Tag: threwback

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@spiraldrawsstuff submitted:

I saw this on twitter and thought it relevant to your blog.

There’s so much in this casting call that we’ve talked about indirectly before:

And this was a movie where I was kind of kind of excited about because it had Gamora in it!

– wincenworks

It’s one of those cases that disappoints, but doesn’t surprise me. Especially since with the first movie, not unlike with Avengers, they reduced female team member count to one, despite there being more women in the comics.

For all the praise Marvel Cinematic Univese gets, it still has a really hard time letting go of tired tropes and conventions, like the Smurfette Principle and Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty.

And we should be always pointing that out, for as long as it remains the status quo.

~Ozzie

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Players Say Fatal Frame’s New Costumes Are Censorship

Players Say Fatal Frame’s New Costumes Are Censorship

Given how regularly we get people rush in to tell us that we cannot question anything from outside the USA because of cultural reasons (never mind that neither of us is from the USA, or even near it) – this is kind of darkly hilarious.

Apparently Nintendo’s judgement is only unquestionable as long as they’re pandering to entitled straight men – as soon as that stops it’s an evil conspiracy  to censor video games involving one or more of the following:

  • Everyone in politics from religious conservatives to liberal activists
  • “the Internet police”
  • The developers not “wanting the game to succeed”
  • the singular group of people who are the only ones who ever have concerns (except about censorship?)
  • Numerous groups zealot groups unique to western culture (as if God of War III was never altered for Japanese release)

Of course, it goes without saying that one can never include pandering in these video games – even when it’s fan service labeled “fan service” it’s always there for deep artistic reasons.

Speaking of which, my favourite part of the comments was this justification and insistence that these costumes are essential in a franchise which is about going around haunted houses, taking photos of ghosts with magic cameras:

image

Yeah, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense – is anyone else getting flashbacks to something else?

– wincenworks

Posted on

Players Say Fatal Frame’s New Costumes Are Censorship

Players Say Fatal Frame’s New Costumes Are Censorship

Given how regularly we get people rush in to tell us that we cannot question anything from outside the USA because of cultural reasons (never mind that neither of us is from the USA, or even near it) – this is kind of darkly hilarious.

Apparently Nintendo’s judgement is only unquestionable as long as they’re pandering to entitled straight men – as soon as that stops it’s an evil conspiracy  to censor video games involving one or more of the following:

  • Everyone in politics from religious conservatives to liberal activists
  • “the Internet police”
  • The developers not “wanting the game to succeed”
  • the singular group of people who are the only ones who ever have concerns (except about censorship?)
  • Numerous groups zealot groups unique to western culture (as if God of War III was never altered for Japanese release)

Of course, it goes without saying that one can never include pandering in these video games – even when it’s fan service labeled “fan service” it’s always there for deep artistic reasons.

Speaking of which, my favourite part of the comments was this justification and insistence that these costumes are essential in a franchise which is about going around haunted houses, taking photos of ghosts with magic cameras:

image

Yeah, that’s the part that doesn’t make sense – is anyone else getting flashbacks to something else?

– wincenworks

Posted on

NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite

NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite

I feel that the most critical step to really re-inventing those characters would be to get them away from Dynamite Entertainment. 

I enjoy Gail Simone’s re-invention of Red Sonja and understand there’s a balancing act with the branding and appearance.  But an ongoing thing with Dynamite Entertainment is that they stockpile old characters to use them in spinoffs, mash-ups, etc.

So far, at Dynamite, we’ve had:

I mean – these are the most recent spinoffs (one working with Dark Horse):

image

Furthermore, while these designs might be bold for Dynamite, they’re not really that bold when you step back and look.

Red Sonja is basically back to a sexier version of the outfit she in her very first appearance, Vampirella appeared in a space suit in March (and I remember seeing concept ideas to re-invent her wearing full body gear in the 90s) – and okay, the movie bombed but nobody thinks it’s because of what Lynn Carter wore as Dejah Thoris.

What would really be bold – is actually re-inventing these characters without anchoring them to bad branding and design decision made in 70s (or earlier). Red Sonja has changed far more than her costume has, and not updating her appearance to reflect that hampers the comic.

At the end of the day – the reason these properties got sold to Dynamite Entertainment and the reason this is the second time Red Sonja’s been re-invented since then is because the old branding isn’t speaking to audiences today.

– wincenworks

Posted on

NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite

NYCC: Simone, Scott revamp Red Sonja, Vampirella & Dejah Thoris for Dynamite

I feel that the most critical step to really re-inventing those characters would be to get them away from Dynamite Entertainment. 

I enjoy Gail Simone’s re-invention of Red Sonja and understand there’s a balancing act with the branding and appearance.  But an ongoing thing with Dynamite Entertainment is that they stockpile old characters to use them in spinoffs, mash-ups, etc.

So far, at Dynamite, we’ve had:

I mean – these are the most recent spinoffs (one working with Dark Horse):

image

Furthermore, while these designs might be bold for Dynamite, they’re not really that bold when you step back and look.

Red Sonja is basically back to a sexier version of the outfit she in her very first appearance, Vampirella appeared in a space suit in March (and I remember seeing concept ideas to re-invent her wearing full body gear in the 90s) – and okay, the movie bombed but nobody thinks it’s because of what Lynn Carter wore as Dejah Thoris.

What would really be bold – is actually re-inventing these characters without anchoring them to bad branding and design decision made in 70s (or earlier). Red Sonja has changed far more than her costume has, and not updating her appearance to reflect that hampers the comic.

At the end of the day – the reason these properties got sold to Dynamite Entertainment and the reason this is the second time Red Sonja’s been re-invented since then is because the old branding isn’t speaking to audiences today.

– wincenworks

Posted on

This was part of a much larger bit by Extra Credits on messages sent by games and how design decisions can (even unwittingly) transform games into propaganda.  Games do have an interactive aspect, but the core principles remain true for any media product.

Overall it’s a very important aspect that creators should consider with any sort of system where appearance changes with progress – whether it’s part of item choice, character plot arc or just revising character appearances between chapters.

There’s a reason we have the “More Advanced Armor = Skimpier” box on the Female Armor Bingo.

– wincenworks

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
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sursumursa:

Let’s talk about Quiet, and attempt to answer the question:

Can you slut-shame a fictional character?

And in case anyone reading our blog still doubts whether or not Quiet (or any other woman in fiction) can be slut-shamed for her choice of attire or behavior, here’s Sursum Ursa’s concise video explanation.

Spoilers: the answer is no.

~Ozzie

As a side note, since we’re on the topic of Quiet and sexualzing characters, I feel this is an appropriate point to touch on something related:

If your argument is the men are sexualized too, but you have to comb through all the individual games to try to get together enough material to try (unsucessfully I might add) to match how much Quiet is sexualized in ONE game – you’re not going to be very convincing.

There is a massive difference between depicting a character who is many different things throughout their arc (tough, vulnerable, protected, naked, etc) and happens to be sexy at some points and creating a character who is primarily and overwhelmingly sexy all throughout their arc and happens to get to be some other things during it.

One is creating a character who’s like a person so the audience can relate to them, the other is creating a sex object and calling them a character.

It’s kind of important.

– wincenworks

more about character agency on BABD

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)