The issue I have with Tori
an essay on the issues with tori from ellsworld:
ive always found it odd how tords girl version, tori, was drastically different from him, way more than the other genderbent characters, and not even in a subtle way either.
i remember seeing a quote from tomskas thoughts on his time during legacy that was really interesting to me;
"Eddie was initially very opposed to making a genderswap episode, fearing that any story with the hook of 'eddsworld but they’re girls now' would inevitably wind up being about them being girls. perhaps an overdone battle of the sexes, 'here’s how boys and girls are different' type of story"
and i find this quote particularly interesting considering what they did with tori’s character, because "somehow" they ended up doing exactly that anyway.
she just seems out of character in a way that’s kind of hard to pin down at first, but the more you look at it the more obvious it gets. she’s… nicer. less off-putting. tord is known for being aggressive, selfish, etc, but tori doesn’t really carry that same energy. instead of feeling like a direct counterpart, she feels softened, like they took the “edge” off his personality. and sure, tomska being more involved at the time might explain some differences, but it doesn’t really justify changing the core traits that define the character.
shes also way more sexualized than tord ever was, and sure, eddsworld has never been above making sex jokes, but this is clearly different. this isn’t a “haha teenage boy reads smut” joke, this is a design choice, even if not deliberate.
she’s consistently shown wearing crop tops (with rips or slogans like “dudette”), and those designs go out of their way to exaggerate her body (you dont see tord in crop tops now do you?).
meanwhile tord, the character she’s based on, dresses noticably different, just a normal red hoodie like any of the other guys.
the difference sometimes just seems less like a coincidence and more like its on purpose at times. it puts more focus on her body than her personality, which is… not great when she’s supposed to just be him but gender swapped.
speaking of clothing, even beyond the sexualization, her outfits lean really heavily into being “cute” and stereotypically feminine. and this is where it gets weird, because… why? if she’s literally just tord but as a girl, why does that automatically mean she has to wear softer, cuter clothes?
in one image of her as a zombie shes wearing a hoodie with hearts, pink colors, and a skirt. a skirt. tord has never once in the show been shown to wear anything close to that!
and all of this ends up contradicting that original idea of not making the genderswap “about gender,” because with tori, it sort of is. her personality is softened, her design is sexualized, and her clothing is made more feminine and appealing in a way that the male version never was. instead of feeling like a one-to-one counterpart, she feels like a reinterpretation filtered through “but make her a girl,” which is exactly what they were supposedly trying to avoid.
and if we're being honest here, this isn’t just about tori, it’s a broader issue. female characters are so often pushed into being nicer, cuter, or more visually appealing, even when their male counterparts are allowed to be weird, aggressive, or outright unpleasant. and thats what makes tori stand out so much—because it shows how quickly a character can change when gender gets involved.
all in all, eddsworld really needs to do better at letting female characters be just as unsettling, flawed, or straight up awful as the male ones.
and if they ever made an ellsworld episode where tori is actually in it and they dont change any of this, im hanging myself and all of eddsworld headquarters will know why...
