Strangest Critiques You've Ever Received

[KennethLopezJr921]

That’s a def yikes. Being flirtatious doesn’t equate to being a rapist so I don’t know where the person got that idea. Also what someone finds triggering or offensive Varys from person to person so in general, I wouldn’t really listen to that type of criticism

[IndigoShirtProd]

Not sure how "weird" this is as a feedback, but I got a character design critique about a year ago and the stand out line was that the character looked like a "supporting character." Which I thought was funny, especially since the character was the MC, and sort of an off way to critique a design, at least to me. And some of the 'fixes' they offered really solidified to me that context is very important in critiquing a character design.

[JenLeifire]

There was no strange critique, but on another platform I got a weird review. The reviewer liked my novel, but what was strange was that they completely made up their own story about what is gonna happen XD Like I have my two main chars and my genre is BL, so yeah that these are the ones to become a couple I thought was clear, but nope not to them. They planned a huge dramatic scenario about my MC will get together with some villain that hasnt shown up yet and this isn't gonna end well and so my novel won't have fluff in it and wont have a good ending. (all not true XD) That was what they stated in the review after like uhm just a few chapters I had posted at that time.

I honestly didn't know whether to laugh or cry XD

[bronte448]

This isn't a critique I've gotten from other people, but I have "Baby Got Back" syndrome. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to redraw character's hindquarters because I accidentally gave them a fat booty.

[NickRowler]

Someone didn't much care for my series. They found it too childish but they described it as it being for hyperactive 6 year olds. I told them that later on my comic goes into depression and trauma (plus the swearing), I later found out they only read the first 10 pages and a lot of their criticisms were fixed later on in the series. When I told them this, they suggested deleting half of my series and uploading it as a separate series. I was 200 pages into my series, and it seems so unnecessary to try to reupload 100 pages especially if the later pages make call backs.

I heard there are people who will delete their series and reupload it hoping it will get more tracken the 2nd time. Yeah, stop recommending this to people. Focus more on promoting your series.

[Hipiticus]

All this art critique talking has reminded me of this post

[powerplantanimations]

The strangest critique is the one that made me a better writer and what MADE this critique weird was that it was supposed to be a negative.

So, I shared my writing and this person said my script was "too 90's".

TOO 90's. Like it was from that era. WHAT. But... then I realized I was really into films like Predator 2 and Robocop so I just... ignored him and embraced it. This helped me embrace movies that people THINK are horrible.

But... how is your story... feeling like it's in a certain era.... a negative? I've heard compliments from anime where people are like "THIS IS SO 2000'S! I LOVE IT!" "OHHHH THE SYNTH! THIS IS SO 80'S! I LOVE IT!"

[Bearkorps]

One of my 'friends' who is planning a fantasy series took a look at some of my shorts. He's the kind of person who would call themselves a snoot, and grammar has always been a weak point for me.

Anyway ~
He gets back to me and instead of proofreading help I get a lecture about how apparently short stories aren't real stories, like how a teaser trailer isn't a movie - it's just there to whet the appetite for the real story.
So yeah he ended saying that I had 'promise' and let him know when I actually started writing.

I have not brought up writing around him since.

[LostKelp]

What a bastard! Your writing is amazing man. It's really haunting and interesting and they're on some gatekeeping nonsense.

[RedLenai]

I don't receive many complains that I could call weird, most of the time is critiques over small things that usually are even just minusculous even on the same critique but except for one that I've received some time ago

It was literally what happened to darthmongoose

"I thought this character called Lyn was a boy. She's very boyish... not that there's anything wrong with that, I guess... but I thought she was a boy, so I think she should be more feminine with bigger boobs and maybe eyelashes...?" (note: The character's gender was in no way relevent to the story of this short comic).

It happened with a female character of mine as well who is not very femenine either, funny thing tho, the Critique about the Story was supposed to be about the story, but that lasted almost... two lines? Then there was a long pharagraph narrating from the experiences of the person detecting trap characters in anime, about how naturally "people label characters and need to categorize them properly", or well, very rodundant and almost beating around the bush, oh wait, according to them I was getting this completely wrong

To this day I don't get much what they meant by the critique, except that after an agitated exchange they claimed "Oh no, I just wanted to say that your character was confusing" or that "I was just letting you know in case you didn't realize it" but to me it felt that they tried to be very carefully probably to avoid problems, to tell me to draw bigger breasts or curvy bodies.

---

Another weird critique that I had was of some random dude on Webtoon Spanish complaining over Scarlet Society, about how crappy as a story it was, that he could do such a better story and that I shouldn't waste my time with it, that my art was so much better for such a horrible story and the guy was like that for at least 5 episodes and really started to annoy me. He went about how he could write such a better story with just his feet and a lot of ridiculous babbling. Even, this guy was so inept that he didn't catch that some of the characters of Scarlet were homages to already existing characters of shows that the author, the previous artist and I like, same for other references that I did but according to him "the author doesn't know how to create characters and so she steals them" which is totally wrong, since ever since I took over I've modified the original designs to make them look more unique and different from one another (And it literally shows from chapter 4 to chapter 7, not a big gap)

I literally told him that I'm an artist for hire, and if he has the cash I can draw his story after all I don't say no to long term paid gigs, but if he only knows how to complain but doesn't show a portfolio or anything of the like is the same as bluffing, that if he was so jealous that no artist partnered with him was probably because his story wasn't that great or his personality was really scaring people away. Still waiting for the famous script that I MISSED

Tho, he admitted being jealous lmao but then proceeded to call me ignorant and that I would regret it eventually

[Bearkorps]

Thank you I really appreciate it

[bulgariansumo]

Before I started writing my novel, I'd write shorter stories with the same characters and post them separately. In one story, a character mistakes a nonbinary character for another gender. The nonbinary character's friend tries to correct him on it, but their other friends are like "Shh, don't out them." This is one of the first scenes in the story.

I got a comment saying that I shouldn't have put that scene so early on, because (paraphrasing) "Most people aren't going to care for pronouns in the beginning of their sci-fi story." Looking back on this, I think part of it is a misunderstanding. I wrote that scene knowing it wasn't meant to be the introduction to these characters. This commenter wouldn't have known that.

I was going to defend the comment more, but looking back at what I wrote, I think it's fine. That character's pronouns weren't even the thing that was being corrected, so I don't know where that came from. Anyway, I'm probably still going to include that scene when I get to that point in my novel.

[darthmongoose]

It happened with a female character of mine as well who is not very femenine either, funny thing tho, the Critique about the Story was supposed to be about the story, but that lasted almost... two lines? Then there was a long pharagraph narrating from the experiences of the person detecting trap characters in anime, about how naturally "people label characters and need to categorize them properly", or well, very rodundant and almost beating around the bush, oh wait, according to them I was getting this completely wrong

To this day I don't get much what they meant by the critique, except that after an agitated exchange they claimed "Oh no, I just wanted to say that your character was confusing" or that "I was just letting you know in case you didn't realize it" but to me it felt that they tried to be very carefully probably to avoid problems, to tell me to draw bigger breasts or curvy bodies.

Yeah, it's a weird thing. Some readers get very angry if a character doesn't have strong gender presentation perfectly in line with their gender identity.
It's almost like they need to know the gender of a character first, so they can decide up-front things like: "Can I allow myself to think this character is cute/hot, or should I manage and suppress my feelings to make sure I only categorise them as cool/aspirational?"

It's like... "Mate... it's a drawing. If you're horny about the drawing, you're horny about the drawing. Your weird hangups about your sexuality are none of my business. I'm not going to make her more femme-presenting just to assuage your terror at your attraction to a lady who has some boyish elements to her presentation bringing you close to the realisation that you might actually be a bit more attracted to men than you want to admit to yourself."

A lot of people would be a lot happier and a lot cooler if they just acknowledged that they're a little bit Bi/Pan and that it's pretty normal and very commonplace, and just freaking chilled out a bit.

[kyupol]

That I glorify school shootings. Even if it's obviously villains that do it and justify it.

[smokesalty]

My comic hasn't been out for too long, but I have a few:

I have people being like "BuT only female mosquitos can drink blood!! " every now and again. Buddy, I'm drawing a humanoid mosquito, realism is the last thing on my mind rn.

People have looked at mozzie man's design and been like "sorry, he looks like a mosquito " WDYM sorry that's the point of the design?? Some people think he's a bird for some reason.

[IndigoShirtProd]

I've never gotten like, an angry critique about this, but have had multiple comments in the past talking about or asking if a few male characters of mine were actually women. At first I was like, "oh no, did I not draw them masculine enough?" But then I realized, no they're fine the way they are and it shouldn't really matter anyway.

[SoftWonderBun]

Honestly don't know if it was intentionally a critique but I had someone tell me they liked one of my illustrations even though 'it was ugly/his face was ugly'. It's been some years so I don't exactly remember which it was. I did not take it well...But we eventually came to a mutual understanding and apology. Very strange encounter...

[ilesarki]

The strangest critique I've recieved was when I offered my comic to be shown in a comic book gallery exhibition but they didn't want it, only reason given was that "it's not good enough, there is just something missing". Another one was when last year I tried to pitch my comic, the first full-lenght story to be specific, to publishers in a comic book pitching event, and while they didn't reject my comic outright and will take a year to decide what pitches to choose if any, they still were like "we're not sure can this comic be published outside your hometown since it's story is inspired by local legends and ghost stories". While that is true, I myself don't see how that would be a problem, it's not required to know these legends before hand or be interested in them, I've just wanted to utilize them in my stories and they aren't always the main focus, most of the things (the characters, the story, the setting) I've completely made up myself.

[DualDragons]

Hmmm I don't think I really got any strange critiques. Webcomic aside, yeah people mistake Danivere for a guy sometimes due to her spiky short hair and her small breasts.

[thecrystalrook]

I once had someone jump in and tell me how much they loved my story and thought it was great (there was a free promo opportunity on the line for the person if they read a few episodes of mine). A month later, they gave me "critique" in which they said they refused to take my story seriously and I quote, "didn't give a shit about it" because the description had a note that alerted the reader that it was a manga series and should be read from right to left. I then got a lecture on how manga just means comic book in Japanese and how the language works. I've been speaking Japanese since 2007.