[quote=@Spanner] I normally avoid getting into discussions like that when it doesn't involve my own characters or cause any sort of direct impact on my life but this time I actually feel compelled to point something... Isn't that too much of a selfish action? I mean, taking a famous character as your face claim is quite the normal practice for roleplayers to start with - hardly qualifying a reason for refusing a character. Also, It's important to realize that even if someone decides to take a famous character as reference for appearance they're not obliged to make a character identical to the referential appearance, they're merely providing some visual reference to make it easier for us to visualize them, and even if they do decide to take some aspects of the original character it's not like it will ever be a complete copy - after all the development of the character will always depend on the specific environment and how they interact with it. Anyway, ignoring the whole half-drunk speech about how you should be able to do the character the way you like and repressing that is wrong, the point of this whole discussion is pointing that refusing a character because you personally don't like the way it was made is kind of going against what RPs stand for. It's not like they're doing metagaming or shit like that, it's just roleplaying a character based in a concept they liked, repressing this without a concrete rrason is just forcing you personal beliefs into someone else - an abuse of you position as GM. P.s. Shirogane Naoto is a she. She even declares that. [/quote] I agree. I said that it was a selfish action. But! Here's the thing. When I go looking for a photo, I do not often go searching up a character's name. I look for vague abstracts; reverse trap, bishounen, glasses, a purse, lipstick. I never go with the intention of using a character from something unless its about all I kind find in terms of appearance. You can find some really nice stand alone photos just by looking in the vague abstract. I never said I wouldn't accept the Shirogane Naoto photo appearance. But when they share vague similarities to the character, that's where I draw the line. Characters on a character sheet are transformative. You take a photo, even if its from a popular series and you transform and adapt into something that isn't itself. We can be inspired by characters, but inspiration should be expanded. But I also as said, don't like popular popular characters. To me a character, if done well, wears their own personality. There is no way for me to visually disassociate myself from a character from a popular series like that. Maybe this is simply the difference between a visual thinker and a non visual thinker. Popular characters have merchandise, they are on the cover of their own things, I mean I won't accept Naruto as someone's character appearance in the same vane because there's merchandise of him, he's everywhere. There are times when a character image cannot be used for something else. Because that character has a strong impact in the memory. But those are my I just woke up half asleep thoughts. I said I never would accept it. I meant to imply to look for something else. And if you can't find something else, then fine.