Aliens

Colour and lots of skin to show off

penis

Why would a space alien wear clothing? Did space Catholic missionaries teach them to feel body shame?

Technically he was born on earth so that makes him a dreamer :^)

It's cold in space

There's no rule saying they can't wear them

There's nothing wrong with the first two ones, infact they're great. The two ones after that less so, but not as bad as people let on.

>What makes a good alien design?

One that suits its narrative purpose. This is important. Not ever alien design is suitable for every role.

It is important to remember that before we got to true science fiction, these stories had their roots in fantasy. Fantasy did not mean LOTR ripoff world at the time, it was much more diverse than that. You could be zipping around to other planets and still be fantasy because it was unrealistic.

Prior to LOTR, most works in the genre were what has since been defined as 'low fantasy', which is to say that the setting was 'real world' Earth with some extra stuff tacked on. Indiana Jones is low fantasy, all the same places and countries you know plus some new made up ruins and magic and stuff. High Fantasy, for the record, is settings that are NOT Earth and never were, like Avatar's world. Marvel/DC is technically Low Fantasy, Unsounded is High Fantasy. Etc.

Now, because the genre was nearly entirely Low Fantasy, a lot of it focused on going to some previously unexplored place and meeting some undiscovered race of people. Atlantis, lost amazon tribes, Hollow Earth, etc. A lot of the tropes we take for granted in modern 'scifi' come from this era, the stories have just been translated to going to a new planet instead of a new land. But *everything else about these stories is essentially the same*.

Aliens that are just oddly colored humans with a rubber forehead are literally just filling the role of foreign humans in these ancient story setups. They are SUPPOSED to just be humans with a different culture and maybe a magic power or two. It isn't until you get to the birth of science fiction that anyone starts giving a shit about making aliens act like aliens, and most modern "scifi" is just old school low fantasy that takes spaceships for granted.

The first clothes were animal fur because the winter is cold as fuck.

There's a lot of good points here in this thread, and I'd like to add my own: That the alien in question must look different enough from us humans with the culture, language, biology, clothing, etc. Not that similarities are bad, but too many will make an alien seem like a species that could have diverged from humans or some other Earth animal. What I've found to be a good way to make your alien different enough from humans is to take the lifecycle of an existing Earth creature, but make it the lifecycle of your intelligent alien. Of course, it's advised you twist it enough that it won't seem like you copied form Mother Nature.
Also, make it fit the planet/habitat it lives in, and make sure that, unless the alien's history has a valid reason to make it seem samey (planet-wide genocide, incredibly harsh habitat that makes it hard to evolve differently, etc), make there be variety in the species itself, like how on our planet alone there are very many cultures and countries.
Or you can fuck all that and make it a recolored grey alien whose planet/galaxy of origin or history is never revealed or even hinted, i guess, not like anyone will care really

The new ones, though. HOO BOY!!!

I wanted Lance to get seduced by Keith's mom.

That’s easy don’t make it look human.

I'm honestly not sure why they even established she was Keith's mom. It never fucking comes up. Even after the revelation that they are family, they basically never talk to each other and neither of them seems all that interested in any kind of relationship or bonding.

Keith's mom could have been some completely different Galra and the story would have played out completely the same. Hell, Keith's mom could have been human and I don't think anything would have actually changed.