Preface
First, I must clear the obvious bias. I am an artist, in particular, a booby artist. I have always enjoyed sexy girls in my media, and I'm sure many of you do too. They come in many shapes and sizes, but they are attractive nonetheless. I certainly enjoy them on the... exaggerated end (of the likes of Senran Kagura), but it doesn't mean I can't appreciate modest characters such as Lady Emma from Sekiro; beautiful, gentle, yet deadly. I hope this thread flows well, and makes sense.
The obvious bias of me being a booby artist aside, I believe we should understand that hot girls have simply been the frontline of the attack on enjoyable media. You are probably aware of how sexy/curvy/busty/cute/loli girls are being censored by the mainstream industry. However, few people willingly speak out and take action against preserving their portrayals in media. You may remember quite prominently in recent years, Xenoblade 2 by MonolithSoft came particularly under fire for its character designs. Pyra (Homura in JP) and a few of the Blades (snow bunny Dahlia) received special attention for being sexist/problematic/obscene/whatever terms the
This thread came out because of the recent Xenoblade Chronicles 3 reveal on February 9, 2022, where the revealed characters had notably less attractive features (see this thread, courtesy of Ene on the Pleroma). I love Xenoblade, but I am legitimately worried about it being released in the current industry climate. Our sentiments are not unfounded; attractive girls are being covered up and sometimes outright nerfed.
Lots of mixed opinions, it seems.
So what other problems do western moral busybodies have to invent?
Final Fantasy VII Remake; Mental Illness, Neurodivergence, and Extremism
Perhaps you've already seen it, but I present to you "Why Final Fantasy VII remake part II should tone down sephiroth's madness" (archive link) by CBR. TLDR: Instead of making him descend into madness, they want him to be a victim of brainwashing.
Here are a few quotes I picked out to comment on.
Cue obnoxious parallels to real world mental illness and politics.
Some of you may already know what they're trying to say.For some neurodivergent players, this equating of mental problems with moral wickedness can be an uncomfortable storytelling device.
The entire article reeks of trying to utilize the "alt-right" boogeyman. It's propaganda at it's finest.However, it's that imperialism that provides a solution to the problem: instead of characterizing Sephiroth as losing his mind, FFVII Remake should portray him as someone radicalized into extremism.
Something something funny mustache man.Real-world fascism and other extreme ideologies are frequently motivated by similarly racist pseudoscience, and people being fooled by their propaganda is a growing concern throughout the world. Sephiroth may lack their political goals, but he doesn't necessarily need them: the horror story of a young man with few bonds or aspirations embracing such evil to fill his emotional void is scary enough on its own.
They want to completely rewrite Sephiroth for their own agenda. Sure, it's a "remake" and not a "remaster," so you could be pedantic and argue it's techincally not obligated to be faithful. But what would an avid FF7 fan feel if things were way too different from what they originally remembered? It would be a "rewrite," effectively, and that is important to recognize. If you love FF7, you should be dismissing this vehemently.
Glory Kills
What else are they going after? Well, your glorious glory kills! Here is an article titled "Do glory kills need to calm the hell down?" (archive link) featuring PCGamer vs Doom & various shooters (the short answer is no, and the long answer is nooooooooo). TLDR: Glory kills get ranked by brutality in 7 different shooters, with undertones of being overwhelmed by them and generally being condescending. This section is a bit more for me to make fun of the writer, but please bear with me.
This article is interesting because it targets glory kills. It seems to be this sentiment is more geared towards the intimacy that is evoked when you perform a glory kill/assassination. Glory kills are deeper than just finishing off an opponent; it's you getting personal, and sometimes they intentionally make yourself vulnerable (applicable to PVP shooters, not DOOM) for extra impact. In my opinion, the writer got owned too much on Halo, and while playing Far Cry, decided to use glory kills as the catalysts to whine about them. Now, while glory kills can be violent, the victim plays a large role. See the diference in attitude between DOOM and Far Cry:
Far Cry:
DOOM:So it was a bit weird the first time I performed a glory kill in which my character slammed a machete blade through some poor lady soldier's temple. Her face is a mixture of shock and agony, which at least seems like an accurate response.
At which point I felt it fair to wonder: Are glory kill designers okay?
In a game that sits tonally somewhere between earnest and a bit silly, including kill moves that could fit comfortably in Manhunt, Rockstar's 2003 masterpiece of sadistic brutality, seems a bit odd.
Which makes sense. It takes the humanity (literally) out of the glory kill, which makes it easier to stomach. But it sounds to me the writer is especially complaining about glory killing a female in Far Cry. It was just an excuse to tone down glory kills in games so he didn't feel bad ending a women. Knowing how many of these talentless individuals find themselves in game journalism, it's the perfect place to push his agenda. Well, the world is equal now, isn't it? Why shouldn't you enjoy glory killing a female NPC as much as you do a male NPC? They really just want no fun for any of us. Glory kills are part of these games; when you get the jump on someone, you really want to let them know it. In the case of DOOM, glory killing left and right makes you feel badass; you are the Doomslayer of legend. FPS fans should be fighting to keep these in their games.Secondly, you’re fighting demons. There’s a slim chance they have families and hobbies and career aspirations and favourite hedgehog gifs, but it seems unlikely. Nobody gives a witch’s tit about how horribly they die. And, because of that, smashing them into meat paste feels like you’re doing humanity a kindness.
Bonus: The passage on Titanfall 2 was personal to me.
No, you wood-for-brains. It's about continuing and living up to the legacy of a pilot the main character looked up to and was under the tutelage of. The circumstances throws him into the Frontier War, and he becomes a pilot from an underdog position. This writer has no idea what he's talking about.Titanfall 2 is, in its mechanical heart, a game about a sad man making friends with a lovely robot.
Gore (Sorta)
It's just the beginning. Martha is Dead was recently censored on PS4 and PS5 (Twitter post by WiredProductions). The removed scene featured cutting around the circumference and removing the face of a dead woman and peeling it off. However, even more violent (and more detailed, mind you) and gory portrayals exist in Mortal Kombat, that is not censored by Sony (Tweet by user @Fishyy_boi). Martha is Dead even subdues the gore by making the flesh of the face pitch black in the darkness. Even more notoriously, The Last of Us 2 features lots of gory scenes, but the game is met with appraisal, rather than retribution. This topic is kind of in the air because some gore is censored, and some isn't. Regardless, it still happened. Gore in the case of horror games isn't for me (horror games in general), but if you love horror games, you should be actively championing keeping your horror... horrible... yknow?
Funnily enough, Martha is Dead is walled off by an Adult Content warning. It's like the parents buying GTA for their 8 year olds and complaining about the adult nature.
It's Just the Beginning
It won't stop at sexy or cute girls in your media; it will continue to expand. If you haven't picked up on it yet, or you even think that erotic girls should be watered down, you should reconsider. You can think of it this way: as the frontline, if all the attractive (not even sexy/erotic) girls are gone, those who enjoy them won't be there to help defend what you love being censored since their fight has been lost. I don't mean it to be a threat, but people don't understand that censorship will eventually come for them, even if they are second place in the queue.
Another thing to consider is how many studios are beginning to censor at the source. This makes it harder for us to argue that censorship happened, because there was no retroactive change. Instead, the studios are just telling their designers to tone things down before anything gets developed. If in the case of Xenoblade 3 the character designs are proven to truly and genuinely meld into the new setting, I can forgive it. But deep down, I feel that Mastatsugu Saito was told to tone things down. Maybe I'll be vindicated one day... but we have 7 months until the release. Only time will tell.
Also, don't take my ranting as a statement for sexy and erotic girls in everything. For something more topical (what with Netflix trying to make a dead-on-arrival LOTR adaptation), I actually appreciate that the Peter Jackson adapatation of the Fellowship of the Ring (the iconic trilogy movies for The Lord of the Rings) does not have erotic portrayals of women (unlike Game of Thrones). It's grand fantasy for everyone, which I believe was Tolkein's vision. He didn't want to utilize sex to sell, even though Arwen and Galadriel were definitely beautiful. In my opinion, LOTR was more about the awe of fantasy and revel for mystery. Hence why, going back to Xenoblade 3, there is an argument to be made about intentional design. However, this is the modern entertainment industry; I don't trust it. I see a reduction (meaning there was before) in cute girls -even a bit-, I become suspicious. And by the way Xenoblade 1/DE and X still had hot girls; look at Fiora, Sharla, Ga Buidhe, and Goetia. Goetia tbh not that hot... forgettable dominatrix villain alien woman with tentacles and tits... yeah...
Now sure, it was just a few articles from media sites you probably don't care about. But they reach far more than us; the normies. That sentiment will be repeated and heard, and the aspects of entertainment media that make them good in the first place will slowly fade away. Sexy girls were just the first on the chopping block; more are next. Find the resolve to defend the niches you love from censorship, even your own fandoms.
I hope this thread was enjoyable or thoughtful, or both.