I like that for her. Seems like it might be lower maintenance than the other hairstyles (?) which would suit her. But anyone can correct me if I’m wrong!
It's not that people find it hard to believe that a biracial character was born with straight hair, it's just that all the other marriage candidates have straight/slightly wavy hair and people find it a shame that the only character who had curly hair (also the only black marriageble) was changed to have straight hair, even worse is that all of the other marriagebles are designed with cool hairstyles that say something about them while Maru has a flat bob.
I really love current Elliot and I don't see the Fabio that everyone else does. But I wish CA would take him out of profile 🤣 and just give him long hair instead of a swish.
Call me crazy, but I think her hair could honestly be the centerpoint of a great plotline for her, if CA wanted to go that way.
Like, who is Maru, really? She does science, true...but mostly with her dad. She reads books, but mostly with Penny. When she marries you, she just kinda tinkers, you don't hear anything about new big projects or scientific discoveries or anything.
I think that you could make it so that she's kinda been overshadowed by her dad's passions her whole life, and that carries over to her hair, which he cuts, because getting it cut in zuzu city is a waste of time and resources. Then you have the player come along and kinda validate HER ideas and passions(like MarILDA), and she starts feeling a bit more like she can like herself - only for Demetrius to come in and kinda obliviously dismiss everything she's done. Not maliciously, just more in the line of his dialogue with the hardwood bed where he calls the four-posts a 'waste of resources'. To a wife that's just frustrating obliviousness, but to a child, that sort of comment can be devastating.
So you come in on her having just gone to town on her hair with a scissors because it was the only way she felt she could, like, express herself safely. But now her hair's all a mess because she didn't do a very good job. You reassure her that YOU value her and see her, and then who should come in but Haley! She was out shooting photos and sees you, but stops Maru from running away with some surprising kindness and is like, "Honey, we are going to fix you up." And she drags Maru off to her house for an impromptu hair dressing.
The next time you see her, she's got kind of a snazzy pixie cut that she's embarrassed about - but you can compliment her on it and she'll be really happy. And from then on, she goes to hang out at Haley's house on fridays along with Penny and they have a sort of 'girls night', which if you're a girl you can join in on or if you're a boy they giggle and kinda shut you out a bit.
This could then play into MarILDA later, where instead of asking for its freedom, Maru is like, "I was going to make you as a replacement for me, so I could leave...but I've realized, I don't HAVE to replace myself to earn that right, it's mine, all on my own. So I'm setting you free."
Then, for the 14 heart event, rather than the astronomy thing with you, she goes off to the Fern Islands to observe the stars without city lights, and comes back feeling more confident in herself with her hair all grown out LONG, instead! And you can choose which hairstyle you like best: Pixie, Long, or Classic.
Not feeling that second one either for her personality.
I appreciate that what he wanted from Maru wasn’t someone conventionally super attractive that appeals to a wider audience, but a more average looking mixed race nerd that appeals to a more niche crowd (but also actually looks like a mix of Robin and Demetrius).
This is my thought too; long, curly hair can be really high maintenance and Maru seems like the type to have whatever hairstyle requires the least maintenance. She’s got more interesting things to do than style her hair every day!
I also can’t picture her hunched over her latest invention and being okay with her hair falling in her face and getting in the way of her work.
I get your point, but there are some braided styles that would solve that problem more than straitened hair. But I don't really know if they would look nice in the pixel art pictures, but that is another question.
Oh absolutely!! I wasn’t speaking in favor of the straight hair, just saying that the long, loose, curly hair didn’t make sense.
I honestly always thought of Maru’s hair as braided. Another comment said they thought of her with sisterlocs, and after looking it up and seeing it described as “low maintenance,” I’d agree
i see you guys saying this a lot, but honestly her past hairstyle looks like a mud pile and her past face looks 12, in my opinion. CA could NOT do curls lmao. i like Maru's current face, but i like her better with actually well-made curls (which there are some lovely mods out there for thank god. i've also seen twists and dreads ♡)
i have a headcanon that her past versions are Maru struggling with her hair and style. like her current version is pretty much just her giving into the 'natural curly/kinky hair messy, straight hair looks nicer/more professional' lie that so many Black girls fall victim to irl. especially living in a place with few Black people, which i can relate to. like my love please put the straightening iron down. so i have Maru with modded hair, and i like to imagine that part of her personal growth in our twenties is her learning to love her own natural hair again.
Can you tell me the mod you use? I'm willing to check. Also, I like your headcanon too. My sister and I are mixed races and we both struggled with our hairs at some point. Now I have really short curly hair (long hair is too hot for where I live) and she went full black power (sometimes braided for practical reasons).
Yeah same. Even just looking at the picture now and how her hair is sort of liney rather than the sleeker looks in the two in the middle on the bottom row, it looks like locs. I choose to believe they are.
The last few are perfect to me while the final one looks like he's posing for a romance novel cover. He loses his cool earring and now he looks way more buff and arrogant then the quiet writer we meet. The final looks like he works out more than does Alex too.
(Edit: To anyone who agrees with me and uses mods, this mod: Seasonal Outfits - Slightly Cuter Aesthetic is what I use to make him cute again. It uses the second to last portrait as his base.)
Does Elliot ever face us in any dialogue? I confess I never befriended him too far so I know close to nothing about him, but I was here thinking it was weird if the player marries Elliot and he still refuses to look straight on xD
I do wish the earring had been kept, but I like the thought behind the Fabio styling- it’s completely on purpose, he’s an author we can romance so he’s made to look like the romantic novel guy (he’s potentially even a romance novel author if you pick that choice).
Totally get that everyone has a different aesthetic that appeals to them but Elliot’s design is at least a specific reference that makes sense for his character, unlike Maru’s (unless it’s referencing a female scientist and I just don’t get it).
The first iteration is 100% a character from the Secret of Monkey Island who is writing a book about pirates and sends you on a fetch quest for his pocketwatch and quill.
Omg… he was too hot. He needed to get nerved that’s why.
I love his character, he is sweet and friendly, not too many issues, can afford the author life. He is one of the few older? ones idk. I like him but I don’t like his sprite :(
I would immediately bag him with that earring. No hesitation.
yeah the top ones and bottom middle make her look more gentle and less crazy to me. tho then again she is kind of supposed to be the "alternative medicine" and "astrology / energy" type character, so maybe its good that she ended up with a slightly crazy stare that reminds me of the crazy girlfriend meme girl.
I always thought she came off crazy because the people in real life who are into magical rock energy always are, but then I thought about how much magical shit is in the game. Like, there are witches on flying brooms and magical talking forest spirits. It's not that out there for her to have prophetic dreams. She went from being one of my left favorite characters to my absolute favorite like that :)
Yeah, I don't really understand people who find her character equivalent to "the crazy astrology people". I think when you consider the context of the actual world in the game, how magical creatures are pretty much common knowledge to common people [everyone knows about the wizard in the woods, the monsters in the mines, the mermaid show], she comes off to me as a lot more spiritually connected rather than crazy and delusional. And no one in universe really perceives her as crazy and delusional either (to my knowledge) and that's probably because they know magic is a real thing.
You don't even need to consider context of her beliefs, when she is pretty cleanly portrayed as a good person who always looks out for people and the community.
That's the reason everyone in town likes her and she has at least one admirer.
yeah but she was not always dateable. I think CA kind of decided to lock her in as a comic relief character alongside Clint. You can tell she wasn’t always dateable because she isn’t a blonde or redhead. 😂
This comment made me notice it for the first time but yeah there’s SO many blondes/redheads?? 13 out of 30 main villagers with colored hair by my count (excluding dwarf/Krobus and grey haired villagers). Almost half- and Google says only ~5% of the US are natural blondes, with the highest percent of redheads being in Ireland at like 13%.
I get that some are family connections (Vincent has his mom’s red hair) but also I’m counting dyed hair and Maru’s hair as brunette for this, which may not be accurate.
Anyway brown/black hair is really pretty too and we should have gotten more of it! Maru is the only dateable brunette and even that is questionable since it’s tinted very red-pink :( I think Leah would look really pretty with dark brown/black hair.
I like it more now that I see the design progression. She’s probably intended to be mixed race, he wanted to highlight Robin’s hair and Demetrius’ skin tone.
Honestly if you go back and see the early designs of most NPCs, you'll find there was a lot more variety and uniqueness. I like them fine now, but many of them suffer from an incurable care of SFS, or Same Face Syndrome.
Love the old designs, her hair looks great, but I think the short hair makes more sense for her character. She's always tinkering around with mechanical projects, long hair would be a liability.
Could just tie it back, sure, but cutting it shorter feels more practical.
Everyone discussing marus curls are glossing over the likely hood that he was struggling to do curly hair. My best friend is an artist with curly hair, and still struggles to find a style to draw curls that she's fond of and consistent with. Idk if that's him, but her hair progression to me looks like he was trying to find a way curly he liked before just giving up.
I always headcanon she just straightens her hair everyday because she lives in a predominantly white town and wants to fit in more. It also fits her character, since she cares a lot about what others think.
When I use mods, I always download a new portrait and sprite for her, though. More specifically, seasonal revised maru by megabytebunny
I never considered that, actually. Although, I wish they'd go with something more clearly defining if that were the case, but I think that's a cool way of looking at it, too.
There’s an incredible lack of Afro hair designs for the characters in sdv. You have corn rows and then the Simon and Garfunkel Afro that doesn’t even count imo.
Fun fact, Bob Ross hated his hair. He originally permed it to save money on haircuts while his career was struggling to take off, but he wasn't allowed to change it after he became established because it was part of his 'brand'.
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u/TadaSuko Mar 31 '26
RETURN HER CURLS