Mortal Kombat Pre-11 Fix, Part 1
This particular stream was inspired by the fact that Mortal Kombat waited until game 11 to take even a step back from portraying its women as progressively draftier titninjas.
We concluded that while we generally enjoy the official fixes many female characters got in MK11, we could look into the worst designs from earlier games and put our own spin on them.
Skarlet, the Red Titninja
content warning: blood mention
Since all MK ninja ladies are color-coded, of course the red one turned out to be a vampire master of blood magic. And, of course, when you mention anything about her original outfit design, the furious fappers Capital G Gamers would insist that her skin needs to be exposed, so that she can absorb blood of her defeated enemies through her skin, for power. Very valid, totally not contrived reason for oversexualized costume! Poor MK11!Skarlet, she will starve!
[sidenote: googling for image comparison of the two designs without coming across anti-SJW whining and islamophobic memes is downright impossible]
So, on to my own fix of MK9!Skarlet. Her original aesthetic was basically just “tiddy and ass out, with random ninja bits”, so I tried committing better to the ninja aesthetic. Plus much poofier pants, to stay on brand ?
Extending her top made it blend in with facial covering and with her red hair, so I had to reverse the mask’s colors for proper contrast. It looks so much better in dark gray.
Pro tip: bare skin shouldn’t substitute for color and shape breaks in costume design.
I don’t even know why someone thought that wearing arm guards straight on bare skin was a good look. Adding long fingerless gloves under them makes both for practical padding and matches the shoes, especially after I converted them from knee-reaching high heels into toeless stockings.
Other minor fixes: short hair, so that ponytail doesn’t get in the way, torso girth that would fit internal organs inside, a hint of red tint in her eye.
Also, while you can’t see her kunai arsenal anymore, I assure you she’s no longer storing unsheathed sharp knives in a way that stabs her leg. That would be dangerous even if ninjas didn’t dip their blades in poison and/or excrement! ?
I am really proud of the color- and shape-breaking in this design. I think it’s as decent job as could be done without completely rehashing her look, like MK11 did. One of my rougher fixes, painting technique-wise, but it has some aesthetic appeal. Hope you enjoy it too!
~Ozzie
Dragalia Lost Some Clothes, Part 2
While Icy took on a character with obviously exotified outfit, I picked one whose sexualization was prooobably not meant to relate to racial coding. Her name is Malora… and judging by her clothes, she’s cowgirl mage? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
She just looks bad.
Actually, the biggest thing to fix was her face. Dragalia Lost artstyle promotes some fucked up facial proportions, yo!
Not only was her kittyface mouth waay too small and placed on her right cheek, the highlight representing her nose was so teeny tiny and high up that all I could do was to use it as a guide to bridge of her new nose. Including human nostrils.
Costume fix was pretty unintrusive in comparison to facial changes. I just didn’t want her to look so drafty. While I appreciated reasonable shorts under the mini skirt, I decided that a longer skirt fits my plans better, as I reworked her thigh high… boots? stockings? Did she wear shoes inside shorter shoes, and greaves on top? I liked their decorative design, so I changed the ‘inner shoes’ to tights.
Reworking the top part was a bit more challenging, not because of some original idea (I literally just gave her a non-crop shirt), but because between her boobs and her spine there was some subtle @eschergirls anatomy going on and it took a couple takes to make that vest work according to laws of physics on her chest. Hopefully with success.
Not my best or most radical redesign, I still hoped it helped.
~Ozzie
Dragalia Lost Some Clothes, Part 1
It’s quite unfortunate that Dragalia Lost ended up being another waifu collector mobile game, cause the gameplay mechanics were fun and interesting (before I got bored, as usual). We picked some of these ladies to give them clothes more appropriate for their station/role.
I personally found this image of Nefaria, who’s described as “a beautiful woman clad in foreign garb.” Now, I’m not saying that I hate this because she’s a woman of color, but it certainly doesn’t help.
My work culminated in 3 significant changes: I changed her face slightly to be less generic, I gave her an actual logical top that connects to her little tabbard, and I gave her cool pants. This was another project where I was trying to make the point that you can have cool designs that aren’t too different from the “sexy” version. It wouldn’t have been too much effort for a higher-up to request the changes I made.
I stayed with the “subtle nose highlight” style but made it a larger highlight, implying a larger nose. Give girls noses! It’s 2019!
Also, some pants.
They’re still fun, they still got a cut down the side, but now they’re waist-high pants. You don’t notice how low the shorts are on her hips in the original until you focus on it, and then it’s just ridiculous.
I also took her heels away, just for good measure. I love ruining the fun, as you all know.
-Icy
