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Donmai

Pointless Pools

Posted under General

I'm doubtful about the usefulness of pool #2673, Brilliant Genderswap. It seems like it's meant for exceptional genderswaps only, but it's got quite a lot of commonly done genderswaps, a number that don't fit the "entirely new light" requirement the description provides, and even a canon genderswap or two.

And how can you even define a "particularly well done" genderswap as opposed to a regular genderswap anyway? A lot of the pool's examples certainly don't answer that question. For example, while I can see where they're coming from with images like the Youki swap, the description itself names Kyonko as one such genderswap - and there's 1700 posts of her.

jjj14 said:
Yeah, I think that genderswap order:score or genderswap order:favcount would serve the purpose better.

To me, I think it refers to cases where the genderswap really fits the original character while being more manly or feminine.

I vote to keep it since its not directly related to the quality or popularity of the swap, but how well done it is.

It seems no less fitting than the "perfect ass" "perfect breasts" type pools.

Kyonko is a good example of the type of genderswap the pool was looking for.

Anelaid said: Kyonko is a good example of the type of genderswap the pool was looking for.

But what kind of Kyonko post? All of them, or just well drawn ones, or funny ones, or...? I'm unclear on how we'd define it.

When you say "really fits the character" what do you mean exactly?

jxh2154 said:
But what kind of Kyonko post? All of them, or just well drawn ones, or funny ones, or...? I'm unclear on how we'd define it.

When you say "really fits the character" what do you mean exactly?

To begin with, I'm not sure if I can explain this correctly, but I'll try.

I'll answer the second part first, since it will explain the first.

The idea that I have is that a brilliant genderswap focuses more on how well the character's personality and design is changed to represent genderswap the opposite gender. While every genderswap attempts to do this, some are better at this specific goal than others, and brilliant genderswap would focus on those images that accurately reflect the character, rather than being a moe or fetishistic interpretation. In this sense, post #842875, is a good example since Yuuka's characterization is replaced to be more masculine. With her umbrella being a more rural straw hat, even though other works by this artist includes the parasol.

Genderswaps have different goals in mind, at least to my understanding, so I'm not sure if brilliant genderswap is the best term, but a good description could help greatly.

Hopefully this makes sense.

I wouldn't include Kyonko in this pool, since she is an established character in her own right at this point, but she is a good example to cite for what type of genderswap the pool is looking to include. The pool's description, which I can't bring up since its closed, did a good job explaining why to me.

I don't think score or favorite count really is reflective of what brilliant genderswap should focus on.

There seems to be a major problem with figuring out what exactly qualifies, though. Like, the problem with the subjective pools, but cranked even further than that. Taking your Yuuka post for an example, you say that exemplifies a "brilliant" genderswap, but I see nothing more than a regular swapped Yuuka holding a hat. You say that it's brilliant because it makes her masculine, but that's about every full genderswap out there - if it's not merely the original person being stuck in a body belonging to the opposite gender, then there's almost certainly personality differences. I wouldn't call that remarkable enough to be worth a pool. And who's to say how far a scope "brilliant" can encompass?

Not to mention the pool itself is (was, because it's apparently already dead) just a big jumble of seemingly random swaps doing just about anything.

evazion said:
pool #3097: Pray for Japan!

I don't think the pool is needed any more now that they're all tagged 2011 sendai earthquake and tsunami.

I dunno, I thought it's the tag that's pointless, because you can't look at every post and tell it has to do with that particular event. For example, post #874036, post #876751, post #790125. Heck, I think it's impossible to tell just by looking at the image in almost every case. Most of the time, it's a character in prayer, cheering, or a smiling character.

I think the point of the tag/pool is "this picture was drawn for the event", regardless of whether it's visible or not.
It's the same thing with the Reitaisai 8 contest pictures, where one use of the pool is "has artist X drawn anything for the event?".
And so I agree with Mysterio this would make more sense as a pool.

Yeah, I'm not exceptionally opposed to these "potentially dissimilar images but bound by time/place/event" sorts of pools, so I don't think I'd object to it. It's an interesting snapshot of things the artistic community was producing in reaction to a specific event, and certainly I think this event meets any "significance" criteria we might impose as a restriction.

I'd like to keep the pool, while recognizing that it's not quite the most typical sort of pool.

If people argued really strongly for a tag I could live with that too, but it's nice if they're bound together somehow.

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