What's a fluffy? And more importantly, what is Not a fluffy?

[Oculusfluffy]

@Axestraddler

But the Italian fluffs are where my argument falters, tbh. I find them utterly adorable, definitely fluffies, but not really pathetic in the slightest.

I’m sure there’s bound to be more examples in the history of the booru, but Pinkyfluffy’s always strikes me as the best due to how unique his approach is.

@Axestraddler

Maybe just “uncool”?

@Axestraddler

once you start adding spikes and fangs and special powers and all the extraneous bullshit that appeals to thirteen year olds, it starts feeling less like a fluffy, and more like a early 2000’s deviant art OC.

Its something I’ve been grappling with. Part of the problem of saying that “fluffies shouldn’t be cool” is that, if people do agree to that, there’s nothing stopping them from latching themselves to the other derivatives of the fluffy fandom thats supposedly cooler. One reason why I think jellenheimers were so overly popular last year, as mentioned here, was because they were arguably “cool”. Compared to the “uncool” fluffies that were supposedly only good for shitting and being a nuisance, jellenheimers seemed to be this cool eldritch thing that could do anything, teleport behind you nothing personell and doesn’t afraid anything.

And I think there have been fluffies that I think have a rather unique look to them. One of the more interesting fluffies I have to research is Deadweight’s Xibalba which was an alicorn OC with psychic powers that was designed to cull ferals. From what I understand, DW’s story was very good, and Xibalba is a fluffy but also rather cool. I do agree that the bulk of fluffies in a setting, like normal people, shouldn’t be too interesting or all be overly powerful/cool, but, that doesn’t mean that the automatic assumption of a fluffy is that they are all pathetic, or than “only a few” have to be non-pathetic.

@Axestraddler

so I can appreciate how impossible this distinction is

It definitely is. Its been something I’ve been grappling with for the longest time now, and I don’t think its fair to malign or discount certain peoples ideas on fluffies.

That said, an idea I just thought of (though this is also just an opinion) I do think fluffies shouldn’t be too overly designed. Adding additional spikes on top of fangs and wings could be seen as overly designing a fluffy, and I could argue that part of the appeal of fluffies is a degree of “simplicity”. Even a fluffy with powers could have a simplistic power, or a simplistic grasp of power. Mind you though this is just a thought that came to mind while writing all this, and I might have to work on it a bit more. (or even discard it, who knows)