: Re: Archetype or Stereotype? After feedback on character design for my visual novel, my grizzled Noir Detective is drifting into an Old Jazz Musician. There's a reason I post the artwork: what

@LarsenBagley300

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As mentioned and I discussed in a comment, I think your problem is that you have a few good things going for you, but there could be some corrections that could work. First, as someone who wears hats frequently and as an afficionado of sorts of the Fedora Detective look, I can tell you the first flaw is in the face. Basically, Fedoras tend to compliment narrow faces better than round faces. That isn't to say you can't have a baby-faced (lose the beard and I can take off 40 years on my age guesstimate) but it's associated with musicians across racial lines (I would think Blues Brothers if he was white).

Also discussed, Noir characters tend to be monochrome... really, that stripe of purple in the hat should be the character's only color aside from Black, Tan/Khacky or Grey. Of those, I would see a Tan as the Noir detective more than the others, but they are doable. Fedora should be Black regardless (except the stripe... reds are good, but Purple looks fine). Noir detectives aren't flamboyant. Jazz musicians are.

As for the marriage of Jazz and Noir, it's been done. It's too great things that go great together. A slow jazz/blues sound, a rainy street, and a neon sign that is on the last legs of life are the typical noir street. I would say a great stereotype break is that he is a detective that appreciates the sound, but doesn't play his own music would be a break. Perhaps he never learned... perhaps he aspired to learn... perhaps he suffered a crippling injury and couldn't play his instrument well (becareful with this).

Personally, if I had to write this story, he would have been a kid who was going down a path to a criminal... until the local music shop owner saw something that made him take the young boy in under his wing. He taught the kid some of the basics of music and shared a love of jazz... but then was murdered and the case was never solved... that incident inspired the kid to become a PI (racist police hiring practices at the time meant he couldn't join the cops?) and his overarching mission is to solve the case of the murder of the one person in life who believed he was worth saving. It's a little cliche, but Noir loves it's cliche.

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