We’ve been noted by lots of our lovely followers that Square Enix changed their minds about their mobile game protagonist who caused such an outrage a while ago.
Sorry if this is information you already know, but the mobile Final Fantasy game, Mobius (originally Mevius), has had some design changes. Due to ‘negative’ feedback, the main character now has less skin showing. Meanwhile a new female character has been announced. What are your thoughts?
indirajartwork (who also suggested this post’s title) submitted:
Where are all the dudebros to cry about censorship and creative freedom NOW? O__o
Morrigan submitted:
Remember that skimpy male armour from FF Mevius? Well, turns out the SJW cabal has been forcing Square Enix to abandon their sacrosanct artistic vision and censor themselves… I’m sure the brave knights of free speech will protest this blatant censorship, right? Surely, Squeenix will be called prudes who hate sex after this? ….Right?
Have you heard the news about Mobius Final Fantasy? OK PREPARE FOR GENERAL LEL@GAMERS basically the champions of FREDUM OF SPEUCH and ANTI-CENSORSHIP are now defending squeenix censoring a male character’s scanty outfit due to complaints from whiny male gamers. BEAUTIFUL. /popcorn
Thankfully, Square Enix recognized how uncomfortable it would be for men to play as a character who was designed as a sexual object before an active, heroic subject, and announced today that they had modified his design.
[…] Thank you for being so understanding, Square Enix.
Can’t say I’m surprised or angry, but very much disappointed.
And said people are more than happy to shield this change with the good old “creative freedom” excuse. The same creative freedom that would most likely be called “censorship” or “entitlement” if the such redesign was applied to a female character instead.
So, apparently, there IS such thing as “too sexy”… but only under condition that you are a man.Who knew, right?
~Ozzie
I am really disappointed in my fellow men for this one. Ever since I started helping out here they’ve always been so eager to tell me how people who bothered by a sexualized depiction of their demographic should respond.
“Go make your own.” Pretty self explanatory. Just start a studio that makes computer games professionally, produce critically acclaimed games that sell in record amounts and in twenty-eight years you could be showing them how it’s done.
“Realize it’s a fantasy game were anybody can have a magic powers.” So nothing needs to make sense and nothing matters… really they should be campaigning for him to have less clothes, that way it’s more fantasy-ish right?
“Enjoy it as a celebration of male form.” It makes men look good so that’s got to be good for all of us right?
“Just stop.” Okay, I’m not sure how this one helps but they seem very confident about it.
How exactly does covering up a character show that sexy outfits aren’t empowering exactly? That and how does dressing up male characters in sexy outfits making a point?
It’d be easy to ask the inverse: how does dressing up female characters in revealing outfits make them empowered?
To answer this question we’re going to do an exercise that anyone familiar with the internet can participate in. First: imagine an adorable kitten (if you’re having trouble, Google images is rifewiththem… like I said: internet). Now, imagine that adorable kitten wielding a weapon (ohheyGoogle). Are these cats now empowered? Or has the situation gone from visually appealing to funny?
That’s what most female character design does: creates a juxtaposition of eye candy that thinks just because it’s started wielding weapons and calling itself tough, suddenly it’s empowered. It isn’t. It’s a cat with a lightsaber.
As for how dressing up a male character in clothes usually reserved for their female counterparts makes a point, well, mostly it helps show how ridiculous these outfits (and also the way the women are generally posed) are. We’re so used to seeing our female characters looking (and acting) this way, that it often doesn’t register. It helps get people asking why it’s okay for a woman to go into battle like this, but it’s funny when a man does.
-Staci
PREACH!
Throwback Thursday time!
Today’s throwback:repair-her-armor‘s sideblog, ria-rha, makes the most apt comparison to explain why bikini armors are inherently silly and not really empowering.
How exactly does covering up a character show that sexy outfits aren’t empowering exactly? That and how does dressing up male characters in sexy outfits making a point?
It’d be easy to ask the inverse: how does dressing up female characters in revealing outfits make them empowered?
To answer this question we’re going to do an exercise that anyone familiar with the internet can participate in. First: imagine an adorable kitten (if you’re having trouble, Google images is rifewiththem… like I said: internet). Now, imagine that adorable kitten wielding a weapon (ohheyGoogle). Are these cats now empowered? Or has the situation gone from visually appealing to funny?
That’s what most female character design does: creates a juxtaposition of eye candy that thinks just because it’s started wielding weapons and calling itself tough, suddenly it’s empowered. It isn’t. It’s a cat with a lightsaber.
As for how dressing up a male character in clothes usually reserved for their female counterparts makes a point, well, mostly it helps show how ridiculous these outfits (and also the way the women are generally posed) are. We’re so used to seeing our female characters looking (and acting) this way, that it often doesn’t register. It helps get people asking why it’s okay for a woman to go into battle like this, but it’s funny when a man does.
-Staci
PREACH!
Throwback Thursday time!
Today’s throwback:repair-her-armor‘s sideblog, ria-rha, makes the most apt comparison to explain why bikini armors are inherently silly and not really empowering.
distractionby theministryofabnormality “Whenever you’re creating a character, whatever their gender, ALWAYS ask yourself “why?”. Why would they wear that? Why are they standing that way? Why would they use that weapon? Why would they say what they’re saying? And above all else: Why are they the way they are? Create people – not decorations. Give them stories, personalities, motivations. These things will give you the answers to the questions above and after that you can dress them up”
This comic makes excellent point! If I were looking for a perfect distraction, a dangly one would definitely be more effective than a woman’s belly 😉
~Ozzie
Posted on
Posted on
Anonmois submitted:
So, the new Fire Emblem on 3DS got announced… Immediately, a certain female character gathered quite a number of followers. How is she dressed you wonder?
I don’t even know what is going on in the lower bottom. Is that a flag?
Nintendo released a video showing its New Fire Emblem game and it looks really cool, but some of the armor is… questionable. Miss Purple Hair has some nice arm and waist armor, but they went the lingere route with the rest. Battle panties and a massive boob window don’t seem like a good choice for a war. The blond guy seems to be wearing very similar armor, but he gets to keep his pants on. Fire Emblem has some really good examples of female armor, but then there are really bad ones like this. I never know what to expect.
At this point it’s just boring how “unique” her design is. A dress with crotch cut-out to see her panties nice and clear, the bubble breasts that have a weird belt jammed between them…
Surely this can’t be simple pandering, clearly there’s just some sort of complex message her that I can’t see because I’m not in the Fire Emblem fandom. Let’s see what the fandom thinks of Camilla…
Oh…
-wincenworks
Posted on
Anonmois submitted:
So, the new Fire Emblem on 3DS got announced… Immediately, a certain female character gathered quite a number of followers. How is she dressed you wonder?
I don’t even know what is going on in the lower bottom. Is that a flag?
Nintendo released a video showing its New Fire Emblem game and it looks really cool, but some of the armor is… questionable. Miss Purple Hair has some nice arm and waist armor, but they went the lingere route with the rest. Battle panties and a massive boob window don’t seem like a good choice for a war. The blond guy seems to be wearing very similar armor, but he gets to keep his pants on. Fire Emblem has some really good examples of female armor, but then there are really bad ones like this. I never know what to expect.
At this point it’s just boring how “unique” her design is. A dress with crotch cut-out to see her panties nice and clear, the bubble breasts that have a weird belt jammed between them…
Surely this can’t be simple pandering, clearly there’s just some sort of complex message her that I can’t see because I’m not in the Fire Emblem fandom. Let’s see what the fandom thinks of Camilla…
After much deliberation (and coming to a conclusion that a 5-day judging deadline that intersects with our holiday season wasn’t a wise idea), BABD is proud to present winners of the Break the Bingo design contest!.
But first, let’s give shout-out to those of fans who started working on their designs, but didn’t end up officially submitting them, particularly the artists who tagged us in their WIP posts. Those drawings, even when unfinished, were pretty great!
We’re amazed by the ultimate turn-out. A lot of contestants put extra effort into their entries, by doing things things like:
putting them into a form of a comic/concept art pitch/fake advertisement
It’s a bit scary just how close to the industry standards lots of you guys came! Some of the designs look like lifted straight-up from a video game or comic book studio!
Each and every submission is appreciated and we’re sorry we could reward only a select few of them, ones that we found to be the most creative in their use of the Female Armor Bingo tropes. And those are…
The plexi-boobplate is very clever! Nice way to score “Covers only nipples and genitals” while technically giving her a chest piece 😀 Also best luck to Tom in his never-ending quest of finding the sexy male armor suitable for his empowered body. ~Ozzie
Legitimate depiction of how heavy armor works in video games. – wincenworks
Her main “covering” is mostly mesh/chain mail thing. It’s sorta lingerie stocking AND boob sock armor. What I think is most innovative about this design is the boob holes in her boobplate. The girls can swing free and unencumbered while in action. Great for badass empowered female warriors.
Accurate representation of shoulder plates and fantasy high heels! – wincenworks
Chainmail boobsocks encased in what seems like a boobplate frame… possibly the most painful-looking chest piece in the contest. That + super impossible heels + pointy bits that will stab her whenever she moves = another winner! ~Ozzie
Extra points for showing accurate understanding of how bikini armor artists think how physics work. – wincenworks
Personally I think the original version of this chest piece fitted the definition of “boobplate” a bit better, but both versions are very well designed and look as uncomfortable as expected from a bingo winner! ~Ozzie
Bonus prize:
Thanks to lokificent’s generous prize donation, we were able to choose the fourth winner! And that artist is…
Designing ‘armour’ that would score all 25 squares and the bonus points was equal parts interesting challenge and vicarious thrill. I had to constantly resist the urge to make things less ridiculous. The pinnacle (or nadir, depending on how you look at it) of this exercise was the Echo variant ‘breastplate’; it’s practically a bingo in its own right
Particularly accurate with sci-fi’s tendency to put bits of metal and lights in random places. – wincenworks
I’m getting an impression that more thought was put in designing those modular nipple pieces alone than in many complete outfits we bingo’d before. ~Ozzie
The prizes:
As established above, there are four rewards to choose from:
To collect their prizes, the winners should contact us at bikiniarmorbattledamage via askbox/fanmail or at BikiniArmorBeDamned via private message and the first three of them should specify what is their preferred reward. First prize winner gets whatever they choose, then the second and then the third one pick from the remaining poll. Bonus winner gets whatever is left for them.
All the other contest entries + further commentary under the cut:
This one makes me afraid that we will see a “not quite stealing” version of in the next MMORPG comes out. – wincenworks
I like how the male equivalent is that Sauron-like figure in a pointy armor that is huge, intimidating and completely covering, while the woman’s armor is just pointy and that’s it. ~Ozzie
I like how they remembered that women’s armor uses odd magical glow things in place of actual armor. Men don’t need stuff like that. – wincenworks
Nice nod to the 90s comic book aesthetic with the hair, over-accessorizing and the boobs & butt pose. That little ‘Sup.’ from her male friend always crack me up, too. ~Ozzie
Muscular build and black hair texture, two things that are massive under represented in modern media. – wincenworks
Setting aside this female character’s glorious warrior body type (and killer hairstyle), the g-string being attached directly to the nipple pieces is pretty darn amusing sight! ~Ozzie
need to keep this away from Team Ninja so that it doesn’t find it’s way into the inevitable Hyrule Warriors sequel – wincenworks
Good idea with distributing the squares between different levels of the same armor. I also like the rose motif, adds both to prettiness and stabbiness in all of the designs. ~Ozzie
This is my attempt to get everything- I figure if the boob plate is see through with only her nipples covered then it could potentially count for both???
Particularly impressed with the transparent boobplate. – wincenworks
Again, as with loloraturasopranerd, good idea with the translucent boobplate! Also nice touch with it not actually attaching in the back! ~Ozzie
My art skills aren’t the best, so mostly this is just to amuse. Enjoy. I did manage to hit every single point on the bingo and that’s what I was going for.
I like the fire g-string. When you have so little space to work with, the little touches count for so much. – wincenworks
Love how careful the artist was about covering as little of torso as possible! Also neat detail: the level 1 female outfit is a long, spacious robe. ~Ozzie
I had an oc whose story takes place in a video game so I decided to work with that. Male and Female version of the oc in the first picture (Selection Screen), and her next level-up armor shown in the right.
Another one that I think might get lifted by a MMORPG, probably by Aion. – wincenworks
At level 50, her eyes literally get better protection than any other body part, which reminds me of this Scartlet Blade letsplayquote:
You know, I think I wanna put some glasses on you, so you’re AT LEAST a little bit more covered up. I’m sorry I can’t help you, really…
I wanted to recreate this video game experience, where you picked the least sexualized character, only to find that the next stage would turn out to be…this. That’s the reason i used the “new class introduction screen!” thing.
Another one that terrifies me because it looks like it could be concept art for an actual game. – wincenworks
1. props to all the amazing quality work that went into this 2. I’m also terrified how real this looks ~Ozzie
in order to display elements on her front and back, I depicted her in a completely never-been-seen-before impossible pose where we see her front and rear simultaneously. And that’s definitely the only reason.
literal boob window ftw, as the cultural gap between the men and the female character. – wincenworks
The legs are my favorite part. Torn stockings + pretty legitimate greaves + impossible heels FTW! ~Ozzie
I believe I’m only missing a boobplate – going for the more uncovered option gave a lot more room. Also, since I’m a big fan of EscherGirls, I’ve added a wink in their direction – dislocated hip, lack of internal organs, something weird going on with chest area. If anyone ever takes this as serious and/or proper art design, I will end myself. Or them.
Awesomely absurd design + nice use of gratituous crotchleg! ~Ozzie
Collar bra is also awesome… though all these awesome creative ideas make me worry we will see them in commercial products soon… what have we done? – wincenworks
~~~~
Again, big thanks to all who contributed and congratulations to the winners!
After much deliberation (and coming to a conclusion that a 5-day judging deadline that intersects with our holiday season wasn’t a wise idea), BABD is proud to present winners of the Break the Bingo design contest!.
But first, let’s give shout-out to those of fans who started working on their designs, but didn’t end up officially submitting them, particularly the artists who tagged us in their WIP posts. Those drawings, even when unfinished, were pretty great!
We’re amazed by the ultimate turn-out. A lot of contestants put extra effort into their entries, by doing things things like:
putting them into a form of a comic/concept art pitch/fake advertisement
It’s a bit scary just how close to the industry standards lots of you guys came! Some of the designs look like lifted straight-up from a video game or comic book studio!
Each and every submission is appreciated and we’re sorry we could reward only a select few of them, ones that we found to be the most creative in their use of the Female Armor Bingo tropes. And those are…
The plexi-boobplate is very clever! Nice way to score “Covers only nipples and genitals” while technically giving her a chest piece 😀 Also best luck to Tom in his never-ending quest of finding the sexy male armor suitable for his empowered body. ~Ozzie
Legitimate depiction of how heavy armor works in video games. – wincenworks
Her main “covering” is mostly mesh/chain mail thing. It’s sorta lingerie stocking AND boob sock armor. What I think is most innovative about this design is the boob holes in her boobplate. The girls can swing free and unencumbered while in action. Great for badass empowered female warriors.
Accurate representation of shoulder plates and fantasy high heels! – wincenworks
Chainmail boobsocks encased in what seems like a boobplate frame… possibly the most painful-looking chest piece in the contest. That + super impossible heels + pointy bits that will stab her whenever she moves = another winner! ~Ozzie
Extra points for showing accurate understanding of how bikini armor artists think how physics work. – wincenworks
Personally I think the original version of this chest piece fitted the definition of “boobplate” a bit better, but both versions are very well designed and look as uncomfortable as expected from a bingo winner! ~Ozzie
Bonus prize:
Thanks to lokificent’s generous prize donation, we were able to choose the fourth winner! And that artist is…
Designing ‘armour’ that would score all 25 squares and the bonus points was equal parts interesting challenge and vicarious thrill. I had to constantly resist the urge to make things less ridiculous. The pinnacle (or nadir, depending on how you look at it) of this exercise was the Echo variant ‘breastplate’; it’s practically a bingo in its own right
Particularly accurate with sci-fi’s tendency to put bits of metal and lights in random places. – wincenworks
I’m getting an impression that more thought was put in designing those modular nipple pieces alone than in many complete outfits we bingo’d before. ~Ozzie
The prizes:
As established above, there are four rewards to choose from:
To collect their prizes, the winners should contact us at bikiniarmorbattledamage via askbox/fanmail or at BikiniArmorBeDamned via private message and the first three of them should specify what is their preferred reward. First prize winner gets whatever they choose, then the second and then the third one pick from the remaining poll. Bonus winner gets whatever is left for them.
All the other contest entries + further commentary under the cut:
This one makes me afraid that we will see a “not quite stealing” version of in the next MMORPG comes out. – wincenworks
I like how the male equivalent is that Sauron-like figure in a pointy armor that is huge, intimidating and completely covering, while the woman’s armor is just pointy and that’s it. ~Ozzie
I like how they remembered that women’s armor uses odd magical glow things in place of actual armor. Men don’t need stuff like that. – wincenworks
Nice nod to the 90s comic book aesthetic with the hair, over-accessorizing and the boobs & butt pose. That little ‘Sup.’ from her male friend always crack me up, too. ~Ozzie
Muscular build and black hair texture, two things that are massive under represented in modern media. – wincenworks
Setting aside this female character’s glorious warrior body type (and killer hairstyle), the g-string being attached directly to the nipple pieces is pretty darn amusing sight! ~Ozzie
need to keep this away from Team Ninja so that it doesn’t find it’s way into the inevitable Hyrule Warriors sequel – wincenworks
Good idea with distributing the squares between different levels of the same armor. I also like the rose motif, adds both to prettiness and stabbiness in all of the designs. ~Ozzie
This is my attempt to get everything- I figure if the boob plate is see through with only her nipples covered then it could potentially count for both???
Particularly impressed with the transparent boobplate. – wincenworks
Again, as with loloraturasopranerd, good idea with the translucent boobplate! Also nice touch with it not actually attaching in the back! ~Ozzie
My art skills aren’t the best, so mostly this is just to amuse. Enjoy. I did manage to hit every single point on the bingo and that’s what I was going for.
I like the fire g-string. When you have so little space to work with, the little touches count for so much. – wincenworks
Love how careful the artist was about covering as little of torso as possible! Also neat detail: the level 1 female outfit is a long, spacious robe. ~Ozzie
I had an oc whose story takes place in a video game so I decided to work with that. Male and Female version of the oc in the first picture (Selection Screen), and her next level-up armor shown in the right.
Another one that I think might get lifted by a MMORPG, probably by Aion. – wincenworks
At level 50, her eyes literally get better protection than any other body part, which reminds me of this Scartlet Blade letsplayquote:
You know, I think I wanna put some glasses on you, so you’re AT LEAST a little bit more covered up. I’m sorry I can’t help you, really…
I wanted to recreate this video game experience, where you picked the least sexualized character, only to find that the next stage would turn out to be…this. That’s the reason i used the “new class introduction screen!” thing.
Another one that terrifies me because it looks like it could be concept art for an actual game. – wincenworks
1. props to all the amazing quality work that went into this 2. I’m also terrified how real this looks ~Ozzie
in order to display elements on her front and back, I depicted her in a completely never-been-seen-before impossible pose where we see her front and rear simultaneously. And that’s definitely the only reason.
literal boob window ftw, as the cultural gap between the men and the female character. – wincenworks
The legs are my favorite part. Torn stockings + pretty legitimate greaves + impossible heels FTW! ~Ozzie
I believe I’m only missing a boobplate – going for the more uncovered option gave a lot more room. Also, since I’m a big fan of EscherGirls, I’ve added a wink in their direction – dislocated hip, lack of internal organs, something weird going on with chest area. If anyone ever takes this as serious and/or proper art design, I will end myself. Or them.
Awesomely absurd design + nice use of gratituous crotchleg! ~Ozzie
Collar bra is also awesome… though all these awesome creative ideas make me worry we will see them in commercial products soon… what have we done? – wincenworks
~~~~
Again, big thanks to all who contributed and congratulations to the winners!
