Where are all the female antagonists?

[Matthew Jabour]

The issue of female protagonists in videogames has been done to death. Even as I type this, there's probably five posts on the front page about how there aren't enough, how there are enough, how the number isn't important, etc. But much less of a debate is raised about the female villains in videogames. There's hardly any - or certainly less than male antagonists. This is perhaps a more real problem with gender stereotypes, because while a man probably won't have qualms about playing as a woman, he might mind killing one.

Think about this: how many games in recent memory had a female antagonist? Portal, and the sequel even switched that out for a while. The expansion to StarCraft 2, where the Swarm decided to manifest itself as a pretty lady for obvious reasons (because she was the mother of all the swarmlings, of course). Nothing else that comes to my mind right now.

How's this for a double standard: when there is a female on the villain's roster, she's usually the one the protagonist (male) doesn't want to kill. They might try to convince them to stop their evil ways, might leave them alive, might pull off the mind-controlling bug that is for some reason strapped to their chest, or might be forced to watch as they commit suicide. A particular highlight for me is Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, where the female antagonist interacts with the story in three ways:
1. Is carried around a castle, nonlethally, not even to be used as a human shield, but just to show that Ezio's a good guy for not stabbing her,
2. Gets slapped around by the villain (just in case you couldn't tell he was the villain) while he tries to retrieve the McGuffin, and
3. Tells said location to Ezio while she's sobbing over a broken heart.

Just lovely. And when's the last time there was more than one female on the villain's side? 10,000 mooks and one Smurfette? That makes no sense! And don't even get me started on typecasting. How come every female villain has to use their sexuality to win fights, or else fight sexily? Can't we have one that just uses a grenade launcher like everyone else?

Look, if we're going to talk about gender equality in videogames, we should address all sides of the issue. This one doesn't seem to get that much coverage, but I feel it should.

Other examples include:

Assassin's Creed I, where the main payoff of Altair's story arc is that he doesn't kill a woman - even though she's still on the villain's team. There is then an entire spinoff game dedicated to 'winning her over to the good side,' which is eventually successful.

Metal Gear Solid 3, where a woman is the final boss but NOT the main villain, and the player is immediately made to feel remorseful for killing her.

Batman: Arkham City, where the only female villain you ever fight, Harley Quinn, can only be punched once before disappearing behind a wall of armed male mooks. You later find her tied up and gagged by your sexy ninja friend, because girl-on-girl bondage is hawt.

God of War, where the three female goddesses receive special treatment: Athena is only killed by accident, and Kratos is immediately remorseful, Hera is killed after no battle and in an anomalously bloodless manner, and Aphrodite gets to live because of tits (and whose cut death scene was also completely bloodless).

DMCevil May Cry, where Dante, as soon as he captures Mundus' lover, immediately demands they return her in a hostage exchange. Virgil, who soon reaches comical levels of villainy, is the only one who sees the tactical benefit of killing her, and he is heavily scolded for it.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, I recently played Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Frau Engel was a pretty decent female villain. And Bloody Mary from The Wolf Among Us was a good one too, though considering it's based on a comic I don't know if it counts. Neither use their sexuality as a weapon or are converted to the Good side by a man though.

God of War, where the three female goddesses receive special treatment: Athena is only killed by accident, and Kratos is immediately remorseful, Hera is killed after no battle and in an anomalously bloodless manner, and Aphrodite gets to live because of tits (and whose cut death scene was also completely bloodless).

What about the Sisters of the Fate? Kratos isn't too gentle with them.

Metal Gear Solid 3, where a woman is the final boss but NOT the main villain, and the player is immediately made to feel remorseful for killing her.

That has nothing to do with her being a woman, and everything with her being an important part of Snake/Big Boss' life.

You do have a point though, but these two examples aren't the best ones.

 

[Vault101]

*siiiighhhh* can we not turn this into the opression olympics?

Uncharted 3 had a cool villan ("scary poppins" is one of the few times I actually laughed in earnest) the only problem she doesn't have anything itneresting to say or do....she's just wasted

which is a shame because its not often you get that kind of Villan

Well, I recently played Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Frau Engel was a pretty decent female villain. .

that part where

[spoiler/]shes all up in your face with it half ripped apart and ranting about...whatever, I was like "ok I get it...shes not a very nice lady...really....can you stop this? its grossing me out[/spoiler]

 

[EternallyBored]

Well, I recently played Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Frau Engel was a pretty decent female villain.

Having recently finished the newest Wolfenstein, I will echo this, that Frau Engel is indeed a nice use of a female villain that manages to avoid the usual cliches, and even manages avoid the generic sexy villain cliche and be one of the very few elderly female antagonists out there that doesn't fall into the old crone tropes too. Her train scene was actually quite well done, and does a good job at making you hate her pretty much right off the bat.

 

[TemplarofSteel]

There were a few interesting female antagonists in some older games. Sacrifice was one of them, the goddess of good actually can end up as an antagonist with a fair number of story arcs depending on the routes you take. I also think I remember some good adventure game female villains but they are pretty few and far between come to think of it. And good villains can be a lot more interesting than the heroes. The female antagonists in the golden sun games were pretty good too if I remember.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, I recently played Wolfenstein: The New Order, and Frau Engel was a pretty decent female villain. .

that part where

[spoiler/]shes all up in your face with it half ripped apart and ranting about...whatever, I was like "ok I get it...shes not a very nice lady...really....can you stop this? its grossing me out[/spoiler]

I guess you could say that was kind of a gender thing.

Spoiler

'She's the villain, but we need to ugly her up, get rid of her female facade and show the true monster inside her.' Though every primary vilain in the game seemed to have a disfigurement, so it might just as equally be the "scar" trope.

 

[Vault101]

]I guess you could say that was kind of a gender thing.

Spoiler

'She's the villain, but we need to ugly her up, get rid of her female facade and show the true monster inside her.' Though every primary vilain in the game seemed to have a disfigurement, so it might just as equally be the "scar" trope.

huh yeah.....now that you mentioned it

[spoiler/]it IS very reminicant of then the evil female villan "reveals" she was a hideous monster all along[/spoiler]

I think it would actually be really cool to see a female charachter who suffers a facial disfigurement on that level

 

[leberkaese]

If we had more female antagonists, people would probably start complaining about too many female antagonists in games, portraying all women as evil. I have the feeling that people complain about everything in games these days.

Games that come to my mind with female antagonists: Bioshock 2 (Lamb) + Infinite (Leader of the Vox Populi), DragonAge (Morrigan's mother), FEAR (that girl. Don't know, if she's really evil though. Too scared to play that game :< ) and Portal, of course. There are also a few female antagonists in Walking Dead in your team. And there are some not-so-nice sorceresses in the Witcher

Edit: one thought that came to my mind. Female antagonists in games are often portrayed as mothers. Like Morrigan's mother or Liara's brainwashed mother in ME. Or the witch in FF8 that has been the mother for nearly all of your party members and Mother Brain in Metroid.
Developer's way of dealing with mother problems? *g*

 

[Zhukov]

Well, there was recently Bloody Mary from The Wolf Among Us.

Although I guess she wasn't technically the antagonist. But she did act as "the muscle" for a male antagonist who was physically pretty helpless in comparison. So hey, unconventional gender roles, progressiveSJWflaimebaittumblrAssassin'sCreedlet'shaveafightaboutit etc etc.

I thought she was pretty awesome. Good fun.

Good character design too. It's fairly understated, but you can still tell at a glance that she is certifiably Not Nice People.

 

[DementedSheep]

The Tomb Raider series has a number of them.

Witcher 2 has Phillipa and Síle. There is also an elf who plays victim and if you lie to cover her ass about the fact that she's been leading guards to their death leads you into a trap (shock, horror!). However you can spare all of them and they aren't as openly depraved as most of the male ones.

Bioshock 2 has Sofia Lamb.

Delilah and the Brigmore witches in the Dishonerd DLC and whats-her-face in the main game though she was the least villainy villain from what I remember with her role being a cash cow. It also has Granny Rags who is not necessary an antagonist to you but she is pretty evil and you can have a boss fight against her.

Guild wars 2 has Scarlet (though she was crazy due to one of the dragons getting in her head from the looks of it) as the main villain for LS as well as many various other minor villains around the place. 2 of the main evil factions have no women at all (one is an excuse for the lack of female Charr in the first game so they had a reason to give that faction the sexist card) though the nightmare court is lead by a women.

Benezia in ME1 (though again with mind control). Morinth (the sex vampire) in ME2 and some mercenaries I can't recall the names of.

Justine in the Justine DLC for amnesia.

JAYNE KASSYNDER! (they like to say her full name a lot) in DS3 but you can reason with her at the end and she isn't as evil as what you're told at the start. This isn't so much a gender thing as the game seemed to be trying to avoid outright evil anything. Many bosses are Archon followers of Jayne which are all female.

POP (2008) has the Concubine though she is the seductress type (mostly in back story not in game since in the game she's black goo). Warrior within had the bondage lady who I remember nothing about and Two Thrones had a boss.

While not a main villain Nurse Witless from Alice:MR is a pretty nasty piece of work.

If they make another Darkness it's pretty much a given that the main villain will be the Angelus but with how she was introduced in 2nd game I'm not particularly thrilled by the prospect (and it's the Angelus so...what do you expect).

*siiiighhhh* can we not turn this into the opression olympics?

Is that this is? because lack of female villains and tendency for any of them to be mind controlled/manipulated/ MADLY IN LOVE with main villain while usually being a seductress and having heroes sparing them because obviously the women just doesn't know what they are doing pisses me off. Which is why every time someone brings up the lack of female villains as a counterpoint to the lack of female protagonist its makes me want to kick them in the head.

 

[carnex]

*siiiighhhh* can we not turn this into the opression olympics?

Is that this is? because lack of female villains and tendency for any other to be mind controlled/manipulate/ MADLY IN LOVE with main villain while usually being seductress and heroes sparing them because obviously the women just doesn't know what they are doing pisses me off. Which us why every time someone brings up the lack of female villains as a counterpoint to the lack of female protagonist its makes me want to kick them in head.

He was referring to the amount of similar topics in recent days. And really, it always was quite for a long time then bum, social issues in gaming explodes. But this time its bigger boom than ever before and topics are far more baiting than before. So, yea, I would agree that this is getting ridiculous at the moment.

 

[DementedSheep]

*siiiighhhh* can we not turn this into the opression olympics?

Is that this is? because lack of female villains and tendency for any other to be mind controlled/manipulate/ MADLY IN LOVE with main villain while usually being seductress and heroes sparing them because obviously the women just doesn't know what they are doing pisses me off. Which us why every time someone brings up the lack of female villains as a counterpoint to the lack of female protagonist its makes me want to kick them in head.

He was referring to the amount of similar topics in recent days. And really, it always was quite for a long time then bum, social issues in gaming explodes. But this time its bigger boom than ever before and topics are far more baiting than before. So, yea, I would agree that this is getting ridiculous at the moment.

Oh? I thought he was referring to people trying to compete over who is "the most oppressed".

 

[Rozalia1]

Yes the whole "I'll let the female in the villain roster live because she is a women" is a bore. Even if they do die its often the villain to show how "evil" he really is. I'm much more happy if there is sparing going on if its a bit more equal like in Wild Arms 4 where a female villain is spared, but previously a male one had also been spared.

 

[Vault101]

Well, there was recently Bloody Mary from The Wolf Among Us.

[spoiler/][img/]http://www.theoryofgaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Bloody_Mary.jpg[/img][/spoiler]

DAY-UM

now if I ever played that game I'd be upset she's not the protagonist/love interest

Is that this is? because lack of female villains and tendency for any other to be mind controlled/manipulate/ MADLY IN LOVE with main villain while usually being seductress and heroes sparing them because obviously the women just doesn't know what they are doing pisses me off. Which us why every time someone brings up the lack of female villains as a counterpoint to the lack of female protagonist its makes me want to kick them in head.

I agree in regards to those stereotypes (and them being dumb

it might have been a little reactionary on my part but sometimes these threads pop up and the tone is liek "how about THAT feminists? huh? huh? yeah...CHECKMATE!" when it need not be

 

[Tamayo]

SHODAN is a truly great villain. Yes, she survives her first game to return as a villain in her second, which she also probably survives (because sequels are good business and creating villains as stylish as SHODAN isn't an easy task), but the player characters of those games aren't working to bring her back to the side of Good and Niceness---they're just trying to hang on to those last few pixels of health and ammo. Nobody tells SHODAN what to do; she's just so much more awesome than anyone or anything else.

Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challange a perfect, immortal machine?

SHODAN is a great villain and a great character.

 

[Clearwaters]

I enjoyed Augustine from the new Infamous game. While she isn't some mind blowing new type of character I was fond of her ruthlessness and determination to do what she thinks is right.

I also loved how intimidating she was, especially at the start of the game.

 

[josemlopes]

Gears of War had one and she wasnt sexualised with the exception of the typical boob plate armor shape.

Isnt also the big bad of Max Payne 1 an elder woman?

And the same in Alan Wake?

 

[DementedSheep]

Well, there was recently Bloody Mary from The Wolf Among Us.

[spoiler/][img/]http://www.theoryofgaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Bloody_Mary.jpg[/img][/spoiler]

DAY-UM

now if I ever played that game I'd be upset she's not the protagonist/love interest

Is that this is? because lack of female villains and tendency for any other to be mind controlled/manipulate/ MADLY IN LOVE with main villain while usually being seductress and heroes sparing them because obviously the women just doesn't know what they are doing pisses me off. Which us why every time someone brings up the lack of female villains as a counterpoint to the lack of female protagonist its makes me want to kick them in head.

I agree in regards to those stereotypes (and them being dumb

it might have been a little reactionary on my part but sometimes these threads pop up and the tone is liek "how about THAT feminists? huh? huh? yeah...CHECKMATE!" when it need not be

I'm amazed anyone manages to interpret what I type with how many words I miss.

That isn't the tone I'm getting from the op through yes the threads like that are annoying. A lot of the time many of feminists would agree with the core of the issue the "checkmate feminist" threads are bringing up anyway and it would be a lot easier to have a discussion about it if you don't start hostile and make it look like you are only bringing it up to shut down talk about other things.

 

[Batou667]

No, there aren't very many female antagonists - because blowing away dozens of faceless men is business as usual, but society isn't ready to see women made as expendable, it seems. Even individual high-profile females that the player is asked to kill are seen as controversial examples of "violence against women".

Anyway, I can think of a few female antagonists:

- Queen Myrah from Gears of War
- Whatshername from Prey
- Celeste from Mirror's Edge
- Possibly Halsey from the Halo series (it's left ambiguous as to whether she's planning on aiding the Covenant or not)
- Various fighting game "bad girls" - Juri in Street Fighter, Ivy in Soul Calibur, Dural in Virtua Fighter, Mortal Kombat's Mileena and Sindel, DOA's Christie and Ayane, etc
- Various female targets in Hitman Absolution - although these are mostly either assistants to more important male targets, or the hilariously controversial nuns
- The drug baroness woman in Max Payne 2 (did she even get a player-controlled death? I don't remember)
- Various psychopaths in Dead Rising, notably the fat, woman-hating cop in DR1
- Alexia Ashford from Resident Evil
- The Evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed Slug-for-a-Butt from Earthworm Jim

 

[DementedSheep]

Gears of War had one and she wasnt sexualised with the exception of the typical boob plate armor shape.

Isnt also the big bad of Max Payne 1 an elder woman?

And the same in Alan Wake?

Sort of in Alan Wake. The villain is incorporeal genderless elderich abomination that is just possessing the body of women when it talks to you and you don't fight her. I don't think you shoot any possessed women in the game though it seems every male logger in region got hit and you cut them down in droves. One other women dose get possessed but that is temporary for reasons I didn't get.