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Women Characters Redesigned by Women SFF Artists

I don't see a lot of differences besides the fact that they covered them up.

Actually, some of those designs like Samus look uglier.
 
PrincessPeachRedesign-KirbiFagan.jpg

I can honestly say that is a terrible rendition of peach and the person who drew it should feel really bad about it.
 

Kyonashi

Member

I actually quite like the Samus. It replaces the Zero Suit, not her armor, and makes her totally look like an actual bounty hunter. Obviously it wouldn't be worn UNDER her armor (too bulky) but would make sense as a kind of in-between stage.

The problem with that Peach is that it totally ignores that it's a franchise without weapons aimed at all-ages. I'd like to see a redesign that keeps the audience in mind, not just 'badass' for the sake of it.
 

Toki767

Member
Isn't the whole point of Zero Suit Samus to be more acrobatic and quick? That redesign doesn't accomplish any of those goals and it looks like she may as well just keep the Varia Suit.

Polaris looks fine though.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Like, a lot of these are really good, or at least conceptually interesting, if you're on board with the idea that they're re-designs

Who made the decision to lead with that awful Peach rework? Like every other piece in here is attempting to respect the spirit of the character, that one is nonsensical
 

Adaren

Member
Many of the designs still show a fair amount of skin, especially when it's appropriate for the character's personality. There's a lot less "egregious" exposure, though; what's still there feels generally more natural.
 

LiK

Member
I actually quite like the Samus. It replaces the Zero Suit, not her armor, and makes her totally look like an actual bounty hunter.

Well, her Zero Suit wasn't made for combat when it was originally conceived, iirc. It was just something she wore under the armor which made sense. So I wouldn't expect padding and armor like with the redesign.
 

Maffis

Member
Not even 20 posts in and people are already dismissing what these women want.

Personally, I like these designs. Makes the women feel alot more badass.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I actually quite like the Samus. It replaces the Zero Suit, not her armor, and makes her totally look like an actual bounty hunter.

The problem with that Peach is that it totally ignores that it's a franchise without weapons aimed at all-ages. I'd like to see a redesign that keeps the audience in mind, not just 'badass' for the sake of it.

She look like a pilot from an old sci fi movie.
 
Isn't the whole point of Zero Suit Samus to be more acrobatic and quick? That redesign doesn't accomplish any of those goals and it looks like she may as well just keep the Varia Suit.

Polaris looks fine though.

That is not the point of the zero suit at all... It's literally just her underwear for use in the Varia suit.

While I kind of like the redesign, it doesn't really fit with it being what she'd wear under her main suit. Something in between the nintendo style and that would be really good IMO.

Not even 20 posts in and people are already dismissing what these women want.

Don't confuse people not liking the designs with people dismissing 'what women want'... especially since all of that art work was done by individual women and is therefore not even the standard for all women (as if there could be such a thing.)
 
Yep that ZSS is garbage. It's supposed to be her after losing her power suit, she has no reason to wear cheap unconvenient armor under her powersuit.

Sure it's a bin fanservice-ey, but it has justification.

Peach.. well she's always been a princess, so she has no reason to be a super badass, does she ? If she was a protagonist, sure.
 
Why is peach holding a rocket launcher? Wouldn't it be better if she was holding something from the actual Mario universe like a fire flower or koopa shell?

Other than that I don't have much to complain about.
 

Pudge

Member
Going down the list, the redesigns seem fine to me...

Until you get to Red Sonja. Conan looks like this.


There is NO REASON why Red Sonja would be wearing a full set of armor in any Conan story. Everybody in Conan wears loincloths. Hell, even most of the women running around in Conan don't have tops on. So that makes no sense, and forcing modern designs on the franchise would be against the entire spirit.

The Betty Boop is cute though.
 

dugdug

Banned
I think the Peach one looks great, but, I also don't have any affinity for that character. I really like most of these designs a lot actually.

That Samus one, though...woof.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Not even 20 posts in and people are already dismissing what these women want.

If it isnt a representative polling of all women in existence, I dont see how we can do this. I need to know what the imaginary gender monolith I created in my head thinks.
 

Droplet

Member
I feel like the idea of having women redesign existing characters is kind of missing the point. A lot of the issue lies in not having much variety in female characters, so just taking one and adding some clothes and combat articles doesn't help us get much closer to solving the problem.

To be fair, a lot of these do look better with more clothes, but I'd attribute that more to the fact that the more scantily clad characters were just wearing ridiculous looking clothes to begin with.
 

DeaviL

Banned
What women want in female characters...
I thought generalizing was a bad thing?

Make diverse characters, attract a diverse audience.
 

Kyonashi

Member
Well, her Zero Suit wasn't made for combat when it was originally conceived, iirc. It was just something she wore under the armor which made sense. So I wouldn't expect padding and armor like with the redesign.

Yeah I don't think it's necessary to replace the Zero Suit, but if for some reason in some new 3D Metroid game she needed to go on some mission where she needed armor but the suit wasn't available, I feel that design would be a good alternative.
 
Most of those redesigns looks awful, but I do agree that ZSS sucks, I hate everything about that suit when Samus in her armor is one of the coolest designs ever.
 
Are we sure the Peach redesign isn't a doodle in some high school guy's notebook? It looks like it's going for the exact opposite of what this article was going for.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Love this one:

I like that too. Although my #1 solution to that would be to just put her in a Starfleet uniform.


My first thought is if this is something someone wants in a Mario franchise video game they don't want a Mario franchise game. This image on the right clashes with the kid-friendly tone of the series. A lot of the other images in that article are pretty good though.
 

L95

Member
The main thing I'd like is for women who are in combat roles to stop wearing bathing suits that are sometimes made out of metal :B

But... Peach's redesign here makes no sense, weapons aren't a thing in Mario like that. Same for ZSS, it's something for her to wear under her power suit(Though she really shouldn't fight in it much, which she doesn't)

I like Dizzy's new outfit and the others that look less like strippers :D
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
People are missing the point. The point is to stop dressing up female characters in tight spandex/basically nothing when they are supposed to be in combat roles. The current depiction of ZSS should cause people to groan, not swoon.
 
I really like that Samus design. One big take away is basically "stop making your female character half naked."

I agree, it's really not too much to ask for.

Also that Morrigan design is dope too.

Isn't the whole point of Zero Suit Samus to be more acrobatic and quick? That redesign doesn't accomplish any of those goals and it looks like she may as well just keep the Varia Suit.

Polaris looks fine though.

She's wearing heels so I'd say no.
 

LowSignal

Member
I can honestly say that is a terrible rendition of peach and the person who drew it should feel really bad about it.

I agree with that, I don't think there is anything wrong with Princess Peach's appearance. She looks like a Disney Princess and that's fine, no need to add a bazooka.
 

NimbusD

Member
Not all of the redesigns are that great. But that's fine. We can nitpick specific design choices all you want, I don't see that as the point.

Scroll down and only look at the left side and you'll notice that despite how different the characters may (or may not) be, the T and A for the most part really waters down whatever individuality they have. Now do the same thing and scroll down only looking at the right side, they actually look like individual characters and their design choices really stand out (again, not always the greatest design choices). It helps so much when a female's character design isn't "witch with her tits out" or "super hero with her tits out", etc.

And this is just coming from a male's view on character design. I'm not even really touching on the whole subject that's female representation in games.
 

Kyonashi

Member
Not even 20 posts in and people are already dismissing what these women want.

Personally, I like these designs. Makes the women feel alot more badass.

Some of them are fantastic, Power Girl in particular is a HUGE step up from the 'boob window'. But every portrayal of women in media being 'more badass' is harmful not helpful. There should be a wide and full spectrum of gender role portrayal. And I mean, some of these are realistic and could be adopted tomorrow by the creators if they so wished. But 'Sexy Peach with a Rocket launcher' is as lazy as 'Full-lipped dainty princess who needs saving' in my opinion.

Redesign her as something healthier but keep the brief and surrounding design concepts in mind.
 
Mostly an improvement bar Scarlet Witch and Gamora, both of whom have vastly superior redesigns in the MCU.

Samus looks vastly better. I've never liked the zero suits fetish outfit look. Samus should always look like she will fuck you up, be it in her sleek high tech power armour or out of it in more traditional combat gear.
 
Look past the Peach and Samus ones guys, a lot of these are pretty cool

Agreed, and most of them aren't even very 'radical' in their redesigned elements so they actually mesh very well with their original intentions.

The peach one is atrocious for many many reasons though... If the only way they could find to make Peach 'bad ass' was to strip her of her dress and put the largest phallic imagery they could find... well... Yeah I think that pretty much speaks for itself.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
The peach redesign makes zero sense in the context of the games (though I get the general objection to the pink, frilly princess type), but all the others seem to respect the character's place in their world while also being reasonably attired.

I'm not a comic book reader, though, so I might not be invested enough to see problems with their changes.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
People are missing the point. The point is to stop dressing up female characters in tight spandex/basically nothing when they are supposed to be in combat roles. The current depiction of ZSS should cause people to groan, not swoon.

But..why?

They are fictional characters, not actual human beings who need to be covered up from head to toe.
 
Most would make the games as good or better(not that I care what a video game or cartoon person looks like).
But DON'T ever mess with my Star Trek!
 

Drencrom

Member
Man, I'm really loving this Zero Suit Samus rendition. She actually looks like a badass bounty hunter with combat and engineering skills instead of just some bimbo in a fetish bodysuit.
 
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