Why are kings almost always redheads?

Comments

• Apepollo11@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The most well-known British King, Henry VIII, was a large bulky man with a bushy red beard, dressed exactly as you imagine a King would be.

  I imagine he’s something of a blueprint for the appearances of fictional kings.

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  • cheese_greater@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    He must be the prototype 😅

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• Kolanaki@yiffit.net ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  The cartoons I’ve seen that always had a fat, red-haired king character were very obviously making reference to Henry VIII.

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• Iamsqueegee@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Because none of the other characters are? It’s a quick way to set them apart at a glance, I reckon.

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• PlzGivHugs@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I can’t say I’ve noticed this, but depending on the design, it might just be about ensuring contrast of different elements. Red contrasts a yellow crown and beige skin pretty well whereas blonde hair would might blend with skin and crown, brown isn’t as bad but isn’t great. Black works, but can be hard to do with any detail in a minimalist style or one using black outlines. This leaves, red, and grey.

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• Depress_Mode@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I’ve never noticed such a pattern myself and I’m not sure I’d agree that most kings are depicted as red-headed. What specific depictions are you talking about? Could you give us a list of examples? If you google “cartoon king”, you’ll find only a few redheads among dozens of brown or white-haired kings, which is what I’d expected to find.

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• yarr@feddit.nl ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  If I go to Google image search and put in “cartoon king”, there appear to be a mix of blonde, black, red and white haired kings. Red doesn’t appear to be over-represented here. What cartoons are you thinking about?

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• xtr0n@sh.itjust.works ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Because it goes with the red-black color scheme of the cards?

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• EndOfLine@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Do they? Most cartoon kings I can think of have either white or gray hair.

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  • nokturne213@sopuli.xyz ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Image

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  • cheese_greater@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    K not aged kings haha

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