Well, I’ve been looking into all the official information on why Quiet has that ridiculous outfit.  It’s been a wild ride. I can confidently say that I am not ashamed and have not changed my stance.  The bingo above applies only to official information – with elaboration in the cut below.

For those not familiar with the Metal Gear series – I highly recommend this educational video.

For those already typing up a response to tell me I’m a terrible person, here’s a few quick preemptive responses for the people who will tell me I can’t judge the game without providing notarized proof of having played 400 hours of each game in the series but won’t bother to search the tags of this blog:

– wincenworks

Warnings: Due to this involving information delivered in the game, the following contains spoilers.  Due to the nature of the game the following and the sources linked to will contain references and imagery relating to torture, rape, graphic violent, mutilation and (hopefully fictional) political rhetoric.

Men are sexualized too!

Kojima actually managed to take this a step further than usual by justifying his requesting a “sexy” design for Quiet claims that not only can we argue the guys are sexualized too, but so are the military equipment.  Yes, tanks are sexualized too… apparently. (source – article)

This is particularly ridiculous since as the recent femfreq​ video pointed out – MGS games have a history of recognizing just one kind of person as “sexy” to the viewer – often to ridiculous extents:

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She CHOSE to dress like that!

If the player chooses to take Quiet captive, it is advised that even though she somehow has no problem with being tortured and kept on display in a cage – she responds violently to anyone who tries to put clothes on her.

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More information on why in the next two points. (Source – video)

Her strength comes from her uncovered skin…

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During the same section, it is discussed that Quiet eats (via photosynthesis), breathes and drinks through her skin – so she could suffocate if she wore clothes. (No explanation is given for her latex glove, fishnets or why her bikini is so ridiculous).

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Later you do see Quiet struggling to breathe while wearing long sleeves and long pants, but she and is able to access all the air she needs to do a wuxia-esque grindhouse revenge killing sequence when her pants are removed and her shirt is ripped open. (The scenario is at least as terrible as you’re imagining, actually probably worse)

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Also, anyone with a basic understanding of clothing or science knows that there’s a wide variety of fabrics that “breathe” and hence wouldn’t get in the way of her skin getting access to air.  Certainly not any more than say a shower or rain would. Speaking of…

It’s just fantasy/scifi! Magic/science protects her!

You were probably thinking it sounds pretty weird that Quiet uses her skin for everything we have specialist organs for, and you’d be right!  Quiet is first introduced as a normal human (and spectacularly incompetent) assassin who is sent to kill Snake but ends up on fire instead.  She is then given “parasite therapy” where some sort of insect microbe things transform her body in a way that conveniently preserves her sexiness and forces her to show it off.

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This makes so little sense that basically nobody can agree if it’s scifi or supernatural – it just works because they say so.  Oh, and in case you’re wondering – yes there are men in the game who’ve been “enhanced” with parasite therapy – this is what they look like:

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Sources: (video – content warning: sexual violence and graphic violence)

Girls are SUPPOSED to look sexy.

According to Kojima, part of this design idea was he spent a lot of time thinking about how characters might be effected by early life, fashion, etc.  Yes, apparently he thinks this is how Russian women her age in the 80s would have been thinking of dressing.

Another early reasons given by Kojima himself to explain that sexy costume is that he wanted to encourage cosplay of the character.  He also admitted that the character might not be cosplayable – so female cosplayers are supposed to automatically gravitate towards the most over sexualized costumes even if they’re not possible.

That’s the best way of marketing to men…

Kojima also stated that the heavily sexualized design was there to promote figurine sales.  I’m not sure if he’s aware there’s really no shortage of heavily sexualized figurines or that some people may find this one a little awkward to have around the house… just like he was surprised to learn that Metal Gear Solid has a large female fanbase.

It fits her fighting style!

Kojima stated that his core concept for this one was a “naked sniper” – as opposed to the previously just boob flaunting female snipers…. and the fully dressed male snipers (who also use photosynthesis)

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When not sniping though, Quiet simply uses her super powers to dodge bullets, throw people like dolls and leap spectacularly into the air.

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The protagonist on the other hand is limited to more realistic close Close Quarter Combat techniques.

She’s indestructible, she doesn’t need any protection!

Right when the character was first released, Kojima himself confirmed he understood that it would be ridiculous for someone to be dressed like that in the desert and that he wanted the player to wonder why.  The reason of course, as covered above: Quiet eating breathing and drinking through her skin somehow makes her immune to the hazards of exposure.

(Never mind that baking in the Sun would mean she’d need to be guzzling water constantly for all the carbohydrates she’s producing.  That’s a minor detail)

She’s so badass that she needs no armor!

When Quiet is first introduced she is wearing BDUs, has no super powers and fails in her assassination mission.  Upon gaining her super powers, she suddenly dresses in… that, and becomes incredibly effective against… everyone in every way.

Great story makes up for those ridiculous designs!

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Kojima started with a bold, assertive stance.  Later he would state that he understood why people have concerns but they just wait and experience the game it will explain everything.  Complete with reassurances!

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(Source: video)

(ht: petrichor-rains for reminding me The End used photosynthesis too)

The time has come!

Because Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain came out this week, we decided to celebrate by finally filling out a bingo card for Quiet, who’s been a BABD regular basically since the game was announced.
And with two bingo-scoring rows she doesn’t disappoint… in a bad way, obviously.

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As we always expected, the only thing harder to take seriously than Quiet’s costume is the rhetoric behind it. You know, the über-genius explanation that was going to put non-believers to shame

Eyup, her official in-story reasons (and the way Hideo Kojima explains them) are so absurd that we’re devoting a second bingo post to them. Stay tuned, as the next post, including wincenwork’s elaboration on the ridiculousness, comes later today!

~Ozzie

“Battle Costume Cammy”

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nora-bright submitted:

Preorder bonus outfit for Cammy called “Battle Costume Cammy.”

According them this her being “Decked out in mission gear, Cammy is ready to complete her next objective!”

I gotta ask, what kind of battle, mission and objective are they expecting her to do in that without feeling a constant wedgie? Like seriously, that must be digging into her crotch no matter what she does.

I can already hear the furious hammering of keys as people rush to tell us that we should know Cammy has always been a heavily sexualized since she was introduced twenty-two years ago.  Being particularly famous for this:

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Briefly however, let’s discuss how here original ridiculous outfit from 1993 (when people thought Rob Liefeld was a genius) has gotten even more ridiculous both in the pre-order and the standard:

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That’s right, her costume now has the crotch section trimmed down, comes with extra straps to draw more attention to her boobs and has vacuum sealing around the navel.

I am genuinely perplexed how someone could even begin to think that such a thing would be bareable to wear standing still, let alone jumping around in full contact tournament fighting.

– wincenworks

“Battle Costume Cammy”

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nora-bright submitted:

Preorder bonus outfit for Cammy called “Battle Costume Cammy.”

According them this her being “Decked out in mission gear, Cammy is ready to complete her next objective!”

I gotta ask, what kind of battle, mission and objective are they expecting her to do in that without feeling a constant wedgie? Like seriously, that must be digging into her crotch no matter what she does.

I can already hear the furious hammering of keys as people rush to tell us that we should know Cammy has always been a heavily sexualized since she was introduced twenty-two years ago.  Being particularly famous for this:

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Briefly however, let’s discuss how here original ridiculous outfit from 1993 (when people thought Rob Liefeld was a genius) has gotten even more ridiculous both in the pre-order and the standard:

image

That’s right, her costume now has the crotch section trimmed down, comes with extra straps to draw more attention to her boobs and has vacuum sealing around the navel.

I am genuinely perplexed how someone could even begin to think that such a thing would be bareable to wear standing still, let alone jumping around in full contact tournament fighting.

– wincenworks

Spin Angels a comic about secret agents working the Vatican… who apparently have updated their dress code to include mandatory bared bellies.  Initially it was published by Marvel and now is being republished by Delcourt (a major publisher in France).

They may choose a different cover, but by the fourth issue Marvel’s “progression” of desperately attention seeking cover art reached a stage where it doesn’t even really fit on Bikini Armor Battle Damage anymore…

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Spoiler: This didn’t save the comic.

– wincenworks

(edit: We have been informed it was originally published by a different French publisher, Soleil, under a different title in French. Apparently there is no end to the optimism that somehow this marketing strategy will work this time. h/t: Haplo)

Sherry

the-midnight-doe submitted:

While we’re sort of on the subject of unlockable outfits, I wanted to bring up Sherry from Resident Evil 6. Sherry was originally from Resident Evil 2, where she was a young child.

Pretty standard stuff. For Resident Evil 6, Capcom surprised fans by bringing her back as a (really awesome) playable character, where she became an agent for homeland security after being inspired by Claire Redfield’s actions in the second game.

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Her design looks great, and it makes practical sense. This still holds true for later in the game, where all the characters have an outfit changes due to the game skipping six months ahead in the story.

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And then…we get to these outfits.

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The one on the left is an unlockable outfit that players can use in the Mercenaries mode, essentially a survive to the end with an increasing amount of zombies type of minigame. The developers thought it would be cool to give Sherry her original outfit…and I guess they meant the actual outfit, because wow that is really small.

The context of the one on the right is even worse, and pretty disgusting (RE6 story spoilers to follow:) at one point, Sherry and her partner, Jake, are captured by the villain organization and are experimented on for six months. Apparently they had absolutely nothing for Sherry to wear while in the facility, so they took a few rags and tied them together. Meanwhile, her partner was just shirtless with some sweatpants on.

This is also the point of the story where the clothing swap happens, and even though the outfit is fine, the changing cutscene is shot in a veeerrrryyy particular way.

Resident Evil has some particularly great women, but recently they’ve been going a little downhill with how they’ve been treating them (and the franchise in general.)

Some say we shouldn’t criticize bonus video game character outfits (unlockables/DLCs/pre-orders), because they’re optional and therefore even more in the vaccum of “just fiction”/”just fanservice” than the default character looks. 

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We gotta keep in mind that optional costumes, unlike, say, fan mods, are still intended by the developers to be the part of the experience, sometimes even the selling point for some specific edition of the game. It’s just as valid to be critical of them as of the game’s marketing, even if (or rather, especially if) they’re not faithfully representing the game as a product.

As @femfreq puts it in their newest video, the double standard of defaulting unlockable female outfits to “sexy” is especially harmful when the character is otherwise appropriately dressed for her job. And Sherry is just one heroine on the long list of Resident Evil’s capable-women-turned-eyecandy. 

Maybe, just maybe, the idea would be more valid if male unlockable costumes were also all about sexyness and showing skin. And if the rare cases where this actually happens weren’t getting revoked as soon as possible.

~Ozzie

edit: Something’s very wrong with tumblr lately and it has been repeatedly deleting the first two paragraphs the-midnight-doe wrote. Apparently they didn’t make it into a single reblog of this post, of which I’m sorry both to the submitter and the rebloggers.

~Ozzie

Sherry

the-midnight-doe submitted:

While we’re sort of on the subject of unlockable outfits, I wanted to bring up Sherry from Resident Evil 6. Sherry was originally from Resident Evil 2, where she was a young child.

Pretty standard stuff. For Resident Evil 6, Capcom surprised fans by bringing her back as a (really awesome) playable character, where she became an agent for homeland security after being inspired by Claire Redfield’s actions in the second game.

image

Her design looks great, and it makes practical sense. This still holds true for later in the game, where all the characters have an outfit changes due to the game skipping six months ahead in the story.

image

And then…we get to these outfits.

image

The one on the left is an unlockable outfit that players can use in the Mercenaries mode, essentially a survive to the end with an increasing amount of zombies type of minigame. The developers thought it would be cool to give Sherry her original outfit…and I guess they meant the actual outfit, because wow that is really small.

The context of the one on the right is even worse, and pretty disgusting (RE6 story spoilers to follow:) at one point, Sherry and her partner, Jake, are captured by the villain organization and are experimented on for six months. Apparently they had absolutely nothing for Sherry to wear while in the facility, so they took a few rags and tied them together. Meanwhile, her partner was just shirtless with some sweatpants on.

This is also the point of the story where the clothing swap happens, and even though the outfit is fine, the changing cutscene is shot in a veeerrrryyy particular way.

Resident Evil has some particularly great women, but recently they’ve been going a little downhill with how they’ve been treating them (and the franchise in general.)

Some say we shouldn’t criticize bonus video game character outfits (unlockables/DLCs/pre-orders), because they’re optional and therefore even more in the vaccum of “just fiction”/”just fanservice” than the default character looks. 

image

We gotta keep in mind that optional costumes, unlike, say, fan mods, are still intended by the developers to be the part of the experience, sometimes even the selling point for some specific edition of the game. It’s just as valid to be critical of them as of the game’s marketing, even if (or rather, especially if) they’re not faithfully representing the game as a product.

As @femfreq puts it in their newest video, the double standard of defaulting unlockable female outfits to “sexy” is especially harmful when the character is otherwise appropriately dressed for her job. And Sherry is just one heroine on the long list of Resident Evil’s capable-women-turned-eyecandy. 

Maybe, just maybe, the idea would be more valid if male unlockable costumes were also all about sexyness and showing skin. And if the rare cases where this actually happens weren’t getting revoked as soon as possible.

~Ozzie

edit: Something’s very wrong with tumblr lately and it has been repeatedly deleting the first two paragraphs the-midnight-doe wrote. Apparently they didn’t make it into a single reblog of this post, of which I’m sorry both to the submitter and the rebloggers.

~Ozzie