Wow, things are not looking good for Velvet. I don’t remember that part of Odin Sphere…
Fan art and fiction–sometimes hilarious, sometimes just delicious–is probably the most interesting ways we dorks express our fandom. Instead of passively loving some artistic creation–some game, some book, some movie–we take control by becoming the active creators of that thing we love. Of course, that leaves us wondering why fan art is never “good art.” It also leaves me wondering why fan art is so sexual.
Which brings us to the drawing of a naked Velvet, gagged and bound to a tree. It’s one of tons images of female video game characters, all in seriously compromising positions, Scott stumbled across recently on a fan site (NSFW). No one is left un-sexified: Ashley from Resident Evil 4, Samus Aran, the female characters from Phoenix Wright. Ridiculous, yes, but strangely entertaining.
The absurdity is made, well, more absurd by the fact that most of the characters–who each appear in two or three frames of animation–get progressively and inexplicably stickier. They’re covered in some sort of generic, sex-related goo which oozes from illogical spots on their bodies. As if being stripped down in front of all your fans wasn’t embarrassing enough!
January 15th, 2008 at 6:49 am
When I look at the Phoenix Wright image, all I can think is that the girl taking it should be screaming “I OBJECT!!”
For some reason, that just makes me giggle.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
[…] Heroine Sheik - Naked and Sticky: Gamings Favorite Female Characters […]
January 15th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I am going to persist in a naive belief that the ooze is intended to be a mixture of sweat, natural skin oil, and KY jelly supplied by a 55-gallon drum located just out of view.
It’s the little things that let me cling to what small touches of sanity I have left.
As for why fan art is so sexual, I have some intuitions on this I think are somewhat logical. One of my favorite observations is that real life is rated NC-17. That the media around which fandom most often develops is so sterilized, especially in the United States, leaves it lacking.
Relationships which seem cleanly and clearly to segue into sexual ones are left unfulfilled, with the heroes and heroines vanishing into their respective sunsets. The choices made in plot development often make this far worse in games and related media.
Contrast “The Lord of the Rings” and “Resident Evil 4″ for example, Tolkien as repressed as he was, at least acknowledges that Arwen and Aragorn had sex, at least once; if only by acknowledging that they had a child. In Resident Evil 4, however, we are supposed to believe, after all the blatant flirtation and innuendo, and Ashley outright tossing herself at Leon at the end, that he doesn’t take her up on it? Preposterous!
In Anime, and other Japanese derived media, I suspect this is quite intentional. The relationship between official, corporate sponsored writing (which is censored) and the Erotic Doujinshi circles (which is anything but censored! Definitely in ideas if not in artwork) is one of active miscegenation. With writers frequently moving from one side to the other over the course of their careers.
However, that explanation doesn’t really account for the extent of the phenomenon in America.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:54 am
I loled
January 16th, 2008 at 6:21 am
“In Resident Evil 4, however, we are supposed to believe, after all the blatant flirtation and innuendo, and Ashley outright tossing herself at Leon at the end, that he doesn’t take her up on it? Preposterous!”
Actually, the reason Leon doesn’t take Ashley up on her offer is because he’s gay.
January 16th, 2008 at 7:23 am
That really is an excellent explanation in the specific case of Resident Evil 4, Scott.
I should have made my example more generic, as it is really the repetition of sexualized interaction followed by sexual denial that I find so absurd.
If that explanation held in all cases, then the plurality of heroes in pop culture would have to be gay. I just don’t think that matches up with either the intent or popular interpretation.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I think amateur participatory media is just really sexual on the whole, and so fanart gets the same treatment. Well, that and it comes with fully-realized characters on whom you can drape your sexual predilections.
On the topic of sexualizing characters in general, there’s now a website — http://rule34.paheal.net/ — made with the specific intention of amassing porn of every character ever. It’s done for humour purposes, of course, but the idea stems from the phenomenon you’re commenting on.
January 17th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Wow. Just… wow.
And that guy’s fooling nobody claiming it’s being done for humorous purposes.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:16 am
Relationships which seem cleanly and clearly to segue into sexual ones are left unfulfilled, with the heroes and heroines vanishing into their respective sunsets.
That seems like a really good point, Calladin. If fan art takes up where the original leaves off, you can see why it feels the need to fill in the sexual gaps.
I think amateur participatory media is just really sexual on the whole.
Why do think that is, Halfassured? Because there’s something sexual in taking control of characters?
As for Rule 34, did anyone else see the Luigi/Samus cross-gender spliced one? Freaky! Thanks for the link, Halfassured :).
January 18th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Well, the flippant answer is that people are really interested in sex, and amateur media allows them to indulge in that interest without needing to appease censors or interest a general audience. But there does seem to be a lot of sex in fandom even by those standards, so it probably is more complex than that.
Exercising creative control over a character is a heady power, especially if it’s a character you’re already invested in. It’s easy to see how this can lead to sex, in the same way that if you had robots or hypno-zombies that could be programmed, they’d inevitably get used for sex, but I think it’s also the core of Mary Sueism and other literary indulgences.
January 18th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Oh, your link reminds me — as regards genderbending porn, I’m really interested in how much there is there. It’s nearly all M->F of course, and it runs the gamut from silly (http://rule34.paheal.net/post/view/71126) to disturbing (http://rule34.paheal.net/post/view/57440) to actually-hot (http://rule34.paheal.net/post/view/4086), but still.
January 19th, 2008 at 5:14 am
The gender-switched fan art is pretty interesting stuff. That one Link picture in particular is, well, particularly interesting. I wonder if the desire to turn male characters into female ones before sexualizing them comes from some sort of homo-erotic repression? You want to sexualize the characters you love, but you feel it’s unacceptable if they’re male. Then again, giving an obviously male character a female body sounds pretty “unacceptable” too. Fascinating stuff!
Personally, my favorite find on Rule #34 is all the House/Wilson slash. I wasn’t thinking it before, but now I sure am :).