High heels vs character-believability and respect

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Seems to me like they missed the opportunity to make a naturally beautiful female character, with defined facial features, who at the same time could look ugly when she's sad or angry. No skinny model, no makeup, no tight pants and no high heels. She's supposed to be on the run through this very messy and dirty world. Leave the 'prettying up' to sorceresses.
 
@Sirnaq, you had some pretty good points, thank you for calling me out on my bullshit.
I will take your words to heart and try to improve myself as a human being.

I was too accusative towards CDPR when the delivery of my points should have rather been informative, since it seems they just got carried away with her design and overlooked that particular detail. So please CDPR, accept my sincerest apologies.

My main point of high heels for a swordfighter being a bad design-decision still stands though, but I will leave the gender-issues out of the topic from now on because any discussion involving sexism of any degree is clearly too toxic to be discussed over the internet, regardless of how nice the community is.
 
"Remember Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels".

Dancing isn't the same as a fucking swordfight. You can't practice a swordfight to perfection because of it's unpredictable nature and not to mention terrain.
It's not a matter of being used to it.

I bet Ginger Rogers had to practice twice as long because of those heels.
 
Did this pass by in the topic yet?


Maybe ciri was just galloping her horsey around and didn't get a chance to change shoes.
 
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Have you guys ever played Metal Gear Solid Rising ?
Raiden, the main character, which is a male has high heels.





Why you may ask ? Maybe because it gives a sword-fighter height advantage, or maybe getting kicked with high heels hurts more, maybe with enough practice you could use it to launch your sword from the ground to your hand so you don't have to bend over in the middle of a fight, and so on.
But no ! When CDPR gives Ciri high heels (THICK high heels so they are sturdier than the regular high heels), everyone without even knowing what misogyny means, says that CDPR is misogynistic and a bunch of other irrelevant stuff. Misogyny is HATRED of women, and it is a very strong word; misogyny and sexism are NOT interchangeable. You could say Ciri having high heels is sexist, since male characters in the game are not wearing high heels. It differentiates between a female and other male characters, so it could be because of her gender so that makes it sexist.
I would love the heels if they were made out of iron, so they hurt more when she kicks someone during the fight.
 
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Well Metal Gear Solid shouldn't be taken as a measure for accuracy and logics, should it? ;)

Which makes me wonder, if any of these "Walk a mile in her shoes."-people know of the origin of high heels. :)
 
Seems to me like they missed the opportunity to make a naturally beautiful female character, with defined facial features, who at the same time could look ugly when she's sad or angry. No skinny model, no makeup, no tight pants and no high heels.
Those things are easy to say in theory, but when you start designing female characters for a video game, those lines of thinking will lead to Bioware's models

Ciri's face and body are fine, they have both standard beauty and some distinctive features.
Look at Yen's face, CDPR added some defining facial features with realistic flaws and a lot of people hate it. For some it's natural beauty but for others it just looks plain ugly, this could be true in real life let alone a 3D model in video games. Basically when Ciri's only controversial part is her footwears you know that they designed a good female character.
 
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Well Metal Gear Solid shouldn't be taken as a measure for accuracy and logics, should it? ;)

Which makes me wonder, if any of these "Walk a mile in her shoes."-people know of the origin of high heels. :)
I did not use it as a measure of accuracy, I used it in order to point out that calling CDPR "misogynistic" over Ciri having high heels is irrelevant.
Instead of relating it to gender and misogynism, we should be discussing why Ciri should or should not be wearing high heels.
 
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Raidens cool, the heels are useful since they can hold his swords also he's a cyborg so yeah...
@Percival_Dickenbutts I suggest you edit your first post since you rescind your accusations

Given your rather rude reply about the practicality of high heels in dancing, and the total, absolute and complete dissimilarity between dancing, and dancing while holding a pointy thing... this "Raiden is Cool" seems rather obtuse.

I can't pretend that I understand this at all, beyond not liking Ciri as written, or visualised from that written description?
 
Given your rather rude reply about the practicality of high heels in dancing, and the total, absolute and complete dissimilarity between dancing, and dancing while holding a pointy thing... this "Raiden is Cool" seems rather obtuse.

It's up to the mods to say if I'm rude or not you can go report me if you feel strongly about it.

As for dancing and swordfighting, they are similar in a way. The big difference is that a swordfight is unpredictable while a dance you can practice for days on end (with the terrain of your choice), not to mention your life depends on how a fight would go down.

And you're questioning my consistency with the Raiden thing? Why? It's functional! It doesn't damage the consistency of his character in any way!

Ciri's heels from a design and storytelling perspective tells me that (A)She isn't very practical, this is a girl that was raised in constant violence and fear she had to fight and kill to survive. If she wears high heels it totally negates this trait/past. (B) She cares more about her looks more than staying alive and slaying her enemies.

I can't pretend that I understand this at all, beyond not liking Ciri as written, or visualised from that written description?

from the books she's based on?? http://witcher.gamepedia.com/Ciri everything about her character wouldn't wear these heels.
 
Normally, intuitively, I'd say high heels are aren't amenable to swordfighting. However, if there is / was a school or organisation that developed and perfected a combat form on heels, then sure... why not? (feed me a decent explanation through backstory and I can accept most anything). ;)
 
And you're questioning my consistency with the Raiden thing? Why? It's functional! It doesn't damage the consistency of his character in any way!

I agree there.

1. It's functional since the heels can hold his shooes
2. Raiden always had those feminine accents. It's kind of a MGS running gag
3. Raiden is a cyborg, and as a machine not dependent on muscles and bones that hold the balance while wearing the heels or worries about his feet hurting afterwards

Normally, intuitively, I'd say high heels are aren't amenable to swordfighting. However, if there is / was a school or organisation that developed and perfected a combat form on heels, then sure... why not? (feed me a decent explanation through backstory and I can accept [....]

Agreed. The explanation is the key.
 
Those things are easy to say in theory, but when you start designing female characters for a video game, those lines of thinking will lead to Bioware's models

Ciri's face and body are fine, they have both standard beauty and some distinctive features.
Look at Yen's face, CDPR added some defining facial features with realistic flaws and a lot of people hate it. For some it's natural beauty but for others it just looks plain ugly, this is could be true in real life let alone a 3D model in video games. Basically when Ciri's only controversial part is her footwears you know that they designed a good female character.
Bioware's design is not their forte. They want to be different and edgy, but often end up looking generic somehow. Also even those Bioware models you posted have a lot of makeup.

I've looked over Ciri's whole model and noticed that her face is not so generic actually. Looking from the side she has a slightly bigger nose (as in 'not perky') which is refreshing. Though I still think makeup and heels are odd for a longtime runaway. Skinny model could be forgiven since she should be still young.

As for Yen I think most people actually want her to have more defined facial features. She should look more menacing. Current model is too rounded.
 
She *made* her own makeup and from the books description I would expect it to look rather more "metal" at least in the first raid on Dun Dare.

This (on a more feminine and youthful face (although disfigured with a still fairly fresh scar))...

 
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