I posted before that I was tired of the Shonen genre, so I wasn't that interested in Cai, since he seemed like a very typical Shonen protagonist, even though he seemed fine as a character. But the more I see of him, the more I feel like he is my precious son, whose smile must be protected, and his friends given afternoon snacks whenever they hang out with him! Because he is my son now. lol Maybe it has something to do with me recently returning to BNHA and it actually being enjoyable for me, this time. But there is a reason I used to really love the Shonen genre, and one reason was the sincere protagonists.
And I'm still on the Leda train. She is awesome, and I love revenge stories, and I want to see her absolutely lose her mind with maddening revenge! But also, I would like her to realize she still has to live a fully, truly Alive life beyond her revenge. Because I like that trope too. She is still very pretty and keeps getting cooler. I like learning that she checks off her literal revenge list with the blood of her previous enemies. lol So melodramatic, it warrants a Lelouch vi Britannia maniacal laugh. If she just had a sword, that might put her over the top for me. But I still like her a lot.
On the other hand, Deitrich is still bloodlust, "Boar Dimitri", Alucard knock-off, Griffith character design, that I'm just not that interested in. Which is kind of perplexing, because I loved Dimitri. But I'm one of the few fans of his who wasn't enamored with his whole "Boar" side.
I am also reminded that although I love self-destructive characters losing themselves to madness and obsession (mad scientists, revenge plots, mad mages, alchemists breaking taboos, etc.), I don't seem to enjoy characters who aren't having fun with being "evil". Impassive self-destructive characters are some of my favorite female characters: Kikyo, C.C., Devil Homura, etc. But it seems that with characters going on more proactive, self-destructive storylines, I don't seem to enjoy them, unless they turn their descent into madness into melodramatic fun. Give me Lelouch or Micchy's maniacal laughter. Give me Maleficent turning everything into dramatic fun. But don't bother me with Edelgard's faux maturity. I want to see a character breaking down with internal conflict, but moving forward with their self-destructive goals, and coping hard by giving everything melodramatic flair. Give me the impression that they're having fun, to cope hard with their madness.
So it's a little odd that I'm so disinterested in Deitrich. But maybe if I see more of his story, I'd be interested. Because after all, I do love Fighter archetypes who believe that Fighting and Strength is everything...but only after they prove to me that they understand what True Strength is, and if it aligns with my definitions of True Strength. But the game isn't out yet, so maybe it makes sense that I'm not even interested by Deitrich's quest for stronger battles and powerful opponents (like I used to always be).
But oh good grief, Theodora... Still just making me think of all the sticky discussions about female sexualized character designs... (sigh) But other than that...
What do you mean, she wants to annex more land, just so she can build a new religious temple?!?!?! She won the coup! So that means she still has her kingdom's lands! …Maybe they're saying that the coup destroyed the land she already has? And/or maybe her country desperately needs as much farmland as possible, so they can't spare it for religious temples? Or maybe the temple is an excuse to obtain more farmland? Either way, I'm not comfortable with this colonialization. I may have complained a lot when a white woman was the colonizer in FE3H, but my family is from a culture that was colonized by both white and other POC. So being brown isn't going to save Theodora from my discomfort with needless colonialization. Also, my favorite anime is a war story with a strong emphasis on how war hurts innocent bystanders/civilians. ...But let me give Theodora the benefit of the doubt: Who knows? Maybe the game will release and I'll get a really effective story about how her conquest is justified, even in my eyes. But so far, I can only hear "she wants to annex more land, just so she can build a new religious temple" and personally think that, so far, that seems really unnecessary, when weighed against the suffering of people just living their lives, not wanting their homes taken by needless conquerors.
On the plus side, next to her retainers, Theodora looks less like shallow, gooner-bait, sexual objectification. After just writing a whole rambling post about why context distinguishes objectification from sex positivity, the effect of Theodora's retainers creating context for her costume design, seems fair. (https://mysticdragon3md3.tumblr.com/post/824669934431977472/recently-i-wrote-about-fire-emblem) I don't know why I didn't notice those guys before. Maybe the trailers' clips of them beside Theodora went too fast in the trailers' edits, and maybe they were too tiny on my phone. But now that I'm watching these clips from SkillUp's demo playthrough, on my widescreen TV, they're a lot more noticeable.
It reminded me of that long post I rambled in, a while ago, about how I'm okay with sexual "objectification" of any gender, when it's more equally spread across all genders. (https://mysticdragon3md3.tumblr.com/post/802472771733143552/i-was-looking-at-a-figurine-for-eve-earlier-and-i) Because, to paraphrase what Extra Credits once said, a little titillation isn't bad, sometimes.
But personally, I do become suspicious when it's repeatedly, only the one, same gender, getting objectified, sexually, in all mediums, throughout most of history, in all cultures. THAT'S suspicious.
But sexualization in and of itself isn't bad. And it would be a lot better, spread evenly across all genders. So I said once that either everyone in the cast needs to be sexualized for a more cohesive character design/aesthetic or one person from each gender should be sexualized.
But I can't remember if I ever posted or just thought about how I would also accept if the nudity was a cultural difference of aesthetics. If a character comes from a culture, where EVERYONE wears what the audience considers "sexualized clothing/nudity", then I would accept a pocket of a fictional world, where everyone of all genders dresses in that aesthetic. Because then, it's just a cultural style, and from the perspective of the real world audience, it's equality.
Still, it is strange that in the few cases where I've seen this idea, it's always a female character representing that fictional culture, as if to excuse the obvious fanservice that the audience in our real world would perceive. And she's often removed from the context of her culture, where the audience can see that all genders show equal levels of skin. Like Kris Christopher from Battle Athletes Victory just being completely nude, while entertaining guests at her dorm room, because she comes from a planet where everyone is nude in their own home, like taking off a jacket. All just to include a joke, of her sighing at how ridiculous non-nudity-normalized culture is at the space station she's staying at, which has a setting closer to real world, current norms about nudity. And maybe one can use that as a discussion about the ridiculous aspects of real life norms about "acceptable" types of nudity. But in an anime from the 1990s, it's much more likely that it was just for fanservice, specifically for female sexual objectification...AGAIN. But even taken in good faith, fictional culture nudity is one thing. But why is it always a woman "who doesn't know any better that nudity isn't what the culture she's currently surrounded by accepts as normal"? There was even an episode of Quantum Leap that did the same thing with Japanese culture...when I don't think it made sense for mid-1900s Japan, well after the Meiji Restoration. And again, it was a woman being topless...which, within the story, made sense since she was a love interest (inadvertently making the love rival jealous), but within the greater context of media/history, it's still suspicious. Why is it almost always a woman being nude and not understanding a different culture where nudity is unacceptable? This entire trope, though not usually explained by cultural differences, is even a reoccurring aspect of the "Born Sexy Yesterday" trope, which is almost exclusively a portrayal of fictional female characters.
Still, Theodora isn't going to be surrounded by her equally skin-revealing retainers in all the promo material. She's going to be beside the 3 other protagonists of Forturne's Weave. That's what's going to be plastered everywhere, every time this game is discussed. She will be removed from the context, rationalizing/justifying her sexualization. And as I've discussed before, context is the difference between sexual empowerment and sexual objectification. And yes, it's good to distinguish the 4 protagonists from 4 different cultures. It's good on a visual design interest level and on a story interest level. But why does the half nude character almost always have to be a girl? That's suspicious. I'm always going to be suspicious when media contributes to the absolute glut of female sexualization, presented as normal, while I have to go to specific places for BL or male sexual objectification (that isn't actually a male power fantasy in disguise). Someone chose the most cliche option for who is practically naked on all the promo art. The "hand of the author" is suspicious in these cases.
And why is it so difficult to go against cliche and pick the gender that's not female-presenting for the (genuine) sexualization? Grand Blue Fantasy was able to do it with Belial. (https://mysticdragon3md3.tumblr.com/post/757185393109106688/valid-usually-male-portrayals-that-show-off-the) Heck, the PREVIOUS Fire Emblem game, "Fire Emblem Engage" did it with their "warrior class" costumes for male characters. (https://mysticdragon3md3.tumblr.com/post/711039424173080576/finally-some-nakedness-gender-equality-in-fantasy) (It even had the cliche sexualization trope of Impracticality, thru the asymmetrically, excessively low waistline.) Marvel Rivals is actively doing it well right now, with their summer alternate outfits and their update to give the male characters bigger butts. And a big reason why this is so popular, is because female sexualization has been so normalized, so excessively prominent, and so ubiquitous, that ANYTHING different is seen as INTERESTING. Maybe there's a time limit to how interesting such character designs are, given that the current interest hinges largely on subverting cliches. But it doesn't nullify the fact that until genuine (not Power Fantasy) male sexualization becomes just as ubiquitous as female sexualization, it will be the more interesting design choice.
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