Loba is the newest legend coming toApex Legends,arriving this Tuesday, May 12. And though the excitement for her and her new powers are high, some are poking fun at her character design.
Video games are known for oftenover sexualizing female charactersover its long history. Though in the past decade, a great deal of positive change has occurred in this regard, due in large part to the broadening of online discourse and the voices of feminist gaming critics like Anita Sarkeesian. This positive change is highlighted in a game likeApex Legends, where female characters are sensibly dressed and not sexualized in really any way at all.
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Which is where the discussion of Loba comes into play.Loba has a sexier look to herwhen compared to Wraith or Wattson, with cleavage, high heel boots, and a larger butt in tighter pants. Many were quick to criticize this apparent change in developer Respawn’s approach to character design, perhaps summed up best in this meme compilation put together by Redditor moe_baj:
On the surface the meme and comments are funny and make sense, but hearing how Respawn itself approached Loba’s design may change people’s opinion on the matter.
In a video interview, writer forApex LegendsTom Casiello explained that while he came up with the initial idea for Loba, it was vetted by women at Respawn and brought to fruition by fellow writer Ashley Reed. Before Respawn, Casiello was a writer for the women of the WWE, where he had experience writing women who wanted to be “on equal footing as men,” but still wanted to portray women. So Casiello then took this idea to Reed who fleshed her out into the Loba fans know. Ashley Reed cites Catwoman and Bayonetta as influences, as well as Shakira’s “She Wolf” music video (which in Spanish is “Loba”). Tom Casiello said he wanted to, “introduce a female character who kind of owned her sexuality,” and “liked to look good when she wakes up in the morning.”
Like in life, some people own their sexuality, and some do not. As feminist gaming critic Anita Sarkeesian would point out, there is nothing inherently wrong about having a sexy woman in a video game, so long as it relates to her personality, is not the only type of woman in the game, and does not merely exist for a presumed straight male audience. So players wanting to criticize Respawn’s design of Loba should at least take this information into consideration.
Loba will available as part of Season 5, Fortune’s Favor, which launches Tuesday, May 10. Between now and then, players canplay the end of the Battle Armor Event, where every player will drop with a level one Evo Shield and a P2020 pistol.
Apex Legendsis available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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