These Strong Female Video Game Characters May Not Be Who You Expect
What does it mean for a character to be strong? Can female characters in video games remind us that strength falls outside the realm of the physical? In this piece, a gameHER shows how female characters in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and BioShock Infinite redefine the measures of strength through vulnerability, shrewdness, and resilience.
Note: this article contains spoilers from HELLBLADE: SENUA’s Sacrifice and BioShock infinite.
By Catherine Negron
When you think of strength, what do you see?
Is it someone who displays feats of raw physical power? The ability to lift objects with little hindrance? Or is it someone who shows they are capable of taking what life throws their way and never bending to its weight?
When we think about strength it varies from person to person. The Merriam Webster Dictionary lists nine definitions of strength based on different usages of the word. We think of strength based on the situations we’ve experienced, on criteria that is based on not only our own personal understanding of the word and its connotations but the societal norms in which strength is spoken of.
It’s easy to say a male character in a game is strong. He’s physically capable with the ability to pull himself over barriers, lift heavy objects, take down enemies with little thought to what will happen if they can over power him. Emotionally he will appear unavailable. A silent, brooding spectre that sweeps the battlefield like a wildfire. What need does this paragon of raw physical power have for emotional fortitude?
Many games hinge upon that 80s action hero troupe. Don’t get me wrong, these characters are fun to play and I often de-stress after a long day with them.
But the same cannot be said about women in games, protagonists or side characters. There is this view that they have to “prove themselves” to be taken seriously. If they are emotionally vulnerable, they aren’t strong. But conversely if they are strong, the game developers are often pandering and unrealistic in their character development. With the video game market leaning towards male gamers as I had previously explored in another article; it’s no surprise that games with female leads get these comments. So I’d like to take some time to talk about couple of my favorite female characters.
A still from Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
In 2017, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was released. The story follows Senua, a Pict warrior from Orkay, who has just arrived at the gates of Helheim to save her dead lover’s soul. Throughout the game, we see her struggle with her task as each obstacle looms insurmountable before her. What’s different about this game is that Senua has a mental illness.
Tameen Antoniades, lead writer and director, said during the in-game documentary: "It is easy to see the pain and suffering caused by physical diseases or physical trauma, it is not so easy to see the mental suffering or trauma or severe mental illness. But what if we could find a way to see it? Games are capable of drawing you in for hours on end, playing the role of a character who's different from you, experiencing their perspective, and actively involving you in a world that functions with a different set of rules. [...] There are many things that happen in the world of Hellblade that make perfect sense within the context of Senua's mind. [...] To complete Senua's quest, you have to internalize and accept the logic and meaning behind these things to progress."
Senua suffers from depression, anxiety, delusions and hallucinations. She hears voices that are both cruel and kind, helpful and demeaning. The way she sees the world around her is unique and terrifying. People are twisted and shrouded in darkness, horrific visages that attack without mercy. But still through it all, through dark and frightening passages, voices that both scream and whisper, Senua continues on. A lot of my time with the game was spent accepting that to Senua, this was her world. This is how she views the memories, places and things that hurt her or could hurt her. And with each victory, with each defeat, you, the player, learn and adapt. At the end of the game, you have a choice, to let go or to hold on. On one hand it sounds like a simple decision, but to her it is as daunting as the creatures that dogged her at every turn. You, the player, could choose to hang on but with each minute it becomes harder to do so. By letting go, Senua comes out the other side changed. She has accepted that in order for her to move forward she needed to do so. It doesn’t make the voices disappear or make the fear go away, but she’s accepted these parts of her. They’ll always be there, but she knows now that she can overcome them.
Sometimes it is hard to let go, but knowing what letting go ultimately means is even harder. Especially from the perspective of someone on the outside. Senua’s Sacrifice deals with the topic of mental illness and its effects on the way we see the world. BioShock Infinite deals in the “what ifs” that follow grief and breaking the cycle of oppression, in all forms.
In BioShock, as Booker you meet Elizabeth, your partner for the rest of the game. She is a mystery. She lives in a gilded cage. Spending much of her time reading books, looking out at the outside and wishing that she was there. She is at first glance naive and ignorant of the real world, but as the game progresses you start to see that maybe not everything is as it seems.
Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite
Ken Levine said in an article with Digital Spy, "The more I thought about it, the more we realized, well, if we're going to do it, we really have to do it right. We have to make her integral, not just some sort of sidekick. We have to make her central to the story. The longer it went, the more we just kept expanding what she meant to the game."
From the first combat encounter you find that you don’t have to worry about protecting her. She proves to be capable of taking care of herself. Scrounging the area for supplies or using her powers to clear the way. As the game progresses you encounter rips and tears that only Elizabeth can open. To you, the player, they mean nothing, but to her? They are everything. Like the ending of Hellblade, BioShock Infinite gives the player a choice, but as the player, you aren’t the one who needs to make it. To pay the debt is to stop the cycle but the player is incapable of doing so. It falls to Elizabeth, who has become more than just a reluctant partner but a friend. One that now has to step in to keep you from making the same mistakes.
In recent years, we have seen more games featuring female and POC leads. While it’s not exactly a new thing, the way they are portrayed from then versus now, is new. Things have gotten better. Writers have become better at showing emotional strength in both their male and female characters. Both of these games showcase women who are both strong physically and emotionally. They aren’t afraid to show their full complexity. It doesn’t make them weak and it doesn’t detract from the story the developers are trying to tell.
We still have the action heroes and confident femmes of the 80s and 90s, but video game creators are now able to show characters being emotionally vulnerable. These new characters’ stories show us that there is strength in saying you are scared, to cry, to be human in all our ugly and beautiful parts. It doesn’t make you less. To me it makes you stronger than any body builder could ever be. That is my definition of strength.
Catherine Negron, photo courtesy of the author
About the Author:
Black Lives Matter
Trans Rights are Human Rights
LGBTQ+ Rights
Catherine can be found on Twitter, @Big_Barda.
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