Bikini Armor Battle Damage

Poking fun at risks of being a half-naked Strong Warrior Woman. Home of the Female Armor Bingo card

[ravangie]

She's back with a vengeance 🔥🗡💔🏰💥

More of Princess Charming here

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

What I never expected to feature on our blog is gender-flipped Shrek fanart, but can't say I'm complaining. Prince Charming does indeed translate beautifully into a warrior woman, full plate armor included.

Makes you go "I support women's rights and also wrongs."

~Ozzie

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

An important quote from the video:

But an important clarification to make is that the difference between men and women's body issues is that men's are not primarily driven by cultural backlash but market opportunity, baby (2:53)

~Ozzie

That's been pretty topical lately due to a "looksmaxxing" influencer Clavicular being visibly on the verge of complete collapse with lawsuits, drug overdoses and multiple tantrums where he walks out on interviews (but weirdly not the one with Piers Morgan, who claims to be more attractive than him).

But, more relevant to games, there's currently a hilarious situation where the "why did you make women ugly" crowd is at least one of them (specifically one who led a charge over Ciri's face) recently got paid to sell up objectively ugly bikini armor for a terrible game made by a shitty reactionary (also after their art lead promised it's not about using horny for marketing).

(For extra context, the CEO who insists "modern audiences" don't exist is primarily making bad knockoffs of the critically acclaimed, super financially successful and generally awesome Dark Souls games.)

We also had Code Violet, an objectively terrible game that "no ugly chicks in my games" don't want to recognize as terrible.

Truly, those who assign supernatural significance and powers to arbitrary and capricious beauty standards are the worst enemies of both their hobbies and themselves.

– wincenworks

[the-cytherean]

They say the ancient elves could craft armour so powerful that it barely had to cover anything to work.

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Think of the agility bonuses! Think of the empowerment!

Now this is an elven champion who would repel the hordes!

– wincenworks

[eschergirls]

Donate to fund Ami's robotic mesh rectopexy repair in Madrid, Spain, organized by Ami Angelwings

Hi I'm Ami Angelwings, you may know me as the person who runs… Ami Angelwings needs your support for fund Ami's robotic mesh rectopexy repai

As I mentioned previously, I am getting surgery for a debilitating health condition I've been dealing with 14 months (dragged out because of doctors' misdiagnoses) that's basically destroyed my quality of life. I'm in pain daily.

Unfortunately, the surgery can't be done in Canada because it requires expertise (details in the GFM). Also because I'm trans there are surgeons who just don't want to take my case or are prohibited by their hospital from doing it (a US surgeon was going to operate but was stopped by her hospital considering it "gender affirming care").

So I have to go to Madrid for it which will cost €40,000 (approx $60,000 CAD, Canadian Dollars). I don't expect to raise all $60,000, but I am trying to raise half of it ($30,000). My family will be helping with the other half,

I don't really expect to get the $30,000, because it's a LOT of money, but I'm in a desperate situation and in pain every single day. If you could donate anything or even just boost and share to any platforms/communities you can, it would help me so much. <

I don't like asking for money and I don't like using EG to fund raise, and I know it's a tough time for everybody right now economically, but as I said I'm desperate, so I hope you all understand me using my platform for this.

If you want more details on what my condition and surgery are, they're in the GoFundMe post. I'd appreciate any help anybody can give.

You are welcome to share the link wherever you want.

Thank you,

Ami Angelwings <3

Edit: if you're getting an infinite loading screen after trying to donate, the solution is apparently to turn off your adblocker.

Alternatively, you can PayPal me at https://paypal.me/amiangelwings and I'll add you as an offline donor on GFM! (also thank you)

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Taking a break from our usual content to help a friend in need!

Ami is godmother of BABD, on account of @eschergirls being direct inspiration and also the mutual friend who connected us with each other. She is a wonderful person, and has been doing great work educating and encouraging people since the days of LiveJournal.

To anyone who's in a position to, please donate! And everyone please spread the word!

~Ozzie & - wincenworks

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

The UnHorny Valley

So, lately we came across this shitpost by @wyrmforge which provides us with some helpful vocabulary for a lot of stuff BABD talked about over the years.

While what constitutes "True Pervert Ascension" might vary depending whom you ask (we're partial to the hornyness of Hades games, for example), the UnHorny Valley* is that pit of character design in which "sexy" female character's appearance is dictated by tired tropes/conventions/creepy marketing guys rather then genuine attraction and appreciation of what humans find interesting and hot in others. The moment we slide into this valley is when assumptions of what arouses people are made (like "more tits and ass = sexier") rather than artists genuinely embracing the horny and doing something creative with it.

And as we said many times before, "sex sells" only if you're selling a sexual product, not when using dubiously "sexy" imagery to boost interest in any random thing. So half-heartedly slapping cleavage on a generically pretty action game lady in hopes of selling more copies does read as insincere, manipulative and insulting to the target audience.

~Ozzie

Here's a non-exhaustive list of examples of UnHorny Valley we posted about before: X Blades | Scarlet Blade | Stellar Blade | League of Angels | League of Maidens | Haydee | Applibot games

*The name is a reference to the Uncanny Vallley, a term originating in robotics (and widely used re: character design and computer graphics), which describes something looking close enough to realistic without yet being either real or appealing, creating an eerie sensation in observers (think: robots with mannequin-like faces, overdetailed CGI, AI-generated imagery). For illustrative explainer, check this article: Close But No Cigar by @coelasquid

@wyrmforge (Tart) on: Bluesky/Twitter/Instagram

[ironlily-art]

Ultimate practical solution of boob armor.

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Personally it never stops being funny to this isn't the more popular solution to "how can we have boob and armor" in various media since it's well established that in the real world:

surcoats were a thing, and

many elite would wear stuff like this with a cuirass:

So in fantasy settings where you have access to illusion magic - why would you not sneak in an Uno Reverse? Or y'know, take it to the limit.

– wincenworks

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

I feel like this is probably the clearest mainstream demonstration of how even marketing professionals know that bikini armor and general objectification of bodies (especially women's) is not popular because it works or "sex sells", its popular because it avoids having to engage with the actual product. Or, as it has previously been put - the emergency bikini button.

This is how Netflix markets the collection:

And this is how the first part was marketed before it bombed and once again confirmed that Zack Snyder is not a movie making god, he is a guy who was good at music videos during an era (notice the blurb glosses over Justice League).

"We have Dune/Star Wars at home..."

It turns out people didn't want Dune/Star Wars at home, and without that shorthand, the only thing they can think of to try to sell it robot boobs or the combination of manboobs and uninspired CGI monsters.

Sex sells as a marketing strategy for anything other than sex/porn/erotica/etc is the clearest indicator that your marketing team don't see anything of value in your product either because it's not there, or because they don't understand the appeal.

It is the warning sign that either you need a new approach, or a new marketing team.

– wincenworks

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

So, I thought it'd be fun to look into Marvel Rivals latest update, the Season 7.5 release (back in my day seasons were only integers), the one, the only: Black Cat, aka Felicia Hardy.

Interestingly there was a leak for this, and it looked different:

Much more like she does in the comic, canonical, as the kids might say. Weirdly with the stiletto heels that they opted not to put on the final release... with the cleavage cut that goes into her armpits rather than a natural anchor point, and nipple diamonds.

Also, if you'll indulge me an absolute nerd moment - I note from the video that they went out of their way to give her dumps like a truck.

But real Spider-Man fans know that MJ is the one with the killer butt.

But... why that weird top window that has the bits on the side? Well it seems that it's because in order to use her abilities, Felicia does some @eschergirls bullshit and they wanted to optimize side boob.

And yet, they went out of their way to make sure we see neither ass nor man-boobs on Gambit, a fellow famously sexy master thief. I mean I know he's married now but that didn't stop them from making his wife, Rogue, flaunt both! Where's MY empowerment!?

And yeah, she has an alternative outfit and it's... I can't even.

– wincenworks

[duckbunny]

media literacy includes understanding why a media product was made, to whom it's being sold, and the assumed preferences of its marketing demographic. narrative is not produced or sold in a vacuum.

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Part of that media literacy is also noticing and pointing out when media product is in conflict with itself regarding what it's about, whom is it for and how it's trying to reach its demographic.

As our last week post elaborates on it, sometimes media hinges on some insulting assumptions about its audience and their preferences. That's how we end up with video games trying (and failing) to bite into the market of pornography and gambling rather than doing its own thing. All in pursuit of easy profit (through "sex sells" and/or micro-transactions and/or addictive mechanics rather than providing a decent entertainment product).

~Ozzie

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

There's so much going on in this one, (especially with the evil is sexy trope) but mostly I want to talk about it in terms of this weird trend I've noticed with many game publishers like Kalypso Media.

For those not aware, Kalypso Media is a publisher who work mostly with Realms Forge Studio to release the same game over and over, and buying licenses of old games so they can re-release them and/or release sequels as another avenue of making the same game over and over. Dungeons 4 (with its 4 DLC like Double Trouble) and sits alongside Tropico 7, Sudden Strike 5, and double digit Railway Empire games.

This approach necessitates that this core portfolio of games is not especially demanding - in fact a lot of them just leave "system requirements" blank on PC advertising because if you can run Windows 10 and Steam, you can probably run the game.

So what is Dungeons 4? And what does the gameplay look like? Do you expect it to be a dating sim graphic novel where you must choose which of these dark elves you marry?

We'll you're in for disappointment because the core gameplay is looks like a cheaper version of other inexplicably sexy marketing offender, League of Legends. At least they made a token effort with the boys, thought I think they're still not fully empowered.At least they made a token effort with the boys, thought I think they're still not fully empowered.

I'm not convinced this is helpful advertising from a customer information perspective. I recognize this is a long tradition in video games, but at least back in the 80s we were more honest about it and frankly, more creative and more hliarious when you compared to the predictable product. (ht: videogamehistory)

–wincenworks

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Games Are Losing The Attention War With Gambling And OnlyFans

A new industry report paints a harsh picture of gaming's present challenges and future prospects for growth

I want to open with some joke about this is the future that gooners and executives want, but this is ultimately the inevitable outcome of leaning into "sex sells" and incorporating gambling elements into games.

Actual sex products and actual gambling will always offer a more compelling "grown up" alternative to games that substitute gooner material for design and teach kids the thrill of gambling (but without a chance to win something of actual value).

Also notable that most of the data on this article comes from Matthew Ball, who also cites some real recent stand out victories in games and well, here's the slide.

Not a battle thong in sight, it's almost like break out successes which do lean into the sexy heroine tropes - like say Bayonetta and Nier: Automata are the exception, not the rule, and the market for games is complex and ever shifting. There are no silver bullets, and "sexy lady pose sexy but no do the sex" will certainly never be one.

The answer is also, obviously, not to outlaw sex work. Rather it is to abandon these old myths and the ultra-corporatisation of game design (which invariably keeps old myths around because of certain types of people) and think of them as opportunities.

The opportunity to tell a compelling and/or confusing story, the opportunity to challenge your reflexes and resolve, the opportunity to feel your heart break in a safe environment.

Or like... be a drug dealer apparently.

My point being that the problem of studios finding themselves competing with gambling is entirely due to them making games with the purposes of milking dollars though manufactured discontent.

The competition with actual sex workers is due to them pandering to an audience who been leaning so hard into the absurd objectification of women and open misogyny as their coping strategies so long they openly claim they can't play games that aren't loaded with it.

Hence why they obsessed over Stellar Blade for a few weeks, heralding it as the new champion of the culture wars - then stopped caring. it's why they can't enjoy regular sexy in otherwise good games.

This is a problem that the worst people in the industry created for themselves. Let us hope that the fallout removes the bad actors.

– wincenworks

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

We've talked quite a lot about not only the inherent sexism of assuming women's feet are made for high-heeled shoes, but also how way too many character designers never saw high heels up close, let alone worn them before forcing them onto female action heroes. Obligatory reference to the saga of us observing the obvious fact that not only Samus Aran needs no heels, the ones she was put in would make no sense on any human foot.

So, for the curious about the minutia of actual real life high heel shoe designs and failure points that modern manufacturers perpetuate, here's a very informative video from fashion historian and shoemaker, Nicole Rudolph.

~Ozzie

See also: “why can’t female heroes kick arse in heels?” | this article about why preservation of feminine aesthetic (including footwear) makes stuntwomen's jobs harder than their male counterparts'.

[murrzstudio]

Tonight’s chapter on Webtoon

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Murrz - Ep. 196 - Armor Gender Swap

Come along with Murrz and her ridiculous life full of jokes, cats, school, and learning to navigate the 21st century.

Where's the lie?

Check the entire comic to also see what the female armor looks like (hint: it's worthy of our positive examples).

~Ozzie

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

The whole video is pretty good commentary on character design misconceptions, but the "Context fixes everything" section particularly relates to BABD and the evergreen issue of using Thermian argument rhetoric to justify nonsensical character looks.

Here's a crucial part (timestamp: 34:03, emphasis mine):

Context can only take you so far. And good context won't save a bad or confusing design. Context that doesn't really do anything in the clarity department certainly won't. Your job as a creator is to help your audience understand what hey're looking at. Leaving them with questions for a while isn't an awful thing to do, and sometimes you're going to have to leave them with questions for the sake of your story. But the more the questions stack up, the less that your audience is going to be able to follow. If the vast majority of your design is illegible without a thorough understanding of your worldbuilding, it might be time to reconsider how you went about it. 

So no, telling someone "you have to play the entire game/watch the show/read the comic before you judge how that character looks!" isn't going to change their minds about how bad a character/costume design is out of context. It never changed ours.

~Ozzie

[pantmonger]

Real life bias and prejudice were responsible for some of the problematic elements enshrined in the bones of settings we otherwise love. It stands to reason that current real life concerns constitute a valid reason for those things to change. Or. Why FemCustodes and combat wheelchairs are good.

Back when a lot of our long running and beloved franchises were penned, there were a lot of unexamined biases floating about that became ingrained. From Gygaxes women don't game, to shops reporting there is no desire for fem mini in the wargmaning community. To generic white guy becoming a circular logic stand in for protag (Lets almost exclusively focus on generic white guys, and eye candy fem, hey looks like mainly generic white guys are interested in our games. Other folk must dislike gaming)

This means those setting have a baked in, real life induced, bias. Yet as we have moved on, started examining those biases more closely. Started to understand how we were perpetuating the problem. Started to realise that excusing it as 'What can you do, its the lore. It was a different time' doesn’t really cut the mustard when you are still building on that externally influenced foundation. Lore is not a special gem, crafted in a vacuum free from external bigotries. If real life was allowed to influence the settings then, no reason it should not be allowed to do so again now. Any work of fiction can be altered by the addition of new fiction after all.

Examining areas were this kind of bias is present and correcting for it, should be of concern for any ongoing franchise. GW have been stepping up, making sure a broader array of skin tones are more commonly represented in their art and minis. Adding FemCustodes removed a narratively irrelevant gender bias. Space marines remain the elephant in the room and as long as they are both: the flagship and gender locked, a lot of other changes are going to feel a bit token. DnD also stepped up doing similar with its diversity and removing problematic language. The last big 'outrage' in the faux culture war around DnD was the inclusion of the combat wheelchair. In a setting were high level healing magic is NOT available to common folk or low level adventurers. Where abilities like 'blind fighting' allow a fighter to overcome blindness and be better then a sighted character (cause Daredevil is cool). Having a wheelchair with some mods to overcome terrain difficulties, was the bridge too far for some internet warriors. A weird selfish reaction that amounted to: I don't care if this totally optional addition I'm not forced to include in my games makes the marginalised feel included, my limit imagination cant parse it, so no one should be allowed to have it! A reaction that should never be pandered to.

Which brings me back around to the point of this ramble. There are a million ways you can justify these changes in setting, fiction is fiction. And given that these fictions were subject to real life sensibilities at the time, it is completely justified for real life concerns around inclusion and representation to be the exclusive reason changes are made now. People puffing out their chests and demanding that there needs to be a good in universe reason for changes to the sacred lore, are ignoring through ignorance or deliberate bad faith, how it was formed in the first place. Often to excuse/obfuscate their own unexamined biases or straight up bigotries. Changes don't need 'in setting' drivers before they are allowed to happen. That can get crafted after the decision and as part of the inclusion. If you like the setting and world building up to then, there is no reason to assume it will not be handled with equal care.

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Back when a lot of our long running and beloved franchises were penned, there were a lot of unexamined biases floating about that became ingrained. From Gygaxes women don't game, to shops reporting there is no desire for fem mini in the wargmaning community.

This is such a fascinating part, considering the infamous "Dark Dungeons" Chick Tract (evangelical propaganda comic) from the 80s satanic panic era had a far more diverse idea of what a TTRPG group looks like than actual designers of the real games had.

(Wow, a mixed gender group with female game master, in 1984! Not that it means much, considering the "lesson" here was LITERALLY that Dungeons and Dragons is work of the devil and will make you evil or suicidal).

~Ozzie

The female custodes captain is now canon, and everyone loves her.

Also it's probably worth pointing out that while Games Workshop has not exactly been at the cutting-edge of progressive its entire time, the early Warhammer products were satire of Thatcherism and often quite blatant about it. Warhammer 40K is satire in the same vein as Judge Dredd.

So yeah, making the modern "classic liberal" (ie pro-sexism, pro-homophobia, pro-racism, pro-racism, pro-imperialism) crowd cry is the company returning the best of its roots. More please.

This also feels like a good time to point out that while early D&D did not have diverse creators, it did have diverse characters. Azure Bonds (1988) by Jeff Grub & Kate Novak is set in a very European inspired area of a fantasy land, stars a female warrior and features a heroic Arab-coded mage (both of whom appear in the video game tie in). In Elminster: Making of a Mage (1994), by the legendary Ed Greenwood, the titular character spends time living as a woman, in a female body, for reasons of personal growth. Old school D&D had plenty of ways for a character to lose an eye, or a limb, and keep on ticking on.

The objections to this only really begun when the player base started advocating for better representation, and input from creators who matched the demographics. That pushback is suspicious, since even the controversial Oriental Adventures (1985) encouraged players to be respectful and try to learn about the cultures depicted.

As a side note, if you're interested in the bizarre and worrying record of questionable decisions in D&D history, I highly recommend The Slovenly Trulls.

– wincenworks

[ladillados]

[kontrollsysteme]

we’ve gone from the yee haw agenda to the ye olde thot programme

[lloerwyn-deactivated20201104]

Ah yes, those slutty slutty Landsknecht shorts:

[petermorwood]

The bare-legged / hot-pants look was fairly common, since the whole point about being a Landsknecht (or Reislaufer, their Swiss equivalent) was to look outrageous.

Most period illustrations of Landsknechts are black-and-white woodcuts…

…though in 1905 a book called „Geschichte des Kostüms“ - History of Costume - assembled a bunch of black-and-whites and added colour.

If they look excessively gaudy, they’re not, because these next prints were coloured in-period by an artist called Erhard Schön, and it’s fair to assume he was representing what he saw.

In short - or in shorts - those reenactor costumes are spot on. :->

[brightwanderer]

Something mentioned nowhere in this post that I have just learned from googling: these guys were not Ye Olde Medieval Dandies. They were 15th-16th century mercenaries. Pretty hardcore, too. They were exempt from sumptuary laws (ie the rules that said you couldn’t wear certain colours or cloth or styles) and apparently their response to that was technicolour thotpants.

[tuulikki]

I was complaining earlier about costuming in both “historical” settings and in fantasy/scifi. This is exactly what I mean when I say a knowledge of actual history would enrich the conceptual creative palette for things like “hardcore mercenary outfits.”

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

I dedicate this reblog to all the nerdbros who conflate "historical accuracy" with "no women, queerness and people of color" and "white men with swords looking boring and serious". Reality is so much more colorful and interesting than that!

BTW, one of the ways you can tell this is Renaissance-era fashion are the prominent codpieces. Once again, sexy male warriors with bared skin and dick bulges are literally more accurate than sexy female warriors with boob armor.

~Ozzie

note: OP blog of this post features NSFW content. Viewer discretion is advised.

[lesbinewren]

crazy how every time a female character gets cliche misogynistic writing we have to explain to people again that fictional characters are not real and do not choose things for themselves.

[lesbinewren]

it’s really this at the end of the day tbh

[chatteringfox]

[Image description: Tweet by Bae Blade (@ Spinny_3000) reading: The greatest stumbling block to media literacy is how many people think of stories as just documentaries of fictional worlds. /End ID]

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

@lesbinewren hid some gems in the tags:

#criticizing the writing around a character is not the same as criticizing them as a person or the choices they make #mostly bc again. they are not a real person that makes choices #stories are a collection of choices by the writer(s) meant to say something or have an effect on you in some way

In short, it's the ever-topical Thermian Argument.

Can confirm. This blog has been around for nearly 13 years and what comes back as rhetoric over and over again is people willfully ignorant of the fact that no female character "chooses" how silly and misogynistic her clothes are for the context of her story/setting/role.

~Ozzie

This is also a common strategy of dude bros and related reactionaries in trying to prevent progress in established worlds, brands, etc. The idea that "established lore must be sacrosanct", and therefore:

Warhammer 40,000 can never have female space marines and Games Workshop must retcon female custodes.*

Hitman must forever uphold the grindhouse/exploitation style of the early games, and can never evolve and expand.

Red Sonja had the battle bikini for an arbitrary number of issues so must always have it (or at least her leaving it must be a saga).

All of which ignores the obvious:

Reality that these and all other fiction properties have retcons, continuity issues, contrivances, convenient coincidents, artistic license and just plain old mistakes.

The same people are very supportive when a creator such as Yoko Taro admits that same design decisions like 2B looking like a Sexbot 9000 are purely whimsical ("I just like girls").

– wincenworks

* Don't worry, we're aware of the recent updates to the franchise and a post devoted to that is on the way.