I’m not any good at being funny, but I needed to share this since it’s so perfectly bikini armour. Now, to preface, I’m not going to pretend that One Piece does its female characters and their clothing any kind of justice, since the longer the series goes on, the more clothing the two leading ladies lose… But then you have Rebecca…
Who literally wears a chainmail bikini. And her signature fight style isn’t fighting at all, it’s dodging. That’s right, her key strategy, in those clothes, is evasion. How is she not dead?
First of all, as you said, dodging =/= fighting, so why the pretense of “warrior” outfit and weapon in the first place? Second, how does the use of dodging as a battle strategy guarantee you won’t ever get hit, and therefore won’t need actual protection?
And how is that scalemail bikini top supposed to work without a tit falling out?
Seems to me it’s okay to think that, especially since we very much agree that FF has LOTS of horrendousfemalecostumesto offer as well. But it’s not so fine if you only voice that opinion with the male characters. It’s really suspicious how people get vocal with “I don’t like it because of bad design” only when a dude is shown in skimpy armor, even though there are plenty more ridiculous female costumes to pick apart.
In the context of sexualized male armor, how much comparison do we actually have? Almost none.
How does male sexualization go “right”, then? There’s barely any standard to hold on to. So much so, that many people think that skimpiness itself is inherently feminine.
I have said already (and still stand by it), we’ve seen so many ugly-as-hell female armors in mainstream games that I do not mind if the first prominent sexy male armor in a while gets to be badly designed. We need to catch up on all kinds of skimpy male armor, “good” and “bad” alike, anyway.
Also, personally I really don’t find it bad in FF standards. The franchise always liked their costumes ridiculously over the top and silly, so this thing is actually not that unusual for them. Part of the joke of our post was the fact how epicly the dudebros overreacted to a design that was just natural progression from how older Final Fantasy bishounen looked.
Anyway, to answer what you were actually trying to pursue with that question: everyone’s perfectly entitled to personally find that character (if not all FF visuals) bad design-wise, but it would be advised if they kept that opinion, well, personal.*
Skimpy male armor is so scarce in mainstream media that there is no way to criticize any particular one without sounding as if you found the mere concept of a man in sexy armor bad. And, if you asked me, that concept, unlike the concept of sexy female armor, is not bad, it is subversive and therefore sheds light at the inherent problem of skimpy female armor.
~Ozzie
* Is is also advised to examine thoroughly what exactly makes the design supposedly “bad” to you. If you (likely) discover that it’s the same element that makes the design “sexy”, then you officially missed the point.
PS: Regarding your other message concerning Japan’s sensibilities, I’d advice you to read this post.
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It’s not that I mind seeing breasts everywhere; after all, I have two of my own that I quite like. But it’s disheartening that breasts are often considered more interesting than the people they’re attached to – as if we’re an afterthought compared to our body parts.
Exactly my thoughts whenever I see just another design focused on cleavage window or boobplate, while serving no practical function or informing us nothing about who wears it.
