Comments on: News: Fan Criticism Pays Off for Final Fantasy XV

By: Mel

Mel — Fri, 08 May 2015 11:37:58 +0000

~dramaaa~

Anyway, I’m not going to pretend I care about some character in an FF game I’m not interested in or pretend that her appearance is somehow a problem as-is. I’ve had my interested reversed on past FF games, but this game will really need to prove itself to me… if I even have the time to play it.

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Mon, 04 May 2015 18:34:13 +0000

No irony whatsoever.

By: Ethos

Ethos — Mon, 04 May 2015 15:20:41 +0000

@Wolfe – No hint of irony in that comment, eh? Don’t get me wrong though, I completely sympathize with your initial frustration, but it’s hard not to see its trajectory as formed by the same family of anger you are belittling. Not that society owes anybody anything, buuuut, that’s also my point.

@Julian – Speaking of, I would agree that there’s never been much confusion on which version of beauty has been presented in Western society. That’s what you said, right?

I jab a little because this is a debate that I get a little frustrated with both sides over. It sometimes sounds like I’m talking to the same people who have filled in their Mad Libs differently. I don’t even think we disagree as much as it may seem sometimes, but I want to keep the tradition of this site gently helping us learn harsh truths about ourselves. With love! (come over if you’re ever in town, I’ll make you lattes and we can play Smash or something)

For example, I never would have found out that I am nothing but a willing toy for Japanese business men if it wasn’t for this site. Thank you Lusipurr.com!

This comment has started to take on a mind of its own, so I’ll just leave my calling card here and dash out.

By: SiliconNooB

SiliconNooB — Mon, 04 May 2015 09:11:48 +0000

I don’t think there’s ever been much confusion about what constitutes beauty in western society – though there are a few variables.

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Mon, 04 May 2015 05:56:52 +0000

No, I think there’s a pretty given concept of what beauty is. Certainly there’s differences in taste. I know this very well. What I see now are people who are angry that they aren’t included in the popular tastes and want to force the status quo to accept them as such. Doesn’t work that way. And too often I find a ‘complex beauty’ meaning angry, out of shape person who thinks that society is indebted to them for some slight somewhere in their own lives.

By: Ethos

Ethos — Mon, 04 May 2015 05:34:58 +0000

Er, well, I think part of the issues that arise are because there ISN’T a cultural agreement of what is beautiful. We’ve had pretty one-sided and, frankly, pretty boring descriptions of it in mass media for a long time. The laudable parts of this movement encourage a more complex reflection of beauty, which is more truthful and ultimately beneficial to culture. The downside is always the anger that goes too far and threatens to continue the cycle with a different face, understandable though the anger may be.

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Mon, 04 May 2015 05:25:38 +0000

I’m well past sick of their delusion having so much of a say in both society and my hobby. Hope that vacuum is soon filled.

By: Lusipurr

Lusipurr — Mon, 04 May 2015 04:25:37 +0000

@Wolfe: Nature abhors a vacuum. It is not possible to have anything like a sophisticated culture without a cultural sense of what is beautiful, and consequently, cultural inclinations in that way. The knee-jerk reactionaries who want to ban all expressions of cultural agreement about beauty aren't merely wrong-headed, they are delusional.

By: Ethos

Ethos — Mon, 04 May 2015 03:20:40 +0000

@Julian – I agree!
@Wolfe – I am also an advocate of both men and women not feeling ashamed about sex, their bodies, and their attractions! :)

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Mon, 04 May 2015 02:26:05 +0000

I refuse to feel ashamed that I instinctively am attracted to ATTRACTIVE FEMALES.

This bullshit idea that women have to cover up to preserve their modesty is precisely the same sort of shit advocated by religious fundamentalists a few decades ago (in between waving canes at us Satan worshiping d&d players). We had the whole female empowerment and liberation movement that shrugged off the notion of the female body being shameful and something hidden away, and now the same people, this time speaking from the professed moral high ground of women’s representation want to tell us what’s acceptable for everyone all over again?

Well I say fuck that. Cidney IS attractive, and I enjoy looking at her. I like her bright costume, and by god I even love her charming southern accent. I happen to BE southern. Doesn’t mean I don’t have any interest in what her character offers as an actual character. The very notion that you can’t have an attractive character that’s also interesting is more sexist than anything in all of this.

Seriously, I’m so fucking sick of this nonsense.

By: SiliconNooB

SiliconNooB — Mon, 04 May 2015 02:14:20 +0000

I think boobs are great!

By: Ethos

Ethos — Sun, 03 May 2015 19:34:35 +0000

Lusipurr is of course correct. I understand concerns that Cidney’s attire and persona could be created by little more than a male desire to see a skantily clad woman (something that is fine in a vacuum, of course, but has become a problem because of its powerfully unbalanced and naive placement as the expectation or default in popular media representation along with its pairing with submissive and vapid character traits without a lot of context or counterpoint), but the legitimate frustration with this trend does have the unfortunate tendency to make people not actually take a look at the character herself and see if it makes sense for who she is and if her characterization has been treated with the same respect as other secondary characters. I think the demo was too short to come to any sort of conclusion about her (or any of the characters), although switching to the Japanese audio did eliminate the “y’all”s and the drawl that I personally could not stand.

This sort of knee-jerk reaction to Cidney frustrates me in the same way that the gameplay changes frustrate me. Both strike me as people claiming to know the beast from its breath.

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Sun, 03 May 2015 03:26:59 +0000

You said everything I was going to say Lusi. And far more eloquently.

By: Lusipurr

Lusipurr — Sat, 02 May 2015 20:15:41 +0000

I don’t see anything wrong with Cidney. The neo-Puritanical notion that women should be ashamed to show cleavage or to look ‘traditionally’ feminine or beautiful is even more destructive than their ‘patriarchial objectification’ (i.e. cultural notions of beauty, which cannot be abolished in any case). I am glad that they have taken a firmish line about not changing her too much, but I am disappointed that they have felt persuaded to change her at all.