‘From virgins and victims to heroines and heretics: Fantasy as a tool for female empowerment in contemporary medieval roleplay games’ Marie-Luise Meier, University of Tartu @MarieLuiseMeier https://twitter.com/MidAgesModGames/status/1278707647768940544 1 #MAMG20 He dreams to be a knight; she is the miller’s daughter, tells us Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Without historical authenticity, we have Dragon Age’s spectrum of gender roles. Does only fantasy give possibilities for female empowerment in games with a medieval setting? 2 #MAMG20 Empowerment means that female characters have access to the same opportunities as males, esp. in education, profession & lifestyle. Because games show metamorphoses twofold, narrative development and ludic (gaining levels/classes, story options etc.) must be considered. 3 #MAMG20 Does fantasy automatically lead to female empowerment? Girl Power Movement icons such as Buffy and Xena rely on fantasy. But traditionally, fantasy has been a male genre, filled out by the male desire to become a hero, as in e.g. Lord of the Rings. 4 #MAMG20 KC:D doesn’t claim historical accuracy in all parts: “[KC:D] would be too boring or too difficult.” But it is as unrealistic as the hero’s journey gets: A blacksmith’s son gets a fancy sword and revenges his parent’s death (using fantasy-style alchemy + swordfighting). 5 #MAMG20 The first women introduced are the king’s playmates, followed by Henry’s mother: the classic dichotomy of mother vs object of desire. The mother is defined through her role as such. She has no name (his father does) and must die, so Henry’s revenge story can progress. 6 #MAMG20 Theresa’s role is that of the love interest, and only that. She is introduced with Henry’s PoV shot on her behind. She must be saved from rape and courted with flowers. Henry has dreams. He uses his grief over the death of his parents as a driving force; she just caves. 7 #MAMG20 The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is heavily infused with fantasy. Witchers are traditionally male, sorceresses are traditionally female. Both are powerful. While most protagonists fit the world’s gendered categories, Ciri is special and introduced as a young, capable warrior. 8 #MAMG20 She can be played and hones her skills (e.g. teleport, slowing time). She even has alternative endings to her story: being dead or alive, becoming witcher or empress. What weakens her as a female character is the way her story is told: it’s exclusively told by others. 9 #MAMG20 Dragon Age: Inquisition is full of fantasy and empowered female characters such as seeker Cassandra, who is introduced as empowered. She can become a fighter or a protector as well as the new Divine, which is a female-institutionalized counterpart to the Catholic pope. 10 #MAMG20 In conclusion, it appears that the higher the amount of fantasy in a game, the more empowered female characters are. However, I would argue that the possibility for empowerment of female characters is not sorely based on fantasy. It is a mixture of two things: 11 #MAMG20 1) the right placing of fantasy elements and 2) the characterization of female characters. A Plague Tale: Innocence, set in 1348 France, shows this. The young protagonist cannot become a knight because of the authentic restrictions of the time, but she has aspirations. 12 #MAMG20 She wants empowerment and the world’s design uses fantasy so that it allows her to become the hero in a David vs Goliath plot. If historical games place inaccuracies differently, this could indeed lead to female empowerment in an otherwise authentic medieval framework.
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