Oh for goodness sake. People want to mis-quote me, fine. Yes, I did/do find it hilarious that men are complaining about this, and seem to want a conventional scantily clad Barbie type companion in this game too, when that archetype has been around all along. Men have had all the eye-candy options in games and fantasy illustrations for YEARS. Decades. All one has to do is look around at fantasy book covers, or just about any fantasy or game illustrations in general. While "the male gaze" is very much an art school term, its perspective has become so pervasive, so ingrained in our media that we hardly notice it, and assume it is the norm.
It's only in recent years that game designers have realised that women play RPGs too, that we've always been here, and have started to cater to that. And what is hilarious is that men, who have had their eye candy across the fantasy genre of books/movies/illustration/games all along, for decades, are now complaining about the apparent lack of this eye-candy equality in this one particular game. Why suddenly demand balance when there has never been balance in the fantasy genre, to begin with? Why can't we women have something nice for once and be allowed to enjoy it?
For me as a female, this game and its characters are a breath of fresh air. Female character armour design in this game is also a breath of fresh air. Also, while this has been a primarily "straight" discussion, I do find Lae'zel and Minthara attractive in different ways, and in fact am surprised that they are dismissed out of hand so easily.
You know what else is getting out of hand? This discussion. Probably. I'm out.
Pretty much. Although I think a large amount of the perception that there's a lack of apparent male gaze eye candy is due to the fact that we have two female companions out of three right now, and both can really play up the asshole angle quite a bit. Not to mention that all of the prominent female NPCs we've met are basically all villains. Meanwhile Gale is just, uh, Gale, Wyll seems like an all around good guy, Astraion is so edgy that it goes into over the top ham levels, and Halsin (while not a companion) is a rare male damsel in distress and he's a muscle druid. I don't care much for romances, but I can definitely see the appeal in these companions, if only for the sheer novelty factor.
That said, the complaints in this thread are kinda hilarious, because you'd really hate Pathfinder WotR if one were to hold that game's companions to the same standards. While the available straight romances with female characters may be more appealing to the eye in terms of their portrait and artwork, their characterization, is, uh, you're going to be in for a super rude awakening if you're expecting waifus. Like, aside from Arueshalae, people who want to play evil characters are probably going to get a lot more out of WotR.
