#considering how she’s essentially a catgirl by design

[rainbowwing251]

I’m trying to think of a list of worst spots for the main six Xenoblade 3 protagonists, and up until now, I haven’t been able to come up with more than one or two worsts spots for anyone other than Noah. Now however? I’m pretty close to coming up with at least 2 worst spots for everyone, and I want to list them here before I forget about them.

So without further ado, here’s the list of all of the worst spots for each of the protagonists of Xenoblade 3 (according to my headcanons). I will be putting these under the cut to avoid clogging up anyone’s dashboards (and also because there is a minor detail of Taion that was revealed thanks to a specific outfit you can get in the second wave of DLC for the game, and I don’t know if it counts as a spoiler or not).

Noah: Ears, armpits, stomach, navel

Mio: Ears, Core Crystal, sides

Eunie: Head wings (especially the base of the wings), hips. I’m still trying to think of a third spot for her.

Taion: Neck, shoulder blades, Core Crystal (I didn’t even know he had one until Wave 2 of the DLC added a swimsuit for him, where you can see something akin to a Core Crystal on his chest), lower arms, wrists

Lanz: Biceps, back, knees (both the front and the back of them)

Sena: Core Crystal, Navel, thighs, calves 

And just for fun, I’ll list which of the above spots is that specific character’s death spot. Tickle any of these spots, and that character will (virtually) die instantly.

Noah: Stomach

Mio: Sides

Eunie: I haven’t determined her death spot just yet, but I’m leaning towards the base of her head wings.

Taion: Neck

Lanz: Once again, I haven’t determined his death spot yet, but I’m leaning towards the back of his knees.

Sena: Calves

[fairytail-whathesays]

What are your thoughts on how sex (or lack there of) is presented in Fairy Tail? Because for a series who's main theme are the importance of closeness and companionship and is brimming with sexual imagery. The series never really uses it to any meaningful extent. Which could be contributed to how Fairy Tail is a Shonen manga aimed at teenagers.

You would have to actually try in order to achieve a worse presentation of sex in a manga.

Sex is almost always used as a means of humiliation with regards to women or, if you’re Juvia, harassing a man. It is never allowed to be dignified; women must be stripped against their will for “comedy ha ha” or worse yet, for torture scenes. Nudity during torture is supposed to display vulnerability–and that vulnerability is not supposed to be sexy or titillating, something which Mashima apparently never got the memo about.

Of course, this is coming from the author who literally made sex into a weapon against women. Starbiter Satsuki, anyone? Oh wait, we don’t need to go there–we have Larcade. I feel like people need to be reminded that Sorano Aguria’s only purpose in the war was to show up in a bikini and be orgasm’d halfway to death by rape magic.

In another author, I’d feel the need to remind them that women being embarassed by being sexually harassed, stripped, or otherwise nude is not “comedy”–naked people are funny when done carefully and subtlely–you can’t just show tits and go “hey it’s okay! It’s funny”. It’s not funny, it’s just uncomfortable. But with Mashima, I don’t need to do that–because I know he doesn’t think it’s funny. Mashima clearly wants us to think it’s there to be funny, but it’s there to get his rocks off and both he and everyone else knows it. The comedy is a paper-thin excuse.

As far as sex is approached with men, it’s….eh. Fanservice is done semi-competently, at the very least because Mashima knows how to show a man looking hot and badass while not feeling the need to humiliate him sexually. Gray Fullbuster (who every dickhead likes to use to say that Fairy Tail isn’t sexist because, after all, he’s constantly getting naked right?) is quite clearly given a nonsensical habit in order to increase viewership, primarily among women. If Mashima didn’t think it would increase his audience, Gray wouldn’t have the habit at all. It’s not a believable habit in the first place–behaviors that lead to public humiliation and shaming are generally cut off pretty quickly. 

Even if you do take into account that men do lose their shirts often enough, you have to notice the vast difference in how male sex appeal versus female sex appeal is treated. Look at Tartaros, the guild full of demons. 7/9 of the Gates of Hell are male–and are ugly, cartooonish monsters. Torafuzar, Tempester, Ezel, Keyes, and Franmalth are all inhuman, beastly caricatures of demons with no sex appeal whatsoever, at least until Tempester is put through the Hell’s Core at Lamy’s whim. Jackal fares better, but is still not given the same overt, blatant sex appeal of his female peers–anyone who finds Jackal hot probably does so because he’s simply their type. 

Even Silver, a gorgeous DILF, is covered in thick, heavy armor at all times that leaves his body completely to the imagination. Contrast that with Kyoka and Seilah, the female demons. They are dressed in completely inappropriate clothing, with Seilah’s only hint towards being demonic being the horns on her head. Kyoka’s wearing some sort of spandex underwear that is clearly cutting into her ass cheeks, for no other purpose that I can tell other than getting Mashima’s rocks off.

If a man is given fanservice, it’s to show off how badass he is. Someone with huge muscles like that is going to impress the dudes in the audience and make them want to be like him! If a woman is given fanservice, it’s to show how vulnerable and funny she is when she’s vulnerable. Expect men to lose their shirts if hit by a powerful attack. Expect women to lose basically their entire goddamn outfits and be left with some shreds of cloth over the course of a twenty-page chapter or twenty-minute episode.

Sex is essentially what started the ruination of Juvia’s character. What started out as a gloomy, serious, but capable water mage looked at Gray, got blushy heart eyes, and it was all downhill from there. Sex, specifically her sexual attraction to Gray, began to absorb almost all of her other character traits until her “love” for Gray was the only thing left, and was based mostly on his hot body and the fantasies she’d constructed in her head without ever really getting to know Gray. 

While men think about sex in this manga, it’s fairly down-low in comparison to the women. Juvia has already been mentioned, while Lucy is constantly teased for her failures to seduce anything out of anyone, and Erza is hailed as a seductress who even has a goddamn “Seduction Armor” she thought about using on Azuma, not to mention the bunnygirl armor. Wendy gets jabbed at for having small boobs (despite being, you know, 12/13) and is always wishing she would grow into a more womanly body. Levy, too, is constantly the butt of jokes about her small breasts. Mirajane is a goddamn model, and she and Cana both have no objections to showing off the goods for the audience. Evergreen alone seems to have escaped overt sexualization, although she didn’t escape being jammed into a flat love interest role for Elfman.

By contrast, Gray might think about how cute Erza or Lucy are from time to time, or Elfman might blush when looking at Evergreen. Being overtly interested in sex if you’re a guy is reserved for A) older characters, who are portrayed as undesirable perverts (Makarov, Macao, Wakaba, Ichiya, or heaven forbid–Master Bob), or villainous characters (Laxus pre-Fantasia; Kain Hikaru, a fat undesirable stupid slob; Larcade with his rape magic.) Because showing sexual interest is for women, not men. There are a few exceptions–the Trimen pursue attention from women, though are usually not taken seriously. Bacchus Groh is clearly sexually active and promiscuous, though his perversion is never punished or acknowledged as wrong, which is perhaps a tad scary considering what he’s like. Bixlow, who is interested in sex, is portrayed as creepy for it, while Freed is far more reserved and professional and is portrayed as desirable. Levy, Juvia, and Erza are all the ones more interested in romance or sex and prone to humor centered around sex, while their male love interests all have much less sex on their minds.

Considering this is a shonen manga aimed at teens, potentially younger ones, it’s no surprise that actual pursuit of sex is limited to comedic harassment and not any actual serious encounters. But one wonders how Mashima can jam sex into so damn much of his series and break the tension of his arcs over his knee by forcing in a bunch of irrelevant fanservice, and still call it a PG-13 affair. There is a LOT of sex in this manga, just no actual intercourse, if that makes sense.

It makes its way into so much of the manga that it begins to become clear when the author is drawing with one hand in his pants. Need to show a torture scene? Make sure it’s a naked woman. Need to get the audience laughing? Yank some of those clothes off of Lucy or put her in embarrassing fetish costumes. Let’s donate one of the 7 super serious deadly dragons attacking in the Future Rogue arc to sex and preying on women! Want to design a scary demon or Satan Soul? Pack some boobs and skin-tight, body-hugging clothing in there. Carla wants to become more effective in combat! So obviously, she’s going to turn into a catgirl. That last one is especially notable  because even if you countered that Panther Lily’s got it goin’ on in the body department himself, that is due to the above mentioned attempt to make Panther Lily look badass and capable, while Carla’s is solely to make her look fuckable. 

I could be reading a fantastically-written story (I’m not) and the amount of sex jammed into it and used in all the wrong ways would still turn me off of reading any more of Mashima’s work.