Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Brown(er) Women In Video Games: Talim- Soul Calibur

Hailing from the Soul Calibur series, Talim is also noted for being one of the few videogame females to have an A-cup -- it's true!

I picked up the SC series at the second installment, where Talim made her first appearance. I noted her but never really played her, mostly because I attached myself to Link as my main (yeah, I bought it for the guest character :P), and that my brother had already 'claimed' her as his, uncovering a curious unspoken tradition that we don't really play each other's characters.

As SC III was coming up I stalked the official websites for updates, and regained an interest in her via her new character design. I couldn't place my finger on it, but she came out more, well, ethnic looking. I could just be making it up (and I would) but that's what struck me with her SC III form.

(This image is currently back on my desktop to celebrate the coming of SC IV) Well, she sure looks different then her II image above, even if it is in just better graphics. But something about her face, I don't know, just seems . . .um, less anime/neutral and more something else. Via Wikipedia she is from the what is now the Philippines. My ignorance in knowing any filipino/as in my life prevents me in making any claims they tried to make her look like one. In any case, I mentally added her to my running 'ethnic women who managed to show up in fighters' list and became a fan.
I've seen her latest SCIV scans, and that 'something' may have gotten submerged into the 'anime' look again. Which is a shame, but unsurprising, since this game is apparently getting a lot more manga influenced this time around.
As for how others see her there's a smaller fanbase, but there's not quite as much negativity that doa's Lisa has, and as she's not 'offensively dark' to begin with, her fanarts doesn't have much tampering with the shading. Hn, she probably gets more flak for the A-cups than any issue with her race or ethnicity.