From my first days in the gaming community, I’ve noticed that characters who are women will often get more flack for being rude to the player, and I think that’s really unfair. When I first played Persona 3 Portable, (I’m a Kotone truther, nerds!) Yukari Takeba seemed pretty rude. But if you take the time to explore her character, you’ll find that she meaningfully portrays her struggles through her anger, wariness, and overall character arc. It bothers me when players dismiss her as a “bitch” because she’s trying not to experience more loss in her life. It made the friendship I established with her character more meaningful as a result — she truly trusts me. So it bothers me that apparently, Yukari’s lines have been rewritten in the new adaptation of the game to make her “more appealing.”
Be serious: when a character has experienced some serious trauma, do you expect them to be kind and accommodating about it? Maybe that says more about you than the character! When it comes to femme characters, it feels like I see more critiques about how kind they are to the player character even if they have understandable reasons for their attitude. Players have a lot to learn in understanding that just because a character doesn’t like them, doesn’t mean their story isn’t worth it. Especially women. Stop saying you want more emotionally complicated women in the media when you can’t handle a woman being a little mean to you.
