Sunshine's Mod Blog

tedlyanderson:

cracked:

Some recent games have featured independent, well-developed characters with amazing powers, intriguing pasts, and mental off-switches activated by ball sweat. It’s like the player has kryptonite testicles. BioShock Infinite’s Elizabeth was born with the ability to tear portals in time and space, then learned to pick locks anyway, then sat patiently in prison until a penis arrived to save her. Ellie from The Last of Us is immune to an apocalyptic virus, learns new weapons faster than Neo, and has stabbed more enemies to death than Wolverine. But as soon as the guy turns up, she dissolves into tears and nursing. She could be machetifying a rapist cannibal into sashimi, but if the hero arrives she’ll instantly collapse into helpless tears, safe in his arms. Because that’s exactly what happens.

The protagonists, on the other hand, are such anonymous manly men that we’re not even going to bother with their names. You already know they’re white, stubbly, grizzled, dark-haired gun platforms. Their only advantages are the magic balls that fix them as the center of any narrative universe. And they’ve already lost their own girl earlier, because why on Earth would a man care about a woman without prior cause? The woman’s struggle becomes a stand-in for the man’s loss, her entire narrative is just a piece of his, and he scribbles “Daddy makes it all better” all over her ending.

6 Sexist Video Game Problems Even Bigger Than the Breasts

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’VE ALWAYS HATED ABOUT BIOSHOCK INFINITE

EVEN MORE THAN THEM CREATING A WORLD PERFECTLY TAILOR-MADE TO TALK ABOUT RACE AND POWER IN AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND THEN COMPLETELY IGNORING IT IN FAVOR OF A CREEPY ROMANCE/PARENTHOOD STORY THAT SUCKS

I REALLY don’t agree with the Last of Us part.

• Ellie from The Last of Us is immune to an apocalyptic virus, learns new weapons faster than Neo, and has stabbed more enemies to death than Wolverine. But as soon as the guy turns up, she dissolves into tears and nursing. She could be machetifying a rapist cannibal into sashimi, but if the hero arrives she’ll instantly collapse into helpless tears, safe in his arms. Because that’s exactly what happens. 
  

The part they’re referring to is when Ellie is killing David. At this point of the story the other main hero, Joel, was severely injured and bedridden. Ellie got caught after hunting for food for the both of them and a sequence leading the cannibal AWAY from Joel ensues. So at the point with David, her adrenaline is high as hell.

Then she breaks down seeing Joel, who she literally had no clue if he was alive or not considering he had to rely on Ellie to care for him. Crying doesn’t mean weakness. 

Context is important.