#but garth?? no... its Not a hate crime but it does feel like one akjhdgljhdag

[floralovebot]

I see a lot of fan art depicting Garth with Fangs and pointy ears and sometimes gills do you think any of those features should be added to his canon look or what do you think of it in general?

I mean... no offense to fan artists, they can do whatever the fuck they want, but no, I 100% do not think canon Garth should have anything like gills. The fangs and ears aren't That bad, but definitely not anything that is more "fish-like" in appearance.

There are a couple of Garth appearances here and there where he does canonically look like a fish boy (teen titans: earth one and teen titans: year one come to mind), but those are all meant to be oneshots that don't fully represent the original characters. And they're usually aimed more at younger audiences that enjoy seeing fishy people from the ocean yknow?

However, if we're talking about a fully serious, canon Garth, then no, I don't think he should have gills. Or any kind of animal feature tbh. Boring I know! There are a lot of different versions of how Atlantis came to be, so saying "they were originally humans!" kind of means nothing in the grand scope of dc fuckery (in one canon they were descended from literal aliens like who cares). That being said, I think it's important for Garth specifically to look more human because people being rude as shit to him about fish is something that happened for decades. At this point, it feels like bullying to portray him as a fishboy or with gills after he calls Roy racist for making those kinds of jokes. Like it's portrayed as this huge, racist stereotype for land dwellers to assume Atlanteans look like fish people, and it's been this way for decades. So seeing a Canon Garth designed as more fish-like (that isn't targeted at children who don't know him) would feel like a huge "fuck you" to Atlantis and Garth specifically.

It's one of those things where it's like,, not the biggest deal ever, but it says a lot about how much that person Likes Garth. Same with long, straight hair or blue eyes or a blue suit. Like sure, it's creative freedom and it's genuinely not That bad, but it definitely speaks to a level of carelessness or unfamiliarity when it comes to his character. And on a personal note, I think it's also just boring/uncreative for the ocean characters to have fishier features lol