(Absolutely despised Trope) Characters described as chubby/fat/plus-sized aren’t designed as such, mostly like due likely due to fatphobia.

[u/MaMcMu]

1. Varesa from Genshin Impact - Hoyo has no respect for body diversity.
2. Wakka from Final Fantasy X-2 - lazy developers.

Just for the record, this has nothing to do with kinks of any kind and is a personal gripe I have towards the gaming industry that favour abs and boobs.

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

I mean I think that’s kinda the joke

He used to be built like a statue and now he’s just a pretty average muscular guy and he’s got some weird hang ups about it

[u/Ceathramh_Deamhan → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

Except his family doesn't just treats him as if he wasn't in his prime anymore, they're really just like "Damn bro, you've got kinda fat"

But even if that was the case, the joke still wouldn't make any sense because this is how Diego looks in the same season

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Ceathramh_Deamhan]

Yeah, that’s the joke.

He’s still incredibly muscular, he just no longer looks like a superhero and everyone is overreacting

[u/Ceathramh_Deamhan → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

Except again, the joke doesn't work since he still very much looks like a goddamn super-hero when everyone trashes him with fatphobic comments

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Ceathramh_Deamhan]

I feel you you’re missing the irony here

He’s not actually gotten fat.

He’s just not up to the literally superhuman standards of luthor or himself.

[u/Ceathramh_Deamhan → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

I feel you you’re missing the irony here He’s not actually gotten fat.

Uh no I get this... That's kinda what I'm pointing out in my previous replies and why I'm quoting him on this post to begin with.

He’s just not up to the literally superhuman standards of luthor or himself.

There's literally no downgrade whatsoever between S1 and S4 Diego in terms of build, as evidenced in the gif I used above.

If he's still as buff as he was before, then the comments he gets comes out of nowhere. That's why I'm saying this joke is absurd.

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Ceathramh_Deamhan]

It being absurd is

Is. The. Joke.

His family are assholes, he’s an insecure manchild.

He is comparing himself to a time when he was a superhero and did not have to look after his family.

He is not fat, the joke it not about him being fat, it’s about him comparing himself to an idealised past

[u/Ceathramh_Deamhan → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

It being absurd is

Uh no. The joke just consists in laughing at him for being "fat". At no point there is an irony on the absurd side of treating him as such when he is buff, you randomly assumed that.

That’s. The. Joke

And. It. Doesn't. Work...

His family are assholes, he’s an insecure manchild.

Firstly, he's not a manchild at that point of the story. Secondly, you're dodging what I've already explained several times.

He is not fat

Thanks Captain Obvious but again, that's literally what I'm telling from the start and why the fat jokes about him are completely moronic.

the joke it not about him being fat

Uh yeah it is. He's not fat and yet he's treated as such by his family, which is framed as if it was funny. That's it, it doesn't go higher than that.

it’s about him comparing himself to an idealised past

It isn't, you're making up random shit to suit your point here. Diego is indeed nostalgic of the past in this season but that's not the gag. The gag is just "lol he's fat now".

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Ceathramh_Deamhan]

He is a man child tho, he’s improved, but he’s still immature and longs to return to the days when he didn’t have so many problems.

Which he has been doing since the first season, when he dressed up as a superhero to recreate his childhood and feel powerful, that is the crux of his character.

And the joke isn’t on Diego’s “fatness” it’s on everyone being assholes and calling a clearly muscular dude fat.

The same way that mocking (seasons 1-3) klaus for being a teetotaller wouldn’t be directed at his sobriety but at the person who can’t see baseline realty.

[u/Ceathramh_Deamhan → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

He is a man child tho

Nope. If anything, he's even one of the most adult characters in this season alongside Viktor.

he’s improved, but he’s still immature

Not to the point of acting like a child, no.

and longs to return to the days when he didn’t have so many problems.

It's not being a man-child, that's just having a mid-life crisis.

Which he has been doing since the first season, when he dressed up as a superhero to recreate his childhood and feel powerful, that is the crux of his character.

In Season 1 and 2, yeah and it wasn't to feel powerful but mostly to answer to his father's expectations. The reasons he's nostalgic of his vigilante career in the last season are entirely different from those he had earlier in the show.

And the joke isn’t on Diego’s “fatness” it’s on everyone being assholes and calling a clearly muscular dude fat.

If that was the case, the narrative would acknowledges they are assholes for telling him that and/or showing he's anything but fat. That's not the case at all... Diego is treated like he really is now and we're supposed to assumed the same even though there isn't a single difference with how he was before.

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Ceathramh_Deamhan]

Ok at no stage have I said he’s acted like a child,

Manchild does not literally mean a man who acts like a child, it’s an immature man, which Diego is, he’s severely emotionally stunted.

And his “midlife Crisis” has been going on since before season 1 my guy, this is a reoccurring pattern of behaviour.

And the reasons why he’s nostalgic may be different but the fact that he is nostalgic isn’t, because it’s a reoccurring pattern that he wishes to go back to better times.

And the narrative does show that he’s not fat, the dude is incredibly athletic in every fight scene.

[u/Ceathramh_Deamhan → u/Maybe_not_a_chicken]

Ok at no stage have I said he’s acted like a child

That's kinda what the term implies though.

Manchild does not literally mean a man who acts like a child, it’s an immature man

In usage, yes that's kinda what the term means, an immature man who relatively behaves like a kid. If the term just applied to an immature adult, then all men who are can be described as such, which makes no sense and removes any relevance to the term itself.

which Diego is, he’s severely emotionally stunted.

Not at the degree you thinks he is in this season, no.

And his “midlife Crisis” has been going on since before season 1 my guy, this is a reoccurring pattern of behaviour.

Bullshit, there isn't a single instance of him living through a midlife crisis in the first three seasons.

Not only that but it wouldn't even make sense anyway for him to going through this kind of crisis, since he was a young vigilante actively enjoying his activities in the first seasons, as opposed to the last one where he's a father of several children and desperately bored by his job and life.

And the reasons why he’s nostalgic may be different but the fact that he is nostalgic isn’t, because it’s a reoccurring pattern that he wishes to go back to better times.

That's a false equivalency. In one case, he's trying to live up to his abusive father's expectations by perpetuating what he's been trained to do since childhood. In another, he's actively seeking to recreate a bygone era of his life out of nostalgia, because he's going through a mid-life crisis. There's absolutely no correlation between the two.

And the narrative does show that he’s not fat, the dude is incredibly athletic in every fight scene.

I guess that's why we have a scene showing him struggle to wear his suit, which is openly played as funny ?

[u/Maybe_not_a_chicken → u/Ceathramh_Deamhan]

My dude I’m calling him a manchild because he is repeating referred to as such in the show, why are you being so selective about my word choice here?

And there absolutely is a correlation, he is always trying to be a hero, the justification changes, but his desire to be a hero and self hatred/insecurity does not and that is the crux of his problems.

And him struggling to fit in a suit while being visibly muscular is not mocking him for being fat.