There has been a lot of buzz about Skullgirls floating around the net recently, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. A recent interview with Eurogamer has been quoted time and time again in debates on whether or not the game’s characters and art style are sexist. This has been the hot topic of the day rather than the game’s newest revealed character Valentine, Mike Z’s recent revelation of how the infinite prevention system works, or even the most recent gameplay demonstration.

Well to finally put this discussion to rest, Alex Ahad, the creator of the Skullgirls world and characters, has decided to chime in on the debate on his DeviantArt page. He very maturely described his point of view on the characters he has created.

It’s also important to point out the difference between something being sexy and being sexist. I think the role of a character plays more of a defining element than what they look like. People complain about hour-glass figured female characters, but rarely do they complain about muscular/ perfectly fit male characters. Both of these are completely fine and acceptable in my opinion. The real issue comes from what their role and actions are. If a character is a sideline character and their sole purpose is to be a sex object, then it is sexist. If the character is a competent contributor to the story, then it is not sexist, even if they look sexy. Looking at a screenshot by itself, or judging by the artwork alone is extremely short-sighted. People who make knee-jerk reactionary judgments should have never been acknowledged.

He said that he understands his art style is not for everyone, and he does not expect it to be. However, he primarily drew things that were appealing to him.

Ultimately, the things you see in Skullgirls are there because it just happens to be stuff that I wanted to do. There are elements in the world that are just here because it’s cool and was fun to make. I enjoy drawing girls and monsters. I particularly enjoy drawing monster-girls. There is something more exciting about a design that is both twisted and cute at the same time. It’s more interesting than just an overly aggressive monster, or something totally saccharine. I also must admit that I have a preference to play female protagonists in a game. Whether the character is sexy or not, I think there is just something more fun and intriguing about a competent female lead character.

Finally he wanted to shed a bit of light on the “our lead animator is a woman” comment that has been quoted from the Eurogamer interview so many times.

Our quote was taken out of context and shouldn’t have been taken as an actual, serious argument against sexism. It’s rather disrespectful to both Kinuko and her work, as well as the company as a whole. If you read the whole article, you will see that there is an anecdote that demonstrates the absurdity of this female-animator argument. I wish it was made more clear that we don’t support the female-animator argument as a valid point against sexism at all. It has an incredibly misleading tone since the very first quote is “our lead animator is a woman.” It’s also in poor taste to call out another game/character by name as an example… I feel like these quotes all came from a conversation, rather than an actual interview.

The entire post is very well thought out, and reveals a lot about his motivations in creating Skullgirls and choosing the artistic style that he did. It’s a great read and it reveals way more than just Ahad’s opinions on the recent sexism complaints. If you are a fan of Skullgirls or even just interested in the grander debate of sexism in videogames, you should give it a read.

Source: Alex Ahad