What makes popular villagers so popular?

[AlinaBanana]

I only knew a little bit about villager trading before I joined the forums, but now that I'm here I've being hearing one name over and over. Marshal! Marshal!!!
"Oh, his design is cool."
Okay, it's alright. Nothing special to me, though.
"His house is amazing!!"
I don't think that even matters though, because it's not like you can't recreate it yourself.
There are other pretty cool Smug villagers!! What's wrong with them? The fact they're not squirrels?
Those are just a couple thoughts I came up with, otherwise I don't know what else is left. It's just surprising to me that out of so many villagers, a only few are actually this popular.

...Molly's nice. She should be the most popular villager... she's deserves it...

 

[Pansy]

Popular villagers are popular because the majority thought that that villager was cute, special, or rare. Chrissy and Francine are an example of special in that they're kinda like twins. Ketchup represents cute and rare because you had to actually buy her card to get her (unless you hack or villager trade/buy). When you have a pool of things, there's always going to be something that's objectively better at this or that. In this case it's mostly being cuter than the others. It's not that there's anything wrong with that, aesthetics is very important in this game after all. And Molly is a popular villager; tier 1 or tier 2 I think.

 

[AlinaBanana]

Thank you! I understand that obviously there's gonna be a generally accepted group of "cute" characters, but the fact that "cuteness" alone would push a villager's value in bells to millions is pretty crazy to me haha

 

[smonikkims]

I never realised either that a villager's house mattered, or whether they were 'original' or not mattered, but I guess I understand it.
I think villagers like Tia and Julian are popular because they have a theme or something that makes them unique for their species. But they also have to be able to pull it off well and be universally cute, so Pietro might not be so popular despite having a theme because many find him ugly. I gotta say that I'm not sure what it is about Marshal in particular but I also love him a lot!

 

[Hsn97]

I think it’s just people’s opinion. I find people are more attracted to the “normal” looking villagers. You know, ones that don’t have pig noses and grills for mouths (yes I’m looking at you Tabby). Personally, I don’t get the hype with Marshal. I wouldn’t say he’s the ugliest villager out there, but I definitely think there are better villagers and I certainly wouldn’t pay the money some people are willing to pay for him. But that’s just my opinion XD

 

[kemdi]

I think it's just an aesthetic thing. A lot of people think some villagers are cuter than others. As far as the hype for Marshal, iirc, at first it was because his house furniture has a lot of sloppy set pieces which is still kinda rare, and the fact that he could potentially trade you some of the rare furniture from his house and it kinda went from there.

 

[Nunnafinga]

Why is this squirrel so popular?He's a cute little bugger and for a lot of people,that's enough.It worked for Justin Bieber(although he's not really a cute little bugger anymore).

 

[PugLovex]

Mostly because they stand out more than others.

For example, Julian is a Unicorn, Flora is a flamingo and so on. Marshal is popular for his sloppy set mostly.

 

[AlinaBanana]

Yeah, I suppose I'm just too attached to my villagers emotionally (besides VELMA.) to care about how they look anymore, because I've had this particular set for multiple years.
Also, I did say that their house shouldn't really matter... but Julian is in Aika Village. His house is awesome!! Also did not realize that he has no irises or pupils. That's neat. Julian is totally justified, but Marshal still seems like the Kardashians of Animal Crossing. Famous for... being famous...

 

[Nunnafinga]

I think it's just an aesthetic thing. A lot of people think some villagers are cuter than others. As far as the hype for Marshal, iirc, at first it was because his house furniture has a lot of sloppy set pieces which is still kinda rare, and the fact that he could potentially trade you some of the rare furniture from his house and it kinda went from there.

Benjamin has more sloppy furniture than Marshal but since he's an ordinary looking doggie with bushy eyebrows,the sloppy stuff didn't do anything for his popularity.I like Benjy.....even though most of his sloppy furniture mysteriously disappeared from my town.

 

[Euphy]

Marshal has a pre characteristic face & personality combination imo. If he was a cranky with that face, he wouldn't have been special. If he was a lazy, it would've felt wrong. But smug personality, his kind of frowning face +small squirrel body is creating the perfect match for most.
So yeah, naturally I think it's how good is their face+species+personality combination that makes them popular -as in loved/on demand by majority of players-. For unique themed ones this is not a requirement ofc. Seeing how popular Merengue is taught me that