Isn’t it interesting how often the response to criticisms such as the armor bingo card boil down to “but I have to keep using these tired offensive cliches because creativity”? Are they even listening to themselves? Why not take it as a challenge? “How can I create beautiful and original character designs without falling back on tropes that thousands and thousands of artists have used before me?” Now that would be creative.
Defending your “right” to use offensive tropes in character design (or writing, or whatever your creative endeavor of choice) isn’t “artistic integrity”. It’s laziness.
Yup. This^ Pretty much. Emphasis mine.
Whenever someone uses those arguments I’m all like:
I’m excited for this game. I really am. It has things you can do and mechanics in it unlike any other mmorpg that I personally at least have witnessed (such as [x], and that’s just a few). And I’m not going to gloss over the fact that I have seen female armor in it that literally covers the avatar from head to toe. (see link again, for example) It also has a mechanic that allows for the conversion of stats from one armor to another, allowing you to keep a look without sacrificing stats.
But I’m also not going to gloss over the fact that I’m pretty sure that costs you, though there’s a slight chance I’m wrong. Or that nonprotective ridiculous and ridiculously gratuitous “armors” are ever present in this game anyway. (Something I shouldn’t be surprised about, seeing as how the makers of Rift had a hand in this game.) Or that they have the oddest shoot-self-in-foot ad campaign for a game that turns around and has more than one (which, sadly, is saying something for mmo’s these days) sensible armor for females, or turns around and has a trailer like this that helps showcase that they can make females who aren’t pulling you out of the story with incongruous scanty dressing.
But the biggest offense about the armor pictured above? Aside from the fact that it arguably bingo’s? Arguably twice at miniumum? Probably definitively if we could look at a 360 model?
That’s right. If you want to support the soon-to-be-f2p-when-released game by giving them at least a hundred of your dollars, and you happen to want a female bodied toon, then bad news if you want one that’s sensibly armored. Your “I supported this game before it was even officially released!” banner will be an infamous overglorified bikini armor. Stones and Glass Phoenix that you don’t use nearly as often bedamned.
I just…
I’m sending them an email over my discontent. Likely it will fall on deaf ears, but maybe the sound of my money going back into my pocket as well will help…
Now I understand that the MMORPG market is a highly lucrative, but also incredibly competitive one – but seriously guys – alienating women by making all their costumes softcore porn material is not going to help you!
Particularly when your MMORPG can be summed up as “basically like most other MMOs”.
Pretty much all their material seems to highlight the massive disparities between male and female character’s attire, but the one that struck me most was on the PVP was “world changing”:
Is there some massive war being fought over the morality of women wearing pants into battle? Is there some great institution which outlaws worthwhile armor and pants for women in this strange world?
I love how the female version has no face plate, just in case there was any confusion about the gender beneath the armor – we have to see those full lips.
Actually, if the corset’s made well enough… it’d stay on like that. Made out of relatively sturdy material (leather?), laced tightly enough, it’d stay on. Made to measurements, it shouldn’t even be all that uncomfortable… but not battle-worthy.
Her corset may stay in place, her boobs, though… I doubt it.
It looks like a decent corset/cincher alright, but too small for her cup size, IMHO. Too little coverage in places where it matters. There are so many ways in which a boob can pop out of there!
More info on corsets and boob physics in costuming HERE. Pay special attention to the corset drawing in the bottom right corner of the infographic. That’s what I’m referring to above.
“Boobplate Witch” version 3 actually. The original Boob Witch is Twinrova and the second to appear is Veran iirc. Vera comes with metal armor, boob window and midriff showing.
Impa
I feel that Impa is just begging for someone to write a thesis titled “Secondary characters, room for artistic exploration or lazy recycling of names?”
The Warriors of Hyrule incarnation is pretty badass looking, dressed pretty consistently with male characters in Zelda and I can see why people are itching to have her bust some moves on the battlefield:
I mean we could discuss things like the open toed boots, or the eye on her boob – but overall her outfit is stylish without being ridiculous or heavily sexualized. Since armor has traditionally not been a big thing in Zelda (Link usually runs around his normal clothes) the lack of it and the presence of fantasy fueled weapons is consistent with the narrative of the setting.
It’s also pretty cool that they gave her the big bruiser sword.
Twinrova
Honestly I am not that big a Zelda fan, so Twinrova and Veran didn’t even occur to me when I saw Shia – but they don’t really lessen the wtf value of Shia in any way.
The first and most obvious difference with Twinrova to me is that “Can I fap to this?” was probably not a design priority. I mean yes, it’s a huge jump from what the sisters look like prior to combining – but mostly it seems focused on projecting the idea that they’re no longer old – they’re now young and powerful and still utterly bizarre.
There is some genius creativity that went into this image and while it’s certainly playing on some sexualized characteristics (wasp waist, boob plate, etc) it’s not something that would make me hide it from children.
Veran
Oh yeah she has an armor bra, personally I find that headpiece more terrifying – it seems an accident waiting to happen:
However, like Veran’s boss – Twinrova, there’s a lot more actual creative design here – it looks less like lingerie armor more like couture gone mad. There was also no reasonable expectation that you’d see Veran looking like this in the game, since well it was on the Gameboy Color:
So while it’s not good, and is frankly kind of weird – it’s still a fairly basic example of sexying up a villainess because she’s evil and looks like someone put some real effort into making look unique and recognizable even with the limited resolution and palette.
She also came back in 2001 and I haven’t seen any attempts to try to make her iconic in the Zelda franchise since. She was also an antagonist who operated primarily through possession and shape-changing – so no real expectation of her wearing combat armor.
So while she’s definitely part of many problematic tropes, including villainess armor – it would be disingenuous to pretend that she’s a particularly bad or outrageous offender.
Shia/Cia
This is the main antagonist in a Zelda spinoff that is supposed to be entirely about fighting on battlefields full of soldiers, using cool weapons and combos and stuff. Everything suggests this is how she will appear in game:
She’s strutting about in a gown, wearing a ball masque headpiece that has no eye-slits. And this is what happens when I go to Nintendo’s page promoting the game:
And guess what! Shia/Cia is not on the “suitable for all ages” page for Warriors of Hyrule. Also, I don’t read Japanese so I have to take a fan Wiki’s word on this translation, but this is what we’ve been told about the character:
Cia is a witch tasked with maintaining the balance of the Triforce. Although a good person at heart, she comes to harbor serious affections for Link which in turn becomes deep-seated jealousy directed towards Princess Zelda. Cia then becomes possessed by a dark force. This leads to her waging war on the kingdom alongside her companions Valga and Wizro.
Wii U is a brand new home videogame console from Nintendo that fundamentally changes the relationship between you and your TV and how you, your friends and family all connect.
