Tag: female armor

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makeitstoopid:

oh Captain Phasma. you needed more love in the “force awakens”, but fear
not. you have a place in my heart and my secret Fanfic: “hot Phasma
nights”. coming to a Tumblr near you

Star Wars: think of this franchise like a hamburger, this was one of
your favorite type of Burgers growing up, but then they came out with a
new recipe, which said that it was going to be better. it looked good,
but then you taste it, and it feels cheap and with no soul. it has fancy
new ingredients but they can replicate that original taste. “ok, im
gonna try it a few more times, see if the get it right” you say. but
nope. that nostalgic flavor is if gone. now you see the restaurant is
under new management , bringing the original recipe back. with some
skepticism you have another try a that classic burger to see if it feels
like old times. you taste it, you can feel it has ingredients from this
era, but they recapture that old flavor again. this is a good Burger.

so The force Awakens; it was good. and this is no spoiler review here:
the movie was good , and to me it ended up being better than i expected.
mind you i had little hype so im surprise as how much i like it. it
plays it safe as it retreads familiar ground, it’s basically a HD
remaster of “A New Hope”, with a little “Empire Strikes back” thrown
into the mix. this repackage of old things feels fresh thanks to the new
characters, which are likable and feel human. something that the
Prequels totally miss the mark on. one fear i had was that there would
be too many calls backs like in the “Star Trek” remake, but here they
were few and they fit in better. i do like that J.J. Abrams carry some
things over from the “star trek” flick like the blasters; they felt like
they had real impact. i like that.

the best thing about this movie is that it was fun. it had a great sense
of humor, pacing, great action, and the developing of the characters
felt natural. I wont call it my favorite movie ever, or this year, but
one that can definitely see my self re-watching often.

now i ask: does anyone know where you can get custom made “Dakimakuras”? i have a joke i need to take too far.

http://makeitstoopid.com

https://www.patreon.com/izra

This neat little comic illustrates how Captain Phasma is clearly a proof that a woman can be considered sexy (AND command respect at the same time) while in full, non-gendered, non-sexualized armor.

Who knew, right?

~Ozzie

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Indivisible is a crowd-funded RPG by the creators of Skullgirls, the project was successfully funded and flooded our inbox with requests for commentary.  It opened up with the trailer below, and revealed more info and characters as it reached funding goals.

Now, as you can see the cast game has a very diverse cast both in terms of demographics, and in quality of attire.  

While overall it’s easy to see why so many people are getting excited about this, a couple of major issues jumped out at me.  So, for now, I’m going to address the matters that are specific to BABD in very broad strokes.

(Obviously this is based entirely off the crowdfunding campaign, since the game isn’t released yet)

Things that are awesome, specifically related to the blog:

These things are not awesome:

  • Phoebe’s outfit seems to be ridiculously sexualized, as though to compensate the audience for her being bulky in size
  • Anja’s transformation in the in game footage doesn’t seem anywhere near as intimidating or powerful, rather more of a cutesy palette swap
  • Qadira doesn’t appear on the line-up above because she was one of the last characters to be revealed.
  • Conventional sexy ladies seemed to be prioritized up the front of the line-up, to the extent Thorani’s gets dangerously close to the women as reward trope.
  • Pretty much all the guys have weapons and/or obvious martial abilities while Thorani, Yan, Phoebe, Zahra and Nuna (ie most of the female early release Incarnations) look support or non-combative roles
  • I have no idea what is going on with Yan’s costume… it looks suspiciously like like a Playboy Bunny outfit.

So overall, there’s some really cool stuff and I can really see why many people are super hyped up for this game, but in the context of the issues this blog examines, there are some big problems here.

Some of them might get changed before release, but a lot of them are also with how they choose to pitch this game.

– wincenworks

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jihaus:

I got Prismacolor markers recently. Never used markers before but as it turns out they’re pretty amazing, though I could use more colors. I did see that I had 2 shades of red and an orange that looked very much like gold when used in tandem with brown, so there was only one thing for me to do: sketchdump every Blanzhardia character! These are seven separate characters (the bottom one is the same lady), all of whom bear the name “Blanzhardia” and all of whom are champions of the same goddess, though possibly at different time periods.

In general, these women have some consistent traits, but despite that, I tried to give each one some minor individual styles specific to them, be it the various textures on their armor or the shape of the armor segments. The common traits are:

– Gold armor and metal in general. Note that it’s not actual gold but instead a fictional magic alloy that is far more effective.

– Gorgon helmet of some form. Probably the most distinct feature. The goddess Tyrnazhel looks like a gorgon in her most common form and this reflects in the helmets of her champions.

– Female. That being said, there are some male characters in-universe that have similar appearances due to being in the same faction and etc.
– Overall snake/reptile theme. This is pretty evident, but even simpler things such as the segmented nature of the armor is reflective of this.

– Fully armored. Every one is completely covered up and looks generally scary. There is no chainmail bikini/skank plate silliness here. Granted I try to apply this to generally any female character that calls themselves “armored”, but Blanzhardia ladies in particular are meant to look very intimidating.

– Magic-warrior hybrids. Every Blanzhardia is a powerful elite/veteran fighter who has mastery of both magic and martial skill, and in fact uses them in tandem very effectively. While they have individual preferences, they are very well-rounded as fighters.

Now those are some fine examples of what happens when an artist puts effort into costume design. It’s apparent that research and creativity were applied to come up with those armors.

I especially like how the gambeson padding is visible under metal plating in all of the costumes. If I had some major issue here, it would be to give different characters more diverse body types. It would also compliment the diverse styles of armor. 

~Ozzie

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So, while I’m not super thrilled with Linkle – I am kind of grateful they didn’t base her appearance off Zhurong/Zhu Rong from Koei’s Dynasty Warriors series (or literally any character from Team Ninja’s Dead or Alive series).

If you’re confused why she’s blond and amazon cosplaying… so is basically everyone else since she is based off Lady Zhurong from the actual Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, who looked more like this:

And this is how she looked in Koei’s Romance of the Three Kingdom’s game.

It is an eternal mystery, the answer to which is probably known only to a small cabal of Creepy Marketing Guys.

– wincenworks

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I wasn’t keeping up with E3 but the Valkyrie from the Gauntlet game actually has practical armor???

bikiniarmorbattledamage:

Well, I’m a little disappointed that they seem to have gone with three men and a token woman approach (not that I had high hopes for Gauntlet – one of the original “kill everything that moves or doesn’t move” games), but looking at the most revealing outfit they’re showcasing for her:

image

I can’t stay mad at her… look at her!

image

– wincenworks

Since it’s that time again where the popular rhetoric is “Why be so negative? Why not celebrate the improvements!?” I feel it’s time to bring this back.

If Arrowhead Game Studios (founded by students) can do this with Gauntlet, a franchise this is literally thirty years old, and has a questionable history in terms of costume design for Valkyrie, then I think I’m entitled to expect more from major studios.

So, the message to major studios that want praise for “trying to improve” while improving by only the slightest increments (followed by backsteps) remains the same:

image

– wincenworks