I'm saddened by how some people view things. If it were about a shallow piece of crap like Forspoken or Failguard I wouldn’t mind. But when someone trashes a maybe not perfect, but surely heartfelt indie project, it feels like an affront to basic fairness, to be honest. I know I probably won't change the minds of those concerned otherwise, but I felt the need to speak up anyway.
So, now seeing a group of women wielding swords or daggers, and others leading a band of adventurers, automatically makes something a woke piece of entertainment? Really? God forbid there’s several men who happen to be weasels, crooks, or assholes—that must be crossing some line or whatnot. And if there’s a matriarchal society on top of it, like Nemeton—rooted in nature and all, as we know from irl and some historically-proven Earth's societies—well, that’s absolutely haram, I suppose.
That’s some convoluted shit, man.
I mean, take Aliens, for example: Ripley, the protagonist, is a woman. Vasquez and Ferro—a badass marine and a cool pilot—also women (and you wouldn’t dare mess with Vasquez unless you enjoy being *mistaken for a man*, lol). Gorman and Burke? A weasel and a crook. Drows in 3e —ruled by women, where men are constantly belittled but still expected to excel at everything they do. Then there are the all-time-high female cultural references to things like Amazons, mighty sorceresses, nimble fighters, or crafty engineers. Yennefer, Ciri, Lara Croft, Jesse Faden, Alyx Vance, etc. whatehaveya. Did anyone scream "woke" at these iconic characters back in the day? Does breaking stereotypes and succeeding at it suddenly become "woke" just because the character is a woman and we live in superficial age or whatever, really?
Sure, wokeness lurks behind every corner nowadays, and you never know what is whose agenda—no denying that—but does that mean we should stop differentiating entirely?
Bottomline: I get it—some people feel the need to project a strong male persona. Heck, I frequent the gym and even practice my strong stares on public transportation just to get some EXPs to level up a nice passive bonus to coincidental Intimidation checks, lol, so I truly do understand. But seriously, I’d urge anyone to think more critically. Now, more than ever. Assuming a camel stable stinks just because you see bees, flies, and butterflies around isn’t helping anyone.