Poison's legacy: Newest God of War won't have female enemies

[isiolia]

Perhaps Kratos does simply kill ruthlessly and indiscriminately

He does. It is his one defining characteristic.

Honestly though, as I'd mentioned earlier, in this particular case he (theoretically) should have had a lot of other options and deliberately chose to kill her in the way he did.

It could be seen as completely not caring about her life, but that's contrary to having freed her and shoved her along for most of the chapter.
To me, it doesn't jive. There's no rationale to expending the effort to free and escort her for the apparently purpose when, again, he'd presumably have plenty of corpses from enemies he kills along the way, their weapons, and so on, that could be used to jam the wheel.

While it's not sexual violence, it'd almost certainly fall under dehumanization. It's the game presenting the player with a character whose only defining characteristic is "woman in peril", and giving them no other choice than to treat her as a doorstop (literally). Granted, it's a 3D model in a video game, not a person, but it still sends a message that she's pretty much on the level of an inanimate object.
Like other video game princesses, she exists to look pretty and get rescued, but also now to kill off when you get tired of her because, hey, she's a woman, and women are worthless, right?

Now, granted, Kratos is a two-dimensional piece of shit character, but it's not so much a matter of what he's doing, but the subtle message the game is sending to the player. To a generation of "git back in the kitchen and make me a sammich!" players, it's a negative reinforcement that is, ultimately, unnecessary.

[dsheinem]

Perhaps Kratos does simply kill ruthlessly and indiscriminately

He does. It is his one defining characteristic.

Honestly though, as I'd mentioned earlier, in this particular case he (theoretically) should have had a lot of other options and deliberately chose to kill her in the way he did.

It could be seen as completely not caring about her life, but that's contrary to having freed her and shoved her along for most of the chapter.
To me, it doesn't jive. There's no rationale to expending the effort to free and escort her for the apparently purpose when, again, he'd presumably have plenty of corpses from enemies he kills along the way, their weapons, and so on, that could be used to jam the wheel.

While it's not sexual violence, it'd almost certainly fall under dehumanization. It's the game presenting the player with a character whose only defining characteristic is "woman in peril", and giving them no other choice than to treat her as a doorstop (literally). Granted, it's a 3D model in a video game, not a person, but it still sends a message that she's pretty much on the level of an inanimate object.
Like other video game princesses, she exists to look pretty and get rescued, but also now to kill off when you get tired of her because, hey, she's a woman, and women are worthless, right?

Now, granted, Kratos is a two-dimensional piece of shit character, but it's not so much a matter of what he's doing, but the subtle message the game is sending to the player. To a generation of "git back in the kitchen and make me a sammich!" players, it's a negative reinforcement that is, ultimately, unnecessary.

I agree completely.

[Zing]

I only played the first God of War, so I have never seen scenes like "nude woman in the gear". I am not a prude nor against seeing more boobs in video games, but that is clearly over the top. Any comparison to prior examples such as harpies and medusa in the Castlevania games is absurd.

That said, this game is rated M, so the publisher is free to do as the consumers demand.

[MrPopo]

It could be seen as completely not caring about her life, but that's contrary to having freed her and shoved her along for most of the chapter.
To me, it doesn't jive. There's no rationale to expending the effort to free and escort her for the apparently purpose when, again, he'd presumably have plenty of corpses from enemies he kills along the way, their weapons, and so on, that could be used to jam the wheel.

You could construct a narrative where exactly those actions are used to define the moral arc of Kratos. As I understand it, the thing that sets the first God of War in motion is that Ares gets Kratos to kill his family and he goes on a rampage of revenge to get Ares back, and succeeds at the end. And the next two games involve killing off a large portion of the remaining Greek pantheon. Clearly he has moved past his original goal of revenge; he's sliding further down the slope from anti-hero to villian. This female character that you escort can serve as a glimmer of the decent man he once was, until he comes upon this barrier. And in that moment he casts aside the remains of his humanity in pursuit of his goal.

Now, I don't know if this is how the scenario actually plays out. But this does seem like a valid narrative to portray, and it's entirely possible that the devs wanted to tell that story but fell foul of bad writing.

[Gamerforlife]

The funny thing is, if you read Greek mythology, many characters are shown to be petty, jealous, violent, and full of negative ethical and moral qualities. In a way, Kratos seems representative of the type of world these myths come from. In fact, a lot of characters in the GOW games are not really likable people. Plus, if you don't count actual goddesses, they aren't a lot of strong female characters in Greek mythology. The way that God of War presents men as more dominant or powerful than women kind of fits with this as well. Look at all the Greek heroes. Hercules, Perseus, Odysseus, Theseus, Cadmus, Jason, etc. Hardly any women, and the way you constantly hear about Zeus' sexual conquests does make it seem like women are nothing more than sex objects in Greek mythology, or in the case of Helen of Troy or Hades' reluctant wife Persephone, prizes for men to have rather than actual people.

I don't like Kratos or a lot of the other characters in the GOW games because they are jerks, but it fits with a lot of mythology, and the overly alpha male, testosterone driven nature of the games and the sexualized and victimized women also kind of fits with Greek mythology as well. I'm not saying I like it or that it's right, but I feel like God of War gets away with a lot of this stuff because of the nature of the material it uses. It would be like getting mad at a pre-civil war era movie showing black people being degraded and used as slaves. It doesn't really make the movie racist, it's just authenticity

I used to be kind of Greek mythology nerd back in high school. I remembered thinking Hercules and Xena were the coolest things on TV back then LOL. I can barely stomach watching a single episode of either of those shows now. They are so ridiculously cheesy and low budget.

[Breetai]

threetoed, are you a chick?

[Zing]

threetoed, are you a chick?

It would seem you are not aware of how females are generally treated on video game forums. They usually have an army of mods at their back and everyone bends over backwards to accommodate their opinions, regardless of how insane they are.

[MrPopo]

threetoed, are you a chick?

It would seem you are not aware of how females are generally treated on video game forums. They usually have an army of mods at their back and everyone bends over backwards to accommodate their opinions, regardless of how insane they are.

Yeah, not here. They're just another member, though they provide a unique perspective on matters such as these.

[noiseredux]

It would seem you are not aware of how females are generally treated on video game forums. They usually have an army of mods at their back and everyone bends over backwards to accommodate their opinions, regardless of how insane they are.

I really hope this is sarcasm. And don't take that as a mod at anyone's back so much as a dude wondering why anyone would say such a dumbass thing on this forum seriously.

[Zing]

There has been a lot of dumbass things said in this thread. If my comment is the only one that has you wondering, then I don't know what to say.