The hilarious front line in the tragic war against ridiculous female armor
[ Original tweet ] [ OP’s Twitter | OP’s Tumblr ]
It’s okay, Ismael, we at BABD also apparently don’t have any respect for other people’s work.
Besides fixing the boobplate, look at all those added details that greatly improve this design; the added armor to the legs, the shape changes to the pauldrons and couters, the tabard, it all looks so much better. Now this is a skin I would love to have, if I played as Brigitte.
-Icy
~Keeper
Side note: Luara is around 16 years old, and is going back to a revealing outfit, despite making a point about her ANW outfit having body armor because being shot still fucking hurts even with a healing factor.
Meanwhile Kamala Khan, also roughly 16, has an outfit that’s practical and not overly revealing.
This is basically just going back to what X-23 has been shown as wearing traditionally because that’s what “the core audience” supposedly wants. And I say that as someone who defends Power Girl’s boob window and Tigra’s two piece.
Currently, Laura is either 19 or 20. But the outfits are still too revealing for someone who fights in close quarters.
@bikiniarmorbattledamage , I am sad to inform you that after all the progress in Laura getting practical outfit in All-new Wolverine, they decided to backtrack this hard.
– Admin
Remember when less than two years ago we celebrated X-23 getting a reasonable suit and the creators addressing the need of protective costumes even for a self-healing character?
Yeah, it’s going out of the window and back to the skin-bearing bullshit again for poor Laura:
Most of those would be perfectly fine street fashion pieces, but why try to sell them as superhero outfits? Here’s hoping the final comic features neither of the above, instead opting for something you’d actually wear in a fight.
~Ozzie
I spent about 7 minutes fixing her design while listening to a video.
Didn’t even need a livestream!
-Icy
~Keeper
Side note: Luara is around 16 years old, and is going back to a revealing outfit, despite making a point about her ANW outfit having body armor because being shot still fucking hurts even with a healing factor.
Meanwhile Kamala Khan, also roughly 16, has an outfit that’s practical and not overly revealing.
This is basically just going back to what X-23 has been shown as wearing traditionally because that’s what “the core audience” supposedly wants. And I say that as someone who defends Power Girl’s boob window and Tigra’s two piece.
Currently, Laura is either 19 or 20. But the outfits are still too revealing for someone who fights in close quarters.
@bikiniarmorbattledamage , I am sad to inform you that after all the progress in Laura getting practical outfit in All-new Wolverine, they decided to backtrack this hard.
– Admin
Remember when less than two years ago we celebrated X-23 getting a reasonable suit and the creators addressing the need of protective costumes even for a self-healing character?
Yeah, it’s going out of the window and back to the skin-bearing bullshit again for poor Laura:
Most of those would be perfectly fine street fashion pieces, but why try to sell them as superhero outfits? Here’s hoping the final comic features neither of the above, instead opting for something you’d actually wear in a fight.
~Ozzie
I spent about 7 minutes fixing her design while listening to a video.
Didn’t even need a livestream!
-Icy
Ah, this not-so-old design, as I actually finalized it a few days ago, even though I started it back when we just started doing this whole livestreaming thing. So this is Shielder from Fate/Grand Order, whom we featured on the blog before. I took her “stage 2″ armor and tried to actually make it look more like armor and less like… whatever the heck that is in the original. I decided not to give her full plate because she does have that huge shield (now with wheels!).
One weird notable detail is that she seems to have these purple “racing stripes” on her arms and legs; what’s that about? I got rid of all that stuff and instead incorporated the purple as cloth detail. The poofy pants make a comeback, this time with a poofy-sleeved shirt to match! I decided to add some white to her color scheme, because just grey and purple was very boring once the bare skin stops being a color. Finally, I cut her bangs, just because her hair was annoying me. It also didn’t go with the rest of her design at all.
Overall, it’s probably not my best work, and I put in a lot more effort than I should have just redesigning various elements, but it’s definitely more believable as an armor than the original. Seriously, that crotch window… jeez.
-Icy
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
One of the complete redesigns I did when we first started streaming: Morgana from League of Legends. I read her background blurb and got angry cause she has a lot of potential with a backstory involving familial strife, law vs. chaos as ideology, and resorting to dark powers to fight for what you believe in. But her design was…. just generic bra and skirt, and some evil makeup, I guess?? Ugh. So I basically started from scratch, which means this write-ups is gonna be just a little longer than the first.
More under the cut.
What Stayed In:
I kept the color scheme, for the most part, the belt part of her skirt, and her posture. Or rather… what I think her posture was supposed to be, cause she sure doesn’t look hunched over in the original, more like she’s got a sore shoulder.
So not much.
Initial Redesign Ideas:
I decided that Morgana should be more monstrous because of the dark magic she was using. I wanted to give her more colors than just purple and gold (LoL has a problem with 2-color costumes), so I went for a sickly green that would add to the “wrongness” of her design, as well as hint at multiple sources of corruption. They tried to make her look malnourished, I guess?? –
[Not even the splash artist was sure what was going on with her torso.]
–so I pushed it to the extreme in the redraw. I was also trying to maintain triangles as the main shape in the design.
Storytelling Elements and Later Additions:
So, Morgana has a sister in the game who fights against her, named Kayle.
I wanted to add elements of that old life to her appearance, so I changed her hair to blonde, like her sister’s. I also gave Morgana a tabbard similar to Kayle’s, with the same symbol on it, albeit old and worn-out. Forgotten, almost. The final change I did was adding the corrupted halo. The blurb on Morgana’s life sounds very obviously disapproving of her life choices, but I was more interested in making the sisters not so cut-and-dry good or evil. Kayle is very lawful, so she has to eliminate evil, at any cost. Morgana disagrees with that kind of ideology, and ends up resorting to making some bad deals in order to face her sister. Is either of them right? They both sound like they’re suffering in their respective positions. So I wanted Morgana to be a bit more sympathetic and interesting.
Final Thoughts:
You could call me out for giving her even less clothes than she had before, but I would argue that it makes sense in this context. Morgana’as power comes from dark, unnatural magic, unlike her sister’s armor and sword (Kayle’s equipment has a backstory of its own). I feel like she would have continued to give more and more of herself to gain more power, possibly even to the point where she can’t wear armor anymore.
But I didn’t give her a silly bikini and buttcrack-showing skirt and call it a day. The developers couldn’t even be bothered to give her any indications of her backstory. If they had at least given her some deformities or something, I probably wouldn’t have been so angry. At least something fun came out of it.
-Icy
