You see this woman? You see her? That’s Rieko Kodama. Bless this lady. Bless her.
She is the creator of Phantasy Star and a little game called Skies of Arcadia. She is also called “The first lady of RPGs”. But that’s not nearly enough. Let me tell you why she is awesome.
This woman was the lead designer of several very large scale games back when console gaming was only about a decade old. She was designing games before I was even alive. Let’s not forget she’s old enough to be my mom now and she’s still producing blockbuster games like 7th Dragon in Japan!
In 1987, she created Phantasy Star. Not just the lead designer, she wrote the story and came up with the setting. A large scale RPG with a rich universe, it was revolutionary for its time and gorgeous. This game was TRULY ahead of its time. Not just graphically but as far as the setting and scale. Nobody had attempted making a setting like that in a video game. Hell, storytelling in video games was still in its infancy in 1987! Also, the protagonsit of Phantasy Star is a woman. Barely even a woman, she is a 15 year old girl. JUST ONE YEAR after Samus surprised the world with her sex, Phantasy Star had Alis Landale. Nobody cared that she was a girl, she was judged by her character, not her sex. And she was far from eye candy. Sure she had a pretty face, but her design is hardly attention-grabbing, and she wears pants and armor. Later installments in the Phantasy Star series show Alis Landale as the legendary hero of the Algol Star System. Need I mention that she is a headstrong badass? And let me say this again, THIS WAS IN 1987. At the time when people were only just starting to tell stories through video games. Dragon Quest was just starting to have its “save the princess” plot, Final Fantasy was just getting started building its world… The console RPG was still in its infancy, still having yet to be defined.
RIGHT AT THE START OF THE GAME her brother is murdered in cold blood for trying to intercept a government conspiracy. And Alis takes his sword and swears vengeance. Just like that.
And you know who wrote and designed this game? The one in charge of the story, dungeon, and character design?
This sweet little lady.
Let me add that the only iconic video game heroine that predates Alis Landale is Samus Aran (And uh, I guess Ms. Pacman). Before Lara Croft, before Chell, before Jade, before ALL of them, there was Alis Landale. And Alis is proof that though it has its problems even today, gaming has been blessed with wonderful heroines since the 80’s! Do we need more though? Yes, we do. And that’s why pointing out and celebrating great examples like Alis is important. But yes, in the 21st century, we need to focus on representing much more than just straight, white women like Alis.
Girls be ambitious! Become a great game designer like Rieko Kodama, Kim Swift, Robin Hunicke all of them!
i don’t understand why people don’t like theatre. It’s the greatest work an actor can do. It’s standing bare in front of an audience, manufacturing all those emotions night after night. There’s no space for flaws that can be cut off on the editing room. It’s telling a story without a green screen and different locations. It’s just the raw talent of all people involved and it makes me very sad that it’s not apreciated enough
we need 2 normalize characters who dgaf about romance
sorry im literally so tired of everyone being shipped with someone can a guy not just chill
i want 2 say this isnt just about aro characters. im aro i love aro characters i love ace characters but this also is about allo characters. its normal and healthy and fine for alloromantic people to not be in romantic relationships and i wish media reflected that
i hope all bi demigirls, regardless of relationship status, presentation, pronouns, agab, transition plans or lack thereof, etc, feel loved today. <3 you’re a wonderful part of the community, deserving of respect and kindness!
i’ve seen enough romanticising having amazing memory. how remembering everything about those important to you and never forgetting every single thing is the pinnacle of love.
“i love you so much i remember everything about you and i could never forget.” poggers, but that could never be me.
where’s the “i can’t remember your name but i know i can trust you, i know i knew you, i know whoever you are you’re good to others, good to me. and that’s all i have to know to enjoy you and your presence.”
where’s the “i don’t remember who you are or anything you’ve done in the past, but i know your name and i just thinking of it fills me with a rush of emotion i can’t understand, and you know my name (my name?) and you say it so sweetly, i can hear the fondness in your voice. and that means everything to me.”
where’s the “amnesia be damned my bestie can be a person i cherish and adore /q”
I had this old therapist I really loved and enjoyed spending time with, I’ve known him since I started middle school and he’s about to come to my graduation ceremony in May. The thing is, I have pretty bad memory so I don’t really remember specific things, but the feelings from our interactions are eternal.
We were talking one evening and he asked me if I remember the day we met. I said “Not really. Sometimes you like someone so much it feels like you’ve known them forever”
oh but I adore how everyone in this stupid pirate show is just a guy
I haven’t seen ppl talk about it much but. the absolute lack of shredded abs. people show tummy and cleavage and there’s not the barest hint of muscle definition anywhere
obviously some of them are very fit but it never leaves “works a physically demanding job and happens to be naturally thin” territory
and guys are fat! guys have bellies and rounded shoulders and chubby cheeks and imperfect teeth and thinning hair and are styled weirdly (that’s a whole different post but the crew especially look so unprofessional styled it’s great)
and they are still all hot! they are hot and desirable and find each other hot and desirable and I love that
I love to see it! nobody in this show looks like they had a personal trainer. and not just the side characters, not just a token fat guy - obv Taika Waititi is the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen and that little bit of tummy pudge spilling out of his crop top made us all lose our collective minds. but it’s everyone else too; and it’s not the extend of it either. no other show would have let black pete within 10 feet of a romance arc, much less been this sweet and sincere about it
this show is so comfortable with the human body in all it’s glorious imperfection and I am in love with it
when you finally see your best friend again after being separated for 20 minutes
no, sorry what i actually meant was “when you finally see the one person in the world you’re actually comfortable with and love unconditionally because you grew up together and they understand you and they’re patient with you and who you’ve decided to prove to that you can be a better person and now it’s finally time to show that off” but it was a bit wordy
Okay but [heavy breathing] Laura Roslin is afforded the opportunity to wrestle with ethics and moral complexity and make choices the viewer disagrees with, without becoming vilified by either the show or the audience.
Do you know how rare that felt in the mid-2000s, when every Kate-centric episode on Lost was met with a groan and everyone cheering Ana Lucia’s death, when Jenny Schecter became the most hated character in lesbian culture, when we had all these cable shows revolving around male antiheroes that were afforded so much ethical leniency and the equivalent behavior in women was cause for torches and pitchforks?
To me, Roslin is the female character of the last decade that comes closest to being allowed, and valuedfor, the kind of complexity and ambiguity usually reserved for those male antihero stories. She wasn’t an antihero herself, per se, but she was placed in that same narrative position of doing bad things that somehow felt justified by the situation: executing helpless prisoners, attempting to rig a democratic election, ordering infanticide, claiming a divine right to rule. Alarming and terrible and sometimes misguided things that, somehow, the audience kept cheering for. Because the show never punished her for not being the soft caretaker that women are ~supposed~ to be.
And I think this is precisely the brilliance of Battlestar’s treatment of gender. It wasn’t just that we got a female version of cocky, cigar-smoking Starbuck: it was that the gendered filters of storytelling got swept off the table.
Admiral Adama was the military commander but he wasn’t for power grabs and bravado; he was emotional, he let his heart guide him even when it wasn’t wise, his primarily imperative was was keeping people safe. Giving them hope. Protecting his kids. It was such a tender portrayal of masculinity.
Meanwhile, Roslin had an arc that’s more typical of male characters: taking up the burden of power, heeding the call as the prophet, approaching politics pragmatically and, at times, somewhat ruthlessly. (See also; Admiral Cain).
It was fucking magnificent, I’m getting so hyped just thinking about it. And it makes me wonder why other shows couldn’t do this; why they couldn’t allow their female protagonists to be morally or ethically ambiguous without apologizing for it.
(I think it’s starting to catch on – POI very much does do this and that’s a huge part of the reason I loved it. But I feel like Roslin was so, so important, standing out in a sea of male antiheroes and protags on cable, proving that audiences could in fact get behind a show with that kind of complex woman in charge.)
