Square Enix’s heroine embodies an age-old issue developers have with women in video games

Square Enix’s heroine embodies an age-old issue developers have with women in video games.

  • stopthatgirl7@kbin.socialOP
    2·
    1 year ago

    That “one sentence” is literally from the article and is auto-pulled. But go off, I guess.

    And I actually don’t have an opinion, because I’m a PC gamer and it’s not out on PC yet. I wanted to hear from people who have played it. So again, go off, I guess.

    Anyway, you have a lovely day. You’re not someone I actually want to engage with further.

    • Enttropy@kbin.social
      4·
      1 year ago

      Oh, so you haven’t played the game…

      Thanks for the downvotes and have a wonderful day too!

    • dreadgoat@kbin.social
      4·
      1 year ago

      You asked for sincere discussion and you got it, now you complain because it doesn’t fit the narrative you want to hear.

      I’ll maliciously comply and provide you with more sincere discussion.

      I think Jill is actually a great character, and the people complaining are mad because she doesn’t fit either of the widely popular Female Support archetypes: She’s not a sexed up bimbo written as a man with boobs; nor is she a patriarchy-toppling girlboss (which we have in the game already as Martha and Benedikta). She is far more relatable than either of those.

      Jill is, in terms of personality, a normal, quiet woman, who only ever wanted to live a peaceful life. She also, like many real women, has spent her entire life being a passenger:

      early game spoilers

      Her childhood was spent as the ward of another nation, her primary job to be a good girl and stay out of trouble. After she awakens, she is enslaved and forced to work under threat of her friends/family being executed. Even her chosen method of resistance is quiet, she stonewalls her abusers until they figure out how to break her.

      So when she is free to do as she wishes, she comfortably puts herself in the back seat where she’s always been, her greatest ambition to protect and support those she loves.

      She serves as damsel in distress in a couple of instances, but she also serves as the hero saving Clive in just as many. She has the strength and power to step forward and take the role of the hero, and she will do so when the people she values are threatened, but her preference is to play the support. I see the message of her character as, “This is a valid way that a person can be a hero,” and should remind us of those people in our lives who may appear icy in demeanor and frozen in agency, but who are always there when it matters, displaying an inconspicuous strength when our own isn’t enough to achieve our aims or dispel our grievances.