2013-12-31 This is about dignity

[Schmorgluck]

Lara Croft's oversized breasts (or, at the very least, the fact that she doesn't seem to ever wear a sports bra, even when fully prepared for action) is something that has annoyed me a bit about the franchise, because even as a cis het male I found it kinda offensive, in a "come on, who do you think I am?" way. It wasn't blatant in the early installments because the technology wasn't up to it, but it grew more and more obvious. One thing that has been annoying me even more is Lara Croft's undersized shoulders. Or muscles in general. She's supposed to be an athletic character, but she's been given the figure of an intentionnally starved fashion model, which is downright ridiculous.

Ah, well, at least the early installments of the franchise didn't fall into the dark pit of Jiggle Physics (warning: TV Tropes link). I used to find the Dead Or Alive fighting games franchise interesting (back in game arcades days), but I've found its increasing overuse of Jiggle Physics thoroughly offensive to male gamers. As a result, in the classic "DoA vs Tekken" divide I'm strongly in the Tekken side.

[Bambikles]

Love Sandra's face in the last panel !

but if Sandra talks about real-world concerns too much, Tarquin can tell her she's missing the point.

Tarquin ? Me thinks there is some different readings overlapping.

[Don Alexander]

Fear will keep the players in line!

[Waker]

Love Sandra's face in the last panel !

but if Sandra talks about real-world concerns too much, Tarquin can tell her she's missing the point.

Tarquin ? Me thinks there is some different readings overlapping.

That's a reference to a character from a D&D comic series called Order of the Stick. The character in question is an overly genre-savvy dictator who frequently refers to events as story arcs or literary devices.

[Odd Man Out]

I think Bambikles believes Spidrift transposed Tarquin's name in place of Tristan. My suspicion is that he was, in fact, referring to the character's awareness of what matters in fictional mediums.

[Spidrift]

I meant Tristan and typed Tarquin, probably because, yes, I am an OotS reader. But there was no actual reference consciously intended. Sorry if I caused people to over-rate my subtlety.

(If Tristan was half as genre-savvy and dangerous as Tarquin, Sandra would be dead by now. Or more likely, Gary or Pierre would be dead, so as to provoke Sandra into a proper frame of mind to ensure a satisfactory climactic fight. Except... Tarquin would have noticed that he's in an entirely different genre here, and would have worked out the most satisfactory way to exploit that. Probably by humiliating Sandra at every turn, while always following her ideas in the end - because that Plucky Ditzy Comic Heroine will always win in the end, leaving her antagonist with the choice of being ineffectual or enduring, so go for the enduring and take the cash profits that come with it. However, it seems to be the faceless company boss who's snagged that role.)

[Geeno]

Bear in mind that the discomfort of the costume in the real world is by rights rather a small concern here; this is about a videogame with an animated character, who could wear anything. It's become an issue because the real-life model has made herself more significant to the project - and because, thanks to her, they're now consciously selling to girl gamers, who may find implausible stripperific costumes annoying - but if Sandra talks about real-world concerns too much, Tarquin can tell her she's missing the point.

I understand that, but having watched artists (I worked in Marketing for ... way too many years), I can say that criticism that is not aesthetic in nature - i.e. more practical "would that really work?" type criticisms - tend to engender less resistance by the artist than aesthetic "I don't like how that looks" type criticisms. The latter tend to put the artist on the defensive and less likely to entertain the point of your critique.

[the_Bear]

Plus they want also lady fans to cosplay Chamelia on conventions etc. (free and sexy advertisement!), costume that doesn't require nipple sacrifice from cosplayers is better.