Having a thing for shapely hips and using them for fanservice is different from using it as a shorthand for attractive.
Fight smart, not fair.^^ That's because the point isn't Word of God, the point is the character's figure. The "developer wants" bits are just speculations as to why they have it's there.
Seems the description is a bit confused. Perhaps we should simplify it a little. Or, as mentioned, remove the "It's what the designers intended."
As you mention, how can we tell if it was meant as a visual shorthand, and not for fanservice? Especially considering that even if not intentional, people are likely going to find the characters attractive anyways?
Don't take life too seriously. It's only a temporary situation.
Agreed.
I'm thinking the trope still needs to be a bit more than "Women in animation have wide hips," though. Should it be limited to more mature women? Or is it simply the use of wide hips to show a womanly figure, especially in more stylized works?
Don't take life too seriously. It's only a temporary situation.If the point of this trope is the character's figure then the description should concentrate on that instead of getting getting side-track as to why a certain trope is used.
Reading the trope description and examples I can't decide whether this is suppose to be Big Hip as Fanservice, big hips as Getting Crap Past the Radar, or visual shorthand for female character. The only simalirity is wide hips and wide hips are not a trope. So trope description has to pick one, or all, but it's has to be made clear in description what this trope is.
I Thought It Meant using wide hips as shorthand for "maternal" or "mature".
Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.May I suggest some alternate wordings for the requirements:
- The hips indicate physical maturity in an Animation Age Ghetto where big breasts wouldn't make it past the censors.
- The hips are a visual shorthand for mental maturity.
- The hips are the main clue that the character is female.
Somebody also needs to make it clear that this trope is not "Attractive women with large hips", and that in fact Ms. Fanservice types by definition cannot have Hartman Hips.
Russell... likes to hurt people... for PEACE.Why can't it be Fanservice? I thought one of the prime examples was Livewire from Superman The Animated Series, and she was definitely designed to be fanservice-y. It's just, because of censorship, this was done through giving her exaggerated hips instead of the Most Common Superpower.
The trope isn't designed for fanservice, but that doesn't mean the characters who have Hartman Hips can't be recognized for their fanservice.
That livewire example doesn't work. Again saying that said character was given exaggerated hips instead of large breasts because of censorship, implies that you have knowledge of the creative process that lead to the final character design of that character. Note that Livewire was created by Bruce timm, and if you've seen most of his art he rarely gives is female characters large breasts.
This trope isn't a fanservice trope. There's nothing inherently sexually about small hips and wide torso. While they're usually considered desirable traits, they're still just traits.
From my perspective, the point this trope is trying to get across is that female characters or physical mature female characters are often drawn with average bustlines, a small torsos and wide hips. These feature often distinguish them from male character and/or other younger female characters.
Anyway I think this trope has more to do the identifying a character gender in an animated or drawn series.
No, it says possibly because of censorship. The "apparently" there is to note that it's not a definite note on the meaning of the trope as much as a musing. All the stuff about reasons why is musings, really, as the reasons why aren't the point of this trope. Again, I should know. I wrote it.
I think you're reading too much into things. Looking at the trope, I saw a main reason for that could be that "it is only an example of this trope if" list, which is mostly if not completely inaccurate. I have since removed it.
edited 18th Jan '11 5:52:13 PM by KnownUnknown
If we're splitting the trope, we could break off Big Hips as Fanservice / Getting Crap Past the Radar to Dem Hips.
edited 19th Jan '11 4:34:08 AM by TibetanFox
From the trope page:
That's the point. Everything else is just extra.
So if I'm understanding things correctly this trope has to do with female character's who are drawn with small torsos and wide hips to an exaggeration degree.....I guess.
Well either way if the portion you're highlighting is what to point of this trope, then the description needs to rewritten in a way where that's on the first paragraph instead of in the middle of the description. All of the extra information on the description is speculation, so there's no reason why that should come before getting the point of the trope across.
Crown Description:
Options may not necessarily be mutually exclusive.

The description throws out phrases like "the designer wants" and "the character is meant to be", yet their no Word of God to back any of the claims up, making the description sound really presumptuous.
Also the requirements for a character to fit this trope.
Again some really presumptuous phrasing but also a lot of the examples (fanservicy characters with large breasts) in the page don't fit these. Probably because this trope was meant to highlight a trend in western animation aimed at kids
edited 20th Dec '10 9:23:12 AM by captainpat