Critical Miss: Mortal Kombat

[DTWolfwood]

wishful thinking i c that does explain a lot!

i had a very good lol on this one. Most excellent comic

 

[Soak]

yesyes, the dresscode in games, always something like this, men: have to look as stylish or freakish as possible, women: less is always more! also for women the term "breastplate" is to take literally and has to cover the breasts only.

 

[[zonking great]]

]Nice ripoff from Family Guy, there.

*shrugs* Never seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyhn1IGgnsI

 

[Rect Pola]

And she can't complain because he's wearing straps and a loin cloth too.

 

[Tjoubou]

Completely reversed xD

 

[Therumancer]

I like Daddy's thinking.

It's hard to fight fully clothed.

While the strip is funny, you do (perhaps accidently) make a very valid point missed by a lot of these crticisms. It *IS* hard to do serious fighting in regular clothing, which is why when people seriously fight in tournaments they tend to wear boxers, a Gi, or tights. It's also incidently why super heroes traditionally wore tights and shorts, a lot of them were acrobats and such and that is the kind of thing people who rely on flexibility wear when performing. Wearing something like that is actually going to give someone a bit of an advantage over a guy wearing street clothes or otherwise dressed up.

When it comes to women, it's important to understand that girls and guys are differant physically. There are a lot of reasons why women have been "second class citizens" throughout most of history, and why it remains that way through most of the world (first world countries actually representing something of an exception, people tend to forget how badly outnumbered Americans and Europeans are by Asians, Africans, Arabs, and Latinos throughout south and central American especially when you consider them cumulatively). People will point out the differances and size, and physical strength, but even if a girl is flat chested the breasts for women are a VERY, VERY sensitive area. "sensible armor" which people argue in favor of in RPGs doesn't work for women, a blow to a breastplate that would give a guy a bruise underneath will take a girl out of the fight permanantly. Also the wrong clothing up there can lead to a lot of constriction and limitations on mobility.

Girls wearing tights, or various skimpy outfits, makes a degree of sense when your looking at combat, whether it's with melee weapons or martial arts. The bottom line is to get support when and if nessicary, with as few limits on mobility as possible.

The whole "skimpy costumes" arguement can be flipped around very easily, by argueing why women should be concerned about Modesty more than guys are.

Now granted, some costumes are better than others, but the basic bikini, unitard, or scarves are all actually fairly sensible for these kinds of situations. In various "Conan" type fiction a lack of armor can be justified by simply pointing out that chances are it wouldn't help much anyway at the presented tech level.

 

[Ghengis John]

I'm reminded of this video by rooster teeth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwXdxRuk_Dg&feature=player_embedded

 

[Screamarie]

All kidding aside, this is perfectly what the comic is saying

There's a reason for that...

And some men get that...it's why we don't fight in budgie smugglers.

Dude, I'm not an idiot. I know Grey Carter works on the comic, I'm just saying that he's explaining it out. It's not about feminism or respect for women or something that people often misconstrue these arguements about, it's about being realistic.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Dude, I'm not an idiot. I know Grey Carter works on the comic, I'm just saying that he's explaining it out. It's not about feminism or respect for women or something that people often misconstrue these arguements about, it's about being realistic.

Can't blame someone for checking up on these things.

 

[dyre]

Dreamfall:TLG, right?

Ironically, the dad in the game was saying pretty much the opposite of what was in the comic

 

[The Wooster]

Dreamfall:TLG, right?

Ironically, the dad in the game was saying pretty much the opposite of what was in the comic

While I'm a huge fan of TLG and Dreamfall the strip isn't taken from it. The "dad looking over the newspaper" trope is as old as dirt. Speaking of TLG. Where's my 3rd game, Ragnar?

All kidding aside, this is perfectly what the comic is saying

There's a reason for that...

And some men get that...it's why we don't fight in budgie smugglers.

Dude, I'm not an idiot. I know Grey Carter works on the comic, I'm just saying that he's explaining it out. It's not about feminism or respect for women or something that people often misconstrue these arguements about, it's about being realistic.

I think you're reading me wrong there, mate. Realism is a secondary concern for me. What I take objection to is a game that disrespects it's audience (be they male or female) which I think Mortal Kombat does when it comes to the female character design. It's a shame because it's otherwise a superb game.

That being said, it's not that big of an issue and the strip is chiefly meant to entertain rather than make a political point. No one likes being preached at.

 

[Laser Priest]

I think "Held tenuously together by wishful thinking" has made this entire comic series for me.

 

[chinangel]

Anyone notice how no-one ever makes the point that Johnny Cage and Lui Kang are forced to fight completely without a shirt? So, what, beefcake is fine, but we're not allowed cheesecake?

Not just without a shirt, Johnny Cage doesn't even wear pants in many incarnations, he just wears shorts. And Shao Khan...the "dad" in this picture, doesn't even wear shorts. He wears a loincloth.

yes, but that doesn't make either of them particularly attractive...

though, speaking as a bisexual girl: I don't find anyone in mortal kombat really attractive

 

[Urgh76]

Wow, I laughed waaay too hard at this one

Well done

 

[AgDr_ODST]

I like Daddy's thinking.

It's hard to fight fully clothed.

While the strip is funny, you do (perhaps accidentally) make a very valid point missed by a lot of these criticisms. It *IS* hard to do serious fighting in regular clothing, which is why when people seriously fight in tournaments they tend to wear boxers, a Gi, or tights. It's also incidentally why super heroes traditionally wore tights and shorts, a lot of them were acrobats and such and that is the kind of thing people who rely on flexibility wear when performing. Wearing something like that is actually going to give someone a bit of an advantage over a guy wearing street clothes or otherwise dressed up.

When it comes to women, it's important to understand that girls and guys are differant physically. There are a lot of reasons why women have been "second class citizens" throughout most of history, and why it remains that way through most of the world (first world countries actually representing something of an exception, people tend to forget how badly outnumbered Americans and Europeans are by Asians, Africans, Arabs, and Latinos throughout south and central American especially when you consider them cumulatively). People will point out the differances and size, and physical strength, but even if a girl is flat chested the breasts for women are a VERY, VERY sensitive area. "sensible armor" which people argue in favor of in RPGs doesn't work for women, a blow to a breastplate that would give a guy a bruise underneath will take a girl out of the fight permanantly. Also the wrong clothing up there can lead to a lot of constriction and limitations on mobility.

Girls wearing tights, or various skimpy outfits, makes a degree of sense when your looking at combat, whether it's with melee weapons or martial arts. The bottom line is to get support when and if nessicary, with as few limits on mobility as possible.

The whole "skimpy costumes" arguement can be flipped around very easily, by argueing why women should be concerned about Modesty more than guys are.

Now granted, some costumes are better than others, but the basic bikini, unitard, or scarves are all actually fairly sensible for these kinds of situations. In various "Conan" type fiction a lack of armor can be justified by simply pointing out that chances are it wouldn't help much anyway at the presented tech level.

ANd you my good sir have made more than a few rather fantastic points yourself regarding women in games, comics and real life. Hell I think I learned afew things by reading your post. bravo mate.

And on abit of a different note. I can't help but find that not only am I fine with Sonya in her standard attire I actually like it......[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]now if only there wasn't so much rule 34 showing her dead/getting killed[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Allan Foe]

"Objectification of Women in Video Games Awareness Week [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/3150]" one could say.

 

[RelexCryo]

Anyone notice how no-one ever makes the point that Johnny Cage and Lui Kang are forced to fight completely without a shirt? So, what, beefcake is fine, but we're not allowed cheesecake?

Not just without a shirt, Johnny Cage doesn't even wear pants in many incarnations, he just wears shorts. And Shao Khan...the "dad" in this picture, doesn't even wear shorts. He wears a loincloth.

yes, but that doesn't make either of them particularly attractive...

though, speaking as a bisexual girl: I don't find anyone in mortal kombat really attractive

The Mortal Kombat games have traditionally had men with a wide variety of body types, from skinny to medium to hulking. I haven't played the most recent one so I don't know if that fits the traditional pattern. If you don't find skinny, medium, or huge guys attractive, what do you find attractive?

 

[chinangel]

Anyone notice how no-one ever makes the point that Johnny Cage and Lui Kang are forced to fight completely without a shirt? So, what, beefcake is fine, but we're not allowed cheesecake?

Not just without a shirt, Johnny Cage doesn't even wear pants in many incarnations, he just wears shorts. And Shao Khan...the "dad" in this picture, doesn't even wear shorts. He wears a loincloth.

yes, but that doesn't make either of them particularly attractive...

though, speaking as a bisexual girl: I don't find anyone in mortal kombat really attractive

The Mortal Kombat games have traditionally had men with a wide variety of body types, from skinny to medium to hulking. I haven't played the most recent one so I don't know if that fits the traditional pattern. If you don't find skinny, medium, or huge guys attractive, what do you find attractive?

How about guys who don't look like they abuse steroids?

 

[RelexCryo]

Anyone notice how no-one ever makes the point that Johnny Cage and Lui Kang are forced to fight completely without a shirt? So, what, beefcake is fine, but we're not allowed cheesecake?

Not just without a shirt, Johnny Cage doesn't even wear pants in many incarnations, he just wears shorts. And Shao Khan...the "dad" in this picture, doesn't even wear shorts. He wears a loincloth.

yes, but that doesn't make either of them particularly attractive...

though, speaking as a bisexual girl: I don't find anyone in mortal kombat really attractive

The Mortal Kombat games have traditionally had men with a wide variety of body types, from skinny to medium to hulking. I haven't played the most recent one so I don't know if that fits the traditional pattern. If you don't find skinny, medium, or huge guys attractive, what do you find attractive?

How about guys who don't look like they abuse steroids?

In Mortal Kombat 1, guys looked pretty normal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O24F-PpdvKc

In later versions they got pretty big. As to whether or not they look like they abuse steroids...even in the later versions, many male characters are reasonable sized.

 

[Wolcik]

I love the way Shau Khan describes the costume XD