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

[Shippuu]

Ah yes

All


These


Super


Sexy


Female


Bosses

[LineageRazor]

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.

I actually had Brienne in mind as one of the few, notable exceptions. Though, admittedly, I personally don't care too much for Brienne's personality; she's a bit too bullheaded and uncompromising for my tastes.

1) Exactly where are these half naked women? I don't recollect topless female bosses and certainly none of them forgot to wear something on their bottom half. So, where are all these half naked females?

From what I've seen of use of the term, "half naked" almost NEVER refers to an individual who's completely topless or bottomless. Basically, as long as you're showing more than 50% of your skin, you can be considered half naked. Heck, you can be FULLY CLOTHED in short-shorts and a halter top and still be considered half naked in some settings (for example, a Congresswoman who took the floor wearing such an outfit would certainly be considered so).

Pics snipped

While you dug up some decent counterexamples, I think you'd be disturbingly surprised at how many find her to be pretty hot, if you can look past the fact that she has a flock of wolves for a head. XD Most of the rest are animals that just happen to be female. Igeyorhm is a good pick, much like Livia sas Junius - at least, if Igeyorhm is actually female. I'm not sure that Ascians actually have genders; while we refer to them by the genders of the host bodies they possess, it's unclear whether the Ascians themselves have genders (and even if they do, are they limited to selecting hosts that are the same gender that they are?).

[Parodine]

Ah yes
All

We're talking about gendered bosses with vaguely humanoid features, not 'Lol this Malboro is a girl and not sexy.'

And all the random 'look at the half naked NPC boys!' also are missing it too, womp womp.

I see you OP. Fight the power.

[sarehptar]

We're talking about gendered bosses with vaguely humanoid features, not 'Lol this Malboro is a girl and not sexy.'

Actually, I was talking about all bosses in general, so his point was at least definitely relevant in response to my comment that there's minimal diversity in female boss designs.

I honestly had forgotten about the bug bosses, but it's not like they're a giant step forward in design diversity of female boss fights either. Queen Hawk, Myrmidon Princess, Coeurlregina, Sabotender Imperatriz, Progenitrix, Miser's Mistress--each one of these boss fights prominently features the female boss summoning a crowd of adds to defend her. Now I'm not saying that that's not most fights in the damn game, but yeah, not exactly a hallmark of creativity for the female boss fights.

Well Leviathan is a female traditionally... I certainly assume her to be in this.

Er... Leviathan is definitely male in FFXIV. He's referred to as the "Lord of the Whorl" basically everywhere in game, as opposed to, for example, Garuda's "Lady of the Vortex"...

[Underdog2204]

Er... Leviathan is definitely male in FFXIV. He's referred to as the "Lord of the Whorl" basically everywhere in game, as opposed to, for example, Garuda's "Lady of the Vortex"...

Ah yeah, good point ^^

Shame, prefer Leviathan as a female... Always been one of my faves.

[sarehptar]

Ah yeah, good point ^^

Shame, prefer Leviathan as a female... Always been one of my faves.

I also think a lady leviathan would have been pretty cool. (Which is basically my entire point in this thread.)

[Shippuu]

I think you'd be disturbingly surprised at how many find her to be pretty hot, if you can look past the fact that she has a flock of wolves for a head. XD Most of the rest are animals that just happen to be female. Igeyorhm is a good pick, much like Livia sas Junius - at least, if Igeyorhm is actually female. I'm not sure that Ascians actually have genders; while we refer to them by the genders of the host bodies they possess, it's unclear whether the Ascians themselves have genders (and even if they do, are they limited to selecting hosts that are the same gender that they are?).

I'm not surprised people find Scylla hot, because it's almost like attraction is entirely subjective. But if Scylla counts despite the fact her head is a pack of wolf-heads, and her entire lower body is a wolf body, then every male example people have been making excuses for (sephirot etc. being too inhuman) should also be allowed, because then as long as they have apparently a humanoid torso that's semi-revealing they count because some subset of people will find it attractive.

And Ascians were still people originally, only having transcended in a sense, there's no reason to assume Igeyorhm wasn't originally a female and even then that's trying to make mental gymnastics in an attempt to disqualify them in my opinion.

We're talking about gendered bosses with vaguely humanoid features, not 'Lol this Malboro is a girl and not sexy.'

"vaguely humanoid" then huh?




senselessly exposed midriff















I can probably keep going...

[tjw]

snip

It's almost as if you haven't read this thread in its entirety...

Ask yourself this when you start going on with those tangents. How many of those bosses can you have both the figure for in real life, and how many can you actually cosplay as? Let me know the next time you're able to sprout two extra arms and bulk up your entire upper body to cosplay as Sephirot. Because that's a key difference between the masculine and feminine bosses in FFXIV, that one side is still plenty relatable as a human, while the other is grossly over-exaggerated.

This completely falls apart because there are more than plenty of female gamers who find sexy/attractive female characters to be just as empowering to them as a buff barbarian would be to men..

The problem being exactly that. The target audience, and, in relation to that, the context. MMOs in particular have always had an abundance in male gamers over female gamers, whereas romance novels have been more readily accepted by female readers than male readers. Is it a social construct? Or is it something in our biology that makes the two different genders separate in its ideologies? Who knows. Why can only females participate in sychronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics at the Olympics? Why are construction and mechanical workers predominantly male? Context is very important when we talk about the 'ideal' population for a male or female.

However, in this forum and topic, we are dealing with the gaming context, which constitutes of mainly males. There are obviously men who like the appeal of a masculine body (me included), but the way game industries work prove otherwise. As someone stated before, the one time SE tried making a male less modest in Mobius was instantly met with heated backlash. Things will change in baby steps, however.

Now you're just making up arbitrary restrictions. Who cares what someone can and can't cosplay? Someone can absolutely cosplay Sephirot and do it just fine but it'd be a big undertaking but it's absolutely do-able. Just like plenty of people have cosplayed FFXIV's Garuda, despite the fact she has very non-human anatomy. Last time I checked humans didn't have 5 foot long forearms with 4 giant claws on their hands, with legs that are 2/3rds of their height that end in small almost points. Since when did humans have 4 wings coming out of their backs? Or when did humans have 5 wolf heads instead of a normal head? with a wolf's body for a lower body? You don't have people cosplaying Scylla do you?

So yeah, you can leave with that weak garbage.

Of course, if you're able to cosplay as any of those, more power to you. What it comes down to it is the relative ease, and thus, the more relatable one is to a human figure, that the one being cosplayed is. You mention Garuda. I would say Garuda is far easier to model than Sephirot, as many of Garuda's extra features are not in anyway part of the human body. The only thing Sephirot has that is not part of his body are his wings; his two extra pair of arms, the incredible bulk on them, and demonic features make him already harder to relate to than Garuda, as a humanoid. Key of note that the topic title is 'women', not 'females'.

Yes, people don't cosplay Scylla. Or Belladonna. Or Melusine. Or any other beastial form that will make it impossible to cosplay as. However, there are plenty of Shiva and Garudas. How many people have seen as Xande? Sephirot? Titan? Diablos? Very few, if any. So yes, as much as you post enemies with muscles bulging out of their skin that in no way relatable, I will also make my restrictions based on what typical people can easily relate to. You can...as you say...'leave' with your weak, unrelated, incontextual images and arguments.

[Shippuu]

It's almost as if you haven't read this thread in its entirety...

Ask yourself this when you start going on with those tangents. How many of those bosses can you have both the figure for in real life, and how many can you actually cosplay as? Let me know the next time you're able to sprout two extra arms and bulk up your entire upper body to cosplay as Sephirot. Because that's a key difference between the masculine and feminine bosses in FFXIV, that one side is still plenty relatable as a human, while the other is grossly over-exaggerated.

Now you're just making up arbitrary restrictions. Who cares what someone can and can't cosplay? Someone can absolutely cosplay Sephirot and do it just fine but it'd be a big undertaking but it's absolutely do-able. Just like plenty of people have cosplayed FFXIV's Garuda, despite the fact she has very non-human anatomy. Last time I checked humans didn't have 5 foot long forearms with 4 giant claws on their hands, with legs that are 2/3rds of their height that end in small almost points. Since when did humans have 4 wings coming out of their backs? Or when did humans have 5 wolf heads instead of a normal head? with a wolf's body for a lower body? You don't have people cosplaying Scylla do you?

So yeah, you can leave with that weak garbage.

[Shippuu]

the one time SE tried making a male less modest in Mobius was instantly met with heated backlash. Things will change in baby steps, however.

The one time? really? I mean, SE had no problem with



Things have only gone backwards now as we live in a social media age where backlash can be widely broadcast and spread. SE chose to change Mobius because a backlash of generally their core demographic which is simply business sense, as opposed to plenty of games/comics/movies who self-censor due to backlashes from people who aren't even the ones consuming the content (such as Capcom with their Street Fighter changes, or various comic book crap etc.)