Maybe, maybe not… I always liked Anointed One so the thought of summoning them feels pretty strong…
Until you summon 3-4 Remnants for every Anointed One.
50% chance to summon a potato though. I dont see the fun in that.
I dont expect all troops to interest me.
Hey, just wanted to add my voice to the discussion. @LegendMaker and I have spoken a LOT about these issues, and I think there might be a miscommunication here. He’s not trying to defend the art as saying that since she’s evil it’s cool, and I should add we both agree that the Hag is probably the only 100% non-sexualized fully female character in the game (because she’s old which is another big can of ridiculous sexism worms which I’m not going to enter into - and I guess you know just as much as I do on the subject, alas). For Maud’s sake, even the Pride-Hunter has huge freaking boobs, and EVERY SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER (save for dragons, Tyri whose breasts are hidden by her arms and the Naga Queen who only has a female face) just NEED to have very visible boobs, apparently. Even those that are completely clothed. The priestess have the weirdest space between hers just to make sure we can see them, even if she is fully clothed in an apparel that is not sexy whatsoever… but you know, boobies, they have a life of their own and want to be seen no matter what in the world of Kyrstara!
So as for the all “sexy evil queen”, which we actually both think looks pretty cool in her own rights…
1/ She hails from Darkstone, home of the infamous Succubus (and the Hag, yeah 
), she’s a sorceress who joined evil forces and…
2/ …in Western mythos in general, evil is linked to sex one way or another (and now I’ve got the freaking stalker song in my head, thank you very much stupid brain), and the sorceress does look like she’s sexy and she knows it and she doesn’t give a damn what anyone can think about it because she’s her own master goddammit.
Of course, linking evil to sex IS a huge problematic point, but that’s not @LegendMaker’s doing, it’s centuries of sexist viewpoints. “Good girls” are pure and virginal, “bad evil queens” are oversexualised (and gasp are even ready to have the “pure” ones killed like in Snow White), but that’s just a reflection of the ridiculous (and highly mixed up and messed up) stigmas about female sexuality that women are flooded with from their youth.
He was just trying to state that at least, and yes, we are both aware that it’s sad in its own way, she doesn’t look like she’s being sexualised for the heck of it, like the Green Seer or the Devoted can be, but that her sexiness is actually something that meshes with the characters (she’s “corrupted” after all, see the all Western mythos point above), and she looks damn proud of her rather than stupidly clueless. She owns it. She’s not a toy, she’s not her to please, she’s here because she chose to. Or at least, that’s how we feel she looks like. YMMV, and we didn’t mean to misconstrue the idea.
There woulds be a lot more to say on the subject, obviously, but seeing that any thread, even when specifically dedicated to the subject, always ended up attracting trolls, I’m probably going to leave it at that. Just wanted to clarify. Sorry if I went off rails or if I made it even less clear.
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All that you explain makes perfectly sense. But, as you say, it is sad.
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To expand on @Archenassa a touch, the mythos even explains that the Corrupted Sorceress is so revered that their every whim is attended to. Sounds like a powerful figure to me.
I want to point out, first of all, that “we have some female characters who aren’t actively designed, posed, and animated so dudes will find them super sexy” is still a gold-star achievement in games. It doesn’t make sense to use this as a baseline or expect all games to meet this standard. Maybe one day, but not now, so this isn’t EXACTLY a criticism.
Priestess–you’re right about Priestess. So… Hag and Priestess. That’s two.
Ghiralee is an edge case. She’s clothed and seems purposeful; that being said, she’s a large breasted woman in tight-fitting clothing standing with her shoulders thrown back. You could argue about whether or not she owns her sexuality or intends to project, but she’s posed sexily in a way that’s designed to entice men.
Lamia. Sorry, nope. Lamia has armor on but it’s a second skin made of metal designed to display her breasts. (I don’t beat the drum for practical armor in fantasy, but metal breastplates with cups are basically self-murdering-machines; they’d direct any incoming force straight to the sternum and break the breastbone. As an ornamental choice, maybe. But there are no points for coverage or practicality here.) Also, she has her (many) arms spread in a way that frames her breasts, which emphasizes them further.
Scarlett–You mean the woman whose metal breastplate has a princess neckline? And whose voluminous cloak is thrown back from her shoulders while she leans forward so that the dim light of the forest can fall straight and almost exclusively onto her breasts? Scarlett is lovely but no. She’s designed and posed for the male gaze.
Valkyrie–Ooh, I’m seeing a theme here. Tight fitting metal breastplate. I’d call her an edge case, too, though. She’s mostly covered, her body type exists in the real world. That’s good. But she’s a young woman with large breasts in skin-tight armor standing with her shoulders thrown back.
What’s the last one? Tyri? Eh, kind of. Not a terrible example! But she’s a young and beautiful manic pixy dream girl. Definitely designed to be appealing to men, but in a less aggressively sexual way. Also, she has more characterization in the game than the average troop & it really reinforces the worst aspects of the manic pixy dream girl type. She’s bubbly, overconfident, and constantly getting into trouble from which men need to save her.
I just want to repeat that all the above troops are fine. I like them. It’s okay for female troops to be sexy and it’s okay for fantasy armor to have impractical aspects. But no extra credit, sorry.
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@LegendMaker actually made me realize that Ghiralee has two “boob tips” in the form of buttons and now I just cannot unsee it any more…
Those buttons are too high
Yes, that’s what I told him as well when he showed me… but still, I can’t help but see them that way now. 
Probably designed to avoid chafing
I’d argue the sexuality of the majority of the female Troops is misleading. Any man would be a fool to approach them, no matter how enticing.
I get it and I follow. This is why my initial response was just one line–the troop DOES meet some basic, minimum standards. Women who own their sexuality are great. The game allows us to have fun with and play as villains, so we’re not supposed to straight up hate her. She has some personality and backstory, that’s cool.
Really, all the things you said. And I’m very conscious that when people say, “Oh, this is the standard you need to meet,” and then you do the work and meet the standard and all of a sudden there’s a new standard–that’s REALLY frustrating. Frustration is a valid response. But that’s kind of how it works.
It’s slightly murky territory.
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Yes, I have, quite a lot in fact. I’ve voiced my opinion on this issue multiple times in the past, including the fact that I’m as dissatisfied as you are with the number of objectified women in GoW’s art in general. You skipped the “at least” part of that quote, and the main message I was trying to convey in that part of my post seemed to not have reached you, unfortunately. It was a pretty far cry from “of course the evil queen is sexy”.
To me, the Corrupt Sorceress is in the same league as the Succubus: it’s a very clearly sexual character, but at least it’s not a sexual object. Not that I wouldn’t be happy for the game’s artwork to move away from the “Boobies! Also, there’s a woman behind those, if needed…” direction, I would! Still, what basically amounts to a dominatrix, while it certainly doesn’t shift the focus away from sex, conveys a better (or perhaps “less worse”) image of women than a lot of other artwork we’ve had in this game so far.
Just to put this in context, we’ve seen ostensibly sexy boobies slapped onto a lot of things from which they have no business hanging, in this game so far, including but not limited to:
- Monsters (Dark Maiden, Banshee, Spider Queen…)
-
Animals (Amira, Sunweaver, Shadow Hunter…)
-
Plants (Rowanne, Dryad, Spring Imp…)
-
Suits of Armor (Scarlett, Valkyrie, Lamia, Tal Ra’e…). Seriously! What’s up with that! Fully-clothed? Okay, but you’ll have to wear a decoy on top so that you still look naked from afar… By that logic, there should be an erect metal pole pointing from the crotch area of all the male knights in this game… It would be just as practical and tasty (and actually it could double up as a weapon, so it’d still make slightly more sense ^^).
- …even the odd ice sculpture (Ice Witch)!
Not to mention completely broken pleasure dolls like The Devoted or Green Seer, who reach mainstream US comic book levels of woman objectification.
So, with all that in mind, I’m not terribly offended by the Corrupt Sorceress. At least she’s not Atlanta. =)
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Any chance anyone might talk about the troops and their spells before this thread gets locked…?
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Sorry, @LegendMaker, for misreading your comment. All apologies. It sounds like we’re on the same page–“less worse” is a pretty perfect description, actually. Corrupt Priestess is definitely Less Worse.
These actually exist in the real world, FYI. Some nice ones on display in the armor displays at the Met in NYC.
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Why would it get locked?
Id be interested to see some useful team compositions with them if anyone has any ideas
I have a theory that we basically define as ‘romantic’ things that we would only want to do (kinda of a double entendre there, heh) in our imaginations but not in life.
So, you might see a beautiful evil sorceress or a sexy playboy rockstar or whatever. Things where, if you were advising your best friend, you’d probably tell them that yeah, you understand the temptation but maybe take a pass.
I’d like to make an explore team with the Sorceress, probably with the Sacrificial Priest just as @Mr.Strange suggested. I haven’t actually tried her out yet, but I love summoners and the Priest could always off the Remnants anyway.