shattered-earth:

Backstory made to fit a sexualized design vs. a design made to fit a backstory requiring a character to wear minimal clothing.

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Thank you, shattered-earth

It is crucial to understand that a character design has to be informative of who the character is. And that sexualized designs do not inform us of it, just break the immersion.

Quiet’s a mercenary with a fictional condition that requires her to uncover as much skin as possible? Fine, then either make her totally nude or give her minimal clothing that is actually comfortable for her job.

Princess Zelda is royalty and a magic user, so her armor has to be fancy rather than simplistic and practical as Link’s? Sure, then make it gown-like and ornamental, just don’t leave out random patches of skin where she can be conveniently stabbed.

Charlotte is a gold-digging seductress who pretends to be innocent and demure? Then maybe instead of a boob-flaunting bikini give her a child-like costume that matches that persona?

~Ozzie

Daniel submitted:

Jim Sterling’s take on Quiet from Metal Gear

~*~

Amazingly~*~, we’re not the only two people in the world

who do not “feel ashamed for our words and deeds”

and don’t think Quiet’s design is justifiable in any possible way. 
Not with “she HAS to uncover her skin, because narrative reasons”, not with “Hideo Kojima can do no wrong”, not with “MGS is a silly franchise, so ANYTHING absurd is acceptable”.

Here are some of my favorite things Jim says in the video:

I’d have been so much cooler with the situation if [Kojima] just said “The secret reason for her exposure is that I just wanna get a gigantic fucking hard-on with my big Kojima cock.”

Indeed. If you guys were wondering why BABD is so hung up on Quiet compared to many similarly bad designs, it’s because how straight-up disingenuous (and inconsistent) her creator is about the character’s conception.

What Kojima promised would be the “antithesis to the women characters appeared in the past fighting game who are excessively exposed” is instead the embodiment of characters in the past who are excessively exposed.

As we covered before, the “it’s criticism of harmful status quo” argument doesn’t apply when the status quo is simply reproduced. “Kojima is trolling everyone” also falls under this.

If you explain away everything with “It’s a Metal Gear game, it’s always silly and you’re stupid if you criticize it”, then you ultimately do Hideo Kojima himself a disservice as a writer.

Interestingly, another baffling excuse we’ve been hearing again and again since we started criticizing Quiet is “The Boss is awesome, therefore every MGS heroine is just as good”.
And while Jim agrees about Boss being great, he knows she’s just one character, and therefore should be upheld as a model for women in the franchise, not as a proof that female representation is okay already in MGS.

Also, predictably, this is the sort of replies the video gets:

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Apparently not being able to go back in time and complain about two characters in military uniforms with absurdly deep cleavages, while he currently complains about another military-themed character clad literally only in a bikini and fishnets makes him a “hypocrite”.

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~Ozzie

More on Quiet

crackingskullz:

shensation:

donthatemecusimbeautiful:

Girl’s Costume Warehouse (X)

ITS BACK

and frog

And don’t forget the warehouse’s special warrior department, presenting:

Sexy barbarian:

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Sexy assassin:

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Sexy knight:

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Sexy archer:

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Sexy alien superhero

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Sexy evil wizard

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Sexy gladiator:

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Sexy space soldier:

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Sexy corpse:

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Sexy war nun looking for redemption through death:

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The classic, Sexy little girl transformed into a powerful beast:

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~Ozzie

And frog:

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– wincenworks

That time bikini armor went real life. Who could have guessed that this was actually a side project by a guy who was trying to make a game that turned into a legendary crowfunding disaster?

Their website is archived here, including a page where they later explained why these was “high-function” and “protective”.  Because the corsets were (allegedly) made of the same materials as military webbing.  What part of the soldier’s kit is webbing you ask?

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Even Invista, the manufacturers of the Codura fabric quoted, don’t recommend it as material for protecting your torso against attacks, just as part of footwear and other gear.

This didn’t however, stop them being promoted as protective and even bullet-proof (check out the New York times column on them) even though they were essentially an awkward alternative to a tactical vest.  (Notice for the most part the models use everything but their corsets to carry their gear).

So it’s actually kind of a good thing that people weren’t receiving their orders, otherwise there could have been people out there expecting to get real protection out of what basically amounted to an overpriced, “empowering” nylon corset.  Because “empowerment”.

Do you see what bikini armor has done to this world?

– wincenworks