Anon2024
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Before I begin this post, I want to state a caveat that beauty itself is in the eye of the beholder and we all have different standards... but with that said...
There are too many ugly female characters in western games right now that are being marketed as attractive. Look, I'm not trying to practice lookism, but this is something that I've thought about when comparing story characters in multiple fictions, and multiple mediums.
Asian stories, whether Japanese or Chinese value beauty in their characters a great deal. Western video game developers, and to an extent the new media seem to value making women look ugly, but at the same time treating them as they're beautiful even if they're butt ugly... However, what I want to point out is that an ugly female character can be compelling and interesting if they could actually accept the fact that the character is ugly and think more about how the character is rather than pushing some stereotype.
I'll give an example.
Last of Us 2
Spoilers ahead:
I guess my point is that a game like Fable, or some other game where ugly characters act 'cute' doesn't suit it the character well. It feels more like the developer is trying to change beauty standards or shame people for appreciating beauty, rather than trying to write a compelling narrative since the majority of characters these days are the generic charismatic type.
As for the other types of stories.
I've noticed that in Chinese novels:
- Male characters are always tall and good looking.
- They're always tall and good looking in western video games too.
- The male character lacks wealth and status, so good looks in this can be considered 'virtue' in some way
Thus there isn't really anything different between western and eastern media when it comes to males.
However, in Chinese novels with female protagonists. She's almost always this beauty that makes everyone jealous. It's kind of hilarious how cliche it is...
But, in a sense it also shows how much tastes have changed.
I think in the early 00's the male Japanese Lead wasn't good looking and somehow got the beautiful girl, same with a lot of American movies/shows where the male lead was kind of a loser and got the girl he wanted.
Makes me wonder if we're going in the direction of a loser ugly girl getting the handsome white knight these days. I see that a lot on korean manwha written for females.
I don't know, just some observations and wanting to know what others might be thinking of it.
Granted, you might think those female characters I find ugly to be beautiful... so it might be a completely different discussion.
There are too many ugly female characters in western games right now that are being marketed as attractive. Look, I'm not trying to practice lookism, but this is something that I've thought about when comparing story characters in multiple fictions, and multiple mediums.
Asian stories, whether Japanese or Chinese value beauty in their characters a great deal. Western video game developers, and to an extent the new media seem to value making women look ugly, but at the same time treating them as they're beautiful even if they're butt ugly... However, what I want to point out is that an ugly female character can be compelling and interesting if they could actually accept the fact that the character is ugly and think more about how the character is rather than pushing some stereotype.
I'll give an example.
Last of Us 2
Spoilers ahead:
So I know a lot of people hated this game because it killed off a fan favorite character named Joel and Neil Druckman was kind of an idiot in the way he marketed it.
Personally, I hated the marketing and wasn't a fan of how the rival of Ellie who killed Joel (whose name I have forgotten looked). By traditional beauty standards, she's not pretty at all, but I found her to be a very compelling character despite that.
Angry at Joel killing her father who was going to operate on Ellie, the other side of the firefly story, it was quite literally a good compelling reason to take revenge, even if most of us took Joel's side in part 1 having played it. Over the course of the game, it was never pushed that she was somehow attractive, and except for her boyfriend who might just like girls who look like her (everyone has different beauty standards), no one was dropping off to try and hit on her.
Granted, one would have to like revenge stories and all the complex emotions that go with it to enjoy this game (I obviously enjoy revenge quite a bit as well as all the fall out from it as long as I feel it's somehow justified), but overall she was a three dimensional character who had her own perspective and despite in my opinion being ugly, was a good character that made the narrative enjoyable.
Personally, I hated the marketing and wasn't a fan of how the rival of Ellie who killed Joel (whose name I have forgotten looked). By traditional beauty standards, she's not pretty at all, but I found her to be a very compelling character despite that.
Angry at Joel killing her father who was going to operate on Ellie, the other side of the firefly story, it was quite literally a good compelling reason to take revenge, even if most of us took Joel's side in part 1 having played it. Over the course of the game, it was never pushed that she was somehow attractive, and except for her boyfriend who might just like girls who look like her (everyone has different beauty standards), no one was dropping off to try and hit on her.
Granted, one would have to like revenge stories and all the complex emotions that go with it to enjoy this game (I obviously enjoy revenge quite a bit as well as all the fall out from it as long as I feel it's somehow justified), but overall she was a three dimensional character who had her own perspective and despite in my opinion being ugly, was a good character that made the narrative enjoyable.
I guess my point is that a game like Fable, or some other game where ugly characters act 'cute' doesn't suit it the character well. It feels more like the developer is trying to change beauty standards or shame people for appreciating beauty, rather than trying to write a compelling narrative since the majority of characters these days are the generic charismatic type.
As for the other types of stories.
I've noticed that in Chinese novels:
- Male characters are always tall and good looking.
- They're always tall and good looking in western video games too.
- The male character lacks wealth and status, so good looks in this can be considered 'virtue' in some way
Thus there isn't really anything different between western and eastern media when it comes to males.
However, in Chinese novels with female protagonists. She's almost always this beauty that makes everyone jealous. It's kind of hilarious how cliche it is...
But, in a sense it also shows how much tastes have changed.
I think in the early 00's the male Japanese Lead wasn't good looking and somehow got the beautiful girl, same with a lot of American movies/shows where the male lead was kind of a loser and got the girl he wanted.
Makes me wonder if we're going in the direction of a loser ugly girl getting the handsome white knight these days. I see that a lot on korean manwha written for females.
I don't know, just some observations and wanting to know what others might be thinking of it.
Granted, you might think those female characters I find ugly to be beautiful... so it might be a completely different discussion.
