What is with this game and half-naked women as bosses?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Can't wait for 3.5 so everyone can complain about the usual again.

[Archvile78]

Can't wait for 3.5 so everyone can complain about the usual again.

Next up, we complain about the very curvaceous female boss of Dun Scaith. Please look forward to it.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

Next up, we complain about the very curvaceous female boss of Dun Scaith. Please look forward to it.

You mean this thread is not about that?

[LineageRazor]

I think the question should be less about "why there are so many sexy female bosses?" and more long the lines of "why, when a boss is female, does she have to be sexy?"

To be fair, a lot of the designs for primals and stuff are steeped in Final Fantasy tradition, leaving not a lot of room to change them. For example, Shiva's appearance as a sexy blue lady has been a thing as far back as FFIII, and given that her presence in this game is catering to Final Fantasy nostalgia, they didn't have a lot of wiggle room. Ditto Garuda and Sophia, even if their history in the series isn't quite as deep.

The fact that we even have these artifacts, though, is indicative of a double standard that's pretty nearly as old as recorded history. Male figures in myth, legend, and storytelling typically have their strength and prowess as their central characteristics, and while they may be handsome as well, they don't have to be. Female figures, on the other hand, are typified as beautiful, and while they may have strength and prowess, they don't have to. Exceptions to this, men who are handsome but not particularly skilled, or women who are powerful but unattractive, are rare to the point that they are extremely notable when they happen. As TVTropes puts it, Men Act, Women Are. Also Men Are Strong, Women Are Pretty.

While modern storytelling has gotten a whole lot better about presenting skilled and powerful females, it's had a VERY rough time divorcing itself from the "beautiful" requirement. Essentially, women can and should have prowess and strength - but they ALSO need to be beautiful. Men, on the other hand are still perfectly free to look as though they fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down, and still be presented as appealing, so long as they are also badass.

snip

So women are looking for providers and men are looking for dat ass. It's an explanation, to be sure, but still indicates a pretty vile double standard that is not kind to either gender.

[Aamalthea]

There's a lot of misunderstanding being said in the thread, and I know the OP was just being light hearted with the thread, I figured it would help to have some things explained properly.
I will be making statements about the majority of people, obviously excluding the minority, to help keep things simple, and easier to follow.

While both males and females may like the visuals of the opposite sex, they do so for completely different reasons.
Males are Primarily attracted to physical features of "health" in the female.
Females are primarily attracted visuals that represent qualities of the male. (More so in what the male is capable of doing, or most likely to do from personality)

Most males like wide hips, because it effects childbirth for example.
So its an extremely common trait among men to like.

But for what is "good in a man" is dependent on situation.
What if the situation you're family is in, requires intelligence?
You cant see intelligence in physical body features.
So what a woman likes in men, will always be varied from woman to woman, depending on her living conditions, and what SHE deems to be "good" features to have.
This is why its been much harder for advertising companies to quite nail "the perfect eye candy for women". As you can have half the women loving some muscular male, but the other half, or more, saying they dont like the guy.

Males will find "scantily clad" clothes more appealing for doing 2 things in the end.
(1) Showing off the physical features.
(2) Adding a level of "Daintiness" to the female.

Women will find "well groomed" clothes more appealing than less clothes, as its a sign of his "qualities" as you cant see them outside of muscle.
Which is why half naked men tend to not work. You cant tell how charming he is to interact with, or how intelligent he is by looking at a nude body. You need clothes to represent him. This is why women are primarily attracted to a mans shoes, and then clothes/car more. (Commonly mistaken as just being a gold digger, when in reality, its different)

Also, to clarify on the Daintiness comment.
Women are more inclined to be attracted to protective males, and males are more attracted to females who induce a sense of needing to protect the women.
So the clothes help add to that illusion/feeling in a similar way dress shoes make a guy more attractive to women.

So in the end, the equivalent "Eye candy" for women is not half naked guys.
It's just a visual equivalent.
Only if the male is clothed, AND happens to align himself with her interests, AND wears something to show that off, can he be "eye candy" to her.


And lastly, for my own personal complaint, no, Garuda isnt comparable to Shiva/Goddess, as shes quite inhuman looking with her hooves, and massive claws.
She just tends to show off all the features most males are primarily attracted to, but she has a lot of inhuman features by comparison to the other 2.
As someone else pointed out, Ser Aymeric is a type of eye candy for women. Kind/Warm/Pretty boy. Even Raubahn is eye candy for those who want more muscle/masculine features, with tough, stoic, gentle giant, fierce protector traits, and also Alphinaud for those who want an underage twink girly boy. (Though largely not considered as ok in the US, unless the female is also of the same age.)

I'm posting simply just to repost this again. Also to say of all the mmos I have played over the years (I started long ago with Ultima Online and worked my way through damn near all of them) this is by far the one that has the most "eye candy" for all sexes.

[Averax]

Guess we're going to just ignore all the half naked male NPCs then.

[Mug]

While modern storytelling has gotten a whole lot better about presenting skilled and powerful females, it's had a VERY rough time divorcing itself from the "beautiful" requirement. Essentially, women can and should have prowess and strength - but they ALSO need to be beautiful. Men, on the other hand are still perfectly free to look as though they fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down, and still be presented as appealing, so long as they are also badass..

When I read this, I immediately thought about Brienne of Tarth from the Game of Thrones series, who shows that you can indeed be a popular strong female character without having to be considered stereotypically beautiful.

[Nandalowell]

snip

Personally, I see a half truth in this. Sure in real life I may not be attracted to muscles or half naked men.. Or elves, or catboys, or total jerks, or villians, or knights.. In game though, that is my eye candy. Bring on the half naked elves/catboys/gianthumanoids!

It's not such a cut and dried science of men like this and women like this and that's why this is; I'm not looking for a potential mate in this fictional world, why should I be concerned with how well groomed a CG render is?

[sarehptar]

I think the question should be less about "why there are so many sexy female bosses?" and more long the lines of "why, when a boss is female, does she have to be sexy?"

I can't like your post enough. This whole thread (and some of its cringe-worthy replies) bothered me last night, to the point that I started trying to catalog every confirmed female boss in the game. In terms of diversity, I could (admittedly, off the top of my head) only come up with three female confirmed bosses who don't fit one of the molds of pretty or seductive: the mama bomb from Pharos Sirius HM, the Sabotender queen from Qarn HM, and Calcabrina from Antitower (although she doesn't wear any clothes... for... reasons?). Maybbeee Arachne Eve if we're willing to overlook the fact that her body may be hideous but they still went out of their way to make sure you'd notice her boobs. And maybe Livia if we overlook all other story-related context.

Meanwhile, our confirmed male bosses range incredibly: Ifrit, Zurvan, Titan, Ravana, hell even Bismarck is implied male ("Lord of the Expanse"). We have a male mummy-looking boss, Diabolos, giants, a Tonberry King, Forgall, Ferdiad, Fenrir, Capitan Madison the Kraken-headed, a zombie knight, a Moogle chief, a two-headed Mamool Ja... I could go on.

(Note, I'm leaving off all the dragons from both categories because their genders are picked by preference not by biology, although I think it is great that they didn't break lore to try and make Tioman and Tiamat somehow sexy...)

I agree that 90% of the issue is that a huge number of the bosses are lifted from older FF games when standards for depiction were a lot more rigid, but... Yeah. Whether you mind it or you don't care at all, the diversity in design for female bosses in this game is... bad. That's all you can really say. :/

[SilkaN]

the diversity in design for female bosses in this game is... bad. That's all you can really say. :/

I don't see your problem.
We have a sexy blue ice lady, a sexy grey goddess, a sexy (?) green harpy, sexy snake ladies, a sexy tentacle hair lady, a sexy cloud lady and many more!
I'd call that diverse. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)