"Make a woman one of the most lore deep and hardest bosses = Sexist" - Game Journalists

Are we still doing this? Calling everything sexist? We haven't gotten this out of our system as a society yet?

Ironically, Malenia is the most tasteful empowering icon I've seen within a game antagonist ever lol. Her nudity is handled completely tastefully and her demeanor is nothing short of elegant and graceful.

Imagine seeing one of the most badass female bosses ever in all of gaming and coming to this conclusion

Malenia is blind, has a prosthetic arm and leg and is so diseased that she's literally rotting from the inside out, yet she's still the strongest boss in the game that whoops everyone's ass for at least a few dozen times. "Game journalists" have made themselves into a effing meme for years.

Malenia is literally an undefeated demigod, and the hardest boss in the game. Half of the endings involve Ranni or Melina. Rennala is a Queen of Magic. Marika is a literal god, and the whole reason for the game. What more do you want???

The fact malenia didn't have tigger bitties and her moves didnt involve slapping me around with them totally ruined the game for me tbh

could just be an AI article not gonna lie

"Malenia isn't that great. Easy" Remember, he died 77 times to beat her.

*_I am Malenia. Blade of Miquella._* *_And I have never seen bullshit greater than this._*

When I was a child and someone asked me what I thought the perfect game would be, it would be pretty close to what Elden Ring is.

2003: Video games cause violence 2022: Video games cause sexism 2041: ???

bruh. Malenia, The Blade of Miquella is literally the most badass female boss in video gaming history.

Not only a malenia is a strong capable women with questionable moral, that doesn't need men, the strongest boss in the game, and she is basically a cripple so thats a plus for a lot of people. She basically checked every tickmark of what feminist wanted from a female character. Yet SOMEHOW that is not enough?

As a woman im slightly proud she is considered difficult.. The life steal and blade attack sequence are pretty annoying the first time you encounter her. But sexist? Nah! There are not many female bosses in Elden Ring to begin with. So i think the just tried to balance it out that way.

"If your brain is a hammer, everything is a nail" -Asmongold 2022 Edit: Merry Christmas, Asmon

I haven't played any GoW but I can say Elden Ring got me into the Souls franchise I'm actually replaying it again this very moment with a fresh new build. Trust me, I have been gaming for decades since my childhood and few games are special as ER it's so good. I have my doubts when it was being hyped before release but then all that didn't matter because this game is a masterpiece of its own right.

Oh of course! How could I not see that one of the hardest bosses in the game being a woman is problematic because you can fight her and kill her! Why don't they make her an immortal mary sue to hard block you as a male protagonist from beating the game! But if you make the right choice and pick a female protagonist you sit down and have a lovely cup of tea talking about the patriarchy. Then she simply gives you a copy of her gear and sends you off on the rest of the game... Great idea. (Note: this comment is dripping with satire.)

game journalist : Plays a game with jump feature. game journalist : Write an article about how the game is offensive to people with cerebral palsy.

Sounds like that journalist couldn't defeat her and after rage quiting wrote the article because they were so pissed that they sucked at elden ring and couldnt handle that reality.

They released a Tomb Raider with a guy instead of Lara Croft it's called Uncharted, they just didn't ship it as Tomb Raider.

I remember reading this article and just really tilting my head. Malenia is one of the most badass, empowering characters I've seen in quite some time. Her second phase is to show off how she came to control the Rot to empower her as opposed to consuming her. Kotaku will Kotaku, I suppose.

When you can’t handle Elden Ring becoming GOTY…

The women in elden ring are literally so powerful and iconic. Why are we doing this?

Those media outlets stopped being about gaming around the time of "gamergate", they all switched to hard line extremist political content with certain flavours, like in the case of polygon and kotaku their target was gamers, I'll never forget the day there was an article posted about how gamers are dead! :P They're like the other side's Daily Stormer.

Gehrman taught Maria how to hunt though, didn't he? It wasn't just a creepy old man making a doll of some chick, it was a creepy old teacher making a doll of his beloved apprentice.

Once was cooking with my ex, and she really wanted an avacado with dinner, which happened to be incredibly unripe. Almost cut myself trying to prepare it. Naturally, I called the avocado a bitch, "this avocado is being a real bitch". This really set my ex off. She started screaming at me that I'm not allowed to use that word, even to an avocado. I calmly retorted that she constantly said the n-word (as a white woman) and it's a bit hypocritical and way worse than calling an avocado a bitch. She burst into tears and stormed out of my apartment. Thats when I knew she was fully brainwashed and beyond help.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="181">3:01</a> 😂😂😂 Malenia making Tarnished smoothies

Did it take the game journos all year to finally reach Malenia or something?

“If your brain is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail” -asmongold, 2022

Damn. It's like Malenia is just another inhabitant of the world of Elden Ring. Who would have thought that.

Elden and God of War are both great games for different reasons. Should treat it as a W to get 2 good games rather than making it a dick measuring contest when none should even exist.

its kinda sad that wherever someone makes a huge succes like fromsoft with elden ring there are always gonna be people trying to drag you down and make you feel bad for no reason.

Kotaku and all the other "gaming news" websites have lost all credibility since August 2014. They are not reigning their editors in because this rage-bait articles are the only reason anyone even uses them at all anymore.

I found GoW:R to be more enjoyable, but it was derivative of a formula we know and understand. Elden Ring simply brought more to the conversation of gaming than any game has in recent years.

I can’t believe Polygon OF ALL PLACES would write something like this! 🤡

Title is a legitimate bruh moment.

There's a lot of this kind of rage baiting going around the online magazines, using Cunningham's law to attract views and because often only subscribers can post comments arguing with the article you'd have to pay them to offer a counterpoint.

The article itself feels like it embodies the writer's own personal problems with women.

Ah I thought we moved past the phase where everyone pretends to get offended by everything, guess not though

Imagine coming across the most "Strong and Independent" woman in a game and thinking the devs are sexist for creating her. Ideologues see what they want to see.

"but at least I can pay rent" 💀

The oppression Olympics, otherwise known as stale feces

Clearly they haven't met the holy chest of Gwenovere in dark souls 1

I've never laughed so hard in my life. This has to be satirical.

Melanias water fowl dance can be dodged if you know what to do, all you have to do is run away if your at a moderate distance, wait for her to finish the second part of the dance, then when she starts the thrid part which leads to her jumping over you and behind you, you dodge forwards

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="250">4:10</a> personally that's what I like about malenia. It's a power fantasy fight with the only challenge being one of the most difficult moves in the game, further serving the fantasy when you dodge it perfectly. Same thing with dodging the clone move in the second phase.

Vampire survivors game of the year hands-down take that to the bank

You gotta be living a truly privileged life for your biggest concern in life to be a video game character 😂

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="790">13:10</a> "Is this guy attracted to Malenia?" Are you not? I need that scarlet rotussy right NOW

" this guy doesn't like the waterfall dance" basically every elden ring player

'You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't reason their way into.' I don't know if Asmon made this up or not but either way I love that and it's incredibly accurate.

We already have a male Lara Croft. His name is Nathan Drake.

I'm pretty sure this guy never see Dancer of the Boreal Valley's dump truck. Well, he can probably see it until she is doing the spin to win move.

the craziest thing about this whole thing is that there exist people who uironically read what game journalists have to say someone had to read that article to send it to this youtuber so he can mock it.

tbh people make me sick making problems out of nothing.

Idk why people didn't think Eldin Ring was gonna win, God Of War Ragnarok is amazing BUT remember it's a Playstation exclusive so naturally a LOT less people have played it. Eldin Ring's reach was far greater being on multiple platforms.

Malenia is a perfect female antagonist. In every sense. She is an undefeated demigod protecting her older brother Miquella. If this is not the peak of feminine strength , I don't know what is. There is also nothing overly sexual about her. Everything about her just screams "Badass" in every sense. Some info for the nerds: In the japanese version of the game there is cut dialog where Malenia refers to Miquella as her "older brother". Just too bad her Ending got cut from the base game . But that means that the DLC might be about ST. Trina / Miquella. And there might be a chance we get the new ending with it.

“Never argue with stupid people. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

Sounds like someone got rolled by malenia a few too many times🤣

Imagine it's just AI generated

I legit just saw an ad on youtube about AI writting articles for you for easy money. I think that "journalist" saw the same ad as me.

there should be a rule of the internet that if a female character exists - no matter how well she's written - someone somewhere is going to claim that she's sexist

bruh, the dude talking in this video infuriates me. I can't help it, listening to him stumble through sentences is awful

“Malenia is a sexist character made by From Soft!!!” Melania: doesn’t need a man to be an absolute badass, is mostly prosthetics and rotted flesh and yet is still massively physically appealing even beautiful. Has never lost a sword battle and fought the strongest of the demigods to a standstill and left him simping forever more. Is a literal goddess, she doesn’t just talk the talk. Penetrates you deeper than any man will. Azmon: “waterfowl dance is the worst part of her move set” Me: mans has clearly never been one frame stabbed and one shotted by her lmao. Trust me while the gimmick is the forefront of her boss mechanics I promise you there’s plenty more she could do just get a bad move set cycle and see what I mean lmao.

Malenia was the ONLY warrior capable of facing off against the mightiest warrior of the Lands in Between Radahn. Even with the Scarlet Rot she is still a force to be reckoned with. That's not what sexism is...🤣 That being said her voice will haunt me for all my days...😭

"Jousting at windmills" I love that comment made me chuckle

Ive been co-oping helping players through the Malenia fight for a while now. I couldn’t tell you how many times ive fought her but it would be in the many hundreds. Its probably worth pointing out that Id guess in over 80% of fights i help players with they get killed by her. But Malenia is not frustrating, even though most players i see come through get killed a few times by her. You just have to understand what she’s doing and know how to time your response to the waterfowl dance - most players take a while to figure out her to approach that fight or never do but get lucky. Other than that she’s not that hard. As for sexism, ive only ever thought of her as a tough opponent - which she is because if you goof your timing or position she will one shot you. As for THAT cutscene most players skip it. Even after these claims shes a sexist character i just cant see it: she is what she is. Even the millicent quest that ends close by to malenia’s chamber seems to be neutral on the issue of sexism. Im not big on fromsoft lore - it usually baffles me - but my recollection is that miquella and malenia are twins. Miquella has already succumbed to the rot, as any player who has seen him knows, while malenia awaits her twins’ return.

Melania took me 4 tries without summons but I've had other bosses I had issues with

If Elden Ring didn't have a single female boss this person would write an article complaining about it and accusing From Software of being sexist

The first error of Asmongold is that he believes a western game journalist came as far as to face Melania in Elden Ring.

Out of all the women in Elden Ring you could've picked as an example of sexism, you pick the asswhopping, sexy ass, valkyrie warrior?! I mean she is like the fucking embodiment of female empowerment dude wtf lol?!

I finally got Elden ring yesterday, looks like I have to return it.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="240">4:00</a> definitely disagree, the feeling I got fighting this boss was like no other boss in Fromsofts games before. Waterfowl dance is the biggest move and aspect you need to watch out for, but what that does is make you play passively and every single action made is important and could spell your demise.

Did most people not learn the methodology of the western gaming outlets yet?

"It's a relatively easy fight" Says the guy who died to Melania more times than any other boss in any other game...

I was wondering why I did not get any notification on this video drop, now I know

This is pretty rich condisdering that all of The Elden Ring's prominent political leaders have been either women or a dragon. It is way easier to portray the game as a girlboss simulatior than as something sexist.

I don't get what an empowering woman is supposed to be, if Malenia isn't. What more do you want? She's a woman you're fearful of, she's incredibly accomplished, strong, without saying too many words. She demands respect without having to beg for it. I'm sorry, but once you start stressing the fact a character is a woman in power in a world rigged against her, you're forcing a view on people and lose respect and interest, and ultimately miss the purpose of making that character empowering. In this case the lore, brief dialogue and aesthetics speak for themselves. This is what true empowerment is.

Before I even watch I'm going to guess: they are mad because Malenia shows boobies and in their eyes any form of nudity that isn't on a guy is sexist + they borrowed a friends account to even get to Malenia since they couldn't get there by themselves and when she dominated them they felt oppressed and complained about the difficulty. (which let's be real, in the souls series isn't close to the hardest boss they have made)

Actually her nudity is presented in an almost Shakespeare & poetic like manner. Many games handle women horribly like devil may cry 4 & 5 shows them almost like objects and Bayonetta 1, soul calibur, wolfenstein, and gta etc.. Everything in elden ring feels almost too classy and religious almost. And that's a great unique thing we rarely see in gaming.

God of war was basically a more polished DLC for the first one. ER made history and will be cherished for decades.

Unless you’ve spent hours learning the fight and practicing water fowl Malenias 2nd phase she is far less of a “bitch” and much more of a demon from hell

An article intentionally made for easy clicks getting talked about by a commentary KZfaqr stating the obvious, getting reacted to by a streamer making some easy content. It’s kinda cool to see I respect it

good female boss/character = sexist Just a bad female character = sexist Guess we can't win

A lot of younger gamers don't realize that back in the 90s and 2000s when gaming journalism wasn't political, gamers DID take them seriously and trusted them. Ideologues ruined them as companies.

Love how this video just transfers to the guy playing cod lol

"Afflicted by gender" might be the most idiotic thing I've ever heard

I love how I just have to hear the voice and I immediately knew it was Mischief

Funny English lesson: The slang term Pussy is not actually related to the slang for vagina even if they are the same word. Pussy in the context of calling someone a coward actually is from the term Pusillanimous, a term that means someone is cowardly or weak of will. The term was slowly shortened over use to the first two syllables Pu-si. Pussy as a term for coward actually has nothing to do with the same term for a vagina. So in fact its not sexist to call a person a pussy, instead its sexist to think of a woman only when you hear someone being called a pussy. Thats my TED talk for today.

it feels like the henry cavill article that ended up being fake it is so desingenuite

All the best to mischief and the content he does but holy shit his voice and speaking cadence I just can’t do.

It's like it's February on reddit all over again 💀

They clearly didn't do Nepheli Loux's questline

Some people don't have grass in their backyard

I think its less about actually believing that ER is sexiest, the bigger problem is that journalists, influencers etc. use "... is sexist, racist etc." simply to generate more views now. Its a controversial, click-baity topic and almost guaranteed to generate a crowd. The important subject we need to talk about is how writers exploit these topics (i highly doubt that most of them actually believe their own writing) and dumbing down the true issues with these floodwave of reaction-farming.

why do people keep giving things like this attention, this is literally why people keep making articles like this. They just want engagement. So stop engaging with them 🙄

I have had the art drop of her up against Rohdan as my phone background since I played the game

She also has some of the best lore in the game in my opinion. Her and Radahn specifically.

Honestly , i find it interesting at how far people can spin something into fitting their agenda/frame