This is arguably one of the coolest details in the show for me since the show traditionally has genderless designs so its really cool to see the small bits here and there the creators put in to make the show as unique as it is. I hope you buddies enjoy this video because I had a BLAST making it Theory Thread: twitter.com/radianwrites/status/1768941988894605436 Become a Member: - PC: ru-vid.com/show-UCDZNUb6vcwQT2G4qXz_VzUwjoin - Mobile: www.patreon.com/TheUglyPugly?fan_landing=true Twitch Channel: www.twitch.tv/puglystreams My Bluey Twitter: twitter.com/HeelersFridge
*hey Pugly!!!* i found out something you will appreciate: on "Takeaway Lady - Bluey Wiki - Fandom," it is noted that the chinese takeaway lady is one of the few characters who has visible irises. *she has blue eyes and a visible black pupil!* i thought about this issue and it occurred to me i had seen a dog with blue eyes on Bluey, and i recalled the takeaway lady, looked her up, and there was the info we needed about pupils versus irises. it still doesn't explain why some irises are bigger than others, however. i'd say it's because human beings also have different sized irises. *thanks Pugly!*
@@skootergirl22 Yeah, which wasn't decided until like 1900, then it was flipped in the 60's because of First Lady Eisenhower popularizing pink as a color for modern women. In short, assigning colors to genders is stupid and arbitrary.
The only reason why I would say the pupils aren't an indicator of those characters being trans isn't because I don't believe there's trans representation in the show, but rather to demonstrate that feminine traits on a man or masculine traits on a woman don't influence them being a man or a woman. A deep voice doesn't automatically make you a man- sometimes you just sing alto and speak tenor just like slim shoulders and a higher voice doesn't make you less "manly". In reinforcing that these traits have overlap without changing what or who the person is, it shows the broad spectrum that both the masculine and feminine ultimately exist within and as a result helps those who fall between the two find an easier time getting their footing without pushing them into "you're manly, therefore you're a man!" or that kind of thinking. It's definitely not the average to exist between the two and that's important to acknowledge specifically to better help those who do and need that little bit of support to help get their footing.
i think this the best theory. if anything, the discrepancies shouldn't cause us to speculate whether they are trans or not, but rather should just bring up this talking point, and that it shouldn't and doesn't matter at the end of the day. They can be trans, or they could not be, but we shouldn't care because its up to the characters whether to be open to talking about it or not. It's like the episode where bandit is pissed off at the beach and we never figure out why. I want representation, but I also want gender and sexuality stuff to just be normal... and not something we *squabble* about.
I think it's more about the fact, that bigger pupils look more gentle for us. While smaller pupils look more aggressive. So there is a reason behind why they would do either, other than arbitrarily assigning pupil sizes to genders. But rather to invoke a certain subconscious association regarding that character's nature.
Honestly I agree. The longer pupils give more of a gentle soft or curious look, which I feel like is also the reason why all the kids have the longer pupils, because it gives them a more curious childlike look to them. Which would make Jack’s dad’s longer pupils make sense as he seems like a more soft guy, while the Doberman mom’s round pupils make me think she’s simply a more masculine looking woman, especially because of the chosen breed.
reminds me of how in mlp, male ponies dont have the two colored segments in their iris, which made people believe that a female pony called trixie may me trans, since she doesnt have these eye segments either, and she was originally planned to be a male character in concept art
They also have differences with the eyes The eye shines and highlights. You see more female characters with two white shines over the pupil and iris and these two stripe highlights in the iris, while the male characters don't have the stripes and usually have one white highlight But they also deviate from that, for example Trixie has the more male like eyes.
@@skootergirl22 And also because Faust had said one character we saw in season 1 was trans. But that's not why I bring it up since Trixie isn't the only character that the difference in eyes affects
@@night4138 Babs Seed also deviates from the norm. Having two eye shines like colts instead of three like other fillies. IIRC, Rumble also deviates and has three shines instead of two
And there actually are differences between the snouts of fillies and colts, and there are three known colts that have the rounder muzzle shape that most fillies have. Rumble, an Unnamed (as far as I know) pegasus colt seen in one of the last episodes, and Pinkie Pie's son. On the topic of that Unnamed pegasus colt and Pinkie's son, they also both have eyelashes
I really LOVE the pupil design for the adults, but I kinda wish they had a better pointy for the kids, since for a while I thought Bluey and Bingo were boys, and then I thought Mackenzie was a girl for YEARS until the episode Circus, and just recently I found out Chucky was a boy, not a girl 😅
Similarly I was unsure about the genders of a few characters for a while until they were specifically referenced (mainly Mackenzie). I guess it goes to show how little emphasis they put on it. It's honestly refreshing to see, especially in media for general audiences.
I design characters all the time, and it's super cool to see unique design consistencies like this! I really love the designs for Bluey. They're simple, cute, recognizable, not weirdly gendered, and easy to animate. Bluey in general has a really strong aesthetic, even if it does remind some people of the bad days of early mainstream flash animation. I can still hear the whip crack sound effects...
@@AwesomeYena I'm not saying it's a bad show, per se, but the animation wasn't very good. Puppet animation hadn't nearly reached the expressiveness or fluidity of shows like Wander Over Yonder and Star Vs. There are shows I really like (Dan Vs., specifically) that share Johnny Test's stiff, cheap-looking animation style. The tools for cheaper animation that weren't frame by frame or 2D just weren't there yet!
Though not noticing it can cause confusion for the audience, the subtlety in Bluey works because in real life there are animals that can look almost exactly the same regardless of gender- and I mean a near-total lack of dimorphism. I think there’s at least one species of bird- I forget which one- where the only way to know for sure if male or female is a DNA test. Two of my family’s golden retrievers are another fine example: The only real way to tell our good boy from our good girl is the fact that he has a slightly bigger barrel than she does. Otherwise, they have similar fur color, height, eyes, and fluff (yes, can confirm that’s a thing). You could easily mistake them at a distance.
The thing is humans don't really have gender dimorphism either. We usually tell by artificial factors, like how long their hair is, whether or not they're wearing make-up, what clothes they wear. And that's even more true for kids: If we are guessing by physical factors, it's someone's deep voice and/or existence of breasts, and kids don't have that, because they haven't gone through puberty yet. And since the kids in bluey don't have long enough hair to style it according to their gender and don't wear clothes, that's just true for human kids as well, if they all wore the same clothes and had the same haircut you wouldn't be able to tell yourself.
Also the thing about birds needing DNA tests is true for probably most birds: Unless they have the obvious dimorphism like the peacock, where males are extremely colorful and females are gray or brown, there is no other way to tell, sometimes their size is an indicator also, but it's hard to be sure. And you can't just look under their tail like you would to tell cats apart, because birds (apart from very few exceptions like ducks) all have cloacas, even males only have a hole down there.
@@3173_Deltalol I had a cockatiel when I was younger, named it Sam after an uncle and we thought she was male. One day she just started laying eggs, unfortunately she didn’t stop laying eggs and became egg bound
Let's be honest Joe was just really goofy that day and was like "Hey let's add a distinguishable pupil detail for the adults because it's cool hehe" Just kidding, of course, there could be a very good reason for all this. In all seriousness though, this is the kind of attention to detail that you just don't see in kids' media nowadays.
You say it’s unfortunate that the kids don’t have the different pupils but I think it’s brilliant, kids are still figuring themselves out and gender doesn’t matter to them yet so there’s no need for this distinction
It also mirrors real life as children are androgynous looking since they don't really develop sex/gender specific characteristics until they start hitting puberty.
When I saw the series for the first time that's one of the details that captivated my attention; the fact the show abstains from using conventional traits to distinguish their characters' designs (of course there are exceptions like Coco but you get my point XD), how their initial design tell is ambiguous enough for you to deceive something as simple as their genders yet secretly they tell you their whole story, who they are and what are their personalities, sorta alike the show's nature, show but don't tell, let the viewer slowly get involved and getting to truly know them from a first-viewed generic design, a purposely left-ambiguous design. As for the theory though, the design choice is clearly involved but the theory itself... I find it very hard to believe as a strict 'rule', and would rather choose to think these characters were just exceptions for structural design reasons (not to mention in some promotional art the rule gets broken as well) but like you, I'm glad these people feel seen by their own perception, that's what the show always intended and if it makes them happy, GREAT FOR THEM, opinions are like rainbows after all. AMAZING VIDEO ANALYSIS, MATE! (as always)
The fact that there's a Vinny Vinesauce reference on a press release sheet - even if the character isn't IN the show - absolutely threw me. I am so overwhelmingly happy that some of the creators of the best show on modern television would be a fan of a humble internet guy like Vinny. The skull on the shirt of the dog next to him makes me wonder if that's Joel (vargskeletor).
It's so amazing to know how many detail and work they put into each character, each scene, background, everything, really. It's just, so great to have so many relate to characters in the show. I love everything about Bluey and how much info you can find in a single episode. It's honestly just impressive!
I like that the children are kept androgynous even in this neat little pupil choice. I feel that the pupils are more an indicator of masculinity and feminity/personality as opposed to strict male and female; It's true to life that the kids are not affected, as children especially toddlers don't have a strong concept of gender norms and are still very much in the discovery/exploration phase of gender and personality.
I agree. I hate the overly sexualized female characters while the guys look normal, but I also hate when they give the girl characters big eyes and smaller nose and everything to make them look more feminine. I never noticed about the eyes on the characters in Bluey, though! I think that's so cool
Cool, it's not a bad theory which is why more than I can say about most. It irks me how the current trend with fan theories leans way more towards "what would be the most shocking, edgy and outlandish?" vs "What makes sense and has evidence to support it?". You actually put in the work and effort and that's great to see.
Everytime a beholder like you see an art produced by an artist and you thought to yourself "Hey, their art doesn't look as good as it used to be.." is probably best described as quality or identity losses in art. The art produced no longer hold the same values of passion like losing details, using lesser colors (not to be confused as different art style) and lazier shading and sketches can be spotted via thorough observation. The reason behind this is maybe they forgot or less focused on design philosophy over time. But Bluey on the other hand managed to create masterpiece after masterpiece and the key to this success is dedication and deep understanding in the execution of how and when to use and deliver special style. Fe: The leafbug scene and the Bingo on a comet in Sleepytime scene which truly captures their special moments. There are many factors as well and this is why I love the show. ❤
This actually reminds me of how something similar was spotted in season 1 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic by fans of that show. Adult mares were being drawn with two highlights in their eyes and multiple gradients, and adult stallions with a single eye highlight and a single gradient. However, there was an exception to the rule: a pony called Trixie. She had only one eye gradient and only one eye highlight, which made it popular among fans to headcannon her as transgender, a headcannon that is still somewhat popular today, nearly 14 years after her debut. At some point, her puppet rig was updated to have two eye highlights, but with no additional gradients to make her fully in line with most other mare designs.
iirc that headcanon also comes from the fact that trixie was originally supposed to be a guy, but made to be a woman instead by the showrunners. i dont know if this is true, but its fun either way lol. i love the trans trixie headcanon so much
@fvwak It’s a concept that is 7 years old that was used to discriminate men against spreading their legs, it’s was a very controversial concept and is seen as a joke nowadays, or atleast I see it as a joke
@@fvwak it depends on how I sit I suppose and or the place I’m sitting on, default sitting for me is often legs a tiny bit separated or with one leg crossed onto the other usually having it lay straight right above my knee. Other times I may have my leg in a similar position as the knee one but instead it bends downwards, in this particular instance my legs are closed together tightly. Some males will find certain sitting positions discomforting due to their… well unique parts
Wow, this video is unique. I haven't noticed much of a difference between male and female characters in Bluey before. But the different pupils and the characters’ positions create their own atmosphere for the series. Although the first difference I noticed was in the size of the characters' noses and mouths. In men it is larger, and in women it is slightly smaller. What pleased me the most was Pat's family. In the episode of The Decider, at the moment when Lucky was deciding whose team to go watch the match with, I first of all paid attention to the coloring of Pat and Janelle. What interested me was that Pat's coloring was more intense than Janelle's. The designers at Ludo Studio are quite clever in their character designs for their series. To be honest, for me personally one of the main differences in Bluey's character designs comes from the paradox of "Nature's Climax". After all, this is why Pat, as a male character, has a more saturated coat color, and Janelle, as a female character, has a lighter coat color. This is similar to the size of the pupils, as you said earlier, that women in Bluey have slightly larger pupils than men. There are many more examples that can be given, not only in character design, in TV series and in real life. Thanks for the very informative video! ♥️🙏🌌
This theory is really cool! I'm a trans man myself, so it feels cool to see theories like this give way for headcannons. The thing that makes me anxious, though, is the idea of Bluey making a whole episode around a trans character akin to Onesies or Army... with the current climate, you'd have no idea how people may react to that, and how it may effect the entire show. Subtle hints give way to making trans ppl both feel seen, without seeing potential horrible headlines and news stories. It may just be my own anxiety, though, I definitely don't share these ideals with every other trans person obviously.
@@ocarinafrek That's really sad. People being themselves can ruin a show for others who are not negatively affected by those people. I have hope that it wouldnt ruin its popularity. Probably would get more people!
@@ron4202 "being themselves" why does being themselves involve shoehorning their delusion into every piece of media that exists, that's not advocacy, it's tyranny of the minority.
@@ocarinafrekI think they should do it anyway. Even if it gets backlash, it’s important. Same with gay families, which are also not touched on in this show.
I saw this theory gaining traction on Twitter as well! It’s super interesting and I hope it’s true! It’s very cool to see Pugly covering this!! I love your videos and I love Bluey!
i do think the sitting thing is likely intentional, but i dont see the pupil thing being intentional.. it would be cool but it kinda reminds me of a similar thing in fairly odd parents where only the fairies had pupils while the humans didnt, and human characters that had pupils were actually fairies in disguise, which was never proven to be true again, trans rep theories are awesome, little details are awesome, this one just feels too subtle and some of the times its really hard to even tell when the circles are more of an oval anyway (like, the difference feels negligible sometimes) but its a good video though! this is not criticism! just thinkin out loud :3
You acknowledging the transgender theory for the bluey characters makes me feel even more safe coming to your channel. I do sometimes think about how and if bluey is going to tackle gender expression and/or norms and you saying you'd like it to be something similar to onesies or army really makes me and hopefully other LGBTQ+ people safe in this space you have created. I am a non-cis non-straight person and just by mentioning and even having an entire video section dedicated to that theory and you wishing that it stays respectful and calm with no hatred towards anyone that believes or has contributed to that theory really makes me feel safe
Omg you just made me feel so happy, I was sweating bullets waiting to see if there was going to be any backlash for me covering the theory from those who are against LGBTQ+ but also supporters of LGBTQ+ since I'm only a ally so I was worried I was gonna accidentally say something wrong when trying to support people within the community but you being upfront and telling me all of this calms me down haha. I'm happy I was able to cover the theory in a respectful way as I hoped
@@Pugly, you are by far the sweetest and most respectful creator I've seen in a long while. I've been watching the channel since you first started covering bluey and as a trans person myself.. you have no idea how much hope and joy this video brought me!! I stand by what katcloud said, you covered the topic so perfectly it coulnd't have been better
As a trans guy, the headcanon about Jack's dad being transgender makes me really happy. Since the round/long pupils rule is so tightly kept in almost all characters, including merch, it'd be cool if the creators actually used it for a trans-focused episode, maybe even about Jack's and Jasper's parents.
I personally don't think he's trans, and also they did add a curved bump to chillis chest in Relax, but I doubt she is pregnant, I think it is just their personal design choice.
i think the five characters breaking the eye gender rule thingy, could either be transgender or possibly a tomboy/tomgirl. or its just a stylistic choice that they found apealing do diffrent characters. I also think its to represent masculine/feminine features being on the opposing gender it okay and you should be accepted.
i feel like the trans theory for jack's dad makes a lot of sense, especially when you see the concept art and point out the fact that he is drawn consistently with the "female" pupils. like, you said, an episode focused solely on trans representation and doing so with gentleness and subtlety would be amazing, but i also think that it makes sense to just, have trans characters in the show without having to make it super obvious or going out of the way to immediately explain it, as that's how it often is in real life.
Probably not, but I like the idea that if the transgender theory is wrong there could be an alternative version that it is to define either the roll in their relationship or if they are more masculine or feminine. I wanna use my relationship as an example for this, as my "male" partner would have the long eyes as he as way more feminine than I am and I am very masculine and generally enjoy playing the "masculine role" in the relationship. Honestly would be happier that the trans theory is real!
That is a lot of detail and a good observation! This is something that I never knew right up to now. Sometimes, it is the details that truly stand out.
I don't think Jack's dad is trans. I do think that if they're going to have a trans person in the show, it'll be more directly mentioned that they're trans somehow, which I think Bluey as a show would be perfectly adept at approaching if they want to!
It’s actually not uncommon for artists to do this. In the vast majority of all lion king media, all lions/cubs have whiskers and all lionesses do not, making some people question whether or not the semi-canon character Tama is male or female and, more recently if whether or not The Lion Guard character Baliyo is trans also, as he’s a teenaged lion by all appearances *except* for the whiskers. Theories like this will exist where all drawn media, where it’s expected that there will always be continuity where the characters are concerned because it’d break immersion if everything was constantly changing. But I believe slip-ups happen here and there.
I like the sitting thing, because it correlates well with with my real life experience. Most, but not all women I encounter sit with their legs more together, and most, but not all men I encounter sit with them spread apart. This holds even when they cross their legs. My understanding of this is twofold. First, legs together can be uncomfortable if you have something in the way. And, second women used to primarily wear dresses, and keeping your legs together avoided showing anything once dresses got short enough.
This is a GLORIOUS theory! There are subtle things that never really change when you transition, such as your eye color and the shape of 'em. Hair can change, faces can change, voices can change-- but the EYES remain the same no matter what. It's an interesting nod and seems completely intentional.
I absolutely love how Bluey designs their characters. I admire everyone who works on this show, and I also admire the people who can find the subtle details the artists & writers put in Bluey.
i saw this theory on twitter a few days ago and honestly i love it! ^u^ as you said this is not the kind of things the Bluey team would do by accident, this feels totally done on purpose and honestly i'd also love to see it told through an episode, always love to see good transgender representation ^u^
I’m not sure if you noticed this before, but in the episode ‘Relax’ the song ‘‘tis the gift to be simple’ is playing through the entire thing. If you look up the lyrics, you’ll see why :P
Every time one of my favorite RU-vidrs posts, it's while I'm either busy at school or in the middle of something important! Still, it's something to look forward to. 1:00 Also, don't they look like robots? Lol
I agree it's refreshing to see, I really don't like when this is done which is unfortunately almost always. There's no clear visual distinction between male and female eyelashes in real life so why is that picked and used as a gender identifier? Giving male characters no eyelashes at all? It makes no sense to me
I love their consistency in small details even though some people don't notice it all the time, I was actually surprised knowing the plushies also follow the eye shapes for men and women, it is such a cool but tiny detail.
I did hear that a possible reason the female characters have their legs inward is because girls are taught to sit like that because they often are wearing a skirt.
If I had a nickle for every blue dog character I like that just so happens to be a girl, I'd have two nickles... which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice
I think it would be really cool for Bluey to handle the topic of trans people or even just LGBT people in general, maybe one of Bluey’s friends could have same-gender parents? sadly I don’t see it happening in the near future though because then people will end up trashing and boycotting the show 😔
@@skootergirl22yeah that's what I'm saying, people will boycott the show because it's too "woke" or whatever, did you see how angry some people got that Across the Spiderverse had a trans flag in the corner of the screen for a single shot?
@@ExplosionMare it's in the beginning of the movie during Gwen's segment, when she's looking at the picture she has of herself and Miles. you can see it in the upper right hand corner
Google isn't showing relevant answers if I try to search about the long eyes saying. You don't need to answer here, I'm sure kids are watching. I'm just complaining that Google has gotten harder to use.
some of the replies to the comments here are a little bit rancid, but you'll always find weirdos lurking below videos like this. I never noticed the pupils before, it's pretty interesting and I'm excited to see new theories and hcs spring from it! tbh I think any character in the show can be headcanoned as trans regardless of any dimorphism in the art style - it doesn't really change the character too much, it just lets people put a little of themselves into something they enjoy. I'm cisgender (somewhat) myself but with many many people in my life both online and irl being transgender, non-binary, unlabeled et cetera, it always makes me happy to see something new which gives people the chance to connect with what they love, and with each other too. great vid as always!
This isn't related, but I just wanted to share this!! In the Episode Sleepytime, You can see that both Bluey and Bingo have the letter B on their beds, Bingos has a small letter, and Bluey has a big letter. Pretty cool right??
I think that the eye design for jacks dad and the other mom might be because jacks dad is pretty chunky and fluffy and the mom is sorta skinny and more slender, so that’s what just looked better.
i would take this theory with a grain of salt because the distinction between round and elongated eyes is so small that most of the time it's hard to tell if a character actually fits into their pupil gender(?) lol idk i just really like the designs, it's my biggest cartoon pet peeve when "girl = eyelashes" or "girl= pink bow" because you really shouldn't be able to tell someone's gender just by looking at them and for animals a lot of the time it can be difficult to differentiate between sexes without looking at genitals
as a trans person, i think saying the characters are trans is a massive leap in logic. it seems far more likely to me that theyre just showing that there isnt really a single physical characteristic that defines gender.
If the pupils do show that some characters are trans but it is never actually brought up then maybe the idea is that, within the context of the show, there is no reason for characters to bring it up, it's just normal and accepted so the characters don't discuss it any more than they discuss anyone else's gender. The pupils could also show that some men can be more feminine than others, and some women more masculine than others :).
i love that bluey doesn't have such exaggerated and rigid gender roles like lots of media has. and yet at the same time, acknowledges that there are two sexes and they are slightly different and thats ok!
i wonder if the pupils and sitting thing isnt necessarily a sexed thing, but rather just a nudge to how personalities can be masculine or feminine, but are not determined by your sex!
It could be on how maybe they see the world differently, we all see the world differently but sometimes men see things differently than women do and the differently shaped eyes could be a reflection of that belief
I've said it somewhere before but personally I've never been a fan of "______ is _____" style theories cause I find a lot of them to just kinda exist to say it without much more going for them. but the end of the day Theories are for fun and if people have fun with em who am I to say otherwise, lord knows I've prob got a few theories I enjoy that people don't like lmao. end of the day, its just a theory, A FILM THEORY, i'm not sorry.
I think the change in pupils is more of a design choice done in order to reflect the already present elements creating the distinct designs. Female characters are slightly more slender but elongated, and male characters are usually a bit wider. If you were to swap the pupils, male to female and female to male, the designs would look a bit off. That also explains why some characters of the opposite sex swap pupils, because the design would look a bit off or unnerving without the change. I also like the idea in the top comment that it reflects masculinity and femininity rather than male and female characters.
first: this is SUCH a cool detail Second: as a trans person I was thinking the same thing before he said the theory. The fact that the kids do not have a distinc eye might be because gender disphoria and therefore gender identity becomes more prominent after adolescence. Honestly even if I agree that trans representation would be better being more explicit and more analyzed in the show I would be static if there is any representation at all via the pupils ! I am literally recovering from top surgery now so thanks for the content and the inclusion of the theory ! it already made me feel better :)
I remember when my best friend had his top surgery done. It was probably the happiest I have ever seen him. And I'll tell you what I told him. I am so proud of you.
I am an agender child, lack of gender specification is great, I love it. I do feel that Bluey isn’t guaranteed to portray transness or queerness but from what I have seen there is a high possibility. A great way to normalise it the topic.
the reason for the bodies being the same (though often smaller for women) is because dogs don't have the same degree of sexual dimorphism as humans do, take it from someone who breeds dogs. the eyes are also never fully round so i'd say it is largely coincidental
Pretty sure the different ways the characters sit is due to the different pelvic shapes between the genders, which is why both genders IRL have different ways of sitting.
Maybe I'm imagining things but I thought the female characters' snouts also tend to be just a bit shorter. At least with the Heelers I think this is the case?
"I can tell by them eyes, they are transgender" I know I shouldn't laugh, but that theory does kidna sounds like "We can always tell", but from the other side.
