Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2010-08-03 04:10 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2010-08-03 04:10 pm
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Yes, I've Genuinely Been Waiting For This Age To Make This Entry.
I turned twenty-two a few weeks ago, and so it seems an appropriate time to post about something that's been troubling me: the ages of female characters in the Final Fantasy series. And videogames in general, and media in general, really, but I'm using the Final Fantasy series in particular to illustrate this problem.
About a year ago,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rimon made an entry asking about the sorts of female characters people wanted to see in videogames. Considering this made me realise that, whilst I could easily name a few significant male videogame characters over thirty, thinking of female characters in the same age range was considerably more tricky.
Curious, I looked up all the humanoid main-party characters in the main-series games from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy XII, disregarding characters such as Fran, who is more than fifty years old but looks much younger on account of not being human.
The ages of the male characters ranged from five to seventy.
The ages of the female characters ranged from five to twenty-two.
I love the Final Fantasy series, but this is ridiculous. Beatrix from IX is twenty-eight (and awesome!) and Edea from VIII must be over thirty, but both of these are temporary party members, playable only very briefly. Permanently playable male characters over the age of twenty-two, meanwhile, include Edward, Edge, Yang, Cid (IV), Tellah, Galuf, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Setzer, Cyan, Strago, Vincent, Cid (VII), Barret, Amarant, Steiner, Wakka, Auron and Basch. That's at least one playable male character older than the oldest female characters in the entire series (Aeris and Lulu*) in every one of these games bar VIII.
And that bothers me. Why do the women always have to be young and pretty? I do love most of the ladies of Final Fantasy, and I don't think for a moment that they're there solely to be attractive; they're characters, with strengths and flaws and insecurities and roles in the plot. But they're limited in age and appearance, and there's no reason for them not to be as physically varied as the men.
I'm not saying that videogames have to stop having young, pretty women in their casts, but would it be too much trouble to include the occasional female character who deviates from that template? Really, now. I don't want to feel that I'm going to be past saving the world from a giant flying whale in a mere twelve months.
* I always thought Lulu was around thirty. I was astonished to realise she was only twenty-two. I mentally age both Lulu and the eighteen-year-old Quistis up eight years when I'm playing their games.
Lulu doesn't look twenty-two, so why make her twenty-two? There's no reason for her not to be thirty. Wakka doesn't look twenty-three, either, so he could have been aged up as well had their romance been a concern.
And, of course, in Final Fantasy X-2 Lulu is twenty-four and, ta-da, no longer a playable character. TWENTY-TWO IS THE ABSOLUTE CUTOFF FOR LADIES TO HAVE ADVENTURES. HERE, HAVE AN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD INSTEAD. I do like Paine very much, but the way in which Lulu is sidelined does seem a bit odd.
About a year ago,
rimon made an entry asking about the sorts of female characters people wanted to see in videogames. Considering this made me realise that, whilst I could easily name a few significant male videogame characters over thirty, thinking of female characters in the same age range was considerably more tricky.Curious, I looked up all the humanoid main-party characters in the main-series games from Final Fantasy IV to Final Fantasy XII, disregarding characters such as Fran, who is more than fifty years old but looks much younger on account of not being human.
The ages of the male characters ranged from five to seventy.
The ages of the female characters ranged from five to twenty-two.
I love the Final Fantasy series, but this is ridiculous. Beatrix from IX is twenty-eight (and awesome!) and Edea from VIII must be over thirty, but both of these are temporary party members, playable only very briefly. Permanently playable male characters over the age of twenty-two, meanwhile, include Edward, Edge, Yang, Cid (IV), Tellah, Galuf, Locke, Edgar, Sabin, Setzer, Cyan, Strago, Vincent, Cid (VII), Barret, Amarant, Steiner, Wakka, Auron and Basch. That's at least one playable male character older than the oldest female characters in the entire series (Aeris and Lulu*) in every one of these games bar VIII.
And that bothers me. Why do the women always have to be young and pretty? I do love most of the ladies of Final Fantasy, and I don't think for a moment that they're there solely to be attractive; they're characters, with strengths and flaws and insecurities and roles in the plot. But they're limited in age and appearance, and there's no reason for them not to be as physically varied as the men.
I'm not saying that videogames have to stop having young, pretty women in their casts, but would it be too much trouble to include the occasional female character who deviates from that template? Really, now. I don't want to feel that I'm going to be past saving the world from a giant flying whale in a mere twelve months.
* I always thought Lulu was around thirty. I was astonished to realise she was only twenty-two. I mentally age both Lulu and the eighteen-year-old Quistis up eight years when I'm playing their games.
Lulu doesn't look twenty-two, so why make her twenty-two? There's no reason for her not to be thirty. Wakka doesn't look twenty-three, either, so he could have been aged up as well had their romance been a concern.
And, of course, in Final Fantasy X-2 Lulu is twenty-four and, ta-da, no longer a playable character. TWENTY-TWO IS THE ABSOLUTE CUTOFF FOR LADIES TO HAVE ADVENTURES. HERE, HAVE AN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD INSTEAD. I do like Paine very much, but the way in which Lulu is sidelined does seem a bit odd.
Re: Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.
As to Tifa and Yuffie, hey - takes all sorts to make a world. Or a good game.
Party system? What have I missed? And although you again have a very good point about the marketing, her screentime is also double that of everyone besides Noctis combined.
And I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with DoC to add anything to that (and I'm probably going to take your word for it since by most accounts it was not the world's best game.) Drat, I was hoping for another cool deconstruction.
Re: Wow, there's a LOT of interesting stuff there.
True, true. Both Tifa and Yuffie (and also Aerith) have differing personalities and methods. I guess I just grow frustrated with the way Cloud treats Tifa a lot. Then again, I'm an aggressive girl. I do not hesitate to raise my voice when people I love upset me. XD
I had heard that there would be a party system in FF Versus 13, but it seems I'm either getting confused or just plain wrong. Nothing has been revealed about a party system yet, just some speculation. So I take it back. We'll have to see how it work, if at all. Since the KH developers work on FF Vs 13, I wonder if it will be like the KH party system, where you control your primary character only.
DoC has some interesting ideas, but the execution is one of the worst that FF has produced. And I truly despise shooting games, so we all know it didn't win points with me for that. XD I did like it for its Yuffie moments, though. She's as spunky as ever. ♥