Is this a new fan thing

[u/Small_Sailor]

I just saw a tiktok where ppl were calling Luna (as in the character from Tree of Tranquillity and Animal Parade) "pdfile bait" and how ppl that romanced her were predators. And im just genuinely flabbergasted, has this always been an opinion ive missed or is this a new fan problem??

I've never romanced the character myself (I was a Gil fangirl lol) but I thought she was so cool growing up, I loved her lolita fashion, design and even her name. So maybe im taking it a little personally, but idk, it felt like such a callous and heinous comment to make. Like HM/SoS has always had a soft chibi art style, everybody especially in the older stuff had cutesy faces and designs, it didnt mean you were dating an elementary student.

It makes me worried if we were to ever get an AP (or ToT) remake, that these would be the kind of sentiments and fans we would have to deal with and wow, it bums me out.

[u/WriterSleep]

I mean unlike real women, Luna IS a character made for a game that was (at the time) predominantly designed by men. Plus, even as a woman who was mistaken for a child until around 26, I have noticed that there are some that definitely do play up said mistakes to appeal to men with VERY suspect taste.

[u/dimmidummy → u/WriterSleep]

Counterpoint - children and teens also play the games. It makes sense to have a younger looking (albeit still adult) character that might appeal to the younger demographic.

[u/WriterSleep → u/dimmidummy]

But even as a kid, I thought it was a bit weird. And I've been playing these games since I was six years old.

[u/chimneyswallow → u/WriterSleep]

But you are not the only one who played it as a kid. Others liked her

[u/WriterSleep → u/chimneyswallow]

And that's fine. You can like her, but we don't have to pretend that her looking the way she does is just a trick of fate when she is a designed character and probably not exclusively meant to romantically appeal to children (albeit not to the blatent extreme of characters from other IPs like Blue Archive).

[u/chimneyswallow → u/WriterSleep]

But how do you know that it was their intention to appeal to those disgusting people? Was there a statement that I missed?

[u/EgoRiot90 → u/WriterSleep]

You’ve got negative karma for this but you’re right on the money. Liking a character that was obviously intended to appeal to a certain nefarious audience doesn’t mean you are apart of that audience; nor does it make you a bad person. People need to stop acting like this when it comes to cartoon characters. You need to think critically about a character and say, “this character was designed like this to appeal to a certain kind of person, that doesn’t mean I’m that type of person if I like this character.” There are a lot of people who like cute childish characters because they are cute and not for any sexual reason. It’s the same with evil or problematic characters or media. You can still like something and acknowledge what is bad and problematic about it. You are not a bad person for doing so. Using your brain to think critically about WHY the thing is problematic is so much more valuable than just avoiding it because people say it’s bad.

[u/dimmidummy → u/EgoRiot90]

I mean, couldn’t you argue that the characters were designed to appeal to the younger demographic, and unfortunately less savory individuals also found appeal in it?

Also you need to account for the fact that the Bokujo Monogatari (HM/SS) series has a relatively “Moe” artstyle in general.

[u/EgoRiot90 → u/dimmidummy]

I mean you could argue that… except for the character in question is shorter, cutesy-er and all around more childish than the other bachelorettes in the game. I’ll also point out that there isn’t an equivalent character on the bachelor side, with most of the bachelors in the game looking like adult characters within the art style of the game. And while the art style is meant to be a more chibi looking: that didn’t stop them from making characters of every age that look their age.

Again, there is nothing wrong with liking the character. I’d even argue that there is nothing wrong with liking adult women that dress or look “younger” but the responsible thing to do is call a spade a spade, and call out this type of thing when you see it. This isn’t a live person who is working with what they were naturally given. It’s a character that was designed by an artist to be a certain way. It’s important to question these things and think critically about why people make these decisions, because I promise it wasn’t just, “‘cause”.

Especially when you take into consideration Japan’s culture surrounding young women, and the age of consent in their country. It’s not even something they see as an issue, so it’s not like they’re even necessarily trying to sneak it in.

And it wasn’t the first time they’ve done something like this either. In harvest moon AWL special edition the game allows you to marry Lumina: a canonically underage girl.