#so far I'm thinking Barroth and Diablos

[thebigbiwolf]

I'm getting a breeding pair of ouroboros cataphractus imported from Ukraine in October and I need name ideas!!

[vertebreakher]

I feel like I really have to complain because while I think it's commonly understood that Monster Hunter has serious problem with with the differences between male and female armor sets, I get the impression most people assume it's very typical difference between "sexy" and "cool" armor. (Male hunters get big pauldrons, female hunters get bikinis.) But that's not really why the situation is so damn frustrating, because there's remarkably little actual fan service throughout the female armors. The sexy bikini armor is sometimes present, but it doesn't really represent what's going on. It's more like there's just an underlying assumption in what fashion style of armor the developers assume you want based on the player's chosen sex.

Like there are examples of a male/female dichotomy in the armor design actually being stylistically justified. Even if they're approaching masculine or feminine presentation in a very simplistic way (and let's be real many games will do far worse than that) it offers up some very interesting fashion choices.

Rhenoplos armor for example has some actual extremely fun differences. On the one hand, there's this extremely unique look for the male set that has a round build some very bizarre claw arms and this cool wide helmet. And on the other hand, you have this delightfully overly cutesy bear motif for the female armor where the gauntlets look perfectly ideal for punching the shit out of something. Deviljho armor also plays with gender dichotomy in a really fun way, effectively exploring that wrestling heel vibe through two very different forms of presentation and ideas of physical prowess.

Late game Barroth armor, Odogaron, Paolumu, I think these also stand as great examples of how male and female sets can positively contrast.

But there's a reason why differences are seen negatively, and Goss Harag is a great example of where things start to get really annoying, because ironically the two armor sets aren't that meaningfully different from eachother even though there are some minor differences because of the implied physical build of female characters. For the most part, they're the same armor set aside from the thigh and chest area. In my situation, getting to see that my character's armor emphasizes the boobs is actually kind of a plus. And the male armor emphasizes the pecs so much it's easily justified. ...but while the male Goss Harag set gets to have a sick skull helmet, the female one gets stuck with this stupid looking visor/headdress nonsense. Aside from the crime of being denied a cool skull helmet, were it not for that one point of difference I would not even have to think about what fashion I'm potentially losing out on at all.

It's likewise just as frustrating as with the Tetranadon armor. I don't really personally give that much of a shit how much skin is on display here or whether you can see their boobs. The differences between the male/female form are more egregious here but I'm not gonna die because of it. What drives me up a goddamn wall is that the male set gets this cool looking full gas mask helmet, and the female set gets a doofy hat with goggles. It's not even that I particular dislike the faces in monster hunter, it's that whether a character has a full helmet or not is all the difference in the world for how much of a cool badass you feel like.

This pattern repeats for a lot of armor sets throughout the games with varying degrees of difference between the male and female sets. The poster boy Rathalos, Legiana, Diablos, Seething Bazelgeuse and Nargacuga are all valid examples of this. The reason for this difference I have to assume is because there's an initial assumption from the designers about what I want. If I chose a female character it may be inferred that I am explicitly interested in seeing my character's face as often as possible. Because (I assume) they see that choice as me wanting to look at a female character for their body and the face just happens to be part of that. And that's not actually entirely inaccurate, but there's a difference in what I get out of that. And it's a little screwy to think that no one could choose a male hunter for similar reasons.

And I hate deliberately choosing a female character for my own sense of comfort only to loose out on the style and vibe the male armor oozes, which also from a trans perspective is a uniquely infuriating problem.

Going back to positive examples, the Frostfang Barioth Alpha armor does not have this problem. While I hold preference for the male helmet, I cannot deny that the female helmet is equally cool and conveys a distinct feminine quality that makes it feel sharp and dangerous. There are as many differences as there are similarities between these two armor sets, and the inclusion of the rapier accurately conveys what vibe they were going for with the female set, an equal degree of competence and mystique conveyed through elegance rather than machismo.

And it might be a bit difficult to talk about this problem without making it seem like I'm specifically complaining about objectification, I think that's a part of why this issue exists to begin with but I'm not really cool with harping on people who just want a create-a-character they can use to engage in light voyeurism. I don't like the idea that the solution here is to start taking away sexy outfits, that feels like moving backwards and I'd rather continue to put up with this problem than start putting my comfort above someone else's. Even though there are many sets where the differences could be simply phased out and merged into one armor set, It does not feel fair to do that at the expense of the range of choices and styles these different sets have brought, with Frostfang Barioth I think serving as a peak example of that positive aspect, a true silver lining. All in all, I would much rather that some thought be put into what parts of the existing armor designs are compatible with androgyny, and work on making both choices available to male and female hunters based on that. The best possible case scenario for me would be that female character get to look like a goddamn WH40K space marine in exchange for a bunch of spindly twinks in Nergigante bikinis. And somewhere in between those two extremes, I get to enjoy a much wider selection of cool helmets.