In case anyone forgot that Paladins comes from the same developer as SMITE (if you couldn’t tell by their absolutely “creative” designs), here’s original costume of Furia, one of their newest champions.
Somehow even people at HiRez concluded that visible panties and completely out-of place garter belts are too ridiculous combination, because apparently after some fan feedback she received a slight redesign that includes pants under those garters.
Fret not, perverts! Her original look is preserved through red recolor “Iron Maiden” skin!
And just in case you wondered whether some actually creative designs got discarded during Furia’s development, don’t worry! No matter how many revisions she went through, there was always at least one “beloved” Female Armor Bingo element in there, like boobplate, cleavage/boob window or otherwise uncovered skin!
~Ozzie
h/t: @randomrobin
Weekly BABD Stream #51
We’re back, baby! And we’re bringing some fresh redesign streams to your Saturdays! … Or Sundays, depending on your time zone.
Join us at our regular time – 10 AM PST / 7 PM CEST Saturday.
See y’all there! ᕕ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕗ
~Ozzie and Icy
SMITE-ing Masculine Beauty!
After League of Legends, where we fixed Jarvan and Azir, our next dude-sexyfying endeavor layed in the land of gods, double standards and shameless racism that is SMITE.
Poseidon
Not gonna lie, after all the effort I put into Arhian, I picked an easy male material to work of. I used this official Poseidon design found on Hi-Rez’s artist’s ArtStation as a base. His left pec, abs and obliques were lovingly rendered already, so I made it my task to show off more of his muscular godly body. No big changes about his physique were needed, the costume and Poseidon’s attitude is what called for some modification.
What I landed on outfit-wise was, appropriately enough for the lord of the oceans, a mankini. Made out of metal and gemstones.
The idea (which, I believe, Icy or some stream watcher might have suggested) was pretty brilliant solution to showcase more bare flesh while keeping the water theme.
His weirdly low-hanging belt buckle became a decorative codpiece. Gemstones and decorative spikes accentuate the nipples.
Also I replaced strategic butt covering in his cape into a strategic butt display. Obviously, god of the sea has perfectly shaped and shiny bubble buttocks.
Last, small but crucial change was his expression. From an angry god who will kill you for looking at him wrong into a loving, kissable daddy.
Soft Poseidon cares about you.
~Ozzie
Vulcan
I wasn’t lucky enough to find a high-rez picture of Vulcan, but I decided to do the hot volcano-dwelling smithing god anyway. I removed most of his clothes, leaving only hotpants (for the hot god ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) and a little bit of apron. It’s not like he needs protection from the furnace, he’s a god, after all. I gave him more of a wrestler body, since he’s a smith, as well as a nipple-framing suspender. But just the one.
I also made his prosthetic rounder, to match his soft, round body.
As for his face, I gave him a big, soft beard, a shy pout, and a long, smooth undercut suggested by someone during the stream (sorry I can’t remember who!). And the final touch was, of course, the curly hair on his chest and leg.
Now Vulcan is truly warm and welcoming.
-Icy
on a textual level, a female character can dress however she wants and shouldn’t be slut-shamed and hated for what she prefers to wear.
on a metatextual level, she might still have been designed with an intention to provide fanservice.
this means that criticising a design, as opposed to a character, is neither misogyny nor slut-shaming. being displeased about the way a character has been designed is not synonymous with hating her.
have i made myself clear?
CRYSTAL CLEAR.
PS: I love you, durendals. Why didn’t I see this post on my dash ever before? It’s perfection.
Throwback this week: the character’s agency argument in a nutshell.
A silly, sexualized outfit might as well fit* the character’s personality and preferences within her story. That doesn’t make her design any less silly and sexualized to us, real people consuming that story for entertainment and criticizing it.
~Ozzie
*Keep in mind, though, that just as often it can’t be justified with even that much. Some characters walk around in bikinis or boob and butt windows despite being canonically modest or shy or body conscious etc. because Creepy Marketing Guy put his foot down and demanded for every lady in the story to be poster child of “sex sells”.
Tidy Up Tuesday #82
A couple things from the last two weeks:
If a post of ours includes a preemptive response to “well actuallies” we’re expecting to get for it, be so kind to NOT respond with exactly the “well actually” we addressed within the same post.
In the same vein, the intricacies of lore rarely change our mind or give us a more in-depth understanding of a clearly sexist design (though it might give us more opportunities to make fun of it). If it is interesting to you, that’s great! But to save yourself time and effort, please really think about your motivation if you wish to write a lengthy comment explaining a lore to us. It could be that you’re arguing our own points back at us.
Tumblr’s picture display system crops images that are proportionally taller than others put in the same row, therefore in our newest Fate post you have to click on the third gif of the new Saber to see her ridiculous butt window. Here’s the full picture in its unholy glory:
Two cleavages for the price of one! Love how the animator was confused and so ended up giving her butt window some lace instead of making that white cloth her panties. You can see it when she turns around.
Things we addressed before:
- Why to criticize something we do not need to address its lore’s and production’s minutiae
- Marvel’s Hel(a) and various other incarnations of this Norse goddess
- Humon artwork subverting double standards in warrior design
PS: Before you go to ask us whether we shared our thoughts on any character or costume in particular, please use search function.
~Ozzie, -wincenworks and -Icy
The Monster Hunter series has been a mixed bag when it comes to armor design, and as we’ve shown before, Monster Hunter World has proudly followed in that tradition. We’ve seen that they can do actual armor for both the men and women characters, so what the fresh hell is this? This is high level armor, too. This is what the male version looks like, by the way:
I guess I’m impressed that the characters can hand-mold monster carapaces into boob cups?
-Icy
