Asmongold TV - "The problem with women in games" | Asmongold

Episode Date: July 13, 2025

"The problem with women in games" Subscribe to Asmongold TV on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AsmonTV Disclaimer: This podcast is an independent project created by a viewer using content from the YouTube channel Asmongold TV. The purpose is to make his content more accessible to those who prefer audio formats, helping more people engage with the ideas presented in his videos. This podcast is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially associated with Asmongold. All rights to the original content remain with Asmongold TV. If there are any concerns or requests regarding this podcast, please reach out. -------------- Keywords: esports commentary, gaming drama, gaming hot takes, gaming opinions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The problem with women in games, well, there's a lot of them. But, okay, let's hear about this one. It just makes you wonder, because if certain games let you create characters with so much charm and magnetism, why can't games with dedicated female leads do the same thing? Well, what are some of the more recent female leads that we've been graced with? I think about Frey from first spoken, she can fight dragons. I think that she's attractive. I do.

I think people are porn-brained if they don't think that she's attractive. At least in that image, she's attractive. Ben the laws of physics and literally parkour across dimensions. That's super cool. But for some reason, they gave her the most awkward dialogue and had her deliver every line like she was on hold with customer service. On mute. What about KVS from Star Wars Outlaw? Can't say the same.

She's a scrappy space outlaw in theory. In practice, she's. She kind of just plays like she just respond from a bug and isn't sure where she is or why she's there. Okay. Well, what about female Ivor from Assassin's Creed Valhalla? Actually, she was canonically the real one. But you probably wouldn't know that because even Yuvosov was like, dang, that's crazy. Anyway, check out this guy's beard.

Yep. Or Dragon Age, the Vail Guard. This game was like 10 years in the oven and somehow it still came out. Well, it got overcooked. That's the problem. the reason why they have these issues is because it's built off of a false reality that men and women are interchangeable. And the way that they approach life, struggles, issues, and the way that they think are the same. And the big problem is that they're not.

So when you take a male character and then you replace it with a female character, and then you give it the same intuitions, the same impulses, and the same responses that a male character would have, it's off-putting and weird because men and women are different. Their roles in society are different. They're different down to, again, a chromosomal level, and everything about them is different. So you can't just simply replace a male and a female protagonist in a narrative-based game and expect the story to be told the same way. That's the reason why. It often felt cringy instead of charming And there really wasn't much mystery

But there was a lot of lecturing And instead of emotionally rich companions We kind of just got chronically online Twitter bios In fantasy outfits I think you get the point But I'm gonna say it anyway We need female characters with French With presents with a little drama

If you will The girls who meet you feel something Were not perfect They were messy and charismatic And complicated in the best way. Sadie Adler from... Well, there's like, I mean, look at Expedition 33, right?

I mean, all of those female characters are very well, well written. I think the problem is that I think this is my opinion, is that I think a lot of female writers try to write female characters in opposition to what a female character has traditionally been. And so in writing a character in opposition of what was the normal female character design, what ends up happening is that you're not creating. It's kind of like a card, right? And so like a card, like can't stand up by itself.

It has to be leaning against another card. So they write this personality to lean up against the old personality of one dimensional boob characters and that's it. And so if you take one of these away, they both fall apart. And that's because neither of these different things can stand on their own at all. You already have multiple examples, like Ripley is a great example of this. There's multiple examples of female characters and stories that I think are written relatively well, but you have to write them in a way that's true to the female experience to an extent

and understand that they are not an interchangeable unit with a man. And I think that the more that you write women and you do it with a chip on your shoulder as if, no, she's not going to be the princess that gets saved, this is weird like you're not writing you're not writing to tell a story you're writing to prove something dead too her husband

literally dies and she goes cool I'm going feral now and grieving yes stunning yes horse girl absolutely but I would let her run me open there's plenty of examples of that in history like Budica right like that's the first one I can think of I mean it's it's a messy

history right but like and there are examples of this where it happens So true, yeah. Over with that horse. Chloe Frazier from Uncharted. She's flirty and morally flexible and somehow still makes betrayal feel hot. Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy. She could literally take down a Bacemus in one hit and then quietly make you some soup and ask if you've been sleeping, okay.

But when I think about just well-written women in games, what's interesting is some of gaming's best women were not even the protagonist, but they were the scenes dealers. Siri from The Witcher 3 is quite literally the entire reason that Garalt is risking his life across these war-torn kingdoms. And she's this complicated, beautiful, just wild, young girl who's somehow still more mature than everyone else around her. Or Juna from Final Fantasy 10, this graceful, selfless and devastating character who's literally carrying the hopes of an entire world on her back. And I think also, like, especially whenever you have action games, there's like a certain degree of, like just historically, right? I mean, men usually fight for and defend women. This is usually what happens because of biology

and about 5 to 10,000 years of history, probably longer than that. And so this story makes a lot more sense because this is always the way things have been. And also, you have examples, yeah, from Final Fantasy 14, you know, Yashlada or like any of the other characters on there, many of the female characters were written,

extremely well, but they weren't the exact same as the male characters. And then she still apologizes when she inconveniences you. And if that's not being a girl, I don't know what is. And while Western games are nervously nerfing kind of every trace of femininity from their female characters, Eastern devs are like, yeah. That's exactly, yeah. They don't want to make feminine characters because they feel like feminine characters are diminutive. That's the problem.

I think it's weird because like is this like some form of like internalized misogyny that like women have against themselves in a way it feels that way here's a mysterious woman who could kill you and make you cry about it you're welcome capcom they've been in their iconic woman era since like forever resident evil is one of my all time favorite series and jill is tactical calm and easily has the cleanest bob in gaming Ada is mysterious, stylish, and she might lie to your face, but she's still going to get a fan cam. Claire is this beautiful, kind, capable women who takes zero nonsense. And Lady Dee had like 10 minutes of screen time and village. She's really hot. Yeah. She's still owned Halloween for like the next two years.

They're hot. They're cool. They've got so much range. And you remember. Yeah, it's the entire premise that like, well, what women really want to play is they want to play an aggressive, masculine, ugly. woman that's unlikable that tries to pretend to be a man and is simultaneously flawless, but has these obvious flaws as well that don't matter that are actually good things. It's like basically the way that they write women characters, it's almost like whenever, it's like it's as dishonest

as whenever you answer the question on a resume, what's your biggest weakness? It's like I try too hard. That's basically it. You want to be them, or you just kind of want them to emotionally damage you just a little bit. It's the same kind of energy with Monster Wilds. They dropped a couple of composed stunning woman and the internet instantly

started to cosplay. They're expressive and graceful and they've just got that. Well, and it's also that even the older woman, I forgot her name in Monster Under Wilds, like, there's nothing that's like diminutive or whatever or negative about her. It's nothing weird. It's just simply a story.

and it's normal. And that's why the boys are in love. Olivia, yeah, there are go. Olivia, yeah, there you go. And I am in love. And then we've got From Software, who just casually releases the most haunting, elegant women in modern gaming like it's nothing.

The doll from Bloodbourne, our favorite Victorian comfort character. She's soft-spoken, she's gentle, and she definitely knows more than she's letting on. And she's a sex doll that German made of another girl that he liked. That's right. Yep.

Based. Or Lady Maria, tragic, terrifying character with perfect posture, and 10 out of 10, I would let her fight me again. Or Ronnie from Elthand Ring, who I was quite literally on my knees for, and I made sure to do every single step of her quest. Well, what about the Dark Souls 1? That was my favorite. Or Melana. Oh, Melana was so glowing and quiet and just sad. And then when she leaves you at the side of grace, like, my work here is done. You're just devastated and you're just sitting there all by yourself alone in your little tunic. These ladies do not need exposition dumps or 80 cutscenes.

They just show up and drip elegance, drop one line of vague sorrow, and then next thing you know, you're obsessing over cosplays and fan art for like the next month. Well, it's because the characters are attractive, too. That's another really big important thing that a lot of characters, a lot of people don't understand, is that Western artists and Western developers, especially American developers, nobody wants to cosplay an ugly bitch. And so, like, if you make a character,

character in a game like do you remember this is the saddest thing like it actually was the saddest thing is that do you remember when uh avowed put out a style guide for how to cosplay their characters that was sad i actually forgot yeah well the thing is that only i would remember something like this right i would be the only person to remember this yeah on god what yeah exactly right you have to be at least 300 pounds yes nobody wanted to do that because the characters aren't attractive and appealing. That's the reason why. Like, there's a lot of characters that I know from, like, anime.

And I don't know anything about the anime, but I know who the character is. Like, and that's the reason. It's because women don't want to dress up as an ugly woman. Why would they want to do that? Isn't that the, like, what do you have makeup for? say all of this because femininity is not outdated. It's not shallow. Yeah, 2B.

I've never played near Automata. Never played it. But I know who 2B is. Not something that you need to water down for the story to be taken seriously. It's range. So please let women be cute and manipulative, kind and a little chaotic, soft, but have sharp teeth, pretty, powerful, emotionally devastating. And the reason the protagonist starts journaling in a... cave somewhere. Because femininity is Zelda, saidfast, and radiant, and standing between her

kingdom and ruin with nothing. Femineminemnity is not literally just being better than a man. You know what that's actually called? That's called unresolved personal trauma with probably your dad, uncle, boyfriend, hopefully not husband. Uh, you know, that, yeah, that's unresolved personal trauma. That's it. hope and stubborn grace or tris who's clever and compassionate an absolute thought who literally got with gerald after he lost his memories knowing that her friend that she had known for decades was his girlfriend does not matter she's still doing it literal fucking ho like the biggest generational ho crazy like i I didn't even play the game and I learned about this. That's, oh my God. What a bitch.

This is why I can't ever choose her. Well, Yenifer's hotter. That's why I chose her. I mean, if she was hotter, then I mean, yeah, she would have been right. But no, that's not, it doesn't really matter. It's just a secondary thing. But yeah. Yeah, and she just snakes in there.

Politics with you with a super soft smile that just makes you kind of forget that she's winning. Or bayonetta. who's playful and provocative and treats every battlefield like a runway and then never manages to smudge her lipstick. Or Lightning, who's a beautiful, guarded and grieving character who carries the entire weight of the world in six-centials. And when female characters are done right, they're not flat or abrasive or weak. They're actually narrative gold. There's a lot of really good examples of this in gotcha games too. I would say like Zila and Branya in Honkai Star Rail are pretty well written.

and I would also say that I think Genzi and Wuthering Waves is well written as well. Carwad, I mean, like, those are just, yeah, Gen Zerze, like, I mean, these are well written good characters. Akron?

Yeah, Akron is also very well written, too. That's a good point. And, yeah, so, Cardathia. Yeah, Cardiffia is very, very good, too. Yeah, that's the new one. I forgot about that. And so it's like, where's really, like,

and again, all of these games are gooner games. The people would be complaining calling these gooner games, but they still have better written female characters. Phoebe, nobody cares about Phoebe. Literally nobody gives a shit. Have tension and softness that stabs or beauty as a weapon. Let's let women be gorgeous and terrifying, sweet and strategic,

gentle and unhinged. Let them be feminine again. She's the cat girl, right? I'm going to be real. She cooked. Like, I've never heard this. girl talk before or say anything uh i completely agree with everything she said and uh i this is just a clip from the video but i'll link you guys her her video that she made about this and talked about it uh

and uh yeah i mean oh wow look at this she only has she only has 300 subscribers holy shit here let me link you guys your video she'll be canceled tomorrow yeah surely and uh there you go yeah give it a like give her a sub yeah i i had no idea uh are you watching and Google Keynote later on today? Google Keynote. Yeah, I'll give it a like. Yeah, that's amazing. And so, yeah, she deserves more.

I think so, too. I think that she broke it down in a way that was really healthy and it was intelligent. And it was accurate and fair and just really well done and respectful. Yeah, refreshing. Absolutely. There you go, guys. Give it a light. Give her a sub.

And, yeah, let me see here. 386 subscribers. That's insane. There's a thousand. 300 is it. All right. All right. See guys. Good job. Yeah, keep doing it. Keep going. There you go, guys. Just went up to a thousand. That's a good start. That's a good start. Keep going. And yeah, there it is. It was fast. Well, yeah, I think that, and the reason why is that people are in dire need of genuine, authentic conversations and commentary. that isn't with a weird agenda.

It's honest, direct, fair, and genuine. That's the reason why. That's what people are waiting for. They've been waiting on this for a long time. So yes, absolutely. This is great. And now it over, now 2000. Holy shit.

Jesus. Wow. Oh, my fucking God. Yeah, there we go. Or one-sided, completely one-shided. Yeah, update? Yes, good job, guys. Great.

Hopefully this can give her a bit more of an audience, and people will be able to, you know, see some good content that I think is accurate. And she only started last month. Well, good. I'm glad I was able to find it. I haven't seen any of this at all before. And if you guys ever find clips like this of, you know, smaller content creators that you think are, you know, worth looking at or whatever, I mean, I definitely want to know about it.

So, yeah, I mean, I agree with everything that she was saying. I mean, 100 fucking percent.