> My question is this: why don't female fantasy warrior-types wear more clothing?
>
> I mean, c'mon. The picture of that warrior chick was taken mere seconds before the dragon fried her into a charred, blackened cinder. She's only wearing a TOWEL for crying out loud. Yeah, she's got a nice sword, but she doesn't have the necessary gear to get her close enough to the dragon to use it.

Heh, I had the same thought. I can't help wondering if fantasy artists today draw bikini warrior chix0rs with any sense of self-irony -- I mean, it's been a commonplace of the genre for *so long* and is as laughable now as ever.

This topic sparks periodic debates over on the NeverWinter Nights message boards, where lots and lots of people are designing the adventures they want to create with that upcoming CRPG. The combatants divide into basically two camps: the realists who pooh-pooh chainmail bikinis and D-cup breastplates alike, and the "lighten up, it's a *fantasy* game" crowd.

I see the latter camp's point -- are spellcasting elves and firebreathing dragons "realistic"? Then why should adventurers' garb have to conform to the real world? But I'm more sympathetic to the "realist" camp. There really needs to be a different term that means "one who favors realistic behavior within a fantastic scenario." A lot of good sci-fi is written that way: Timothy Zahn, for example, typically invents an exotic and unexplained bit of fictional science and then has his characters deal with it in a rational way. I'd like to see more fantasy literature, gaming and art handled like that.

But more likely, given the testosterone-heavy demographics of fantasy gaming, we'll continue to see bikini warrior chix0rs stiking a sexy pose ...just before being handily skewered on an ogre's pike.

Iss "Eowyn teh w4rr10r ch1x0r d3lux0r!!!" achar