Yet another series of nitpicks! This time focused only on the trailers and promotional material!
Now I don't usually outwardly support feminism, as I believe men and women should be treated equally and that neither gender should get any special privelages, but poor old Lucina! I barely know the character, yet she's treated like poo in her and Robin's trailer! Not only does she get her face pounded in by Captain Falcon, but she is reduced to yet another whimpering Nintendo chick who needs a strong guy to save her (Robin). It would have been better if Lucina could actually land a couple blows on Captain Falcon as well, especially since this is her trailer and it's supposed to be showcasing how strong she is. And it would have been better if Female Robin came to her aid instead of male Robin, as that would really turn the cliche on its head.
I've learned not to expect very much feminism, or gender equality, from Nintendo, but the sad thing is that even if we did see gender equality in games we wouldn't be able to recognize it for what it is. We're so programmed to see women as victims that we see it no matter what, regardless of whether or not it's actually there.
For example: Regarding Lucina's treatment, she actually fared a lot better than Chrom did. Chrom got bodied before the video actually starts and was lying on the ground. He was actually being protected by Lucina, and
that actually
does turn the cliche on its head. At least a bit. Robin still steps in and saves Lucina. So the cliche was subverted, if only briefly, yet nobody seems to notice.
See, guys need to be rescued all the time in fiction. Look at Dragon Ball Z. So much of the series is "let's stall the bad guys until Goku shows up to save us from <villain of the week>". Usually while they're stalling there are many terrible things that happen to the supporting cast. Yamcha gets killed, Krillin gets killed, some other guys get killed, maybe even Vegeta gets killed... Even
if nobody dies before Goku shows up, his friends are still in such rough shape that he has to toss them a senzu bean just so they can use their legs again.
Link saves Darunia, Fox saves Falco (and the rest of his team), Darth Vader saves Luke... and nobody gets offended. It's only for females that this "how dare you save me" mentality exists. That said, it's not completely unjustified and not nearly as hypocritical as it might seem, because the circumstances behind such rescues are often completely different. Darunia was on his way to defeat Volvagia when he suddenly needed rescuing. Falco was in the middle of fighting when he suddenly got a bogey on his tail that he couldn't shake. Luke showed a certain amount of character in resisting the lure of the Dark Side before Palpatine decided to force-zap him to death. Meanwhile, Princess Peach usually doesn't put up a meaningful fight (not counting any game where she's playable and therefore capable of beating Bowser or Smithy or whoever), and when she does resist her struggling is usually futile. In these cases, Men (who aren't Yamcha) show strength before being defeated, while the women (and Yamcha) show weakness before being defeated.
Let's face it: we laugh at Yamcha. Therefore it stands to reason that Peach is in a laughable position too, even if most players don't actually laugh at her.
That said, if we
do accept that as a reasonable difference, then we have to see Lucina in a different way. She's more like Krillan waiting for Goku show up, instead of Peach waiting for Mario, because she was showing some amount of strength before needing Robin to step in. She wasn't strong enough to beat C. Falcon, or at the very least the video sells Falcon as being powerful, but I still feel the need to give credit where it's due.
On that note, have you noticed that all of the interesting and unique newcomers in more recent trailers never actually do anything in the animated portions of the cutscenes? I mean, Robin just does a random pose, Palutena just looks at Link and Pac-Man doesn't actually do... Anything... What gives? I mean I know that seeing them in gameplay is probably more important, but I still want to see these characters do something cooler than what can be done in the game.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I kinda wanted to see Palutena do some awesome cutscene stuff, but it's all gameplay.