Tag: commentary

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Brought to our attention by superheroineworld (thank you so much for linking it in a reblog!)

This video sums up pretty damn well why any sort of “makes sense in context” justification for absurd and creepy things in fiction (like, say, bikini armors) is invalid by default.

Quotes worth highlighting:

Writers routinely alter the rules to suit their interests and the needs of their story. So, in the world outside of the diegesis, in our world, only the implications and impact of that fiction actually matter.

It’s basically a circular argument to expect that the fictional rules created specifically for the narrative will shield the narrative from being criticized on the meta level.

Criticism of a creative work is, ultimately, criticism of the decisions that people made when they were putting it together.

Which is also why “you’re slut-shaming that character" is a fail at responding to criticism. Characters are fictional constructs with no agency and the “choices” they make can be blamed solely on their creators.

You guys might have noticed, but around half of the Female Armor Rhetoric Bingo is made from Thermian arguments. That’s how popular this circular logic is among skimpy armor defenders. And I’m glad we now have this video to explain why it doesn’t work.

~Ozzie

more about rhetoric on BABD

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Posted on

shattered-earth:

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

image

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

Posted on

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”.

image

~Ozzie

More on Quiet

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
Posted on

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?

image

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

Posted on

Metal Gear Solid 5’s best secret: You can play the campaign as a woman

Metal Gear Solid 5’s best secret: You can play the campaign as a woman

If you are put off by the costumes and lack of protagonist representation in Phantom Pain, but still kind of want to play it for the gameplay/story/etc then Brianna Wu has a method to let you play most of the game as something other than the default protagonist (who I now dub Standard Snake).

The focus of the article is how to play as a woman, but as Brianna points out the same system opens up the option to play as a person of color (of either gender) as well.  It also has minimal spoilers.

We’ve got the guide to how to get Quiet some real clothes as early as possible, which sadly is actually quite late into the game.  Unless you take the more extreme (and extremely awesome) option that one MikeKob did. (h/t: Glitch & nibelung)

This method is so secret not even Hideo Kojima knows about it! Or if he does he doesn’t care enough to share, promote the article or even mention the feature of playing as anyone but Standard Snake.  It seems while someone was very determined to include these options, that someone was not him.

The integration is fairly complete but has some note worthy limitations:

  • You must start playing as Standard Snake.
  • NPCs will still react to you in game and in cutscenes as though you were Standard Snake, using male pronouns and descriptions.
  • In cutscenes, Snake’s lines will just appear as captions instead of being delivered by a voice actress (or alternative voice actor).
  • Other problems with plot arcs and treatment of female characters remain.

It does have a few extra benefits:

  • In cut scenes, Snake’s lines will just appear as captions instead of the generic, over the top, alpha male grunting.
  • NPCs will treat your Snake with the same respect and admiration they’d show Standard Snake.

Now for how to get Quiet into some clothes.  The bit lots of people will tell you is possible but won’t explain how or what’s involved, again – spoilers under the cut!

(Edit: Between when I did the majority of this writing and when it got posted there was single tweet by Kojima, it was a retweet of someone thanking him with elaboration afterwards. x )

– wincenworks

There is one fully covering (Gray XOF) and one mostly covering but with ridiculous cleavage (Lone Wolf Sniper) outfit available for Quiet via unlocking in the game.  There are still some issues:

  • Both outfits are only available a long time after first having the option to take Quiet as a Buddy (Mission 15 onward).  (Lone Wolf Sniper outfit is available for completing Mission 40 on Extreme, but the Grey XOF outfit can be unlocked earlier around Mission 30.)
  • Earning Quiet’s confidence will still result in her adopting more and more titilating poses while in the chopper with you.
  • Quiet’s overall plot arc will remain the same (including scenes of heavily sexualized violence against her).
  • NPCs will still react to and describe Quiet as though she was wearing her default “Naked” skin.  The game may also default her back to her Naked skin for some cutscenes.

In order to unlock the Grey XOF outfit you need to watch the cutscene of Quiet’s interrogation where she is tortured – yes we’re at a point where cutscenes are something they have to reward you for watching.  There’s mixed information on how to trigger the cutscene but general consensus seems to be:

Complete Mission 29 (Code Talker appears in the cutscene) and then keep making trips back to Mother Base to trigger all the information about the main plot, do side missions, etc and eventually it will appear. If you prefer to skip it by turning off the tv or monitor+speakers, it’s about seven minutes long.

– wincenworks

Posted on

Metal Gear Solid 5’s best secret: You can play the campaign as a woman

Metal Gear Solid 5’s best secret: You can play the campaign as a woman

If you are put off by the costumes and lack of protagonist representation in Phantom Pain, but still kind of want to play it for the gameplay/story/etc then Brianna Wu has a method to let you play most of the game as something other than the default protagonist (who I now dub Standard Snake).

The focus of the article is how to play as a woman, but as Brianna points out the same system opens up the option to play as a person of color (of either gender) as well.  It also has minimal spoilers.

We’ve got the guide to how to get Quiet some real clothes as early as possible, which sadly is actually quite late into the game.  Unless you take the more extreme (and extremely awesome) option that one MikeKob did. (h/t: Glitch & nibelung)

This method is so secret not even Hideo Kojima knows about it! Or if he does he doesn’t care enough to share, promote the article or even mention the feature of playing as anyone but Standard Snake.  It seems while someone was very determined to include these options, that someone was not him.

The integration is fairly complete but has some note worthy limitations:

  • You must start playing as Standard Snake.
  • NPCs will still react to you in game and in cutscenes as though you were Standard Snake, using male pronouns and descriptions.
  • In cutscenes, Snake’s lines will just appear as captions instead of being delivered by a voice actress (or alternative voice actor).
  • Other problems with plot arcs and treatment of female characters remain.

It does have a few extra benefits:

  • In cut scenes, Snake’s lines will just appear as captions instead of the generic, over the top, alpha male grunting.
  • NPCs will treat your Snake with the same respect and admiration they’d show Standard Snake.

Now for how to get Quiet into some clothes.  The bit lots of people will tell you is possible but won’t explain how or what’s involved, again – spoilers under the cut!

(Edit: Between when I did the majority of this writing and when it got posted there was single tweet by Kojima, it was a retweet of someone thanking him with elaboration afterwards. x )

– wincenworks

There is one fully covering (Gray XOF) and one mostly covering but with ridiculous cleavage (Lone Wolf Sniper) outfit available for Quiet via unlocking in the game.  There are still some issues:

  • Both outfits are only available a long time after first having the option to take Quiet as a Buddy (Mission 15 onward).  (Lone Wolf Sniper outfit is available for completing Mission 40 on Extreme, but the Grey XOF outfit can be unlocked earlier around Mission 30.)
  • Earning Quiet’s confidence will still result in her adopting more and more titilating poses while in the chopper with you.
  • Quiet’s overall plot arc will remain the same (including scenes of heavily sexualized violence against her).
  • NPCs will still react to and describe Quiet as though she was wearing her default “Naked” skin.  The game may also default her back to her Naked skin for some cutscenes.

In order to unlock the Grey XOF outfit you need to watch the cutscene of Quiet’s interrogation where she is tortured – yes we’re at a point where cutscenes are something they have to reward you for watching.  There’s mixed information on how to trigger the cutscene but general consensus seems to be:

Complete Mission 29 (Code Talker appears in the cutscene) and then keep making trips back to Mother Base to trigger all the information about the main plot, do side missions, etc and eventually it will appear. If you prefer to skip it by turning off the tv or monitor+speakers, it’s about seven minutes long.

– wincenworks