Mitchman]

Now that we have clean art, I'm annoyed at team aqua. The blue tints on the hair and the ridiculous outfit shelly is wearing is well, ridiculous. Team magma is no better, but at least their outfits look smart.

 

[SakuraFox512]

I like some elements in them, but I'm all across the board on a lot of the new ones.

Shelly's new design is cool and keeps the same feel, I think. And I like Matt's redesign for the most part, because it's a great improvement over the kinda out-of-shape redneck pirate he looked like in RSE...I just wish they made his new design seem a bit less Hulk-ish and a bit more human. Courtney was well done.

The grunts for both Magma and Aqua look good too (though I don't understand why Magma trainers wear sweater-like portions now...it seems really impractical ^_^

On the other hand, Maxie seems to have gone from 'classy and I know it, but I could beat you down' (in his old design) to 'nerdy, I'd rather only talk at you to make my point' (in his new one). I believe part of that is due to his posture and the difference in eyes, but it makes him come across as less of a potential threat in my opinion. Also, he looks kind of like a hipster now. =/

And Archie...well, let's just say I'm of the opinion that there's no going wrong with the classic pirate look of 'nice, semi-open dressy shirt' and leave it at that.


Brendan's redesign is quite enjoyable, plus I like the new outfit.


The only redesigns I'm hating are Tabitha's because he doesn't even remotely resemble himself and they've managed to make him look like a stereotypical basement-dweller or an ineffectual comic relief character

and I'm hating May's because of this:


^ It's all over the place. You have:
* The pose (minus the legs) from RS May
* The red/black/white color scheme from RS May
* The lighter hair and eye color from Emerald May
* The build from Shauna
* The knock-kneed stance from Shauna

Steven looks pretty great, all things considered; the crown-like cuffs and the brooch were nice touches. (̶H̶e̶ ̶d̶o̶e̶s̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶c̶u̶t̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶n̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶u̶i̶t̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶i̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶a̶r̶t̶w̶o̶r̶k̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶i̶f̶f̶e̶r̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶s̶t̶y̶l̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶w̶a̶y̶.̶)̶ But...and correct me if I'm wrong, Steven is an adult, right? Why is he so much scrawnier than Brendan now?

 

[firepanda]

Good Gog, I've just noticed Aqua and Magma's shoes. Why are Magma wearing gumboots?!

 

[Team Gaara]

In reading through these comments about Tabitha, I think it's now highly obvious that the complaint isn't really that he looks "nothing like he used to", but rather, that he's now fat and doesn't look like he can be taken seriously. I'm almost certain that if the opposite had been the case, and ORAS Tabitha had been redesigned to look like RSE Tabitha, there wouldn't be many complaints at all. Know why?

Because I hardly see anyone complaining about Matt's redesign. Matt, who was originally one of those out-of-shape guys that don't like to keep a shirt on, has been beefed up to the extreme and it seems most people are in favor of said change for one reason or another. It's pretty clear that most people are fine with redesigns that make the character look more fit, but not vice versa. Which is fine, I suppose, but it really isn't the same as saying he looks "nothing like he used to". None of them except Courtney really look like the original, but they don't all get the same complaints, just Tabitha. Not trying to call anyone out on their opinion, just something I noticed~

 

[DoctorWhy]

Personally, I'm in the minority that's totally fine with Tabitha's redesign. Honestly, the old one was just fine, but it was very normal. I mean, it wasn't super special or different, even compared to grunts. While I don't think that Tabitha needed to gain so much weight (even though I don't see much wrong with it either), I will admit that it gives him more...character. He's more distinguishable, and the more contrasts between members of Aqua and Magma the better. Plus, this is a long stretch, but Magma's goal is to expand the land for human development. Well, a couple facets of human development are technology and the food business. Not meaning anything offensive whatsoever, but maybe Tabitha's figure could be a slight nod to those facets of human development. Plus, why should everybody be skinny? I understand, and hope, that the main problem for most people is the fact that he went under a strong redesign, but everybody did pretty much, so there's no point in singling out Tabitha.

 

[BigBadButterfree]

I like the new Tabitha. Nothing wrong with old tabitha, but now he stands our more as a character, not just a glorified grunt. It's like, the way all of team magma are science-y now, and all take that same pose, it's like they're being a serious team, but amidst the seriousness are 2 that stand out. Courtney, with her bad-girl/skanky-coquettish personality, and now tabitha, with his slightly humorous expression. In fact, if they had originally looked like this, and were redesigned to look like their RSE designs, I would've been rather upset.

As for Shelly, she pisses me off. I hated her in the anime, but I liked that she had red hair. And not that red-red like silver/flannery/everyotherredhead has, but an orangey, NATURAL red color. Like, she was unique in tat regard. But new Shelly has black hair... Like half the Pokemon world has anyway. It makes some sense, being japan, but she was the only character with realistic looking red. Unless I'm just not remembering correctly. Oh well. Maybe Nintendo is trying to really show that this is a Japanese-based region, and not a European one, so they're sticking more to not-as-outlandish hair colors (dat Courtney dough).

 

[Isaac Gravity]

In reading through these comments about Tabitha, I think it's now highly obvious that the complaint isn't really that he looks "nothing like he used to", but rather, that he's now fat and doesn't look like he can be taken seriously. I'm almost certain that if the opposite had been the case, and ORAS Tabitha had been redesigned to look like RSE Tabitha, there wouldn't be many complaints at all. Know why?

Because I hardly see anyone complaining about Matt's redesign. Matt, who was originally one of those out-of-shape guys that don't like to keep a shirt on, has been beefed up to the extreme and it seems most people are in favor of said change for one reason or another. It's pretty clear that most people are fine with redesigns that make the character look more fit, but not vice versa. Which is fine, I suppose, but it really isn't the same as saying he looks "nothing like he used to". None of them except Courtney really look like the original, but they don't all get the same complaints, just Tabitha. Not trying to call anyone out on their opinion, just something I noticed~

And that's appreciated, but you are using your thoughts to veer the post of others in a certain direction that many were not getting at. That said, here's your rebuttal for RE-Matt:

Look at him. LOOK.AT.HIM! The dude looks like he can rip a piece of earth from the ground and throw it/bench press a Slaking but holds those tiny Poke Balls in his HUGE hand cause THAT'S how he wants to handle things.

That's so awfully hilarious and awesome at the same time how can you not get hyped looking him? Throw in the fact he has Aqua's emblem tattooed onto his chest that is some hella dedication.

It's got nothing to do with him being "fit" far as I'm concerned (Honestly some would argue the man's build is pretty damn unhealthy).

 

[Almonds]

I don't care much about Magma/Aqua's new designs, but I have to say Matt looks the best out of the four admins.