Bayonetta: Female Empowerment Done Right

           The Bayonetta game series are high-octane, over-the-top character action games developed by Platinum Games. They star the lead character, Bayonetta, a 500 year old witch that is incredibly powerful, being able to wield guns on both her hands and feet, and weaponizes her hair to summon demons, or Wicked Weave attacks against menacing angels. The franchise put Platinum Games on the map, as she was deemed the predecessor of Hideki Kamyia's former title, Devil May Cry that falls in the same vein with several similarities but still an identity all its own. 

     
 During a time of what seems to be constant acknowledgement of SJW agenda-pushing in the gaming industry, specifically the design of women in games, I personally feel the U.S.'s interpretation of the "strong female protagonist" has been completely lost on them, and in many ways, painfully pandering. My issue with games with female leads, is that developers try to redefine it, rather than understand what it means to have an empowering female lead.

      Why does the industry feel the need to rebuild that idea? Women in games are leads because of who they already are, not what they should be perceived by. Recently The Last of Us Part 2 released and we are introduced to one of the main playable characters, Abby (on the left of the image). Abby has been rumored to be a transsexual character, but that holds no meaning or purpose to the story. She has also been argued to actually be a woman. If she is one, why does she need to have the near-build of a man? If developers are aiming for pro-women themes in video games, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, and Samus Aran (the bottom image) from Metroid, are some of the primary examples of their core elements as females not being reworked to make sure the theme is ham-fisted, but those elements are normalized in a way we can identify them as women that are still leads in their own stories and are still the ones that are capable of storming through their obstacles.

    Now the reason I chose Bayonetta to explore this topic of how to do an empowering female lead in a game, is because Bayonetta is undeniably one of the most sexualized characters in gaming.  It's not even hidden, nor is it subtle. Bayonetta makes it known that she flaunts her sexuality shamelessly, which is exactly the
point.

   As you can see on the right image, Bayonetta wears a skin-tight outfit (made out of her hair, I know, crazy) that pretty much exposes the shape of her body in obvious ways. Not only this, but she does constant sexual poses that go the extra mile that could possibly be uncomfortable to most players. Also, she will execute "Wicked Weave" attacks that, due to weaponizing her hair, most of it will come off her body, making her partially nude. This also applies to summoning Inferno Demons to finish off a boss.



         This is not remotely dialed back in either game, but is intricate to her character. Bayonetta may be sexualized, but this doesn't equal exploitative. Bayonetta, despite her sexuality, uses this as a weapon of dominance and confidence. In the words of LMFAO: "She's sexy and she knows it." Bayonetta catwalks her way through the campaign, and has her head held high. She is shameless of how she represents herself, and this, to me, should be encouraging and empowering to many females. It's not an idealized version of a woman like Director Kamyia would think, but she represents a woman that knows what she is and that it's the core element of her power.

Bayonetta is also incredibly independent throughout and is only assisted directly, maybe twice throughout both games. She has several male allies that communicate her character when she is associative with a male character. (I'm excluding Enzo because he's mostly the butt of the joke when he hangs around with her.)

Three male characters I'll as an example are: Loki (largest picture), Luka (upper right), and Ronin (bottom right).

   Ronin is probably her closest friend and partner, as he provides the weapons and items for at The Gates of Hell store.  He respects her by providing her the tools, but not the direct assistance. Only once in the sequel does he help her fight off enemies in Inferno, but it's mostly for his own personal goals. After this, he continues to stay on the sidelines.

Luka is the male character that sees her as a trophie and pursues her every chance he has, but fails. Bayonetta flirts with him, but she only leads him on to show that she could do much better than a cocky, pretty boy like Luka.

And lastly is Loki from Bayonetta 2. She plays the paternal role and helps Loki to come in terms with himself as she struggled to in the previous game. She is shown to be a very caring and encouraging person that looks past her own needs.

           Conclusively, Bayonetta represents that a female lead in a video can remain true to herself without having to be transformed in a pandering or manipulative way. She represents herself in a sexually and feminine manner, but still remains dominate and in control throughout her story. She's what I wish other developers understood and would do to their female characters. Not exactly like Bayonetta, but know what there's a much deeper meaning to women empowerment than what has been superficially displayed in most American games. She's a truly cheeky, yet incredibly likable and independent protagonist that I hope to continue to see more of in future titles. (Fingers crossed for Bayonetta 3.)

Have you played Bayonetta and its sequel? Did you love either or otherwise? If so, share your thoughts in the comments below!