GwenMay
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This post concerns the stone statue on the recently released weapon in the Limited Time shop, "Ancient Mother Staff." Mechanically, I really like the weapon and look forward to playing with it on my beastmasters. I think its a step in the right direction for beastmaster weapons, switching from damage bonuses to effect bonuses with CHA scaling. However, when I bought and tested the item recently, I could not get over the artwork, which I believe is inappropriate for AQ.
For those who have yet to see the item, it is a wooden staff with flowers winding along it that has a statue of an obese, naked woman with gigantic breasts and stub-like arms and legs. My understanding is that the artwork is supposed to be a reference to the "Venus of Willendorf," a stone statue estimated to be around 25,000 years old and theorized to be a symbol of fertility.
I do not think an explicit portrayal of a naked, obese woman with gigantic breasts is appropriate for AQ, a game largely aimed at minors. I frankly just think its a step too far for the audience AQ wants to attract and keep. Personally, I do not wish to see naked statues of anyone when playing AQ, and especially not obese women with huge breasts.
I also do not think it is an appropriate representation of the concept of "motherhood," which involves a great deal more than a woman's anatomy. Motherhood is about nurturing and caring for one's children, not the physical attributes emphasized by the statue. It is like reducing fatherhood to a depiction of the male genitalia. In fact, I imagine many mothers would be uncomfortable with their children, especially young children, seeing that statue at all.
I appreciate that the artists were attempting to reference a famous historical artwork. However, due to its age we do not know if the "Venus of Willendorf" was even about motherhood at all. For all we know, the statue could have been a depiction of that society's "ideal woman"; after all, it heavily emphasize weight, which would have equated to health and security, and breasts, while heavily deemphasizing the face, arms, and legs - the parts of the body associated with identity and autonomy. Even if the statue is about motherhood or fertility, there are plenty of other more appropriate ancient artworks to choose from, with countless cultures having depictions of a mother and her child(ren). Being ancient also does not make it appropriate; the Pompeii excavators found many 2000 year old depictions of male genitalia when they uncovered the city, but I would not expect AQ to make a sword based on those works for Father's Day.
I also think it is telling that I am having to write descriptions of the item and my problems with it very carefully so as to conform with this forum's own rules on "sexually explicit" content.
Lastly, when discussing this topic on the discord it was brought to my attention that AQ does occasionally depict topless or arguably naked characters, with two female examples being the female "Dracopyre of Night" armor and Gracefang. However, neither those armors/characters emphasize their breasts nearly as much as the statue, with Gracefang in particular having her scales form a sort of covering. There may also be other examples that I am unaware of as well. Despite this, I think 1) the statue is far more explicit than anything AQ has ever done previously and 2) that people should reevaluate the appropriateness of past items instead of using them as justification for new items.
I would appreciate if the artwork of the statue could be changed to something more appropriate. Possible alternatives could be a statue of a heart or a statue of a mother and her child.
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