Female reptile characters.

[Jarrah White]

The TMNT franchise has introduced us to alot of female reptile characters, Lurch, Venus, and Mona Lisa are some examples. They are all fine in they're own merits, but there is one thing about their character designs that is controversal. Breasts. Should reptile characters of a female gender have boobs, yes or no? Of course in real life, reptiles would have no need for breasts as they don't feed their young milk. On the other hand, breasts could be part of gender identification along with the shape of the body, face, eyelashes, hair, etc.

I'll let you be the judge,



Here's a picture of Venus,


And here's a picture of April in her turtle form.


NOTE: I'M NOT TRYING TO BE SEXIST, PLEASE DON'T MISUNDERSTAND.

[Taloniss]

Oh Lord...

[Coola Yagami]

It's a cartoon thing man. Breasts help the females look more female. And besides, mutagen always gives the animals human characteristics. Who's to say that doesn't include giving Venus and Mona Lisa human female-ish breasts and hips?

[sango]

I think they should, the tmnt are sorta human-like..mutant type beings, like half human half reptile..so I think a half & half thingy would *mix*....

looks kwoote that way too, haha
(no big bubbehs tho..looks so DUMM!)

[Kali]

Personally, I've used both designs. It depends on the origin of the characters. Let's take my original characters.

Oni - She's got curves, mostly because she's a representation of myself. Her origin is unknown and always will be, so I'm not sure what she was before she was a mutant turtle, or how she was mutated that would have effected her anatomy.

Angel/Cassidy - Flat chested, although her human form wasn't. Old cartoon mutation story, I think her look fit that universe.

Midori - Movie universe, she's only feminine enough to make it noticeable that she is female. The main clues are supposed to be in her face, thin body, and hip structure.

(Getting tired yet?)

Jezebel and Lalena - Two totally original characters created for my webcomic. Obviously female forms. They are true hybrids of animal and human. Their race was artificially created and individuals have varying percentages of animal vs. human DNA, so some reptilian females do have breasts, others don't.

I could argue this more, but I've pretty much summed up my opinion here:
http://www.geocities.com/cathorpe200...animalwhy.html

[Jo Dawn]

Kali, that was great!

[Jarrah White]

Gotta love that comic You know that rule also holds true to TMNT, if it was to be real, Ninjara would have six breasts too

Like Kali, I too have drawn female turtle characters, mostly Venus. I have made an original character called Medici. She's a 16 year old turtle girl, wears a pink mask and weilds a samurai battle axe. All her features are feminine, she does have breasts. Also, I thought Turtle April looked a little manish in the Archie comic so I 'suited' her up a bit with female features. In my sketch, Turtle April is undoubtably female.

[Lord Nightwalker]

Interesting. I have drawn them both ways before myself. Their mutation made them humaniod reptilians, It has blended the species, So it could be eighter way depending upon circumstances of mutation. In the old toon, Archie comics, the mutagen change combined traits from your form and whatever you had last been in contact with, So in that case, Breast would most certainly be a possability. There are to many angles you can aproach this from. I'm fine with eighter. The dna has been altered enough that they are something unique, a new species/race. Dozens of genetic differences between their orignal state and what they are now, and yet also different from other bipedal, humanoids. LOL. Damn. This is starting to become a term paper. I'm shutting up now. Later!

[Meira-Bates]

I didn't vote either way since the question was reptiles. Really I think it's fine for something like, say a lizard to have boobs because unlike turtles they wouldn't have a shell that would render those breast useless. X.x but turtles with boobs just make no sence to me. Of course I've already had this discusion with Jarrah else where and it might be what broght up the poll....speaking of which I never did get that e-mail from you X.x

[TilasTrinity]

Depends on the artist really. I think, as long as you can make a female anthro/reptile with breasts look good, then okay fine. But giving them basketball breasts where each breast is bigger then the characters HEAD, then no, that's too much. Sure, in a femme turtle's case, the breasts are rendered usuless in reguards to functuality, they help the gender divide. IMHO, it's always a pain trying to guess a characters gender by looking for it's eyelashes, as in many toons, that's the ONLY real clue! I'm guilty of that myself, my character was confused for a guy on SO many occasions it wasn't funny, until I learned to do female anotomy better. (hell I adfmit I looked like a boy in almost all my old pics :p )

Oh and Kali, LOVE the comic. That was awesome.

[Jarrah White]

Your character? Let's see it!

[Machias Banshee]

hmm... interesting topic? Yes. Surprised its Jarrah's? Not really...

I put breasts on my character, even though raptors obviously dont have mammalian traits. A reptile did branch off and evolve into mammals, but thats WAY back....

But, considering my girl had originally been human, yeah, I think theyre fine on her...

[Kali]

Glad people liked the comic.

Anyway, I just had a few more thoughts. Dealing strictly with female turtles, there are differences between normal turtles. The shape of their shells, the size of their bodies (females are generally larger), and the size of their tails (females have smaller tails).

Other reptilian species do have color or something else to tell the difference between the genders, unfortunately, few people look into it when designing characters. Not this fandom specifically, I've seen a lot of anthro art, and most artists simply stick animal skin/fur/features on a human body, rather than give an animal a humanoid body. *shrugs* Both styles work.

[Machias Banshee]

I like the ideas of the color differences a LOT better than some options... I'd rather not have my character have spines poking out of her head, and proto-feathers on her arms...

[Kali]

Originally Posted by Machias Banshee

Kali, you hit 10k!!!

I did? *looks* Hey, I did. Cool.

I'd rather not have my character have spines poking out of her head, and proto-feathers on her arms...

Hey, I thought you liked that drawing...

But you're right, color is a very good indicator.

[Jarrah White]

Originally Posted by Machias Banshee

hmm... interesting topic? Yes. Surprised its Jarrah's? Not really...

I put breasts on my character, even though raptors obviously dont have mammalian traits. A reptile did branch off and evolve into mammals, but thats WAY back....

But, considering my girl had originally been human, yeah, I think theyre fine on her...

I've always liked your character design, a Raptor Girl, pretty cool

[Machias Banshee]

Originally Posted by Kali

Hey, I thought you liked that drawing...

But you're right, color is a very good indicator.

I DO like it!! you dont go overboard with it.. I dont want to look like a insane feather duster thing....

[Shreddette]

I chose no but now after seeing that comic...

I remember seeing a picture of Miss Piggy someone made with her breast hanging out as a reference to the Janet Jackson boob thing at the Superbowl and I said on the particular message board I saw it on "Shouldn't there be 6 breasts?"

I guess it depends on my mood. I couldn't care less really. I'll accept both.

[Lord Nightwalker]

Originally Posted by sango

I think they should, the tmnt are sorta human-like..mutant type beings, like half human half reptile..so I think a half & half thingy would *mix*....

looks kwoote that way too, haha
(no big bubbehs tho..looks so DUMM!)

Hey Speaking of which, Sango, This topic inspired me to do a quick sketch of...Your charachter, Sango!
And I stand by what I said earlier with the added agreement that you can do more than add breast to make them appear female. I too, use research into animalistic differences. Sometimes, I even use coloration patters, like spots and stripes, on say, a redbellied slider. It all depends on my mood and train of thought at the time. Later...Again...

[TilasTrinity]

Originally Posted by Jarrah White

Your character? Let's see it!

My fox character *points to avatar and sig* I haven't finished designing my turtle character yet. ^.^;;;;