WOOO I did a redesign of this hot monstrosity. The screen shots used in this post were provided by doctorsanity, who submitted them to bikiniarmorbattledamage
Look, I’ve been employed as a designer for two years now, and maybe that’s not that long; I’m at least sure I don’t have the same kind of industry experience that the designers in charge of this train wreck probably do, but I do know one thing:
Design that fails to communicate its intended message is bad design.
It is, in my opinion, the chore element that separates what we do from Fine Art – fine art is a personal expression. Someone can argue with the conclusions that you came to in fine art but ultimately, it’s your territory, your message, your composition, your voice, your story.
When you’re a hired designer, everything changes. It’s their story, their character, their message, their voice.
Putting aside the obvious pandering and intent to profit off of misogynistic ideals in female video game characters for just an instant, let’s talk about Charlotte.
Charlotte [evidently, from what I’ve admittedly heard through the grapevine; this game is not yet out in my country] uses a masquerade of charm and innocence to seduce men for their wealth. When I heard this, I was shocked, because from the moment I saw her outfit, she never looked like someone I could trust.
If she’s supposed to look demure, make her look demure, goddammit. You shouldn’t need a greenhorn like me to tell you these things. Learn to treat your female characters with more respect.
Awesome redesign accompanied by an awesome writeup, thank you, pixelcut!
One more thing I’d add about the difference between design (hired or not) and fine art, is that design is supposed to serve the same purpose for everyone who sees it. To communicate an intended message, as pixelcut puts it.
The problem with how Charlotte looks basically boils down to the whole issue our blog concerns: that a lot of female character designs, particularly female warrior costumes, do not tell us who we’re dealing with. Lingerie models, maybe, but not warriors, especially not if male characters of the same or similar class establish a completely different aesthetic.
~Ozzie
Speaking of communicating a character’s backstory and personality via original design, let’s again celebrate this awesome fanmade Charlotte fix that tells us all she would want us to know about her… instead of being just a straight-up bikini armor
~Ozzie
He’s a dancer, so… ?
My other edits:
Takumi | Berkut | Shigure | Ryoma | Spring Xander | Arvis
@clarissadixonsart answering the important question: What if Fire Emblem Heroes had the same priorities for male character designs as they have for female ones?
Original design, for the record:
Quality redo, @clarissadixonsart! Thank you for making it and all the other ones! We’ll probably revisit a few some other Fridays 🙂
~Ozzie
Now he can show off his beautiful… legs! How empowering~ ( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o) ( ͡o ͜ʖ ͡o)
-Icy
@springdragonfly15 submitted:
It’s time for Camilla from Fire Emblem to make another appearance.
She is given a promoted class in Fire Emblem Warriors with more cleavage. Apparently, she can be sexualized more, complete with “my eyes are up here.” Though unlike Fire Emblem Fates, she does remember to bring her axe and wyvern to her cut scenes in Fire Emblem Warriors, so silver lining.
Oh Camilla,.. it’s kind of amazing how much has and hasn’t changed since the last time you were given a bingo card. Mostly it just seems a few squares like Bared Belly have become ambiguous and more boob straps have been added.
They’ve also somehow managed to lean into the armor as sexy lingerie and remind you, in case you somehow forgot, that she has big boobs:
Her intro video also makes it far, far too clear to us that in her default (not bingo’d here) outfit she is not wearing a thong. I mean, I know it’s on the bingo card… but that level of clarity was really not necessary.
– wincenworks
tidecullernami submitted (and Icy bingo’ed):
speaking of tharja/rhajat and how they’re being handled in fe:h?? uh…
i’ll leave it to you guys
Thank you, I think. I don’t know what I was expecting from Fire Emblem Heroes, but it was a little better than… whatever this is. I mean, Christmas is the perfect time to wear your fur-lined bikini! A person who grew up in a desert country will totally not freeze her butt off in that!
I don’t know about you guys, but I prefer characters to stay in-character even through holiday events. Especially with a grouchy, anti-social character like Tharja, there’s so much comedy potential! Like, if she was instead forced into a cheap reindeer onesie, so she would just be sulking, trying to hide her shame in the hoodie.
[Pictured: Tharja regretting some life choices]
But of course, that would require that they don’t just use her as a pinup, and we can’t have that.
-Icy
Fire Emblem Heroes has already been getting some flack for their uninspired character design, and this is a good comparison of the changes made to Rhajat for Heroes. Her original design still has problems, primarily the nylon tech this fantasy country seems to have, but the new version (named Virghat) is just so much worse. From the wiki entry on Rhajat:
…It is revealed that her cold personality is a means to mask her loneliness due to being raised in the Deeprealms by herself.
I’d believe that description, given that this was her sprite in Fates:
She’s hunched over, her eyes are in shadow, and her arms are in front of and around herself protectively. But the Heroes design and posture? All I’m getting from it, is generic poker-faced cute caster.
Oh, and of course, there’s a damage sprite, as mentioned in the comparison image.
Sigh.
-Icy
h/t: thekaizaverse
2goldensnitches submitted (and Ozzie bingo’d):
Loki from Fire Emblem Heroes. I don’t even know how to describe this.
Remember that Fire Emblem costume seemingly designed with random lasso tool movements followed by CTRL + X? Yeah, that’s hers.
Somehow the whole thing is even worse than any individual part of it. And every part is awful. So I figured she might be in a need of a bingo.
Also thanks to other readers who let us know this character’s name.
~Ozzie