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A new wave of outrage is circulating on Twitter. Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is being criticized for Rose Belmont being insufficiently attractive. Hades II was also dredged up as an example of a game with unattractive characters in the same style, prompting the lead artist of the latter to clarify she wasn't responsible for Castlevania.
I personally do not think every woman in a videogame has to be designed as goon fuel, like Aerith and Tifa in the remake, 2B or half the cast of Overwatch. What surprises me is the ferocity with which the supporters of Hades and BC defend the artwork and decry the label of "safe horny" (which, as I understand, means technically, but not viscerally, attractive).
Hypothesis 1: they sincerely prefer this style and cannot understand why anyone would not like it. Maybe it's a learned preference.
Hypothesis 2: it's a form of "every woman is a 10" defense. They cannot say they wanted to have more diverse levels of attractiveness in games, because they implicitly agree that attractiveness can be ranked by saying it, and agreeing to this is very chud-coded.
Hypothesis 3: because some of the hecklers said the women in both games look trans, they cannot backtrack without losing face, because this would mean agreeing that transwomen are less attractive.
https://x.com/Schlock_Ness/status/2111728192113217959/photo/1 Here's the picture people are objecting to.
I don't play these games so I don't care but I agree this looks like a trans male. The dead gaze has school shooter vibes. Which would annoy me if it was my franchise. The only game where I've personally not played it because the characters were ugly was new world, but thats an MMO where your character is supposed to represent you and your experience in that world
I think there's something a little off about her in this image, but it's not 'trans' by any stretch. I think maybe her head is a bit small compared to the rest of her body? That's all I can pinpoint. Very weird that people read this as trans.
Muscular redheads just don’t hit the same since the Cornell scandal. Poor girl ruined an entire phenotype.
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For what it's worth, that image definitely pings my trans-dar.
The hands and arms are very large; the neck is covered; there's not much of a waist; the face is a little on the angular side. The most charitable interpretation I can think of is that cartoon heroines have traditionally been exageratedly feminine and this one is not.
The arms are definitely not large. Even for an athletic female I consider them thin, never mind what you would typically see on an athletic male build. I can agree with the small waist, but that's about it.
Arms are okay. In my opinion, the
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I disagree, but anyway, what about the hands? Doesn't the person's right hand look very large to you?
The obviously corruption-infested right hand? Why wouldn't it be larger than normal?
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