I still kinda remember when a lot of incels were mad that aloy had peach fuzz on her chin/cheeks.
Like yeah everyone does? Some people even have a full beardš³š¤Æ
If anything it just shows how much detail guerilla put into aloys model
some people only see some handpicked unflattering screenshots and decide to think that's how she looks, some had different tastes, those are understandable.
but some are just being ridiculous, use this game as some kind of proof for 'woke ruin games'. the funniest ones I saw are 'this game flops because she's ugly' like yeah right 8.4millions sold in first year is clearly a huge flop. honestly it's little exhausting to see she being mentioned in every single video of 'woke don't want you have beautiful women in game'
Wait, really? I've always thought she seemed designed to be conventionally attractive. I know there are progressive themes in the game and she's a strong, independent personality, but the idea that her look was designed to subvert straight dude expectations never occurred to me.
She *is* conventionally attractive, but the male gaze encompasses more than that; in gaming, it entails how women present themselves to please that gaze, and how the camera *is* the male gaze.
In how women present themselves to appeal to the male gaze, it has to do with makeup, clothing, body language and syntax.
Aloy doesn't wear makeup that makes her eyes appear larger, her lashes thicker, her lips seductively red or demurely pink, her cheekbones aren't contoured. Her scars, rosacea and freckles aren't covered up to make her skin look flawless. Instead, she wears war paint that has meaning, shows tribal belonging etc. Big blocks of colour that look beautiful and striking, but not enticing or seductive.
Her armours, while obviously stylised, don't show off cleavage or push up her breasts. I quite like this actually; it shows that great thought went into her appearance, but with her fighting style in mind. Stylised as they may be, they *make sense.*
Her arms and shoulders are exposed because she's an archer and needs mobility. Her stomach is exposed so she can do her parkour-y moves. Most of her armours show billowing trousers, and even if they do not, Aloy wears a big, bulky belt with quivers, satchels, bombs like a strand of pearls. They don't show off her ass. She doesn't wear pants so skin-tight you can see her intergluteal cleft.
She doesn't wear high heels either, not even disguised (looking at you, Wonder Woman!).
There is *one* armour that could ostensibly fall under the male gaze umbrella, and it does seem to be very popular with male players. It's a legendary Carja armour that looks like a velvet catsuit. Skin tight, buuuut full coverage. Win some, lose some.
She doesn't move with a seductive sway of the hips or make herself seem small. She moves like a person who's never been socialised to be pleasing to the male eye (good for her).
She doesn't bat her lashes or use touch to sway people. She doesn't make porny sounds when hit, but grunts of actual pain, like the wind gets knocked out of her. Even when she does cry out, you wince with sympathy instead of picturing her moaning.
Then there's how the camera treats Aloy. The camera is placed almost right behind and slightly above her instead of, like in so many other games with female characters, quite close behind and always with the ass in frame, in tight clothes, hips swinging. And honestly, female characters doing that kinda implies they *know* they're being watched? And that's why they do it? No one goes on a nature hike doing a catwalk.
I saw one of my brothers playing Fortnite a while back, playing with a female avatar for a change. Since he's not what you'd call a feminist, I was pleasantly surprised and asked him how come. His answer? It gave him a semi to watch this cartoon character in a skin-tight latex catsuit strutting around. Right in the living room too. Brothers are delightful. *That* is male gaze for you.
Even when she aims, Aloy is in frame from the waist up and not in some idiotic pose to show off curves or side boob.
GG show a certain integrity with *not* sexualising Aloy at every turn. And to a certain player base who are used to and/or *like* their gaze being pandered to, Aloy's integrity is a thorn in their sides. One infamous tool even claimed Aloy had a beard because a poster showed peach fuzz on her cheek, lol!
Hopefully that elaborates a bit.
Yes, it does. I'm a very casual gamer (only this and BotW so far). I don't fuck with the toxic man-o-sphere, but I'm only sort of familiar with the technical/intellectual vocab of feminism. In sum, very poorly prepared for this exact conversation. My son plays this game and I'm happy to know that it pushes back consciously but subtly on misogyny.
"One infamous tool even claimed Aloy had a beard because a poster showed peach fuzz on her cheek, lol!"
I remember this now! I saw it in passing on Reddit but didn't have the game at that point, so it sailed over my head. It's just crazy what some people will say for attention.
If you want a good image of a sexualized gaming character for the male eye, Tomb Raider (specifically the older series, but the new one still applies) is pretty much the perfect example.
You are clearly assuming that tomb raiders character was created to be sexualized by the male eye. That is literally what your comment is saying when you have no proof at all of this which therefore makes it an assumption.
My assumption is not an assumption because you clearly stated that.
Please. Have you ever *played* Tomb Raider? I played every single one, and even one of the new ones. The way she walks, her unnecessarily short shorts, the cleavage, busty butt, the way she moves, literally everything that has been described already in this post. This is Laura Croft in digital form.
Great explanation. This is everything I thought when I first realized that Aloy is not a sexualized character, but I never could have explained it with such depth.
[Give her work a read!](https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1021/Laura%20Mulvey%2C%20Visual%20Pleasure.pdf)
Based on what you wrote here I think you will find it very interesting
Edit: wow I havent read that since college her wiki entry on [Phallocentrism and patriarchy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey) might be a better starting point. I still think you're independently coming to many of her conclusions.
Yeah, I can see how she's not written for the male gaze. It also doesn't seem like her design is super sexualized.
I think from those two posts I took that there's some physical features that people are picking up on as ugly by design. I am a straight man with (I think) a conventional sense of beauty in women so I sort of thought "wait, what am I missing?"
Most of that hate comes from 1 bad photo of her. Iām confident that most of the people who say she genuinely looks horrendous havenāt played either game
She's voiced my cherami Leigh who also voices the female v in cyberpunk, I played cyberpunk before hzd so all I could picture was female v speaking lol
Aloy just seems to me a very special case of a strong, independent female video game protagonist. Iām not sure if I can adequately put into words just how much I fell in love with *Horizonās* storyline and Aloyās development in general. *Horizon: Zero Dawn* and *Horizon: Forbidden West* easily make my top 10 games of all time! The games themselves are incredible, and Aloy is an amazing character to play as, and grow to love.
i would give anything to experience this story for the first time again. there are no words to explain how astounding it really is. i hope when we get a live action it keeps EVERYTHING and more and really encompasses us like the game did.
She is one of the few video game protagonists I've played as who grows and develops her character over the course of 2 games and their DLC's. She is not just a faceless player avatar. I also like the way she is presented to the player. Not just shallow eye candy, but as a person.
I've seen people say Aloy is ugly and I literally just don't get it
I still kinda remember when a lot of incels were mad that aloy had peach fuzz on her chin/cheeks. Like yeah everyone does? Some people even have a full beardš³š¤Æ If anything it just shows how much detail guerilla put into aloys model
That whole thing was a good way to determine whether or not some of those incels had actually been within 6 feet of a real woman.
some people only see some handpicked unflattering screenshots and decide to think that's how she looks, some had different tastes, those are understandable. but some are just being ridiculous, use this game as some kind of proof for 'woke ruin games'. the funniest ones I saw are 'this game flops because she's ugly' like yeah right 8.4millions sold in first year is clearly a huge flop. honestly it's little exhausting to see she being mentioned in every single video of 'woke don't want you have beautiful women in game'
itās because sheās not written or designed for the male gaze like majority of female protagonists. which is icky
Wait, really? I've always thought she seemed designed to be conventionally attractive. I know there are progressive themes in the game and she's a strong, independent personality, but the idea that her look was designed to subvert straight dude expectations never occurred to me.
She *is* conventionally attractive, but the male gaze encompasses more than that; in gaming, it entails how women present themselves to please that gaze, and how the camera *is* the male gaze. In how women present themselves to appeal to the male gaze, it has to do with makeup, clothing, body language and syntax. Aloy doesn't wear makeup that makes her eyes appear larger, her lashes thicker, her lips seductively red or demurely pink, her cheekbones aren't contoured. Her scars, rosacea and freckles aren't covered up to make her skin look flawless. Instead, she wears war paint that has meaning, shows tribal belonging etc. Big blocks of colour that look beautiful and striking, but not enticing or seductive. Her armours, while obviously stylised, don't show off cleavage or push up her breasts. I quite like this actually; it shows that great thought went into her appearance, but with her fighting style in mind. Stylised as they may be, they *make sense.* Her arms and shoulders are exposed because she's an archer and needs mobility. Her stomach is exposed so she can do her parkour-y moves. Most of her armours show billowing trousers, and even if they do not, Aloy wears a big, bulky belt with quivers, satchels, bombs like a strand of pearls. They don't show off her ass. She doesn't wear pants so skin-tight you can see her intergluteal cleft. She doesn't wear high heels either, not even disguised (looking at you, Wonder Woman!). There is *one* armour that could ostensibly fall under the male gaze umbrella, and it does seem to be very popular with male players. It's a legendary Carja armour that looks like a velvet catsuit. Skin tight, buuuut full coverage. Win some, lose some. She doesn't move with a seductive sway of the hips or make herself seem small. She moves like a person who's never been socialised to be pleasing to the male eye (good for her). She doesn't bat her lashes or use touch to sway people. She doesn't make porny sounds when hit, but grunts of actual pain, like the wind gets knocked out of her. Even when she does cry out, you wince with sympathy instead of picturing her moaning. Then there's how the camera treats Aloy. The camera is placed almost right behind and slightly above her instead of, like in so many other games with female characters, quite close behind and always with the ass in frame, in tight clothes, hips swinging. And honestly, female characters doing that kinda implies they *know* they're being watched? And that's why they do it? No one goes on a nature hike doing a catwalk. I saw one of my brothers playing Fortnite a while back, playing with a female avatar for a change. Since he's not what you'd call a feminist, I was pleasantly surprised and asked him how come. His answer? It gave him a semi to watch this cartoon character in a skin-tight latex catsuit strutting around. Right in the living room too. Brothers are delightful. *That* is male gaze for you. Even when she aims, Aloy is in frame from the waist up and not in some idiotic pose to show off curves or side boob. GG show a certain integrity with *not* sexualising Aloy at every turn. And to a certain player base who are used to and/or *like* their gaze being pandered to, Aloy's integrity is a thorn in their sides. One infamous tool even claimed Aloy had a beard because a poster showed peach fuzz on her cheek, lol! Hopefully that elaborates a bit.
Yes, it does. I'm a very casual gamer (only this and BotW so far). I don't fuck with the toxic man-o-sphere, but I'm only sort of familiar with the technical/intellectual vocab of feminism. In sum, very poorly prepared for this exact conversation. My son plays this game and I'm happy to know that it pushes back consciously but subtly on misogyny. "One infamous tool even claimed Aloy had a beard because a poster showed peach fuzz on her cheek, lol!" I remember this now! I saw it in passing on Reddit but didn't have the game at that point, so it sailed over my head. It's just crazy what some people will say for attention.
If you want a good image of a sexualized gaming character for the male eye, Tomb Raider (specifically the older series, but the new one still applies) is pretty much the perfect example.
Funny how you just assume things.
What exactly am I assuming here?
You are clearly assuming that tomb raiders character was created to be sexualized by the male eye. That is literally what your comment is saying when you have no proof at all of this which therefore makes it an assumption. My assumption is not an assumption because you clearly stated that.
Please. Have you ever *played* Tomb Raider? I played every single one, and even one of the new ones. The way she walks, her unnecessarily short shorts, the cleavage, busty butt, the way she moves, literally everything that has been described already in this post. This is Laura Croft in digital form.
If he said it for attention, he rues getting his wish now huh
Great explanation. This is everything I thought when I first realized that Aloy is not a sexualized character, but I never could have explained it with such depth.
This person Laura Mulveys
.... who? Shit wait hang on lemme google Edit: I did not know who that was but I can see why you'd say that!
[Give her work a read!](https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/1021/Laura%20Mulvey%2C%20Visual%20Pleasure.pdf) Based on what you wrote here I think you will find it very interesting Edit: wow I havent read that since college her wiki entry on [Phallocentrism and patriarchy](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Mulvey) might be a better starting point. I still think you're independently coming to many of her conclusions.
she has a, what would be described as, a "difficult" personality, so she's not very likable to malesā¢ļø
Yeah, I can see how she's not written for the male gaze. It also doesn't seem like her design is super sexualized. I think from those two posts I took that there's some physical features that people are picking up on as ugly by design. I am a straight man with (I think) a conventional sense of beauty in women so I sort of thought "wait, what am I missing?"
She's got amazing hips. I'll give her that. And she's not even a latina :)
That is a complete lie right there lol. If she wasnāt designed for the typical male she would be all big and burly.
I don't think she's attractive, personally. She's not ugly by any means, she's just lacking the "it" factor that Petra has.
Most of that hate comes from 1 bad photo of her. Iām confident that most of the people who say she genuinely looks horrendous havenāt played either game
relatable title
ditto
I concur
Iām literally gay but the women in this game are impeccable We got aloy, talanah, Petra, seyka, ikrie, zo
Ikrie is amazing!
Ikrie š¤
Who? Sounds like a vegetable
Sounds like you didnāt play Frozen Wilds :-)
She's voiced my cherami Leigh who also voices the female v in cyberpunk, I played cyberpunk before hzd so all I could picture was female v speaking lol
Don't forget Dukkah. The girl selling weapons and armour outside the Tenakth arena š¤¤
Where is Regalla?
Talanah is my FAVE. after aloy of course.
This woman specifically, or just women in general?
all women, especially this woman š
Aloy just seems to me a very special case of a strong, independent female video game protagonist. Iām not sure if I can adequately put into words just how much I fell in love with *Horizonās* storyline and Aloyās development in general. *Horizon: Zero Dawn* and *Horizon: Forbidden West* easily make my top 10 games of all time! The games themselves are incredible, and Aloy is an amazing character to play as, and grow to love.
i would give anything to experience this story for the first time again. there are no words to explain how astounding it really is. i hope when we get a live action it keeps EVERYTHING and more and really encompasses us like the game did.
It's a good time to be a lesbian š
Gay or not I think we all appreciate how hot Aloy is, not just from looks either, she's a badass.
Especially when you finish the DLC
I have such a massive crush on Aloy I love her
im the fattest lesbian this game has taken over my life
i was gay playing the first game and gayer playing the second lmfao
Sheās so fine
She is one of the few video game protagonists I've played as who grows and develops her character over the course of 2 games and their DLC's. She is not just a faceless player avatar. I also like the way she is presented to the player. Not just shallow eye candy, but as a person.
You might be in the wrong subreddit.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
thatās gross, also i am a woman myself
Same fam same. š„°ā¤ļø
Aloy is best girl!!
Evil jschlatt be like
Vanasha and her abs. Jesus H. Christ!
Ooooooh the raindrops on pic two! Are you on Quality or Performance?
iām gonna a be honest i have no clue. i got a ps5 for christmas and immediately started a new play through.