#sinthia

I dont have too many but mayhaps I you will fancy some of the old doodles I got.. ...Kendratello post Donnie losing his arm

...and a little something with Saber (at least it got a little Leo in it hwaebfvijgbik)

I know this has been in my inbox for AGES but still, here's a recent drawing of Sinthia!

Oh how I missed drawing her 🖤

I still kept the muscles.

So, Gizmo. He's an example of some of the oldest of stereotypes about fat people. Lazy, greedy, slobbish. To illustrait my point here's a line given about Gizmo to the question 'Does he have any weaknesses?' that I think is telling of the writing's attitude towards him.

'Only that he thinks he doesn't have any. Well, that and he's a fat slob, who can't move for a damn. He's got to have his guards help him move around. Even then, they gotta use a little tricycle. Heh heh.'

Sinthia, who says this, does have good reason to dislike Gizmo (him taking 25% of her earnings and all), but it's an almost entirely unprompted statement. I very much suspect that 'Heh heh.' is how the writer of that line felt about writing that line basically saying "Hey, ain't it funny that this big man cannot physically walk to bed and needs assistance?".

And, of course, Gizmo is the only fat person in Fallout 1 and one of the only people in any Fallout game who explicitly cannot walk.

Very decidedly Not Great, all of that. Not unsurprising, of course, it's a very textbook example of this kinda thing, but still acknowledgement of flaws and bias is important if one wants to appreciate art.

I also might as well get into the fact Junktown's endings used to be far grayer. The conventionally attractive Killian Darkwater's sense of 'frontier justice' keeping Junktown small due to his 'rigid sensibilities'. if you side with this cop. Even in the final game there's certain undertones to Killian and his ending and some dialogue. Going back to Sinthia she says "Killian sure as hell wouldn't put up with me or my kind." (that being sex workers). And the cannon ending slide sure enough says "Killian Darkwater takes firm control of Junktown, drives out the last of Gizmo's kind, and then enforces his own brand of frontier justice. Life is fair and safe under his law." the last of Gizmo's kind a choice of words that. It says 'Life is fair and safe under his law.', but... wonder what happened to Sinthia. I fear she wouldn't be 'under his law'.

So, they changed the Junktown endings and why? Well, one side they have a stereotype that's very conventionally a 'villian' and they go out of their way to make him very villianous. Then they have an attractive policeman who seems 'fair' and 'righteous', I mean, the man hears the assassin Kenji say 'Gizmo sends his regards' and doesn't go after him right away, wanting a confession to the crime first through a bug or wiretap, don't think about why he has those. He's using them for 'good' and look how ""ugly"" the guy he's against is.

They could've made a point there, at least, but the message has to be read between the lines and I'm pretty sure most people who've ever played Fallout 1 only see a "handsome" Mayor and an "ugly" crime boss. They could've shown the dangers of trusting someone like Killian with absolute power, but... they decided that was 'unsatisfying'. Which has, ironically, left me unsatisfied.