I honestly don’t recall when all this woman > man shit started in everything.
Western women may have viewed themselves as morally superior for centuries, if not longer. On top of that we now have the queer feminists' war against "gender" and men in general. But I think the counter-reaction to all this misses the point a little. The traditional "fragile maiden" ideal is not the opposite of feminism, I think both stem from urban middle class --apparently even "strong" feminists can't break free of unrealistic beauty ideals, and are in constant need of protection (by who?) from toxic patriarchal rapists. In contrast, countryside women seem more capable, wether it's getting their hands dirty in the fields, using a shotgun or slaughtering chickens, and at the same time have more conservative family values. It's when people move into cities that their insecurity and narcissism grows out of control.
First, the average man should still be able to completely stomp over that strength training woman. If they can't, then they shouldn't even be called a man.
The climber? Yes, certainly. Pullups is a good measure of strength-to-weight ratio, but in absolute terms she could still be smaller, lighter and weaker than a male opponent (I mostly posted that video because it looked cool). But the weight lifter (Becca Swanson)? No, most men (even in a gym) wouldn't stand a chance unless they had more fighting experience.
But that regular guy shouldn't even be in the discussion. We're talking about a top percentile man, who will always crush a top percentile female.
I'm not.
If you have a top percentile female in your game, it's statistically unlikely that she would encounter a top percentile man in the gameworld unless they intentionally seek each other out. Instead most of the opponents will be average males.
Obviously this depends on the game design. You can make a game where your player character kills hordes of inferior opponents (like Serious Sam), or the opposite where you're completely helpless (like SOMA). But most games will have enemies both above and below your character's capability. Maybe the top percentile male opponents can be saved for the ending boss fights, when your female character has gathered enough equipment, magic and friends to compensate?
I agree that a female warrior
RPG class should be weaker than a male warrior class. That means the female class could be chosen for a greater challenge/higher difficulty, or she would need other talents to compensate (longer back history of training, magic etc).
There's other ways to depict a strong female character. I never once had a problem with Witcher portrayal. The lodge of sorceresses are one of if not the most powerful people in the world. Most of that comes through their political savvy,
I was disgusted by their personalities, but I agree that it's realistic.
IMO it's not just realism that calls for women to not be portrayed as warriors, but also fantasy. Isn't fantasy supposed to exaggerate things and to deal in archetypes? Fantasy shouldn't be content to portray women as realistically weaker than men, it should portray women as even weaker than real women, just as men are often portrayed as stronger than real men.
There can be cultural/individual differences at play here. For some, excessively vulnerable women are considered attractive, while others may get repulsed by an emotional woman-child that's just an unnecessary burden.
The counterpoint to this would be that fantasy doesn't only deal in archetypes, it can also introduce incongruous recombinations for the sake of novelty and weirdness. But thanks to modern egalitarian delusion, "women as strong as men" is no longer a curious and exotic idea, it's tedious regime narrative.
A physically attractive woman would be a novelty today. But what use is she (as a playable character) in a fighting game if she can't fight?
Fantasy can also be about tradition. Female fighters have existed in mythology throughout history, so I'd say they deserve their place just like dragons. No need to overuse any of them though, one or two is enough.
