Yeah, I know, it's gonna be another one of those topics, but hear me out.
A while ago, my roommate and I were discussing the appearance of the Dragon's Crown females when he got the game. He is generally a bit of a prude in the sense that he doesn't immediately think of those characters as sexual objects and tends to dislike people that immediately jump to such conclusions so quickly, because he thinks such behavior is shallow.
He was arguing that the Sorceress' appearance isn't so surprising because Vanillaware has a trend of making all their necromancers busty women. He, being of a semi-traditional Chinese upbringing, generally has different opinions on how the dead are used in media, rather than more common Western opinions. In this case, he looks at the ability to resurrect through necromancy to be a form of new birth, then he points out the skull she holds in her main character image in the opening cinematic, and says she holds it the way one would hold an infants head when carrying said infant. He then suggested that the large breasts could seen as 'filled with milk' for 'her children'. He considers the Sorceress to be a rather 'motherly' character.
Whether or not you agree with him, I thought it was a unique viewpoint that I hadn't heard anywhere else at all. And while he can't defend NPC busty ladies in game, he thinks the reactions to the Sorceress have been over-presumptuous and ignorant of what the character signifies.
He then went on a small rant about how he thinks the playable females from the game are all powerful and capable of independence in single-player (save the little lockpick guy), and how the Wizard is a female appeal character because of the popularity of trim, emo-like guys in anime and games (Sasuke Uchiha and Sephiroth come to my mind), and how the Fighter, under the helmet, has a very feminine and pretty face, also popular among female anime fans. Not 'all'. Never 'all'. But several.
He then brought up a question that I haven't heard a discussion about: What do women consider to be 'female power fantasies'?
If a female player character in-game is depicted as very physically attractive, does that immediately negate any depicted strength, independence, or intelligence that she may have? Is she just piece of eye candy for the men despite what she can do because fetishes exist for everything? She's hot, and because some like it hot, does that just put her in the sea of cheesecake that companies produce to entice the main target audience? Is there no way such a character can be a female power fantasy?
I kinda thought the 'male power fantasy' characters like Kratos were supposed to be some sort of exaggerated Western masculine ideal: Strong, well-built, virile, unrestrained, masters of their domain. Contrary-wise, most countries didn't really have those traits when they thought of 'feminine ideals', and for a long time, the woman's 'ideal' place was basically just being well-domesticated and pretty. I would guess that trying to re-translate 'feminine ideals' into playable female action game characters would be a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario, not just in the fact that you can never please everyone, but because nearly any physical flaw or perfection in the character's appearance can be seen as just as stereotypical as the other.
So, I ask: What do women consider to be 'female power fantasies'?
I am well aware that threads like this can easily devolve into flame wars, and even my topic can be considered flame bait by now with all the controversy of how women are portrayed in games these days. But still, it's a question I haven't heard any discussion of yet, and I would like to hear some female perspectives on what the answer(s) could be.
A while ago, my roommate and I were discussing the appearance of the Dragon's Crown females when he got the game. He is generally a bit of a prude in the sense that he doesn't immediately think of those characters as sexual objects and tends to dislike people that immediately jump to such conclusions so quickly, because he thinks such behavior is shallow.
He was arguing that the Sorceress' appearance isn't so surprising because Vanillaware has a trend of making all their necromancers busty women. He, being of a semi-traditional Chinese upbringing, generally has different opinions on how the dead are used in media, rather than more common Western opinions. In this case, he looks at the ability to resurrect through necromancy to be a form of new birth, then he points out the skull she holds in her main character image in the opening cinematic, and says she holds it the way one would hold an infants head when carrying said infant. He then suggested that the large breasts could seen as 'filled with milk' for 'her children'. He considers the Sorceress to be a rather 'motherly' character.
Whether or not you agree with him, I thought it was a unique viewpoint that I hadn't heard anywhere else at all. And while he can't defend NPC busty ladies in game, he thinks the reactions to the Sorceress have been over-presumptuous and ignorant of what the character signifies.
He then went on a small rant about how he thinks the playable females from the game are all powerful and capable of independence in single-player (save the little lockpick guy), and how the Wizard is a female appeal character because of the popularity of trim, emo-like guys in anime and games (Sasuke Uchiha and Sephiroth come to my mind), and how the Fighter, under the helmet, has a very feminine and pretty face, also popular among female anime fans. Not 'all'. Never 'all'. But several.
He then brought up a question that I haven't heard a discussion about: What do women consider to be 'female power fantasies'?
If a female player character in-game is depicted as very physically attractive, does that immediately negate any depicted strength, independence, or intelligence that she may have? Is she just piece of eye candy for the men despite what she can do because fetishes exist for everything? She's hot, and because some like it hot, does that just put her in the sea of cheesecake that companies produce to entice the main target audience? Is there no way such a character can be a female power fantasy?
I kinda thought the 'male power fantasy' characters like Kratos were supposed to be some sort of exaggerated Western masculine ideal: Strong, well-built, virile, unrestrained, masters of their domain. Contrary-wise, most countries didn't really have those traits when they thought of 'feminine ideals', and for a long time, the woman's 'ideal' place was basically just being well-domesticated and pretty. I would guess that trying to re-translate 'feminine ideals' into playable female action game characters would be a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario, not just in the fact that you can never please everyone, but because nearly any physical flaw or perfection in the character's appearance can be seen as just as stereotypical as the other.
So, I ask: What do women consider to be 'female power fantasies'?
I am well aware that threads like this can easily devolve into flame wars, and even my topic can be considered flame bait by now with all the controversy of how women are portrayed in games these days. But still, it's a question I haven't heard any discussion of yet, and I would like to hear some female perspectives on what the answer(s) could be.
