User:Mister Wu/Cute Features in the Reptiles

The Super Mario games have a lot of reptiles in them, also thanks to Bowser and his army. One interesting thing about these reptiles is that often their design presents features that can be related to cuteness, (, 「 かわいい」), a fundamental concept of modern Japanese culture. It's no surprise that the reptiles seen in the Super Mario games have many cute features, but it's interesting to see the common and recurring ones to better understand how in the design of the characters a fine balance between cuteness and other traits such as fierceness (manifested through claws) is obtained through these features, allowing the cuteness to effectively cohexist with said traits. Without further ado, let's begin!

Fat
This is not a specific feature but rather a general design direction and it must not be taken too literally, as by design only a few characters are meant to be fat, e.g. the Sledge Bros.

Padded feet
This is one of the most widespread features of the reptiles in the Super Mario games. The foot pads referred to in this section are a soft part of the s of some mammals and are used for various purposes, such as increasing friction and acting as cushions. Reptiles are not meant to have them. Yet it's impressive to see how many characters feature them, this being just a selection:

Bright underbelly aera
This trait presents itself as a bright (typically white) area that spans the lower part of the body, covering at least the belly but typically spanning the whole lower part of the body, from the lower part of the muzzle until the lower part of the tail:

Big and round upper end of the muzzle
This trait was made famous by Yoshi who has a distinct big and round upper end of the muzzle that covers part of the face:

Considering the friendliness of all these reptiles, I think it might be again related to the impression of softness that a big, round object confers.

Big head
This is a very common trait used in the design of fictional characters to relate them to newborn babies by making their head bigger in proportion with the rest of the body, so it will be dealt with briefly. Even tall men like Luigi have an head which is around a third of the body height tall, while Princess Peach and Rosalina have an head which is around a fifth of the body height tall:

Short legs
Most reptiles in the Super Mario games have short legs, likely due to most real life reptiles (e.g. lizard, crocodiles, turtles) having short legs as well. This trait is observed even in reptiles that are supposed to be tall: Beside being linked to real life reptiles, short legs are also a typical trait of newborn babies and as such they can also be linked to cuteness.

Big oval-shaped tall eyes
Eyes which are big and tall with an oval shape in their upper part are common in the reptiles of the Super Mario games and it's also one that affects the face significantly, often accompanied by a lack of eyebrows:

Protruding teeth
Teeth that are protruding and are visible when the mouth is closed are one of the few traits which are officially acknowledged to be cute. Among the most famous characters who feature protruding teeth there are of course the Koopalings:

Blue eyes
Even though they might be related to ice and thus a cold personality, blue is also the color of the sky and thus a sign of positivity. Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach have blue eyes, i.e. eyes featuring blue or light blue irises:

Feline mouth
This trait is characterized by the upper part of the mouth being shaped like a "3" rotated by 90° to the right and centered on the nose:

Final notes
I started thinking about this review of cute features of the reptiles when I recently saw a Pokémon-themed jigsaw puzzle who had right in the center this popular Pokémon, who also happens to be my favorite one, Charizard:

It's interesting to note how their design stands out with respect to the design of the other reptiles in the Super Mario games, in that it could be considered more realistic due to the higher detail of every part of their body and, indeed, the aforementioned traits not being followed in favor of designs that recall restorations of the of around twenty-five yers ago and, respectively.