On The Ball: Pimping Bayonetta

[Donald L]

I am just glad Bayonetta is getting marketed at all. Only serious gamers know who Jade and Alyx are.

 

[The_State]

Replying to a few here.

I agree with your post 100% and this is why I adore playing Bayonetta and hope that game developers in the future take a few pages from Bayonetta's book when creating female characters in their games. I actually aspire to be as confident as Bayonetta. Granted if I was a seven foot tall waspish dominatrix, I supposed it wouldn't as be much of a problem! Still, I find her sexy and refreshing - I really wish there were more female characters out there like her.

Actually, I know a few girls who are amateur/semiprofessional models, and each breathtakingly beautiful. Their body image is just as bad as, if not worse than, everyone else's. In our society there is always a flaw to be noticed. The typical modeling scout would criticize Bayonetta as being too tall, too busty, and she'd have to lose the glasses. Not to mention the zany hairdo. It's no better for the male models, either. Worse actually, as there isn't nearly as much demand. Part of what makes me love the confidence in Bayonetta is simply the fact that she has it so readily. She's completely unabashed, untouchable to criticism, and all about her own self-respect. Granted she is a constructed pixel and polygon fantasy woman, so she's obviously up to someone's par of excellence, but that doesn't really come across in the game. She's one of those characters that even the creator, I think, has little control over.

Dude, you totally resumed my thought about Bayonetta'a maternal side. She is an empowerment of the modern woman, kind of like what Kratos is to the man.

Another scene later in the game also paints also a pretty powerful image of feminism and I'm putting it in spoiler:

Spoiler

How can it not be feminism when Bayonetta shoots the strict and manipulative father figure in the head with lipstick, an object representing femininity. That scene is purely a metaphor of the power of femininity over some kind of paternal/male control.

Then there's also Luka who serves, always in correlation to the game's gender reversal play, as not much more than eye-candy. He's here to look cute as a side-kick and help her when she needs to. He basically fills a role that would be left to a sexy girl in any other kind of game.

I'd also like to add that this game was not made to please everyone. That's why I told it was so bold. The game is all about its protagonist, and if you don't like her, of course the game is gonna loose its appeal to you. That's the risk the game is taking.

Oh how I love Cheshire, he's so cute. You are absolutely correct about his role as the "generically attractive, nonthreatening, almost love interest." He fills it perfectly, and even takes the reversal a bit further by having a few of the feminine traits (most notably his care for Cereza) of the main character in the same way that female sidekicks generally have at least a few masculine traits. I'm not entirely sure if it was meant to be read and analyzed this way, but the fact that it can be is quite gratifying for me.

So much talk about Bayonetta. Manufacturing some controversy about the game was a brilliant move, it would be too easy for a new action game to get skipped over as an "also-ran" with earlier titles in the genre like Ninja Gaiden, DMC, and GOW.

Sex videogames fall into the same "why don't you go out and play that?" category that swallows up a lot of would-be purchases, sometimes even in genres I enjoy. Also her proportions are really unattractive to me... I never thought about it before, but pin-headed giantesses aren't hot even if they dress like the Baroness from GI Joe... which makes the emphasis on sexiness even less pleasant.

Also: if Kratos is "masculinity" I'm going to start filling out gender as "robot" from now on. Seriously that guy can go die in a fire, I want nothing to do with him. Big Boss/Solid Snake... now there's a man. Tough, resourceful, disciplined, bonus points for not killing anyone you don't have to.

Kratos really is very masculine. He's fighting, by any means necessary, to avenge his lost family and the only woman he'll ever love (but she's not at all the only woman he'll have sex with.) He's borderline chivalrous. It's chivalry with all the acclaim and honor, but without the commitment. He's ultra-violent and brutal, the sort of traits I see my little brother often try to emulate after playing the game. He's emotionless, detached, and vengeful. Able to surpass any challenge with naught but his manly physique. Kratos is a man's man, through and through, without so much as a lick of sensitivity or compassion. Now that's not to say that all men are as such. He's a caricature, an exaggeration of all those little bits that make up a masculine personality. In just the same way that Bayonetta is hyperbole for femininity.

 

[IanBrazen]

On The Ball: Pimping Bayonetta

Sega's marketing of its latest brawler may have been a bit too... eager.

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Wow that was really profound writeing.
I never thought of it that way, you seem to have gone deeper into bayonettas character than I thought could be explored (thats what she said)
It seems like a waste of a good game to treat it with such advertiseing, I havent played it but you have made me curious.

Great job.

 

[Deimateos]

it grabs you by the head and jams your face into her breasts. It ORDERS you find her sexy. It DEMANDS it.

Which is 100% in step with the whole dominatrix vibe of the game

 

[NamesAreHardToPick]

Part of what makes me love the confidence in Bayonetta is simply the fact that she has it so readily. She's completely unabashed, untouchable to criticism, and all about her own self-respect.
...
Kratos really is very masculine. He's fighting, by any means necessary, to avenge his lost family and the only woman he'll ever love (but she's not at all the only woman he'll have sex with.) He's borderline chivalrous. It's chivalry with all the acclaim and honor, but without the commitment. He's ultra-violent and brutal, the sort of traits I see my little brother often try to emulate after playing the game. He's emotionless, detached, and vengeful. Able to surpass any challenge with naught but his manly physique. Kratos is a man's man, through and through, without so much as a lick of sensitivity or compassion. Now that's not to say that all men are as such. He's a caricature, an exaggeration of all those little bits that make up a masculine personality. In just the same way that Bayonetta is hyperbole for femininity.

People are talking about Bayonetta like a real person to the point where it's getting a little trippy. Sure she portrays all kinds of confidence, so does your stereotypical internet forum good with the cheetos and the neckbeard and his sexy MMO character. It's easy when you exist in a vaccuum. I don't actually know where I'm going with that but I thought it up while walking the dog and I'll be damned if I don't post it.

Kratos is a really hard character to just put into words. His defining moment for me came early in the first game... the guy's standing in some monster's mouth as it wrecks a fleet of ships, and the captain of the fleet begs him to save his daughter and the rest of the women who have locked themselves in the cabin on his boat. Kratos agrees and takes the key to save the women, but ignores the old man's cry for help and lets him slip down the beast's throat. You could say "well, it's to pad out his harem, you wouldn't put the old guy in there" but the previous scene where he totally disses the girls as he gets out of bed from their threesome gives the impression that he takes no enjoyment from sex either. It's as if for every human interaction that slips through for the purpose of defining his situation or setting up the next scene in the story, he has to be a monsterous asshole in the exact same scene to reinforce what a badass jaded anti-hero he is. It goes to the point of not making any sense, his actions just seem arbitrary and absurd. To be charitible I could say it seems more like the loss of his family destroyed his humanity except for the occasional flickering ember. Actually, that sounds sort of awesome, but it's not a man.

The ability to walking into a situation and own it with nothing but bare hands is EXACTLY why I picked Snake as my counterexample to Kratos, I totally agree with that as a necessary condition for any ultimate level of manliness.