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 I might, for simplicity, relate to cuteness (althoguh we might also argue that they might have a broader aim in making the character more pleasant and easy to relate to). 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 aggressivity (manifested through claws) is obtained through these features. Without furrther ado, let's begin!

Fat
This is not a specifica 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.

Furtyhermore, most reptiles having short legs due to their real life counterparts (e.g. lizard, crocodiles, turtles) having short legs too enhances this impression of characters not really being slims.

Padded feet
This is one of the most widespread features of the reptiles in the Super Mario games. Pads are actually a soft part of the paws 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:

White underbelly aera
This trait presents itself as a 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 upper part of the muzzle:

Still, other reptiles feature it, in particular the friendly ones, Dorrie and Plessie:

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.

Protruding teeth
This is 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:

Sadi trait is so relevant that it appeared even in their preliminary sketch:

Curiously, despite the prtotruding teeth being acknowledged to be cute, many friendly reptiles lack them completely, possibly to show even more their friendliness:

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:

But so do enemies like the Hammer Bros:

Two interesting cases are those of Bowser and Yoshi. The former was given blue eyes after his first redesign and maintained them until the American release of Super Mario World, where the eyes were reverted to red:

Thre Koopalings too have this trait, and maintained it even after Bowser's eyes were changed to red again:

In the case of Yoshi, he initially featured completely black eyes:

However, with the new computer graphics artwork images, some slightly visible color started to appear around the pupil revealing that the eyes are indeed blue:

Blue eyes is also one of the two traits that appear in the captured creatures in Super Mario Odyssey, showing its importance in terms of character design:

Big oval eyes
This traits is common in the reptiles of the Super Mario games and it's also one that affects the face significantly, often preventing the presence of eyebrows:

Big eyes of course are used to enhance the cuteness of the characters and as such is used in many friendly reptiles:

but also in those that are meant to be enemies of Mario (but often are more or less implicitly cute as well):

Feline mouth
This traits 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:

It is borrowed from cats and as such is a form of cuteness through relation with common pets, it's nonethless featured in some reptiles, notably Bowser and some Koopalings: