Tropes vs Women in Video Gaming - Damsel in Distress

I found this video’s premise to be completely ridiculous. Ever play Luigi’s Mansion? Mario is just as helpless as Peach usually is in that game. Any Sonic game? Saving the animals, man. Helping people in need is one of the main defining traits of a hero. The “damsel” can often be male, or a robot, or whatever. They just happen to be women more often because we live in a culture where women are more likely to need protection. And that’s not entirely for bullshit traditional sexist patriarchal reasons. Women are physically weaker than men. Their survival is more important to passing on genes. I’m all for feminism, but let’s not deny biology while we’re at it.

Princess Peach is a plot device. There are plenty of male and female characters in all kinds of fiction that serve no purpose other than to set the stage or advance the plot. Get over it. If she could be a strong independent woman who didn’t need no Mario, there wouldn’t be a game. It’s not a stellar example of writing, but it never set out to be. Does she realize that virtually none of Miyamoto’s games have any semblance of a real plot or dynamic characters? The whole “Peach got kidnapped again” is pretty much a parody of itself at this point, too. Same with the Double Dragon remakes.

One thing she does accurately expose is the low amount of strong female protagonists in gaming, but this is a problem best solved by creating more games with strong female protagonists. I’d be interested in seeing what she has to say about how that can happen.