Tag: gif warning

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Fate’s Red Saber Nero – No, you can not unsee it. You’re Welcome! 

Since Fate’s fandom is the way it is, I decided to dedicate a very special stream redesign to them! 

When we commented on Fate: Last Encore’s version of “Saber”, the fanboys predictably, as with many previous posts on that franchise, rushed in to explain to us that this is not the same Saber we used as a positive example before (Artoria, aka waifu King Arthur).
No, apparently it’s just a completely unrelated character who happens to look exactly the same, allegedly because the designer for the franchise has a fetish for this one particular appearance, affectionately referred to by fandom as “Saberface”. Which justifies the shitty sameface syndrome how…? ¯_( ͠° ͟ʖ ͠° )_/¯ 

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[Yes, those are four different people in various parts of the franchise. Only two of them are related. And yes, there are plenty more Saber clones.] 

Also, Fate’s lore is an incomprehensible mess with no single continuity. If we were to fully explain that every time a new Saber with giant boobs or stupid butt window comes out, our posts would be ten times longer. ? 

So, considering that this here Red Saber (not confused with the one with spiky hair) happens to be emperor Nero, I decided to right that wrong and make it abundantly clear that this is who this character is supposed to be. 

Enter anime waifu Nero. 

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While usually I redesign the outfit, leaving character’s face more or less intact, this time I’m leaving the body and the awful boob-and-ass-window (plus visible panties) dress entirely unedited. After all, it fits her personality, or so I’m told. It’s the exact same sexualized anime girl, except she happens to have the face of an ancient Roman ruler, neckbeard included. 

And if you respect Nero’s own choice of clothing, please don’t shame her choice to grow out a beard. She rocks that look so much harder than she did Artoria’s face and haircut. 

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Obviously I used the most famous Nero statue as a reference and did my best to recreate the cell-shaded anime look. Which is also why I incorporated her original eyes into the new design. Of course she needs to remain consistent with Fate aesthetic. I’m not an art-ruining barbarian. 

Overall this was a really fun stream and I’m pretty happy with the results. Not likely to happen again, but who knows? 

Once again, YOU’RE WELCOME. 

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~Ozzie 

Posted on

lasafara:

demengineerz:

When you take a game seriously:

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When you don’t:

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@bikiniarmorbattledamage feel like this belongs on your dash

As we implied before, the best of all worlds in games is the option to choose ANY look, from ridiculous to absolutely serious. 

But… Can we please have the second gif as the default for all male characters in the next big mainstream adventure title? 

~Ozzie

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I couldn’t wait till Jim Duke du H’ardcore took on some explicitly sexist comments from the “real” gamers. Worth watching just for the way he enunciates “females”, the fave noun of everyone who’s too hardcore to refer to fellow humans as “women”.

Obviously, feeemales and filthy casuals are the reason gaming is ruined and no longer a “safe space” where a real manbaby can enjoy a skill-based challenge (which it definitely always was, yeah, totally). Everything in video games is now just “too easy” and or “politically correct”, to placate the vocal minority who just doesn’t want to git gud and/or be male. 

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[GIF source]

It’s not like Dark Souls, the infamously hard non-casual game, is a staple among our positive examples of gender equal armor. 

But yeah, it’s totally the pandering to emotionally stunted cishet dudes what makes a game “hardcore”, not the difficult, carefully designed gameplay.

~Ozzie

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
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Now you can’t convince me that all those outfits with completely random cutouts AREN’T designed this way. Headcanon accepted. 

Fun fact: I tried to reverse google search the whole picture this comes from and the Google’s closest keyword

suggestion was Polish for “sadness”: 

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I think this search engine finally achieved self-awareness. 

And I, for one, welcome our new bullshit-detecting robot overlord.

~Ozzie

This definitely explains certain designs we’ve featured on the blog.

-Icy

h/t: @danyren, @emissaryofwind, @whiteraven13

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On Brigitte

So, shortly after Ozzie posted on why you shouldn’t expect people to go out of their way to do more research and consume more media in order to find a good message in a creator’s work… a bunch of people rushed in to tell us that the “unnamed redhead” in the Reinhardt animated short had a name… she was clearly Brigitte, Torbjorn’s daughter and beloved Overwatch supporting character!

But, what identified her as Brigitte, what kind of character is she?  Was this depiction of her accurate to previous material?

The woman depicted in the short is the second-most muscular woman we’ve seen in Overwatch (second only to Zarya) with a cog tattoo on her left shoulder and a t-shirt which has the sleeves torn off and reads “I like exercise because I love eating” and she has the standard issue Disney-face.

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This is Brigitte in her only other speaking appearance, note how she started with a strong jawline, narrow lips and freckles:

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And here she is in her other follow up appearance, arms like twigs and half-way to the final Disney-face, no more freckles or jawline:

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So really what identified her as Brigitte were these elements:

  • Proximity to Reinhardt during his pre-game period
  • Tendency to tell Reinhardt that he shouldn’t do what the audience is specifically eager for him to do (ie, be a hero)
  • Her hair is kind of the same and she has practical pants (a rarity for women in the world of Overwatch)
  • Nobody refers to her by name while she’s around

There’s also that one in-game spray graphic where she’s shown sporting even more “prettified” face, posing for a photo with her dad (good luck knowing that relation without digging up lore): 

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The greater irony of this is that the single exchange between Reinhardt and Mercy where Brigitte’s name is mentioned actually undermines her role in the video.  According to the in-game content she goes off with Reinhardt on his adventures… not keeping him company in the castle while he avoids risks. Note how in the short she isn’t shown to change her mind and support Reinhardt’s decision at the end.

(Also worth noting is people have been asking, by name, for her to appear more often and be shown helping Reinhardt in the game for over a year now but this is the closest Blizzard have come, that and they had to confirm her who father was in a tweet because again… zero priority elsewhere.)

At this point, if you look at what Blizzard have provided: Brigitte has no consistent look beyond pants, skin tone and hairstyle. Her only consistent behavior is telling Reinhardt not to go be a hero. In the video she isn’t even shown doing the other support aspects such as enabling travel, fixing his armor, gathering intelligence, being the social one of the pair, etc.

The point is here is Blizzard doesn’t care enough about a female character to give her a consistent appearance, have her name be used so the audience can identify her or give her any sort of motivations of her own – you shouldn’t take the time to act like she’s an important character who everyone should know.

I promise you that defending Blizzard’s failures to do the basics when it comes to their promises of better depictions of women and better diversity will not result anything good for anyone other than Blizzard’s shareholders.

– wincenworks 

@otherwindow has done a beautiful edit of what Brigitte would have looked like in the short if they stayed true to her initial comic appearance.

I said this on the Moira post, but really… what could have been.

-Icy

This is exactly what I meant by “asking us to “do our homework” before we comment will make the commentary far more critical, not more lenient.” 

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~Ozzie 

h/t: @red-queen-on-the-heathen-throne for bringing our attention to how off-model Brigitte is between her cross-media appearances. 

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bikiniarmorbattledamage:

ohgodhesloose:

feminismandpugsarelife:

dragondicks:

how to “pander to sjws / feminists”: in depth characters and storytelling, non objectified female characters, characters of all manners of races, identities and backgrounds

how to pander to gamer boys: make titty wobble

Wow no wonder they don’t want to make games more accessible to women, they’d have to reveal their lack of actual talent.

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What a nice response to the “sex sells” and “creative freedom” rhetoric which we’re well too familiar with.

~Ozzie

The saddest part about this is – the games industry is full of talented people and they frequently have to throw away their best work because someone who is overpaid believes in a magic formula.

Then they end up promoting the wrong people and we end up with this guy.

– wincenworks

Bringing this post back, since now the gamer boys directly accuse “pandering to SJWs/feminists” as the primary reason for anything they don’t enjoy about any game, like the glitches in Mass Effect Andromeda.

~Ozzie

Particularly worth mentioning that these same voices are generally for more accepting and forgiving when it comes time to apply a critical lens to games like Scarlet Blade, Haydee or asset flips… and who conveniently claim creators should be allowed to do whatever they want when a short skirt is involved.

– wincenworks

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feministgamingmatters:

Somebody used this gif to “prove” that Metal Gear sexualises men the same as women:

Do people really think this is equivalent to Quiet (et al.) or are they being disingenuous?

I find it hilarious how dudes will insist that if people really knew about Metal Gear Solid they’d know about Raiden and that he was (allegedly) as objectified as Quiet… despite the fact Raiden and his butt run (very late in the game) were both surprises to the player (and the development team) and Quiet was used heavily as marketing material a year in advance of MGS V being released.

That and well, I could only find one figure of Raiden breathing through his skin:

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It’s almost like he wasn’t intended to titillate or something.

– wincenworks

#nakedness doesn’t equal sexualisation

Continuing the theme of false equivalence… yes, we have seen (and commented on) people who proudly claim that Raiden’s naked run justifies Quiet’s “breathing through skin” un-costume. 

We’re also familiar with the general confusion between sexualization and nudity. Vast majority of the Status Quo Warriors conflate bare skin with being sexual, so by that logic, Conan/Kratos/Zangief are equally, if not more sexualized than their scantily-clad female peers and therefore sexism is “solved”.

This, of course, willfully ignores the simple fact that not only so much more goes into sexualization than nudity (like framing, posing, expressions etc.) or that there are different ‘decency’ standards for bodies of different sexes

(especially nipples), but also how bare skin itself doesn’t yet guarantee sexyness. 

That’s why @partsal‘s female barbarian comparison is still a perfect example of how completely different character premise can be conveyed with the same amount of bare body:

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~Ozzie

Posted on

feministgamingmatters:

Somebody used this gif to “prove” that Metal Gear sexualises men the same as women:

Do people really think this is equivalent to Quiet (et al.) or are they being disingenuous?

I find it hilarious how dudes will insist that if people really knew about Metal Gear Solid they’d know about Raiden and that he was (allegedly) as objectified as Quiet… despite the fact Raiden and his butt run (very late in the game) were both surprises to the player (and the development team) and Quiet was used heavily as marketing material a year in advance of MGS V being released.

That and well, I could only find one figure of Raiden breathing through his skin:

image

It’s almost like he wasn’t intended to titillate or something.

– wincenworks

#nakedness doesn’t equal sexualisation

Continuing the theme of false equivalence… yes, we have seen (and commented on) people who proudly claim that Raiden’s naked run justifies Quiet’s “breathing through skin” un-costume. 

We’re also familiar with the general confusion between sexualization and nudity. Vast majority of the Status Quo Warriors conflate bare skin with being sexual, so by that logic, Conan/Kratos/Zangief are equally, if not more sexualized than their scantily-clad female peers and therefore sexism is “solved”.

This, of course, willfully ignores the simple fact that not only so much more goes into sexualization than nudity (like framing, posing, expressions etc.) or that there are different ‘decency’ standards for bodies of different sexes

(especially nipples), but also how bare skin itself doesn’t yet guarantee sexyness. 

That’s why @partsal‘s female barbarian comparison is still a perfect example of how completely different character premise can be conveyed with the same amount of bare body:

image

~Ozzie