More Witcher thoughts
May. 27th, 2019 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kutsuwamushiI'm still playing the third Witcher game. It's still good - although at this point I've met more of the major female characters, and oh boy.
A lot of the qualities of the game that make it interesting are still being undercut by the way women are filtered through Straight Man Vision(tm). I really like Yennefer, for example; she's cunning and powerful, and would be worthy of her own game, but there is a kind of preoccupation with her womanhood, and those womanly traits that set her apart from the rough-and-tumble Geralt. It very much comes across as an outsider view.
Then there is the issue that there is simply less variation in appearance and personality for the women than for the men. This goes for important characters as well as the minor NPCs you meet along the way.
The female characters very much have sameface syndrome. It's not a technical limitation; compare Geralt's face to Lambert's, and then Yennefer's to Triss's. The women's faces are not allowed to venture outside of a narrow view of what is attractive. Even older women follow this mold, just with more wrinkles. It's so bad that when I saw this NPC I was intrigued, because her face - while still very pretty - had a bigger nose than I thought was allowed. It's not surprising that within five minutes, she's gone.
As for the personalities, they seem to be "woman": cunning woman, strong woman, sweet woman. Exchange Yennefer's dialogue style for Triss's, and it would take you a while to notice that something was up. But exchange Geralt's dialogue style for Lambert's, and you'd notice right away. Again, it's very much an outsider view; the women are understood as female archetypes, while the men are understood as people.
I haven't even mentioned the eye candy yet. There is a lot more of it once you get to the cities. And it just ... poke a big, gaping hole in the feeling of realism that they're going for. It's noticeable when you dress a medieval prostitute the way a fifteen year old boy thinks a medieval prostitute looks, you know? It's a kind of thoughtless, lazy design that straight men don't notice because they're blinded by their Straight Man Vision(tm).
I don't know how faithful this is to the source material because I haven't read it, but regardless, adaptation is an opportunity to make smart choices about what you keep and what you don't.
...
...
Semi-related to the above... I was telling these thoughts to a friend last week, and I said something along the lines of: "I normally hate coffee shop AUs, but it would be hilarious to write a coffee shop AU for the Witcher and just stick a sword right through the heart of the male power fantasy."
Then we discussed what kind of drinks the characters would order. She suggested Geralt would order black coffee, since that's a man drink, but I suggested the opposite: That due to his high metabolism*, he'd go for the venti breve with syrup and whipped cream.
I'm also pretty sure that Emhyr would be corporate and engaged in a ruthless campaign to expand the franchise into territory currently held by Caribou Coffee (Radovid) and struggling indies (Roche).
(* Is this just fanon? Eating a lot is a game mechanic but I don't remember it being explicitly stated.)
A lot of the qualities of the game that make it interesting are still being undercut by the way women are filtered through Straight Man Vision(tm). I really like Yennefer, for example; she's cunning and powerful, and would be worthy of her own game, but there is a kind of preoccupation with her womanhood, and those womanly traits that set her apart from the rough-and-tumble Geralt. It very much comes across as an outsider view.
Then there is the issue that there is simply less variation in appearance and personality for the women than for the men. This goes for important characters as well as the minor NPCs you meet along the way.
The female characters very much have sameface syndrome. It's not a technical limitation; compare Geralt's face to Lambert's, and then Yennefer's to Triss's. The women's faces are not allowed to venture outside of a narrow view of what is attractive. Even older women follow this mold, just with more wrinkles. It's so bad that when I saw this NPC I was intrigued, because her face - while still very pretty - had a bigger nose than I thought was allowed. It's not surprising that within five minutes, she's gone.
As for the personalities, they seem to be "woman": cunning woman, strong woman, sweet woman. Exchange Yennefer's dialogue style for Triss's, and it would take you a while to notice that something was up. But exchange Geralt's dialogue style for Lambert's, and you'd notice right away. Again, it's very much an outsider view; the women are understood as female archetypes, while the men are understood as people.
I haven't even mentioned the eye candy yet. There is a lot more of it once you get to the cities. And it just ... poke a big, gaping hole in the feeling of realism that they're going for. It's noticeable when you dress a medieval prostitute the way a fifteen year old boy thinks a medieval prostitute looks, you know? It's a kind of thoughtless, lazy design that straight men don't notice because they're blinded by their Straight Man Vision(tm).
I don't know how faithful this is to the source material because I haven't read it, but regardless, adaptation is an opportunity to make smart choices about what you keep and what you don't.
...
...
Semi-related to the above... I was telling these thoughts to a friend last week, and I said something along the lines of: "I normally hate coffee shop AUs, but it would be hilarious to write a coffee shop AU for the Witcher and just stick a sword right through the heart of the male power fantasy."
Then we discussed what kind of drinks the characters would order. She suggested Geralt would order black coffee, since that's a man drink, but I suggested the opposite: That due to his high metabolism*, he'd go for the venti breve with syrup and whipped cream.
I'm also pretty sure that Emhyr would be corporate and engaged in a ruthless campaign to expand the franchise into territory currently held by Caribou Coffee (Radovid) and struggling indies (Roche).
(* Is this just fanon? Eating a lot is a game mechanic but I don't remember it being explicitly stated.)
